MINNEAPOLIS -- Amid the muck of another lost season, a glimpse inside Flip Saunders' crystal ball appears every once in a while.
Two Mondays ago against the Clippers and in a few spurts since, it came in the form of Ricky Rubio running the floor with athletic rookies Andrew Wiggins on one wing and Zach LaVine on the other. Later, LaVine came off the bench and spent some time instigating the offense himself -- shades of the combo guard Saunders sees LaVine becoming.
But sitting in front of his locker, hip-hop pumping into his ear buds loud enough so an outsider can faintly hear it, before Saturday's game against Portland, LaVine isn't thinking about the future. He'll turn 20 in three days. The long-term development stuff is for those graying-haired guys in the front office and on the coaching staff -- in this case, Saunders, primarily -- to worry about.
"I don't know what the big picture is, to tell you the truth," LaVine told FOXSportsNorth.com. "I'm just going to do what I do, just continue to work. Whatever they tell me to do, go out there and try to perform to the best of my abilities."
They've been asking a lot.
In some ways, LaVine's been stuck between learning what's essentially a new position -- he hadn't played much point since high school at Bothell (Wash.) -- and developing the already-present skills for another one. Because of injury and to get him up to speed at his less natural spot, the bulk of LaVine's minutes and all 23 of his starts have come at the one.
He's averaging 7.4 points, three assists, 2.1 rebounds and 20.4 minutes per game with a Hollinger player efficiency rating of 9.84. A very rookie-ish line of metrics.
At times, including several junctures in Wednesday night's game at Phoenix, LaVine looks lost. But his comfort level is increasing, he says, like that of a student learning public speaking each time he steps behind the podium.
"I feel different. I look different," said LaVine, the 2015 Slam Dunk Contest winner. "Still a lot of room for improvement; I'm not saying I'm at an All-Star level at point guard yet, but I'm starting to feel a lot more comfortable and feeling a lot better."
And with 19 games left in his first NBA season, that might be what's most important.
After the Wolves drafted him 13th overall last summer, the original plan was to bring LaVine along gradually. Work with him behind the scenes. In one season at UCLA, he'd started one game. Barely played any point guard.
So this was supposed to be a project.
Then Rubio went down five games into the season with an ankle sprain that would keep him out almost three months. Veteran Mo Williams missed some time here and there, too. That thrust LaVine into duties he never expected, facilitating an NBA offense and being looked to as a floor general.
In some ways, it opened him up to learning to play point guard on the fly. In other ways, it confined his most innate abilities.
"There's no question that Zach, in the open floor, is dynamic," Saunders said. "If he gets the ball at half court and it's in flow, he's going to get to the rim and something's going to happen. So that's ideally something we'd like to be able to do on a more consistent basis."
LaVine is most free to attack when he's playing shooting guard. He needs to add some muscle to his 6-foot-5, 180-pound frame in order to get extended run at that spot; he's not exactly cut out to defend more physically mature wings.
But Saunders says the lumps LaVine's taken playing the point could be good for him in the long run.
If the perfect combo guard evens out the scales, this season can help LaVine tip them away from the shooting guard side of the equation. And someday, Minnesota could have a two-headed monster of a backcourt with him and Rubio.
"You know where people are supposed to be at and stuff, just know the plays, know what the point guard's looking for," LaVine said. "So when I come off as a two-guard, I know what Ricky's going to be looking for in terms of cuts and running and things like that."
That's only if the front office has an accurate projection of LaVine's progression, though.
"When he evolves into the player we think he's going to be, you have two guys that can make plays on the floor at the same time," Saunders said. "(That) puts so much pressure on the defense."
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