After a full year of Zach LaVine rumors percolating, his time with the Chicago Bulls has finally come to an end.

According to ESPN’s Shams Charania, the Chicago Bulls have traded LaVine to the Sacramento Kings in a three-team deal with the San Antonio Spurs for Kevin Huerter, Zach Collins and Tre Jones. Sacramento will also send De’Aaron Fox to the Spurs.

The deal will also return Chicago its 2025 top-10 protected pick from San Antonio, and it reunites LaVine with former Bull DeMar DeRozan.

LaVine’s Bulls tenure

The Bulls acquired LaVine in the 2017 draft-night deal that sent out Jimmy Butler to the Minnesota Timberwolves, along with Kris Dunn and the pick that became Lauri Markkanen.

Acquired at age 22, LaVine was rehabbing from an ACL injury during his first season. The Bulls signed him to a four-year, $78 million deal ahead of the 2018-19 season when he broke out averaging 23.7 points per game.

LaVine was the face of the Bulls franchise during some challenging rebuilding years, but his production speaks for itself. He averaged 24.2 points, 4.7 rebounds, and 4.3 assists per game over his Bulls tenure on an efficient 47.4 field goal percentage, 39.0 three-point percentage, and 83.4 free throw percentage.

The Bulls signed DeMar DeRozan, Alex Caruso and Lonzo Ball in 2021, at which point they made the Playoffs for the first and only time in LaVine’s career. Following that season, he signed a max contract worth $215 million.

After a challenging 2023-24 season, in which LaVine played only 25 games before requiring surgery, LaVine’s value hit rock bottom as the Bulls shopped him around the league.

This season, LaVine is playing his best basketball, and he has revamped his value and perception around the league. It’s been great to see the basketball ecosystem come back around on him after the narrative swung way too far in the wrong direction.

He leaves the Bulls third all-time in points per game behind only Michael Jordan and DeMar DeRozan. He is the franchise’s all-time leader in three-pointers made and sixth in total points. He did all of this in just over seven seasons and only 416 games (22nd most in franchise history). He was a two-time All-Star with the Bulls in 2021 and 2022.

Trade Analysis

Here’s how I’m thinking about every angle of the deal. 

Players

Kevin Huerter: At 26-years-old, Huerter is a movement shooter with size (6’7), who can space the floor, bend the defense with off-screen actions and thrive in the Bulls fast paced ecosystem. Huerter, however, has struggled shooting the ball over the last two seasons, shooting just 30 percent from three the season. The Bulls should look to rehab his value and trade him in another deal in the offseason.

Contract:

• 2024-25: $16.8M
• 2025-26: 17.9M

Zach Collins: The 6’11 big has playmaking and floor spacing in his past, but Collins has struggled mightily this year. Under contract at $18 million next season, he may be immovable unless he regains form from 2022-24 in San Antonio, when he averaged 11.4 points, 5.8 rebounds, 2.8 assists on 50 percent shooting and 34.5 percent three. But in 2024-25, he’s been quite bad dropping to 4.6 points and 2.8 rebounds on 46 percent shooting and 30 percent on threes. He’s another rehab project, though at age 27 with extensive injury history, he may just be dead weight.

Contract:

• 2024-25: 16.7M
• 2025-26: 18M

Tre Jones: Jones is the best player of the bunch — a steady table setting point guard, who also lacks upside beyond being a high-end backup. It will be interesting to see how he figures into the long term plans with so many guards still on the roster.

Contract

• 2024-25: $9M

Draft pick

Yes, it’s their own pick. But getting a first for LaVine, considering six months ago, they would have had to attach a pick to move him, is objectively positive. However, the Bulls seemed to value their own pick with more weight compared to a late, or protected first-round pick they may have been able to get in another deal. 

Generally speaking, there’s also value in owning all your assets and not being limited by assets you owe to other teams. But with the odds of them actually losing their pick being so low, it may have been better to focus on additional picks than their own.

