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The final member of the current Bulls’ Big 3 to pop up in trade scuttle this week was Zach LaVine.
As we showed above, LaVine was the player to disagree with the assessment that the Bulls had a players-only meeting after the first game. He also disagreed with the local media who asked him about his defensive lapses in a recent loss for Chicago, showing how tenuous and tense the situation appears to be for the Bulls right now:
No one expects LaVine to be a lockdown defender. He’s made tremendous improvements at that end and has long been an underrated man defender. Consistency and off-ball focus have been his bigger issues. LaVine has frequently talked about becoming the best player he can be, a version universally viewed as a well-rounded superstar rather than a splendid scorer. To get there, he must avoid finishes like Friday. Multiple defensive mistakes in a late-game moment can’t happen. showing how tenuous and tense the situation appears to be for the Bulls right now. “I didn’t think they were lapses,” he said. “We’re all out there playing hard. You go for the steal. The ball gets tipped back out. A guy goes in the lane, gets a charge call that didn’t get called. And then it gets kicked back out to another person. I thought we were doing good rotations. “And then Bridges made a good move on the baseline. That’s basketball. I don’t think they’re defensive lapses. It’s basketball.”
LaVine recently discussed how the Bulls want things to get better now before they fall too down a hole and see their season end by the trade deadline:
They’re not imploding or fracturing, but it seems they’re approaching a critical point if things don’t improve. “I don’t think we’re at a crossroads, you never want to put something out there too early,” LaVine told Yahoo Sports. “But you don’t want to put yourself in a hole where you’re fighting back and behind the eight ball. One game isn’t gonna kill your season, but you don’t want that to snowball. Let’s try to nip this in the bud before it gets bad.”
Regardless, according to a local Chicago reporter, LaVine is not at risk of being traded “anytime soon”:
According to a source close to the situation, the Bulls have no intention of trading LaVine anytime soon, and even if that changes — a big if — it’s unlikely that the 76ers fit the profile of what the Bulls would be looking for in return. But this is the space the Bulls and coach Billy Donovan will have to work in this season, courtesy of the front office’s decision to bring the core of the roster back, despite two-plus years of underachieving.
We’ll see if that changes if the team continues on its current 28.6 percent win percentage rate.
For more on the Zach LaVine trade rumors, click here.
