The guy who supposedly wasn’t worth the paper his contract was printed on is averaging 26.0 points per game through Chicago’s first four contests. He’s led the Bulls to a surprising 2-2 record, including good wins against the Bucks and Grizzlies (missing Ja Morant).

The Bulls have been desperately trying to trade LaVine for the past year but haven’t gotten any takers. They’re about to get a lot of phone calls because LaVine’s excellence is becoming impossible to ignore.

How Zach LaVine’s resurgence impacts Cooper Flagg odds, trade rumors

LaVine has been a terrific shooter throughout his career, as evidenced by his 38.2 percentage over the past decade, but he has never taken enough attempts to truly stand out on leaderboards. That’s changing this season, as he’s averaging a career-high 8.8 attempts per game.

LaVine’s 45.7 percent from 3 this season is obviously good. Diving into the film and numbers, it’s even more impressive. He’s basically been automatic on catch-and-shoot attempts, hitting 69.2 percent of them for a fun 103.8 effective field goal percentage, as pointed out by CHGO’s Will Gottlieb.

LaVine is way more than a catch-and-shoot threat. He’s becoming more dangerous throughout the entirety of a possession rather than just at the beginning of it.

Stephen Curry has made a living by driving the ball, passing it out and relocating to the 3-point line. That has never been a big part of LaVine’s game — until this year. He only did it twice all of last season. He equaled that total in the span of 30 seconds in Chicago’s fourth game of this season.

Zach LaVine only had two 3's in his entire previous season where he got off the ball and relocated to the 3-point line. He had two in the 4th quarter against the Grizzlies, leading a huge comeback.

He's shooting 45.7% from 3 on a career-high 8.8 attempts per game. pic.twitter.com/dE6va2SNiX

— Steph Noh (@StephNoh) October 29, 2024

LaVine has also learned to read defenses much better, taking a pull-up 3 every time defenders go under a screen against him and turning that into an unusable coverage. If he gets a mismatch, he’s capable of waving away a screen and burying a 3. If teams go over screens, he’s so fast that they have to bring a second defender to him.

He’s been unselfish in getting off the ball in those situations, and this new Bulls offense has the ball movement to capitalize in those situations. They’ve been pinging it around for 3s, creating a dramatic turnaround from the No. 26 team in 3-point attempts last season to No. 3 this season.

Additionally, LaVine has been a terrific cutter this season. He has always excelled at these plays due to his plus athleticism and touch at the basket, but he’s been frustratingly unwilling to do it. That has limited his effectiveness as an off-ball player.

With better passing from Josh Giddey and Lonzo Ball, LaVine has been electric on those dives to the rim.

Zach LaVine is dynamite as a cutter. He's always been frustratingly reluctant to do it (only had 3 baskets labeled as cuts last year), but Josh Giddey and Lonzo Ball have unlocked that element of his game. pic.twitter.com/kiCzQHlUhZ

— Steph Noh (@StephNoh) October 29, 2024

POSITIONAL RANKINGS: PG | SG | SF | PF | C

There are still some problems in LaVine’s game. He’s turning the ball over way too much, averaging a career-high 4.0 per game. That’s a result of the oversized role that he has as Chicago’s No. 1 guy, and that number will go down if he gets moved to a better team. He still has lapses in defensive focus away from the ball as well. Good coaches can scheme around those limitations.

It may seem like LaVine’s good start to the season is simply a hot stretch. Certainly, his shooting has been red-hot and may regress a bit. But the changes in his game make this feel more sustainable. He has averaged more points in his career previously, so it’s not as if this scoring is out of the ordinary for him. He’s always been an A-plus offensive player but has been stuck in terrible fits that have hidden his true talents and put a magnifying glass on his weaknesses.

LaVine is showing what he can do in the right role with teammates who complement his style. With respect to a good passer in DeMar DeRozan, he hasn’t played with elite passers like this since the Bulls were the No. 1 team in the East and he was making All-Star games.

There are a lot of contenders who could use a lights-out shooter who can get to the rim at will and finish at a great clip, and the Bulls should want to shop him. LaVine is turning himself into the hottest name on the market, creating a pathway for the Bulls to make a win-win trade.