The question highlighted the uncertainty on when Chicago Bulls guard Zach LaVine will heal his sprained right ankle. It also revealed the cloudiness surrounding LaVine’s future ahead of the NBA trade deadline.
Will LaVine ever play a game again with Chicago?
“I have no idea,” Bulls coach Billy Donovan said. “I really don’t.”
Donovan said the organization plans to reevaluate LaVine sometime this week after spraining his right ankle in Toronto on Jan. 18 and feeling “discomfort all around” both with his right ankle and right foot.
That reevaluation period will only give the Bulls’ medical staff clarity on what on-court work, if any, LaVine can complete after missing the past four games. That reevaluation may not yield any update on when LaVine can actually play, and if that will take place before the Feb. 8 trade deadline.
That leaves the Bulls and LaVine in a precarious position.
Will the Bulls deal LaVine to a championship-contending team as he hopes? Given that LaVine also has missed 19 other games related to his right foot and one other related to his lower back, will other NBA teams even want to give up significant assets? With the Bulls (22-25 entering Tuesday’s game against the Toronto Raptors (16-30) still on pace to make the NBA’s Play-In Tournament, will the Bulls calculate they’ll better off hoping the two-time NBA All-Star can revitalize a late-season push?
“There’s nothing that I’ve had communication as it leads into this trade deadline where it’s been like, ‘Hey, he’s staying here or we’re moving him,’” Donovan said. “There has been nothing like that. I’d hate to even speculate.”
That surely won’t stop others from doing so.
The Athletic recently reported that the Bulls and Detroit Pistons have had conversations involving LaVine, though they are considered preliminary. That’s partly because neither team can agree on the asking price.
The Bulls reportedly want Bojan Bogdanovic and one of Detroit’s young prospects, while the Pistons want to keep Cade Cunningham, Jaden Ivey, Jalen Duren and Ausar Thompson. The Lakers haven’t shown much interest with acquiring LaVine, both because of his recent injuries and concerns with how much depth they’d have to sacrifice to integrate a third star player with LeBron James and Anthony Davis.
“I’m taking the approach that he’s going to be with us the whole entire year, and I hope he can get healthy sooner than later,” Donovan said. “There’s nothing that’s been told to me that that’s the case … I don’t go into it that way. I go into it viewing that he’s going to be here for the rest of the season.”
The Bulls don’t have easy answers on which route to take.
As he has climbed to No. 8 on the franchise’s all-time scoring list, LaVine has spent this season recording his career-high in points (51 against Detroit) and making at least 4 3-pointesr in seven games. Yet, LaVine have 19.5 points while shooting 45.2% from the field and 34.9% from 3 as well as 3.9 assists, his lowest numbers since first season with the Bulls (2017-18).
The Bulls have gone 11-10 in LaVine’s absence, suggesting they are fairly average both with him or without him. It doesn’t help the Bulls are nursing other long-term injuries. Lonzo Ball will miss the entire 2023-24 season after having off-season surgery on his left knee.
Torrey Craig has missed 19 games and counting with issues with his right foot. But if the Bulls were to deal LaVine before the deadline, what would they do with Alex Caruso and DeMar DeRozan? Could they find a deal that will still allow them to keep DeRozan and Caruso so that they could stay in playoff contention? Or would they also need to sacrifice DeRozan’s efficient scoring and leadership? Would they have to lose Caruso’s defense and developing 3-point shot? Or both?
If they trade LaVine, the Bulls may just decide to go on a long-term rebuild.
Related: Golden State Warriors linked to Zach LaVine in NBA trade rumors
Zach LaVine question for Chicago Bulls ahead of NBA trade deadline
“A lot of people who say that or suggest that really don’t understand basketball at all, in my opinion,” DeRozan told me before the 2023-24 season. “You can think that’s an answer or that’s a route. But there’s no telling how long that route is going to even last. That route doesn’t necessarily always work in a timely fashion that you may think it will take. With that, it’s hard to find and create talented players like the players that we already have assembled.”
Fair point. No one can really duplicate Caruso, who ranks second in NBA in deflections (3.3) and has averaged career-highs in points (10.1), field-goal percentage (10.1) and 3-point shooting (41.5%) during his seventh NBA season. No one can emulate DeRozan, who has led the Bulls with 20-point performances in 31 games and has stayed consistent as an efficient scorer and supportive teammate.
In his fifth season, Bulls point guard Coby White has averaged career-highs in points (18.8), shooting (45.7%) and assists (5.0) while logging double-digit performances in 34 consecutive contests. Though Bulls center Nikola Vučević has struggled defensively against other NBA big men, he has still averaged 16.9 points and 10.5 rebounds. Amid all the roster imperfections, the Bulls remain competitive by ranking third for fewest turnovers per game (12.3), sixth in steals (364) and fifth in points off turnovers per game (17.5).
It hardly seems as if the Bulls plays as if they feel paralyzed or stressed about the roster uncertainty entering the trade deadline.
“We’ve been great. The only time you hear it is from guys in the media,” DeRozan said. “But other than that, we just go out there and play for one another and try to make it fun. Try to compete and try to give ourselves a chance every single night.”
Unfortunately for the Bulls, that hasn’t given them enough of a chance to win consistently. With the Toronto, Philadelphia, Indiana, Miami, New York, Charlotte and Washington already making deals, perhaps the Bulls follow suit. It doesn’t help that LaVine has nursed various injuries, which further complicates the Bulls’ feelings on whether they should trade him and at what price.
“It’s been really hard for him to catch a rhythm here for several weeks,” Donovan said of LaVine. “I think he wants to play. He loves playing. I think it’s frustrating for him that he can’t play.”
Mark Medina is an NBA insider for Sportsnaut. Follow him on X, Instagram, Facebook and Threads.