If the Spurs were serious about making a trade with the Bulls for Zach LaVine, this would be their best offer.
The Chicago Bulls are a bad basketball team. They haven’t been one since acquiring DeMar DeRozan to pair with Zach LaVine and Nikola Vucevic, with the exception of the first half of the 2021-22 season when Lonzo Ball was healthy. However, that was a long time ago, and the Bulls have since been mired in mediocrity.
The Bulls missed the playoffs last season and were swept by the Milwaukee Bucks the previous year. Their -3.7 net rating currently ranks 22nd in the NBA. When all three of LaVine, DeRozan, and Vucevic are on the court, their net rating suffers even more. Cleaning the Glass reduces this figure to -17.3.
When you combine that with the Bulls’ 4-8 start since missing the playoffs, something has to give. Something is breaking. According to Shams Charania of The Athletic, the Bulls and Zach LaVine have increased their willingness to consider a trade. Yahoo!’s Jake Fischer To take it a step further, LaVine has expressed interest in joining the Los Angeles Lakers, Miami Heat, and Philadelphia 76ers, but would also consider joining the San Antonio Spurs or Sacramento Kings, according to Jake Fischer of Yahoo Sports.
The Spurs are an unusual addition because, in comparison to the other teams, they are not currently in playoff contention. However, after drafting Victor Wembanyama, they are not far behind. The Spurs could benefit from a talent upgrade. The question is, what trade package is best for LaVine?
Why are the Bulls doing it?
If the Bulls decide to part ways with Zach LaVine, it will mark the start of yet another rebuild in the Windy City. But, at the very least, this trade package provides them with everything they’d want in a potential LaVine deal, possibly even too much. Jeremy Sochan is an intriguing, multi-purpose wing who can really defend and has started at point guard for San Antonio so far this season. So far, this hasn’t yielded many promising results, but it’s still early, and Sochan is only 20 years old. Malaki Branham is a smooth scorer who has the potential to develop into a LaVine-type player without LaVine’s insane athleticism.
Two first-round picks aren’t quite the three that Utah got for Donovan Mitchell, nor are they getting a player anything close to Lauri Markkanen at the moment, but that is still a very nice haul. The Spurs have plenty of draft picks to trade; they have all of their own picks, they have the Raptors’ pick this year if it is outside the top six, a Hornets pick that may never convey, a future Bulls first they got in the initial DeMar DeRozan sign-and-trade, another first from Boston for Derrick White, and two future Hawks firsts. That’s a lot. They have plenty to spare and can spare the Bulls two of them. They’d also be giving the Bulls a ton of salary relief for LaVine’s contract that still owes him over $100 million throughout the duration of. It’s hard for the Bulls to ask for much else.
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