Chicago Bulls Acquire Ex-Rookie of the Year Winner in Wild Zach LaVine Trade Proposal

Chicago Bulls Star Shooting Guard Zach LaVine to the Brooklyn Nets?

In a trade proposal from Grant Hughes of Bleacher Report, the Bulls would send LaVine and the expensive years remaining on his current deal to the Brooklyn Nets in exchange for ” Ben Simmons, a 2027 first-round pick (via PHI; top-8 protected) and a 2027 first-round pick (via PHX; lottery protected).”

The Nets gave control of their first-round picks to the Houston Rockets through 2027 in the James Harden trade, which means bottoming out won’t pay off for them like it would for other teams.

That makes Brooklyn a reasonable landing spot for LaVine who, if healthy after a season almost totally lost to an ankle injury, could provide high-level scoring to a team that needs it. At the very least, he’ll be more helpful than Simmons, who’s played 57 games across the last three seasons and currently owns perhaps the worst dollar-to-production ratio in the league.

Chicago can onboard his expiring $40.3 million contract with a couple of protected picks attached and bask in its newfound optionality. This assumes the Bulls will also deal away Nikola Vučević, Alex Caruso and anything else that isn’t bolted down or named Coby White.

LaVine has two more years on his deal before a player option could kick in for the 2026-27 NBA season.

Simmons, the former NBA Rookie of the Year, won’t come cheap as he is going to earn $40.3 million next season, but that nicely balances things out with the outgoing salary of LaVine. And more importantly, Simmons will be a free agent by the end of the 2024-25 campaign. Simmons may be beyond repair at this point in his career, but all the Bulls need is to be patient with him for a year and be done with him. They could also use him as a trade asset before the next deadline.

In seven seasons with the Bulls, the 29-year-old LaVine has averaged 24.2 points, 4.7 rebounds, and 4.3 assists while shooting 47.1 percent from the field through 374 games.