Zach LaVine has emerged as one of the NBA’s best guards. Over the past few years, the 26-year-old has proven himself as an exceptional scorer and strong leader.
In Chicago, he is helping lead the Bulls to great success this season amid a wide-open Eastern Conference and he is sure to be recognized as an All-Star because of it.
Bu the situation hasn’t always been so lucrative for LaVine. Recently, the young stud opened up about his career to Warriors forward Draymond Green. As he looked back on his time with the Timberwolves (from 2014 to 2017), he explained why, in his mind, the team never took off as he had hoped.
(via The Draymond Green Show), quote from TalkBasket:
“I mean we were 18, 19 years old all together sharing the court. Nothing is going to be perfect because you have to go through those bumps and bruises. Realistically, we only had 2-3 years. Everybody wanted the process to happen so fast and let’s be good so fast. It just doesn’t work like that sometimes, but growing up and having those experiences, those are my guys and it was really fun. But, I don’t think they let it marinate enough for us to really see what could’ve happened.”
“I think everything happens for a reason, but it would’ve been tough. Realistically, it would’ve been tough there for everybody to stay on the team from a financial standpoint because we’re all really top level guys, but we never got to the point to find out if it would work or not.”
At one point, the Timberwolves were stacked with talent. LaVine, Towns, and Andrew Wiggins formed a young and promising big three that brought hope and optimism about the future. In the end, it wasn’t too long before Minnesota broke them up, and LaVine was the first one traded.
In the end, we’ll never know what could have been had the Wolves given their young core some more time to thrive.
But Zach is doing just fine where he’s at and it’s clear he wouldn’t change a thing about his NBA journey so far.
