Chicago Bulls: 3 trades with the Mavericks for Zach LaVine

3) Chicago Bulls trades with Mavs for LaVine

The problem with any potential trade packages between the Bulls and Mavericks involving LaVine is the lack of a true valuable trade chip among the players on Dallas’ current roster. Salary matching is not much of a problem between the Bulls and Mavericks in these hypothetical trade discussions, but there’s going to have to be future draft capital included in almost any deal.

In this particular trade package, the salaries are matched for LaVine by the Mavericks including the 28-year-old volume scoring 6-foot-5 and 205 pound shooting guard/wing Tim Hardaway Jr. Hardaway is just about the only player that the Mavericks are likely willing to easily part ways with that matches salaries almost directly with LaVine (just north of $20 million in salary annually).

Hardaway Jr. did show some signs of life to at least live up closer to the billing of the sizable contract he’s on, during the shortened 2019-20 regular season. He averaged 15.8 points per game, 3.3 rebounds, 1.9 assists, 0.6 steals, and 0.1 blocks. And Hardaway shot 43.4 percent from the field, 39.8 percent from beyond the arc, and 81.9 percent from the free-throw line.

The rest of this trade package sees the Mavericks send their 18th overall pick in the first round of the 2020 NBA Draft to the Bulls, along with two unprotected future firsts. Stacking that much future draft capital could be enough for newly hired executive vice president of basketball operations Arturas Karnisovas and the Bulls to part ways with LaVine.