According to reports, the Lakers are interested in Alex Caruso and DeMar DeRozan in addition to Zach LaVine of the Bulls.
Zach LaVine may not have much time left with the Chicago Bulls, and the Los Angeles Lakers are one team that stands to gain from his departure.
LaVine wouldn’t necessarily be Los Angeles’ top target, though, if the Bulls—who are currently 4-8 following a 96-94 loss to the Orlando Magic on Wednesday—decide to completely overhaul their squad.
According to The Athletic’s Jovan Buha, their interest in LaVine is “real,” but they are also reportedly considering DeMar DeRozan and Alex Caruso.
Here are some warnings before you begin creating fictitious trades:
It’s not clear that Chicago is headed toward a fire sale, and it’s not clear what exactly it is looking for in a LaVine trade.
It hasn’t signed the 34-year-old DeRozan to an extension, but it just did extend 33-year-old center Nikola Vucevic through the 2025-26 season. The front office could be looking to remain competitive, even after trading LaVine.
DeRozan is on a $28.6 million expiring contract, but the Lakers — or any potential suitor — must account for the cost of re-signing him in the offseason.
If Caruso is made available, expect something of a bidding war.
He’s underpaid $9.5 million this season, $9.9 million next and, since he is one of the best defenders in the league and doesn’t need the ball, every contender could use him.
Low-usage, low-maintenance, high-impact role players are hard to find.
Los Angeles is not in a position to make a big trade right now.
Most 2023 free agents aren’t eligible to be traded until Dec. 15, and the Lakers’ D’Angelo Russell, Taurean Prince, Cam Reddish, Gabe Vincent, Christian Wood and Jaxson Hayes are all on that list. Rui Hachimura and Austin Reaves, meanwhile, can’t be traded until Jan. 15.
(If a player re-signs with his previous team for more than the minimum, with a raise of at least 20%, then his can’t-be-traded window is longer.)
If the Bulls haven’t traded LaVine by January, and if they’re prepared to pivot to a rebuild, then there could theoretically be a deal to be done with Los Angeles.
In a Lakers fan’s dream scenario, they’d acquire both DeRozan and Caruso for a package built around Russell, Hachimura and draft capital (i.e. an unprotected 2029 or 2030 first-round pick, plus swaps and second-rounders).
That same framework is possible with LaVine in DeRozan’s place, but, since LaVine’s salary is about $11.5 million more than DeRozan’s, it would be more complicated (and likely have to include Vincent’s $10.5 million salary).
Blockbuster trades are always complicated, though, and, because Los Angeles’ is less than $5 million from the hard cap, any trade it makes will be particularly tricky.
All of this is to imply that the Lakers need to focus on winning now because they have a soon-to-be 39-year-old player in LeBron James, and they should never have let Caruso leave in the first place.
They’ve been connected to DeRozan and LaVine before, so it makes natural that they’d be keeping an eye on the Bulls’ probable collapse.
But it’s a long way between them expressing “interest” in these players to actually closing a transaction.
And for a while, they are unable to even start to cross it.
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