{"id":168643,"date":"2021-02-02T09:02:40","date_gmt":"2021-02-02T06:02:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/tom-thibodeau-could-be-eyeing-knicks-reunion-with-zach-lavine\/"},"modified":"2021-02-02T09:02:40","modified_gmt":"2021-02-02T06:02:40","slug":"tom-thibodeau-could-be-eyeing-knicks-reunion-with-zach-lavine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/tom-thibodeau-could-be-eyeing-knicks-reunion-with-zach-lavine\/","title":{"rendered":"#Tom Thibodeau could be eyeing Knicks reunion with Zach LaVine"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#Tom Thibodeau could be eyeing Knicks reunion with Zach LaVine<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

\n

As president\/coach of Minnesota, Tom Thibodeau once dispatched Zach LaVine to Chicago in a 2017 trade for Jimmy Butler.<\/p>\n

But the Knicks coach sounded like he wouldn\u2019t mind reuniting with the current Bulls shooting guard, noting his improvement. There\u2019s speculation the Bulls would put LaVine on the trading block before he becomes a 2022 free agent. That could be before March\u2019s trade deadline, this summer or at the next trading deadline.<\/p>\n

The Knicks need more scoring and LaVine is a sniper \u2014 one of the best dunkers in the NBA. He\u2019s averaging 26.8 points and 5.3 assists. SNY reported over the summer LaVine would be on the Knicks\u2019 radar.<\/p>\n

The biggest edge the Knicks would have over many teams interested is they have $18 million in cap space to absorb a big contract without giving away much salary. He\u2019s one of many players on the Knicks\u2019 radar, sources contend. Bulls owner Jerry Reinsdorf could be hesitant to deal LaVine to Thibodeau considering his Bulls\u2019 breakup was ugly.<\/p>\n

Before Monday night\u2019s 110-102 loss to the Bulls, in which LaVine scored 21 points on 8-of-16 shooting with five rebounsd, Thibodeau was asked about LaVine\u2019s progression since he dealt him out of Minnesota. Ironically, Butler\u2019s addition to Minnesota created friction with the young players and led to Thibodeau\u2019s dismissal two years ago.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Zach Lavine<\/figcaption>
NBAE via Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s continued to grow I think each year,\u2019\u2019 Thibodeau said. \u201cI think sometimes we tend to forget the steps that players take to get to the point to where they are today. and for Zach, he started off, I think he scored around 13 or 14 points a game<\/a> his first year. Then there was another four-point jump. Now he\u2019s up to 26, 27. He\u2019s shooting 50, 40, 90. He\u2019s an elite shooter. He\u2019s a great athlete. \u2026 But he\u2019s a great guy, a hard worker. So you knew he would continue to improve. He\u2019s playing at a very high level.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

The Knicks also have a trove of draft picks to deal, including two first-round picks this year.<\/p>\n

Bulls first-year coach Billy Donovan recruited Julius Randle when Donovan was at Florida. Randle chose Kentucky. Now, Randle is having a career year and shooting well from the 3-point line (37.5 percent) and may be on the verge of making his first All-Star team.<\/p>\n

\u201cThibs is putting him in situations playing to Julius\u2019 strengths,\u2019\u2019 Donovan said. \u201cHe\u2019s a handful in the low post. He\u2019s got great feet and ball-handling ability. He\u2019s worked hard on his shooting. He\u2019s shooting the ball much better. Earlier in his career he\u2019s a guy you left alone and try to jam the paint. Now he\u2019s making midrange, 3s, puts it on the floor. He\u2019s a heckuva driver\u2026. He continues to evolve and grow as a player.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

Donovan coached Knicks backup center Nerlens Noel the last two seasons at OKC. Like Randle, he also recruited Noel but lost him to Kentucky. Noel, who signed a one-year, $5 million deal with the Knicks in November, missed his second straight game with knee soreness.<\/p>\n

\u201cI loved him,\u2019\u2019 Donovan said. \u201cI recruited him coming out of high school. A lot of these NBA guys I never got. He\u2019s a terrific teammate and love the way he plays the game with great shot-blocking ability. He sees the floor well for a big guy. He was great for us at OKC. He gave us an incredible two years there \u2014 all about the team.\u2019\u2019\n <\/p><\/div>\n

If you liked the article, do not forget to share it with your friends. Follow us on\u00a0Google News<\/a><\/span>\u00a0too, click on the star and choose us from your favorites.<\/span><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\n

For forums sites go to Forum.BuradaBiliyorum.Com<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\n

If you want to read more News<\/a> articles, you can visit our News category.<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“#Tom Thibodeau could be eyeing Knicks reunion with Zach LaVine” As president\/coach of Minnesota, Tom Thibodeau once dispatched Zach LaVine to Chicago in a 2017 trade for Jimmy Butler. But the Knicks coach sounded like he wouldn\u2019t mind reuniting with the current Bulls shooting guard, noting his improvement. There\u2019s speculation the Bulls would put LaVine…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":168644,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/02\/bullslavine.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=1200","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[70897],"tags":[91725,91726,30779,82762,72932,46765,91727],"class_list":["post-168643","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-2-2-21","tag-billy-donovan","tag-chicago-bulls","tag-julius-randle","tag-new-york-knicks","tag-tom-thibodeau","tag-zach-lavine"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168643","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=168643"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168643\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/168644"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=168643"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=168643"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=168643"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}