Bulls News: Chicago Star ‘Motivated’ To Part Ways With Organization

A divorce seems to be impending between the Chicago Bulls and their most expensive player, former All-Star shooting guard Zach LaVine.

In a fresh mailbag, K.C. Johnson of NBC Sports Chicago reports that both the Bulls and Zach LaVine’s representatives are hoping to move on from one another. The team’s front office had previously expected to receive first-round draft equity, and/or an All-Star-caliber player in return for LaVine, who hasn’t made an All-Star team in two seasons amid issues with health and defense.

Now, Johnson believes team president Arturas Karnisovas and general manager Marc Eversley are amenable to far less generous trade packages. This is big news, as the Bulls haven’t made a trade involving an active player since 2021 (the team did trade to acquire the draft rights to forward Julian Phillips last summer, however).

Johnson acknowledges that the LaVine-Bulls pairing feels like it has reached its expiration date, but credits both LaVine and the Chicago organization for handling their mutual disinterest in one another professionally — as if somehow teams get points for professionalism in making trades.

LaVine’s chemistry with his Chicago brethren got so bad that, once he sat out with an ankle injury early in the 2023-24 NBA season, the team instantly went on a run without him, elevating itself back to respectability as young point guard Coby White became fully empowered within the Bulls’ offense.

Hierarchically, LaVine is now the third-most important Chicago player on that side of the ball, behind White and All-Star veteran swingman DeMar DeRozan, who remains extension-eligible until July 1, when he would hit unrestricted free agency.

The UCLA product has long been a sieve on defense and has now undergone ankle and knee surgeries that have caused him to already miss major time at age 28. He is a distressed asset. That said, when healthy, he’s an excellent three-level scorer, and remains surprisingly athletic, given all his injury struggles. During his best season when the team was good, 2021-22 (Chicago went 46-36 and finished as the East’s No. 6 seed), he averaged 24.4 points on a .476/.389/.853 slash line (that 38.9 percent three-point rate came on 7.1 attempts), 4.6 rebounds, 4.5 assists, and 0.6 steals a night.

LaVine’s exorbitant contract is the other sticking point that could hold up a deal. The 6-foot-5 swingman just finished the second season of a five-year, $215.2 million contract. He’ll earn $43 million in 2024-25, an epic sum for a player who was probably the fourth-best guy on his own team last season, behind White, DeRozan, and All-Defensive guard Alex Caruso. Finding a trade partner willing to take on some risk has proven difficult for Chicago thus far. Teams in need of scoring punch along the perimeter like the Los Angeles Lakers and Orlando Magic, or even lottery clubs like the Utah Jazz and San Antonio Spurs, could make sense as LaVine destinations.

Chicago has missed the playoffs, but made the play-in tournament, during each of its last two seasons. There is no reason to cling to this core of DeRozan and LaVine any longer. It’s clearly time for a restart, for the sake of all parties involved.