Zach Lavine is arguably the highest-profile player to possibly be on the move this season. The Chicago Bulls’ attempt at contention has failed horribly, with the Nikola Vucevic trade not working out and the constant injuries to Lonzo Ball making him permanently unavailable.
Zach LaVine has been having issues co-existing with teammate DeMar DeRozan, with his frustrations on the team allegedly escalating. Naturally, LaVine has been looked at as a trade target after all of this, with LaVine reportedly looking to make his way to the Los Angeles Lakers.
This shouldn’t be a surprise given LaVine went to college at UCLA and that he had said in 2020 that his ideal teammate would be LeBron James, who is the star of the Lakers.
“There’s a lot of dudes out there I’d love to play with, but is it going to be realistic? Everybody wants to play with the best players in the world, you know. I would love to go out there and play with a dude like LeBron James, but you’re not going to get those type of opportunities I don’t think.”
While LaVine didn’t feel like it was possible in 2020, it may be possible now. However, it completely depends on what the Bulls want to do given his recent contract extension. Can the Lakers outbid a team like the Dallas Mavericks or New York Knicks? Probably not, given Jerry Reinsdorf doesn’t want to send LaVine to the Lakers.
Can The Lakers Trade For Zach LaVine?
Trading for LaVine will not be easy. The Lakers need to hope Zach stays a Bull this season so they can attack a trade offer with more draft assets. However, he is an injury-prone player so that is another level of risk that might help the Lakers get his price down.
However, it’s hard to see how the Lakers can outbid rivals, especially the Knicks. New York has a war chest of draft capital that they failed to utilize fully for Donovan Mitchell.
If LaVine is available, the Knicks are likely to be the ones to have the assets that will appease the Bulls’ front office. The Mavericks are in the same situation as the Lakers in terms of restricted draft assets, but if they don’t have a top-10 pick this season, they’ll have all their future draft capital at their disposal to make more trades.
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