Could the Chicago Bulls have finally found a trading partner interested in their star guard?
Chicago has failed to move Zach LaVine for months, which has disabled the Bulls from making further deals to power a rebuild.
As long as LaVine is still on Chicago’s books, the team is stuck in NBA purgatory until 2027.
The Bulls should still be actively seeking out a trade for LaVine. Sending the two-time All-Star to the Golden State Warriors for Andrew Wiggins, Gary Payton II, and Jonathan Kuminga works financially, but would Golden State bite?
LaVine would provide the Warriors with a scoring punch that none of Wiggins, Payton, and Kuminga do, not to mention one that could be useful in the wake of Klay Thompson’s departure.
Kuminga, whose contract expires after this season, will likely demand a beefy new contract that Golden State (and most teams) might not be crazy about paying. It therefore behooves the Warriors to listen to offers for Kuminga.
There’s also the Andrew Wiggins question for Golden State. It should be said that while Wiggins isn’t the scoring talent that LaVine is, he’s still a career 18.5 points per game scorer who has won a title with the Warriors. Would Golden State be upgrading to a huge extent by swapping Wiggins’s production for LaVine’s?
Hoops Habits’ Treyvon Hastings isn’t very keen on the LaVine idea, from the Warriors’ perspective.
“While Golden State could certainly match salary to get LaVine, they would be forced to trade one of Andrew Wiggins or Draymond to feasibly get a deal done,” Hastings said.
“Even then, the Warriors would have to trade three players for one, significantly diminishing their depth, which made them so dominant for so long. A Lakers or Clippers style ‘Big 3’ has proven to be unsuccessful for those franchises, and there’s no reason to believe it would work for Golden State as currently constructed.”
“Moving Wiggins or Green for a defensive liability and constantly injured player could harm Golden State’s future success. With that in mind, a trade for LaVine makes little sense for the Warriors, and acquiring the former All-Star would be a sign of ‘damage control’ from losing Thompson in free agency. Although LaVine is a ‘last hope’ for the Warriors to acquire a high-level player, he’s not their only option.”
The Bulls are hoping that Golden State’s front office doesn’t align with the kind of thinking provided here by Hastings. Chicago would love nothing more than to offload LaVine’s contract ($138M remaining) for a more manageable remaining three years (Wiggins, $54.5M) and two expirings in Payton and Kuminga.
The 22-year-old Kuminga would even have a chance of sticking in Chicago and receiving a big payday next summer from the Bulls.