The Chicago Bulls cannot catch a break. Following years of borderline contention, they finally tried to put together a strong team, yet they’re just not a good fit together. Nikola Vucevic, Zach LaVine, and DeMar DeRozan are great on their own, not so much together.
So, with Billy Donovan’s team struggling to be at their best this season, rumor has it that they’re actually considering blowing the roster up. They don’t have a lot of draft assets, so it would definitely make sense.
Moreover, there have been reports of a feud between LaVine and his coach, and some teammates reportedly called him out last week. Notably, they believe the UCLA product is trying to force its way back to Los Angeles.
NBA Rumors: Zach LaVine Wants To Play For The Lakers
(Via Heavy)
“LaVine wants to go to the Lakers, that has been pretty clear for a while now,” and Eastern Conference executive told Deveney. “The agents [from Klutch Sports] want him to be in Los Angeles, he is a UCLA guy and they did some rattling about his contract last offseason, to kind of lay the groundwork if things blew up. Which they seem to be doing.”
“The problem on LaVine is from the Lakers’ side, there is nothing they could trade to Chicago short of Anthony Davis,” the executive said. “Now, that is a possibility—Davis is a Chicago guy and if he were going to leave the Lakers, the Bulls would be one of the few places he’d be OK with. The Bulls and the Lakers would be swapping stars with injury problems, essentially. LaVine (who is 27) is younger than Davis, so that is an advantage but at full health, Davis (29) is a much, much better player.”
Davis has admitted his desire to one day play for his hometown team. Nonetheless, the Bulls may have little interest in trading for an aging, injury-prone star as they look to get younger and rebuild for the future.