A pair of former UCLA Bruins guards, to whom the Chicago Bulls have $64.4 million in salary committed, played a combined 25 healthy games last season — and that was all from just one of them.
Straight from the “no duh” files, Chris Haynes of Bleacher Report reveals that the Bulls are looking to flip former 2016-17 Bruins point guard Lonzo Ball, as well as ex-2013-14 UCLA shooting guard Zach LaVine.
“Chicago has not opened up dialogue with [unrestricted free agent swingman] DeMar DeRozan because they want to get rid of the [contracts] of Zach LaVine and Lonzo Ball, so that is their focus,” Haynes revealed. “They’re willing to talk to DeMar if they get rid of those contracts. But time is on DeMar’s side. He doesn’t have to wait anymore. So that tells me that the DeMar DeRozan era in Chicago is officially over.”
Ball hasn’t been healthy since January 2022. After signing a four-year, $80 million contract with Chicago in the summer of 2021, he has appeared in all of 35 games for the Bulls. The team could have waived him years ago and looked to improve its roster when it was actually trying to win or at least make the playoffs (which it did in just one of three seasons since it’s been paying him), but to trade him now would, frankly, cost Chicago draft picks. This Bulls team is headed for the lottery. It needs to accrue future equity, not lose it.
LaVine has done a whole lot more than Ball with the Bulls, having made a pair of All-Star teams and emerging as a high-level offensive threat. He has undergone a few surgeries himself and is owed big money ($139 million) over the next three years, which appears to have given rival teams pause when it comes to acquiring him via trade.
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