Zach LaVine and the Chicago Bulls are seemingly headed for divorce. Which teams should trade for him?
The NBA world moves fast, and players can be lost in the background quickly if they’re not dominating news cycles. Perhaps it’s the Chicago Bulls’ mediocrity or their lack of implosion since losing him, but it feels like Zach LaVine has been cast to the wayside.
Those who don’t follow the Bulls might not even realize that he’s been lost to injury this season, assuming that he’s continued putting up big numbers for a middling squad.
In reality, LaVine was having his worst campaign in recent memory before he underwent season-ending foot surgery and the Bulls have since been marginally better without him. Since he went under the knife, Chicago has gone 14-12 to stay alive in the Play-In race.
The Bulls held onto LaVine through this season’s trade deadline but should be eager to move him soon in order to restock their war chest and make room for White’s continued development. He may have been having a relatively terrible season, but there should be at least a few teams interested in adding a scorer of LaVine’s caliber.
If the Los Angeles Lakers make a meaningful run in the postseason this year, it’ll be due to their defense, and the star power of LeBron James and Anthony Davis. The fact of the matter is that the Lakers have one of the shakiest offenses in the NBA, especially on the perimeter.
James has become a much improved deep shooter at this stage in his career, but his bread-and-butter is still attacking the paint. As for Davis, opposing defenses practically celebrate anytime he settles for a jumper. D’Angelo Russell has emerged as the perimeter scoring threat the Lakers have needed lately, but betting on him, a notoriously inconsistent shooter, to remain a steadfast sniper is optimistic, to say the least.
Trading for LaVine, whose stock has severely plummeted this season, would be the kind of high-risk, high-reward move that could give Los Angeles another championship with LeBron. It might even convince him to stick around long-term.
The Oklahoma City Thunder are expected to have money to spend this offseason, and the time to spend it is now before Jalen Williams and Chet Holmgren are up for their extensions. They also have a Josh Giddey-sized hole in their starting lineup that could very well be the reason they fall short of winning it all this year.
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