The Chicago Bulls aren’t the contenders they envisioned themselves becoming.
Lonzo Ball has already missed one and a half seasons and is expected to miss the entirety of the 2023-24 season, too. DeMar DeRozan and Nikola Vucevic have begun to show signs of slowing. As a result, Chicago may find itself struggling when the new season tips off.
According to Bleacher Report’s Andy Bailey, if the Bulls do find themselves struggling, they could look to begin a rebuild. Zach LaVine is the most logical player to get traded. Bailey’s reasoning is Chicago would get the highest return in a potential LaVine trade, allowing it to amass the assets required to enter a full-scale rebuild of their roster.
“If Chicago remains in that bad-to-mediocre range a couple months into 2023-24, it’ll have to start thinking about breaking up that core,” Bailey wrote. “In that circumstance, LaVine will almost certainly have the highest trade value. At 28 years old, he figures to have a few prime seasons left. He’s under contract through 2026-27 (when he has a $49 million player option) for a salary that will look pretty reasonable as the cap continues to rise.
And he could be a dynamic second or third option for a team in the hunt for a title. … Giannis Antetokounmpo, Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving and LeBron James are the only players in the league who match or exceed all three of those marks over the same span.”
LaVine is coming off a strong season that saw him average 24.8 points, 4.5 rebounds and 4.2 assists per game, shooting 37.5% from 3-point range and 48.5% from the field. Should the Bulls decide to hit the reset button, LaVine would be the first name teams called about, and he would certainly bring in the highest level of return. However, it seems unlikely the Bulls make such a big decision before next summer.
[lawrence-auto-related count=3 category=673484349 tag=2095]