The Chicago Bulls will continue to be involved in trade rumors until Zach LaVine and Nikola Vucevic are no longer on the roster.
The LaVine to the Lakers rumor just won’t die, but even if LA were interested, it’s tough to make the money work as we outlined yesterday.
If the Lakers were desperate enough to add a third star, they could make it happen, but it would deplete their already-thin depth and is LaVine really a significant enough upgrade over D’Angelo Russell to justify the cost and risk?
As for the Bulls, they’d have to take back some bad money, but would probably be happy to do it to get off LaVine’s remaining deal.
But there was another possibility mentioned in a recent article in Bleacher Report that ran down some of the trade possibilities for the Lakers.
Could the Lakers trade with Bulls for Nikola Vucevic?
In addition to the mandatory LaVine trade, B/R also named Vucevic as an “alternative” the Lakers could be interested in.
On paper, it’s not a bad match, as Vucevic needs to play with another big who defends the rim and the Lakers happen to have a pretty good one in Anthony Davis, who fancies himself a power forward anyway.
Theoretically, Vucevic gives LA some additional floor spacing and rebounding and wouldn’t cost nearly as much to acquire in terms of players or draft assets as some of the other possibilities. Even in a down season, Vucevic hit corner 3’s at a fair clip and he’d likely get plenty of wide-open ones in an offense with LeBron and Davis. There’s no reason to think his shooting won’t return.
Whether Vucevic would really move the needle for them is debatable, but he would upgrade their big-man ranks and is a guy they could afford in a trade.
So, what would a trade look like?
Possible Vucevic trade to the Lakers
The Bulls would prefer taking back a shorter contract and/or draft assets in exchange for Vucevic, as trading him would be a sure sign they are committed to a rebuild.
The only matching expiring contract the Lakers have is D’Angelo Russell, who is probably too much to give up for Vucevic. Rui Hachimura would be another option, though his contract does extend an extra season and the Lakers may not view Vucevic as an upgrade.
The best option may be to piece together contracts and throw some draft capital on top in exchange for the Bulls taking back deals that extend beyond next season.
Just about the only way to make it work without using Russell or Hachimura is to piece together the contracts of Gabe Vincent and Jarred Vanderbilt. Vincent has two years left on his deal at $10 and 11 million and Vanderbilt has four remaining ramping from $10 to 13 million, which would be a tough contract to swallow given that he is not good.
This would allow the Lakers to add an impact talent without damaging their depth or digging into their first-round picks. They’d still have assets to make another move later in the season.
But what about the Bulls? Would this be worth it just to get rid of Vucevic?
The Chicago Bulls would be taking on more bad money in trade with Lakers
Obviously, the Bulls would press for one of the Lakers’ first-round picks, but I am not sure LA is coming off one for Vucevic.
Instead, they’d be giving the Bulls three picks in the second round, I added a third because Vanderbilt’s contract is bad.
If the Bulls wanted to tank, this would be one way to do it, as it’s doubtful Vincent and Vanderbilt are going to contribute to many wins. The problem is their contracts, as Vanderbilt’s in particular is pretty much a sunk cost unless he suddenly turns things around.
The whole point of trading Vucevic is to get his contract off the books and the Bulls would be taking back two deals that would equal his over the next two seasons and then two additional years of Vanderbilt at $12 and 13 million. They would get some cap relief after the second year, but is that meager amount and three second-round picks worth those extra years of Vanderbilt?
That is debatable.
Second-round picks should be more valuable in the second apron era with some cash-strapped teams looking to trade out of the back end of the first round to save money. The Bulls badly need draft assets that they can use immediately to add young talent and future picks to use in trades, so this would help both of those causes.
It’s not a great deal for Chicago, but it might be the best they can hope for when it comes to Vucevic, who doesn’t have a much of a trade market.