Brian Windhorst: I don’t think Zach LaVine wants to leave Chicago

Daniel Greenberg: “I don’t think Zach LaVine wants to leave, that’s not my read.” – @WindhorstESPN on the Chicago Bulls (Via The Hoop Collective Podcast)
Source: Twitter

What’s the buzz on Twitter?

Josh Martin @LonzoWire
Could the Mavericks try to team up Luka Doncic with Zach LaVine? lonzowire.usatoday.com/2022/05/31/rep… – 4:00 PM

Josh Martin @LonzoWire
Could the Mavericks try to team up Luka Doncic with Zach LaVine? lonzowire.usatoday.com/2022/05/31/rep… – 5:46 PM

David Locke @DLocke09
LOCKED ON JAZZ — Danny Ainge speaks on Boston, Was Rudy Gobert hurt? All in for Zach LaVine – lockedonjazz.net/jazz/danny-ain…
Premeires on @YouTube at 8:00 am – youtube.com/watch?v=Rp6iw2… – 9:57 AM

More on this storyline

As far as how this might work financially, that part gets a bit more tricky. Per our salary-cap expert Yossi Gozlan, the only real way for the Lakers to successfully sign-and-trade for Zach LaVine is if Russell Westbrook is included in the deal, or he is salary dumped beforehand. This is because sign-and-trading for a free agency like LaVine would subject the Lakers to the $156 million hard cap, which the Lakers would need to stay below with at least 14 players. By replacing Westbrook’s $47.1 million amount with LaVine’s projected $36.6 million starting salary, they can still fill out the rest of the roster around him, LeBron James, Anthony Davis, and the rest of the players currently under contract. -via HoopsHype / May 31, 2022

The only problem is that the Lakers would be limited to signing minimum players the rest of the way, meaning they’ll be looking at another season with 9-10 minimum players on the roster. It’s hard to see the Lakers being contenders with the majority of the roster being minimum players again. -via HoopsHype / May 31, 2022

For the Heat to make such an acquisition of Zach LaVine, Gozlan says Kyle Lowry would need to be involved: A sign-and-trade sending LaVine to Miami would very likely require Kyle Lowry to be included, because it will be nearly impossible to stay under the hard cap with him along with Jimmy Butler, Bam Adebayo, and LaVine all on max contracts. A package of two-to-three first round picks, along with Lowry and Tyler Herro to match salaries would probably be the framework of such a deal. Although they would be hard capped in this scenario, they’d still have enough flexibility to keep Duncan Robinson and their minimum studs, use the taxpayer mid-level exception, give PJ Tucker a $1.1 million raise, and only sign an additional 3-4 more minimum players afterward. -via HoopsHype / May 31, 2022