On paper it fits.
The Bulls send Zach LaVine to Brooklyn and in return get back Ben Simmons in the final year of his deal. One headache for another.
But then there’s the reality of the situation.
The Nets can’t wait to get off of the Simmons contract at the end of the season and are also rumored to be putting the likes of Cameron Johnson, Bojan Bogdanovic and Dorian Finney-Smith on the block, looking to strip down and be the frontrunners for the “Capture the Cooper Flagg Lottery Sweepstakes.”
Fine, there’s the Los Angeles Clippers, moving into a new billion-dollar arena and missing some star power with Paul George fleeing to Philadelphia in free agency.
LaVine turned Hollywood a few years ago anyway, so why not send him there for Norman Powell, Ivica Zubac and P.J. Tucker? The money works, but the reality of it doesn’t. Now, if the often-injured Kawhi Leonard does what he seemingly does best the last few seasons – miss games – then the two teams can talk. But as currently constructed it makes no sense for the Clippers to pursue LaVine after they decided not to pursue him this last offseason.
Therein lies the on-going dilemma for Bulls executive vice president of basketball operations Arturas Karnisovas. LaVine only becomes a moveable piece if there is a key injury or need which causes a market shift. Because as of this preseason the only noise surrounding a LaVine deal are crickets.
The good news is LaVine came into fall camp with a positive attitude, almost accepting the idea that he still had to bide his time as a Bulls, reestablish his place in the NBA hierarchy, and then see what his value looks like. He made it very clear that negativity would not be a space he would dwell in.
“There were a lot of thoughts and rumors and opinions about me, about the organization, so just know that whenever it needs to come from me or them, you’ll know it will be from them,” LaVine said. “Everything else you can take with a grain of salt with false narratives or whatever it may be.”
And now with over a week of practice and his first preseason game under his belt, so far it wasn’t just words from LaVine.
According to head coach Billy Donovan, a healthy LaVine has been a happy one.
“I think he’s practiced really well,” Donovan said. “I don’t think I can say that the last couple years and I don’t think it was him necessarily because of him not wanting to practice well. I think a lot of times he was coming out of injury. Seeing him in September and some of this August, I felt like this is about as good as I’ve seen him physically in a couple years.”
While he wasn’t exactly lights out in the preseason win over the Cavs on Tuesday, none of the starters really were. LaVine put in 18 minutes of work, finishing with seven points on 3-of-8 shooting.
The real test for LaVine is when the games actually count, and the rest of the league is watching to see if it’s the underwhelming LaVine from the previous two years or the two-time All-Star?
Donovan was betting on the latter.
“He’s never made any comment to me like, ‘Listen, I’m going to show everybody,’ “ Donovan said. “He’s always been really good with his teammates as far as the relationship piece, but I see him really helping the team, helping the group. Certainly, from a pride standpoint, as much as he invests into it, yeah, I think he wants to reestablish himself. I don’t see anything wrong with that, but I don’t sense he’s trying to do that at the expense of, ‘Hey, I’m just worried about what’s on the back of the jersey and forget Bulls right now.’
“He’s a prideful guy and he’s worked hard.”