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Despite missing the postseason this past year, the Chicago Bulls seem intent on running back the same roster. Arturas Karnisovas said he’s against rebuilding the roster, and, so far this summer, that’s remained true. The Bulls extended Nikola Vucevic, giving him a new three-year, $60 million deal.
However, despite their intentions, reports of the Bulls considering a roster reset have persisted. Recent rumblings indicated Chicago has been testing the waters around the league regarding a Zach LaVine trade, but Zach Buckley of Bleacher Report isn’t buying it.
According to Buckley, the reports of the Bulls asking around about LaVine trades should be considered mostly fiction because none of the other moves they’ve made this summer point toward a rebuild.
“If the Bulls wanted a shake-up this summer, they could have let Vučević walk and shopped DeMar DeRozan,” Buckley wrote. “Turn these 30-somethings into more long-term assets, and Chicago might have sidestepped a rebuild and perhaps done something closer to a reloading.
“Dealing LaVine would’ve been something different. The 28-year-old is the cornerstone of this club now and for the foreseeable future. If the Bulls let him go, their entire focus could have (and should have) shifted into asset-accumulation mode.
“That’s why this is hard to take at face value. Nothing suggests Chicago is ready to embrace the kind of wholesale changes that a LaVine trade would have sparked.”
There’s always a chance the Bulls shift their focus toward a rebuild, but right now, it seems like they want to run it back.
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