Bulls guard Zach LaVine knew the subject was going to come up Thursday. Last month, he and his representation let it be known he’s all in on being traded, and now he has an injured right foot that was supposed to sideline him for only a week before the time frame was stretched Wednesday to three weeks to a month.
“This has nothing to do with anything off the court — and everything off the court is still very much speculation,” LaVine told reporters. “It’s funny to me to see all the narratives that people run with. I deal with it internally. I go out there and put my heart on for Chicago whenever I put that jersey on. When I get back out there, I’ll continue to do that.”
He just couldn’t say when.
“I was trying to play [Wednesday] or Friday, but ramping it up, [the foot] didn’t respond well,” LaVine said. “Now they’re looking at more of a set date of letting it rest. We don’t want to get to a point or a threshold [where] it’s unbearable.”
But how dark is this latest cloud, really? The Bulls have won three straight games with LaVine in street clothes and are
14-10 without him since their “Big Three” of LaVine, center Nikola Vucevic and forward DeMar DeRozan came together in 2021. That’s not a lot of bang for their buck for a player with a maximum contract.
“I’m happy for the team,” LaVine said. “If I’m not happy for the team, that would be saying something about me. I’m the first guy out there — however you’ve got to get a win, get a win. We’re in a spot where, early, we weren’t looking very good. And whatever may have sparked it — if it was me off the court and that’s a narrative that people want to run with it — we’ve [now] won three games. I’m happy for it. Me off the court, on the court, hopefully I can get this foot right to get back out there and help my guys.”
The bigger objective is making sure he’s fully healed to play his best ball as trade talks heat up ahead of the Feb. 8 deadline. There’s currently not much of a market for LaVine, but that could change Dec. 15, when a majority of players who signed offseason deals become eligible to be moved, followed by the rest on Jan. 15.
Expect the Bulls to be patient in moving LaVine, with executive vice president of basketball operations Arturas Karnisovas trying to reload on the fly rather than attempt a full rebuild. A source reiterated that Karnisovas has no intention of making calls about trading DeRozan or guard Alex Caruso at this time, only taking them. The immediate plan, rather, is to move LaVine and see what the team looks like with a 1-2 punch of DeRozan and Vucevic, plus whomever they receive in return.
While the Bulls have faltered in the standings so far at 8-14, they have been among the NBA leaders in drama this season, thanks to trade rumors centered on LaVine, who has looked like more of an enigma from game to game than a two-time All-Star. Even before the injury, LaVine was averaging 21 points per game, his lowest since the 2017-18 season, when he returned from surgery on his anterior cruciate ligament and was shooting just 44.3% from the field and a career-low 33.6% from three-point range.
In a 10-year career, LaVine has shown he’s an elite performer. That’s all well and good, but competitors, not performers, win championships and are in the postseason year after year. And that’s where he has fallen short, with just one playoff series in a decade — the Bulls’ first-round loss to the Bucks in 2022.
