Bulls’ Zach LaVine of ‘little interest’ to Portland Trail Blazers
Recently, rumors regarding the Chicago Bulls‘ interest in Damian Lillard have surfaced. On September 19, Kyle Neubeck of PHLY_Sports reported that the Bulls were exploring potential three-team deals to bring Lillard to the windy city. The most likely trade candidate in those trade scenarios would be Zach LaVine.
However, any hope Bulls fans had of seeing LaVine make way for Lillard quickly received a dose of reality. According to K.C. Johnson of NBC Sports Chicago, the Portland Trail Blazers wouldn’t be interested in LaVine, as they aim to begin a roster rebuild around Scoot Henderson and Anfernee Simons.
“Multiple league sources indicated throughout the offseason that the Trail Blazers showed little interest in acquiring LaVine directly, mostly because he doesn’t match their rebuilding path and commitment to a young backcourt of Scoot Henderson and Anfernee Simons,” Johnson wrote.
LaVine, 28, is young enough to be considered a key player on a contending team but too old to be viewed as a building block for the future. Portland will likely want younger talents and a mountain of draft picks as they look to get the best deal possible for their superstar point guard.
That asking price will likely rule the Bulls out of the mix, at least in terms of being the team to acquire Lillard. Chicago could still look to enter a trade as the third team in the hope of acquiring some potential ‘win-now’ pieces to help get a deal over the line – however, that also seems unlikely at this point.
Unfortunately, the Bulls will need to look elsewhere if they’re attempting to re-tool their roster rather than enter a rebuild. And, given Lillard’s desire to move to a winning situation, Chicago likely never featured as a genuine threat to prise the veteran away from Portland.
