Although the 2023-24 season is only a month old, the Chicago Bulls appear to finally be coming to the realization that their current roster isn’t good enough to compete in the playoffs.
The Bulls are currently 4-8 and sit in 12th in the Eastern Conference, a disappointing showing considering the team ran it back with roughly the same roster.
For years, people have argued that Chicago should blow things up and the organization is now reportedly listening to offers on all their players. However, the one that’s seemingly drawn the most interest from teams is Zach LaVine who’s off to a solid start offensively.
LaVine’s blend of outside shooting and scoring make him an attractive piece for any contending team. With LaVine open to a trade, he listed the Los Angeles Lakers as one of his preferred landing spots, via Jake Fischer of Yahoo:
LaVine and his representation hold several preferred landing spots, such as the Los Angeles Lakers, Miami Heat and Philadelphia 76ers, league sources told Yahoo Sports, and each team has registered some level of interest in the Bulls guard.
The Lakers are one of the worst 3-point shooting teams in the league and struggle to score when LeBron James sits, so their interest in LaVine makes sense. The Bulls star could also want to come back to Los Angeles after spending his lone college season at UCLA.
The Miami Heat and Philadelphia 76ers also make sense for LaVine as they could use another scorer next to their primary stars, though Chicago might be weary about trading him inside their conference.
It’s too early to say who’s in the lead for LaVine’s services, but the Bulls will likely ask for some combination of players and picks. However, that might be hard to come by considering LaVine is owed a massive amount of money the next three seasons.
Aside from Lavine, Los Angeles is also reportedly interested in DeMar DeRozan and Alex Caruso, so the two teams should be in touch with each other over the next couple of months.
Potential Lakers-Zach LaVine trade would involve D’Angelo Russell, not Austin Reaves
The Lakers would be able to cobble up enough salaries to get to LaVine’s number, though it would involve including one of their talented guards. Chicago would surely ask for Austin Reaves in any iteration of a deal, but Los Angeles would only be willing to build a trade offer around D’Angelo Russell.
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