Currently ninth in the tankathon standings, the Bulls only have a 3.1 percent chance to lose their pick. Without LaVine, they project to be even worse. So the risk of losing the pick this year was not that great, and thus, the value of regaining it, isn’t either. But with the pick protections dropping to top-eight in each of the next two seasons, the Bulls would have to be bottom-four to ensure keeping it. That’s a taller task, so there is value in regaining certainty as they enter this rebuild. 

The cynical perspective would be that reacquiring their own pick would now motive them to make a Play-In push in the East without fear of handing the 11th pick to the Spurs. The Bullsiest thing you could imagine. But there has been internal motivation to get out of the middle, and it appears they are finally making that acknowledgement. 

Cap flexibility

The Bulls aren’t done with this trade yet — they’ll need to create two roster spots before the deal becomes official. That means either waiving expiring contracts (two of Torrey Craig, Talen Horton-Tucker and Chris Duarte) or creating roster spots in another deal. 

The rest will depends on what happens prior to the February 6 trade deadline and this offseason. None of Huerter, Collins or Jones are future franchise cornerstones. The Bulls can look to flip them along with the rest of the players on their roster. But as it stands, they now go into next season with $10 million fewer dollars committed.

Given the lack of upside players and draft capital coming back in return for LaVine, this trade will be judged on what the Bulls do with their newfound cap flexibility. If they use it to double-down on the middle, shame on them. If they use to it take on bad contracts for draft picks, acquire distressed assets or rehabilitation projects to flip down the line, they’d be helping themselves build towards the future, which is what they absolutely must do.

Opportunity costs

It’s hard to know what the else was out there in exchange for LaVine at the deadline. I think I’d prefer the deal they got than Michael Porter Jr. and Zeke Nnaji or Bradley Beal and a pair of low-end first-round picks. The Bucks were rumored to be interested, but Khris Middleton, Bobby Portis and a first in 2031 is a ways away. What they did opens up more possibilities 

The real question is what they could have gotten for LaVine had they waited until the summer. Opposing teams are less restricted during the offseason and with only two years left, LaVine’s contract becomes much more palatable. Maybe they could have gotten more then, but it’s also possible (but doubtful), they would have lost their own pick had they kept him. 

The Bulls may have been able to do better had they waited, but there are no guarantees. There’s value in setting course, moving on and getting on the right path now, and that’s what they’ve done.

What’s next?

This trade should signal the beginning of a full-scale teardown, that has been long overdue. Despite their efforts to re-direct the franchise this summer, the Bulls are in the same place in the standings they have been the last two seasons. More drastic measures to reset were needed, and the Bulls finally made a deal that netted them positive return, and set them on the best course. 

Now that the Bulls have LaVine off their roster and all their picks, they must now prioritize acquiring ammunition for a rebuild. If they can get multiple first-round assets for Lonzo Ball, Nikola Vucevic, Coby, White, Ayo Dosunmu — anyone on the roster except for Matas Buzelis — they need to do that. This is a full-scale rebuild whether they use that verbiage or now. They need to lean into it.

Grade: B-

Not a great trade, but not a damaging one either, the lack of flashy assets in return for the Bulls best player is certainly disappointing. But all things considered, I seem to be slightly higher on this deal for the Bulls than consensus.

While I don’t think I value the Bulls 2025 pick as much as they do, regaining access to the top-eight protected pick in 2026 and 2027 is critical, as is the financial flexibility associated with getting off of money in 2025-26 and off the contract entirely in 2026-27. 

Ultimately, it’s less than I would have wanted for LaVine, but not by that much. They’ll be forced to leave some of the most of the analysis will hinge on what else they do prior to the deadline and how they utilize the cap room they’ve acquired. For now, it’s a lackluster trade that opens up doors they otherwise wouldn’t have had.

The Bulls have been so hamstrung by their cap situation and by having their pick out the door. They haven’t been able to formulate and execute on a new plan. Hopefully, this situation now gives them the chance to do so.