The biggest question hanging over the Chicago Bulls right now revolves around the future of Zach LaVine. Despite the fact that he is in the second year of a 5-year, $215 million extension, both LaVine and the Bulls appear to be open to something new amid Chicago’s sluggish start to the 2023-24 season.
According to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN, there’s a problem: As of now, there’s not much of a market for LaVine’s services. While appearing on Friday’s episode of NBA Today, Wojnarowski expressed that Chicago’s efforts to canvas the league and find a deal for LaVine haven’t amount to anything as of now.
"There is not a market for Zach LaVine right now."@wojespn with the latest on LaVine and the Bulls 👀 pic.twitter.com/r4stqcKkor
— NBA on ESPN (@ESPNNBA) December 1, 2023
“There is not a market for Zach LaVine right now in the NBA,” Wojnarowski said. “And that’s not because Chicago has not tried to find it and aren’t currently trying to find it. It’s a combination of a few reasons. LaVine’s contract, four more years at around $45, $46 million a year average. But his productivity — I think this is a player, right now, who certainly, he’s out now with a foot injury, he’s been in and out of the lineup. And I think the question for teams is, how much does Zach LaVine impact winning? Especially at that salary, and with a new salary cap where you’re asking yourself, ‘Are we trading for him to be our best player? No. Our second-best player? No.’ So, if he’s our third-best player, do we want to pay that kind of money?”
Wojnarowski went on to say that the Bulls are not approaching this as a salary dump, and instead, their intention is to get “some value in a trade.” In his eyes, the best thing for both parties is for LaVine to get healthy, get on the floor, and start “playing well” while “impacting winning.”
It is worth mentioning that players who signed free agent deals in the offseason are not eligible to be traded until Dec. 15, and if Chicago does want to get value back, the pool of players they could they could get back in a deal expands in about two weeks from now. While there’s no guarantee this would happen, it’s not hard to imagine that LaVine comes back from the foot injury that is expected to keep him out for a week, play well, and things move quickly once Dec. 15 rolls around.
