Bulls decide it’s time to take a step down, send LaVine to Kings
The late-night NBA trade of Luka Doncic for Anthony Davis shocked the sports world on Saturday.
The Bulls came back with a deal of their own Sunday, but this one is more of a head-scratcher than shocker.
According to an ESPN report, the Bulls will send leading scorer Zach LaVine to the Sacramento Kings, where he'll join former Bulls teammate DeMar DeRozan. This is a three-way deal, with Kings guard De'Aaron Fox the key piece, moving to San Antonio.
In return, the Bulls will get three role players — shooting guard Kevin Huerter from Sacramento, along with center Zach Collins and point guard Tre Jones from the Spurs.
The Bulls also get to keep the first-round pick they owed San Antonio from the DeRozan sign-and-trade in 2021. It was a protected pick, so the Bulls would have kept it if it landed in the top 10, but they still would have owed the Spurs a first-rounder at some point. Now they owe San Antonio nothing.
There will likely be more moves by the Bulls before the NBA trade deadline arrives on Thursday. The immediate reaction to this deal is a meh-minus.
Does it make the Bulls better? No. Does it give them payroll flexibility to make moves this summer? Not really. Collins and Huerter are both owed $18 million next season, though the Bulls do unload the $49 million LaVine is potentially owed in 2026-27.
It's possible the Bulls will get some extreme lottery luck and land a top-4 pick in this year's draft. With a 21-29 record, the lowest the Bulls could realistically sink in the standings is the fifth-worst record, and even that will be a challenge.
This move closes the door on the Jimmy Butler trade of 2017, with LaVine, Lauri Markkanen and Kris Dunn gone. The Bulls got no assets in return for those three, other than a top-14 protected first rounder from Portland that's not likely to arrive this year. Maybe in 2026. Meanwhile, the Bulls are worse off than they were in 2017 and made the playoffs once since trading Butler.
It was clear the current Bulls roster wasn't going to win anything beyond a play-in tournament game. They could either make a trade to get better or a trade to get worse. The basketball operations team of Arturas Karnisovas and Marc Eversley chose worse.
Huerter, Collins and Jones are all light-usage subs this season. Huerter, 26, had his best NBA season two years ago when he averaged 15.2 points in his first year in Sacramento. This season, he's averaging 7.9 points and shooting 30.2% from 3-point range.
Collins, 27, averaged 11.2 points last season, but defense is not his strength. Jones, 25, might be a competent backup point guard.
Logic suggests center Nikola Vucevic will be the next to go, but it remains to be seen if there's enough demand to get a first-round pick in return.
LaVine spent eight seasons in Chicago. He was an all-star twice and averaged more than 23 points six times. But he never won. The symbolism in this trade is Sacramento got three first-round picks and three second-rounders back for Fox. All the Bulls got was a pick they'd already given away.