It has been a while since the Chicago Bulls tasted success in the NBA. They have missed the NBA Playoffs in the last two seasons. Although they have Zach LaVine and Nikola Vucevic still on the roaster, it doesn’t seem at the moment that they can be a serious NBA championship contender. That is also why there will always be constant chatter about the Bulls trading LaVine to a big-market team, like, say, the Los Angeles Lakers.
As the most popular NBA franchise, the Lakers will always get linked to big-name players in trade and free agency speculations. That kind of noise can get even more intense when the team isn’t satisfying a fanbase that’s constantly hungry for an NBA championship.
Will a Chicago Bulls-Los Angeles Lakers trade happen within the 2024-25 NBA season?
According to Andy Bailey of Bleacher Report, if the Lakers’ play becomes subpar in the coming 2024-25 NBA season, there can be a need for the team to go all out on the negotiation table and give up a player like Rui Hachimura in order to get an asset like Zach LaVine.
If L.A. struggles to play like a title contender for the fifth year in a row, it might get desperate to live up to those expectations and start looking at trade targets like Zach LaVine (who’s been a rumored potential target for months).
Assuming that happens, the Chicago Bulls would probably push someone like Austin Reaves, but listing him here might take us beyond “ambitious” and into “unrealistic.”
Rui Hachimura is more gettable, is still only 26 years old and would give Chicago’s new playmaker, Josh Giddey, a good target on offense.
Hachimura signed a three-year deal with the Lakers last year for $51 million. That deal will not expire until the end of the 2025-26 campaign. Meanwhile, LaVine, who’s battled injury woes, has two more sure seasons in his five-year contract worth $215.16 million he signed with the Bulls in 2022. He also has a player option worth $48.967 million for the 2026-27 campaign.
