NEWSLETTER
My belt buckle just arrived in the mail.
A cheap piece of silver metal with a gold-colored longhorn in the middle, it should serve as the accessory that ties the whole outfit together. The fiancée and I are attending a “wild west” themed birthday party this weekend. Costumes are highly encouraged. And, look, while I’d never consider cosplaying a passion of mine, I’m also not going to be someone who shows up in a flannel and calls it a day.
I have a full denim outfit planned to go alongside the buckle, a bandana, and a brand-spanking new cowboy hat. I might even go hunting for a piece of wheat to gnaw on. When I commit, I commit. And I’m sure hoping the Chicago Bulls do the same.
The offseason rumors kicked into high gear for the Bulls on Thursday afternoon. Yahoo Sports’ Jake Fischer reported that the organization has “quietly” reached out to teams around the NBA to gauge their interest in Zach LaVine. While it remains unclear how lavish a package would have to be for the Bulls to shake hands, the mere fact they’re the ones making the calls suggests more interest in striking a deal than ever before.
Anyway, we spoke way more about that in the post here:
The point of this post isn’t to focus on what a LaVine trade might look like. Instead, I simply want to stress what it would mean.
The single-most drastic thing the Bulls can do this offseason is trade LaVine (well, besides sell the franchise!). He is a two-time All-Star who has ranked inside the NBA’s top-15 in scoring the past four seasons. A perfect player? No. But he’s among the league’s top offensive weapons and has been the building block for the franchise since before the newest front-office regime arrived.
Trading him would mean completely starting over. Er, well, let me rephrase that: Trading him SHOULD mean completely starting over. Fischer elaborated on the Bulls’ LaVine situation during an episode of his podcast No Cap Room and made a somewhat concerning comment about Chicago’s possible intentions with a LaVine trade (emphasis mine):
“Clearly, this is not a wide-spread ‘we’re just calling around the league and shopping Zach LaVine.’ But, in various conversations I’ve had, if there is an offer that can come right now that can knock off Chicago’s socks and maybe clean up their cap sheet moving forward, maybe lower this team’s ultimate ceiling but raise its floor … it’s optionality I guess not opportunity to figure out some different transactions, to kind of build a steady playoff threat here.”
I’m not sure if the end of this quote is strictly Fischer’s opinion or an educated guess about the team’s motives. But the decision to move on from LaVine and continue to prioritize winning in the short term would make zero sense. And I can’t stress that enough. If he is no longer a part of the future plans as he enters his prime at 28 years old, then there really aren’t any future plans. In other words, a full rebuild MUST be in effect.
This means also moving on from any other veteran players to restock the Bulls’ own asset pool. For example, there is no world in which trading LaVine and keeping DeMar DeRozan should be in the cards. While DeRozan might be a valuable locker-room presence, he is a win-now talent who is fresh off two of the best seasons of his NBA career. The Bulls would be foolish not to also capitalize on that and get whatever young players/draft picks they can.
Heck, even if the Bulls do not end up trading LaVine, a very simple case could be made that DeRozan should still be moved. Not only has the duo seemingly struggled to mesh (the Bulls held just the 24th-ranked offense last season), but DeRozan is up for a hefty contract extension this summer as he heads into the final year of his deal. After a 40-42 season with few tools to improve the roster, trading DeRozan would be arguably the team’s best way to open some future flexibility and stay competitive.
So if that should be on the table even in a situation where LaVine sticks around, it should really be the only option if LaVine leaves. Some might want to make an argument that you can continue to build a winning product around DeRozan, but is that at all the smart long-term choice? You don’t trade a 28-year-old All-Star to build around a soon-to-be 34-year-old All-Star. This would also require Chicago to prioritize win-now role players back in return for Zach LaVine, which would be malpractice when we consider the kind of high-end young player(s) and future draft picks he can assumingly net instead.
The Bulls would also have to put Alex Caruso on the trading block ASAP. An All-Defensive First Team member on arguably the most team-friendly contract in the NBA, I bidding war that ends in an advantageous overpay for Chicago could surely be the outcome.
Oddly enough, the only player I think it would make any sense to bring back would be Nikola Vucevic. I know, I know. Why not just let him walk in free agency or find a sign-and-trade if you’re starting a rebuild? Well, I do think it’s at least somewhat beneficial to have an accomplished veteran around (that was a big problem for the Bulls during the last rebuild), and he is the cheapest option of the three. But the bigger reason is simply that I never like losing an asset for nothing.
We talked about this at length when sharing news of his ongoing contract negotiations with Chicago, so feel free to read more here. In short, I don’t think Vucevic’s new deal is going to be overwhelming, and I can see a world where the Bulls can flip him at this season’s trade deadline or next offseason. I’m not going to deny that finding a sign-and-trade this summer would be preferable in a rebuilding situation, but I also don’t think it would be the end of the world if he returns and you have to scour the trade market later on.
For the sake of completing my original metaphor … Arturas Karnisovas can not show up to the party in only cowboy boots. The moment he decides to go is the moment he needs to get his butt on Amazon and buy the entire wardrobe. He already made the mistake of not maintaining an aggressive mindset and adding to the core he built during his first full summer in Chicago. The last thing he can do if he trades Zach LaVine is make that mistake again.
