The biggest name available on the trade market this offseason is New Orleans Pelicans star Anthony Davis. The Pelicans won the No. 1 overall pick in the 2019 NBA Draft and are expected to take phenom Zion Williamson.
Pairing Williamson with Davis would be ideal for the franchise but AD has made it clear over the past year that he doesn’t want to be in New Orleans, forcing the Pelicans’ hand in making a trade.
As the Toronto Raptors and Golden State Warriors play Game 6 tonight and the 2018-19 NBA season winding down, the big news has been the Los Angeles Lakers and Boston Celtics being in talks with New Orleans regarding Davis. The Lakers appear to be the team most interested in trading for Davis but are looking for a third team to make things work.
That third team could very well be the Chicago Bulls, who have been linked to Lakers’ point guard Lonzo Ball already. On Wednesday, rumors started to flare up regarding the Bulls being the third team in the deal and Zach LaVine’s name was dropped.
ESPN’s Zach Lowe discussed the potential of a three-team trade on a podcast with Howard Beck and said:
“young-ish good players available for #4 (from Lakers to send to Pelicans for AD)…the first name I thought of was Zach LaVine. Because I think the Bulls might do that”
That’s interesting to hear from someone who is pretty plugged in with the NBA. The stem for a Bulls trade keeps picking up and although Lowe is the one who has brought up LaVine’s name, K.C. Johnson of the Chicago Tribune hinted that the Bulls might be making a big trade:
“My sense is that they are really trying to make a trade. They have been quieter than even they usually are this time of year. I personally think they are going to make a trade.”
On Thursday morning, Brandon Robinson threw out this scenario with the Bulls being the mystery third team:
LaVine has spent the past two seasons in Chicago after being acquired in the 2017 Draft Day trade for Jimmy Butler. In those two seasons he has played in 87 games for the Bulls, averaging 21.8 points, 4.5 rebounds and 4.1 assists.
These rumors come just after The Athletic’s Darnell Mayberry reporting that the Bulls are open to trading anyone and anything not named Lauri Markkanen or Wendell Carter Jr. which includes the No. 7 overall pick.
You can read Mayberry’s story on that here.
With the Bulls appearing to be heavily interested in making a trade, things are going to get interesting leading up to the 2019 NBA Draft at the end of the month.
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