“League gossip” at this week’s NBA Draft Combine in Chicago suggests so Zach Lavine return to cops Becoming an unrestricted free agent this summer is no longer considered a foregone conclusion, writes NBC Sports Chicago’s KC Johnson. The two-time All-Star was linked to the lakers, Trailblazer, outsider and hawks at the combine harvester, with more applicants likely to follow, according to Johnson.
Marc Stein has heard similar things, writing in his latest Substack article that “there’s a lot more hope circulating than expected” that the Star Wing could be persuaded to join a rival team in free hands.
The 27-year-old is expected to undergo relatively minor knee surgery early next week, but that won’t deter interest in LaVine’s free agency, according to Johnson Relays. Some rival executives believe Chicago may be reluctant to offer LaVine a full maximum contract — the Bulls can likely give him $212.3 million over five years, while every other team is on a maximum offer of $157.4 million would be limited to four years.
The Bulls have expressed a public desire to keep LaVine long-term, and he said he’s pleased with the moves the team took last offseason (separate sign-and-trades for Lonzo ball and DeMar DeRozanand sign Alex Caruso), taking the club to the playoffs for the first time since 2016/17.
“It just goes to show that they (the Bulls front office) were ready to win. Obviously, in my first few years here, it was hard to have that feeling. This year has been incredible,” LaVine said in late April, per Johnson. “You have to take everything into account. And of course the team that we have here is something that you have to think about how good we were last year and how it goes on.”
The Lakers, Mavs and Hawks currently don’t have the cap to sign LaVine directly — they’d have to do a sign-and-trade to acquire him, which is a lot more complicated. And while the Blazers can technically clear enough space to sign him, they would need to make multiple moves first.
Ultimately, Johnson believes a return to the Bulls is still the most likely outcome — assuming that’s what LaVine wants.