The core part of this trade deal is still alive between the Bulls and Wizards. The 25-year-old Seattle, WA, native LaVine finds another home in the nation’s capital, packaged together with the overpaid Brazilian big man Cristiano Felicio. LaVine is a valuable commodity for the Bulls, but Felicio doesn’t offer their rotation much at all.
Getting off the Felicio money is a nice perk for the Bulls here, but they do also have to part with a future first round draft pick. The risk comes with the reward in this trade package. But the Bulls do also get to bolster the depth at a position of need, by adding young and potent 20-year-old Wizards small forward Troy Brown Jr.
Why this deal makes sense for the Bulls is that they get off the Felicio money to have more space for recently hired former Denver Nuggets general manager (now executive vice president of basketball operations) Arturas Karnisovas to make roster moves this coming offseason. And they get to replace their brightest star in LaVine with a more proven one in Beal.
And the Wizards get closer to the inevitable by breaking down into their rebuild with a more cap friendly player in LaVine and a likely lottery pick in the first round of the draft. Felicio would also be one the books for just one more season before he becomes an unrestricted free agent. That makes sense for them in this scenario.