Zach LaVine adds fuel to trade rumors with cryptic behavior online

Not even a full month into the season, the Chicago Bulls are already capturing headlines all around the league. Unfortunately, it’s been for all the wrong reasons, as this team isn’t nearly good enough to warrant attention based on the merits of their play. No, the spotlight is currently on the Bulls due to reports that Chicago is open to the notion of moving All-Star guard Zach LaVine on the trade market.

The pressure to make a move is now higher than ever, as the front office can’t possibly justify this team’s slow 4-8 start after an entire two years of little to no change to the roster. The players aren’t ignorant to the tension surrounding this situation. When asked if LaVine would like to be elsewhere, Zach responded “Right now isn’t the time to talk about that.”

Try as he might to shrug things off and stay focused on winning games now, it’s clear to see these rumors may have the two-time All-Star feeling a bit rattled. A few eagle-eyed fans online noticed that Zach has removed the worlds “Bulls Nation” from his X (formerly Twitter) bio, potentially hinting at an impending trade.

Zach LaVine’s cryptic behavior just might prove a trade is coming soon.

Normally, this sort of things isn’t a big deal worth getting worked up over, but when you factor in conjunction with a few other other odd decisions, it stops feeling a coincidence and more like an intentional message.

Having already expressed interest in playing both in LA and alongside a legendary like LeBron James in the past, Zach LaVine has already left plenty of breadcrumbs on this trail for us to assume its natural conclusion. So when LaVine decided to sport a Los Angeles Dodgers hat during his post-game interviews follow the loss to the Magic, i can’t say I was exactly surprised.

If the Lakers are genuine in the their reported interest in Zach LaVine, they have plenty of resources necessary at their disposal to pull off a trade of this magnitude. The Lakers’ aging core means any picks they send back should be extremely valuable in a few years, and the likely players they’d be sending back — like D’Angelo Russell and Rui Hachimura — have actual value on the court rather than being simple salary filler.

It’s true that this could all just be one big coincidence, but I doubt it. It’s clear to see that this team already looks defeated, and the season just began. It’s unfortunate that we’ll never get to see what this core would have looked like with a healthy Lonzo Ball running the show, but every day that passes without transitioning into a rebuilding phase is nothing more than wasted time.