You’re Not Going to Love This New Report About Zach LaVine’s Trade Market

While trade season has yet to blossom, spuds are surely growing in Chicago. 

The Bulls began a roster overhaul in the offseason, which included parting ways with win-now pieces like DeMar DeRozan and Alex Caruso. All early indications have been that the front office will remain open for business in the coming months. A recent report even noted that the Bulls are willing to listen to offers on the majority of their roster, as opposed to strictly on their other veteran pieces.??

Nevertheless, Zach LaVine and Nikola Vucevic will continue to be the most obvious trade candidates. Neither player makes much sense with the organization moving forward. Both are former All-Stars with the kind of elite scoring ability that belongs in a winning environment. The Bulls are far from that, and they feel like the kind of team that must take a step back to eventually take two steps forward. 

This is particularly true when we consider their current draft situation. The Bulls’ 2025 first-round pick will head to the San Antonio Spurs if it lands outside the Top 10. In what many believe to be a deep draft, the last thing the Bulls want to do is lose a chance to add another high-upside youngster to their roster. As long as LaVine and Vucevic are on the roster, however, they run that risk.??

The good news for Chicago is that LaVine and Vucevic have both played pretty tremendous basketball to begin the season. They have been two of the most efficient scorers in the league and have each averaged a career-high effective field goal percentage thus far. With this in mind, finding a trade suitor feels like it should be easier than in years past.

But that doesn’t appear to be the case for at least one of the two veterans.

Zach LaVine’s Market Still Non-Existent?

ESPN’s Brian Windhorst didn’t paint the most optimistic picture for Zach LaVine and the Chicago Bulls. In a recent episode of The Hoop Collective, the NBA insider said that LaVine’s success this season has yet to turn many heads.

He’s having an excellent year. We know he’s been on the trade block for a year now at least,” Windhorst said.” Yet, I hear nothing about LaVine in the trade market. I don’t think it’s because the Bulls aren’t interested in trading him. Zach LaVine is playing well enough to be traded. And this was two years ago, not just with his contract, but I think he would have a good chance to get traded. And we’ll see, we have two months left.”

Windhorst stressed multiple times that he’s heard nothing when it comes to any interest in acquiring Zach LaVine. He and co-host Tim Bontemps also used this lack of buzz as an example of how the NBA’s new CBA has impacted the league as a whole. More specifically, Bontemps stated that trading someone who makes $40+ million a year is going to be a hard thing to do in this new era for the NBA. LaVine is making $43,031,940 this season and is owed slightly under a combined $95.0 million over the next two years.

So why has the new CBA made a contract like LaVine’s so undesirable? Well, the NBA implemented extremely harsh penalties for surpassing a second tax apron. Teams that go above this threshold can not combine the salaries of multiple players for one player in return. They also will not receive any mid-level exception in the offseason and can not send cash out in a trade. To put it differently, teams that go above the second tax apron lose an immense amount of team-building flexibility.??

To be sure, not every team acquiring LaVine would automatically find themselves in the second apron. But his contract also isn’t going to make it easier for any true contender to avoid the penalty. The fear of walking that fine line is enough to deter a lot of teams from doing business. 

Regardless, I’m still somewhat shocked to hear there is ZERO talk about LaVine around the league. While the money is scary, it’s not nearly as scary as it was a year ago when he was sitting out with a foot injury. LaVine only has two full years left on his deal and is playing some of the best basketball of his career. Especially when we consider his ability to score on and off the ball at a high level, I don’t understand why at least one playoff-caliber team wouldn’t see him as a worthwhile gamble.

I mean, look at the guy’s stats!

LaVine is one of only five players to average at least 22.0 points on 50.0 percent shooting from the field at 40.0 percent shooting from downtown this season, per NBA Stats! The other four names are Nikola Jokic, Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving, and Karl-Anthony Towns.

With a slew of contracts signed this offseason, LaVine’s $43.0 million AAV is also tied for the 33rd most expensive contract in the league. Is that really something a team can’t talk themselves into? Especially with numbers like that!?

I fully recognize that making big-money trades work mid-season is difficult. However, things feel like they have swung way too far in a negative direction with LaVine. Few players in the league can do what he does offensively, and I think there are a handful of teams in the NBA that would be better with him running alongside their star player.

At the same time, I also recognize that it takes two to tango. Perhaps the Bulls are playing their own annoying role in LaVine’s poor market. A recent report indicated that they are currently asking teams for too much in exchange for the two-time All-Star. Is it possible rival front offices budge once the reality of the trade deadline inches closer? Absolutely, but we also know the Bulls haven’t been the savviest trade markers in the past. They could be playing an unfortunate part in the lack of earnest LaVine talks around the league.

Still, a player’s game should do most of the talking, and no one can deny that Zach LaVine is playing extremely well so far this season. I guess all we can do is wait and see if this inevitably convinces teams around the league to show genuine interest. I sure don’t love this news, but there is a lot of time for Windhorst’s latest report to change.