Bulls guard Alex Caruso knows how to maneuver through the drama of a soap opera. Spending four seasons playing for the Lakers taught him well.
So the reports of teammate Zach LaVine being open to jumping ship and going elsewhere — reports LaVine hasn’t exactly denied — didn’t faze Caruso in the least.
‘‘I don’t know if that’s necessarily the narrative about him not caring for us and not wanting to be here,’’ Caruso said when talking about the locker-room reaction to the news. ‘‘The reports are the reports, and that’s kind of the NBA-drama rumor mill that goes on every year and seems to follow the best players in the league wherever they go.
‘‘For us, it’s more focus on doing our jobs and trying to come out and play. Obviously, if we don’t play well, things don’t go well for the organization. So the big thing for us is to focus on how we can be a better team and win games so nothing happens.’’
That focus hasn’t manifested itself so far this season. The Bulls are 4-8 after their loss Wednesday to the Magic and are in 12th place in the Eastern Conference.
The unknown in all of this, however, remains whether the front office only would use LaVine as a trade chip to retool on the run or whether it would take other steps toward a second rebuild under executive vice president of basketball operations Arturas Karnisovas.
Karnisovas several times has insisted a rebuild isn’t on the table, including as late as early October. According to a source familiar with the situation, that hasn’t changed.
So if — which sounds more like when — the Bulls do trade LaVine, there might not be a long line of bodies following him out the door unless it’s all in one package.
Might Caruso be in that package, too? That’s always a possibility, but it’s very unlikely.
The Bulls were approached by a handful of teams about Caruso at the trade deadline last season and deemed him all but untouchable. That held up in the offseason, as well.
Caruso was a first-team All-Defensive selection last season, counts only $9.4 million against the salary cap this season (and $9.9 million next season) and, in the eyes of the organization, ‘‘is the culture.’’
Other teams have deemed the Bulls’ asking price for LaVine unreasonable to this point, so imagine what the asking price for a LaVine/Caruso package would be.
Either way, the head-scratcher in all this is the timing. It’s way too early in the season for teams to make a move for LaVine unless they have a headache of their own on their roster. With James Harden already traded to the Clippers that’s basically off the board.
That means waiting until mid-December or mid-January — when recently signed free agents can be traded — and then reassessing what’s available.
That also means the heat on the Bulls will be turned up with every loss they suffer until then. Is it because LaVine already feels like he’s out the door and doesn’t care anymore? Is the locker room divided and getting worse with each defeat? All of it comes into play with the timing of the news.
It falls on coach Billy Donovan and his staff to be dialed in to that and to make sure the Bulls don’t stay stuck in the mud because of the drama.
‘‘We’ll talk through things or whatever it may be,’’ Donovan said. ‘‘Everybody is trying to put their best foot forward to figure out how we can get better and improve.’’
