Should the Bulls make this trade?
Breaking up a team is never easy, and the Chicago Bulls’ organization will likely never want to move on from Zach LaVine. He has developed from an athletic chucker to a high-end scorer and All-Star while with the Bulls, and he is still just 27 years old.
At the same time, his knees appear to be ticking time bombs, and even with LaVine, DeMar DeRozan and Nikola Vucevic generally healthy this season the Bulls are under .500 and scrapping just to get into the Play-In Tournament. Making the playoffs will likely mean a meeting with the Boston Celtics or Milwaukee Bucks; expecting to advance is a fool’s hope, unfortunately.
Trading LaVine while he is healthy for the Lakers’ premium picks can allow them to do their best this year, then enter the summer with cap flexibility and ammunition to add around DeRozan. It’s not a no-brainer, but it’s an out for this current group.
The Lakers’ desperation could end up handing the Bulls the means to chase another star this summer, or the keys to a rebuild in a few years. Those picks could turn into the franchise superstar the Bulls have been searching for all these years, and that upside is why the Bulls should give the Lakers a call.