Zach LaVine is a very promising young player for the Minnesota Timberwolves who had a very solid rookie year. LaVine spent a lot of his rookie season playing point guard for Minnesota but this season the Timberwolves are extremely deep at the one so it is fair to wonder whether LaVine will play a lot of point guard this year. Interim head coach Sam Mitchell has said that LaVine might not play much of any point guard this year, according Jerry Zgoda of the Minneapolis Star Tribune.
This offseason the Wolves have brought in Tyus Jones, via the draft, and Andre Miller, via free agency, to backup Ricky Rubio so it seems as though they are pretty set at point guard. LaVine is a natural point guard but he is also 6 foot-5 which is plenty big enough to be able to play the two-guard spot at the NBA level. While LaVine may not get much time at point guard this year, at least Mitchell hopes, the Timberwolves still plan to utilize his ball-handling ability.
"Depends, just depends. With Ricky, Andre Miller, Tyus Jones and Lorenzo Brown there, I would not like to play Zach a lot at the point because I think it makes us a better team having two guys on the court who can handle the ball and facilitate offense. Anytime you have a guy who can handle the ball and score, teams are going to commit two guys to stop him," said Mitchell.
Just because Mitchell would prefer not to play LaVine at the point doesn't mean he won't. Rubio has struggled throughout his NBA career with injury issues so if those issues come up again Mitchell might be forced to give LaVine minutes at the point guard spot. As it stands now LaVine is expected to be the backup shooting guard behind Kevin Martin but will still play a big role off the bench for Minnesota.
As a rookie LaVine not only won the Slam Dunk Contest but he also was pretty good during regular season games too. In 77 games (40 starts) LaVine averaged 10.1 points, 3.6 assists and 2.8 rebounds in 24.7 minutes per game while shooting 42 percent from the field and 34 percent from three. The Timberwolves are hoping for a step up from the 20 year old this season but it likely won't come at his natural point guard spot.
