Zach LaVine knew it was going to come up.
How could it not?
After all, last month he and his representation let it be known that they were all in on being traded by the Bulls, and now he has a right foot injury that was supposed to sideline him for a week but on Wednesday was stretched out to three weeks to a month.
“This has nothing to do with anything off the court and everything off the court is still very much speculation,” LaVine said to reporters on Thursday. “It’s funny to me to see all the narratives that people run with. I deal with it internally. I go out there and put my heart on for Chicago whenever I put that jersey on. When I get back out there, I’ll continue to do that.”
He just couldn’t say when.
“I was trying to play (Wednesday) or Friday, but ramping it up it didn’t respond well,” LaVine said. “Now they’re looking at more of a set date of letting it rest … we don’t want to get to a point or a threshold of its unbearable.”
But how dark is this latest cloud really?
The Bulls have won three straight with LaVine in street clothes, and were 14-10 with him out of the lineup since their version of the “Big Three” – LaVine, Nikola Vucevic and DeMar DeRozan – came together prior to the 2021-22 season.
Not exactly bang for the buck for the max contract player.
“I’m happy for the team,” LaVine said. “If I’m not happy for the team, that would be saying something about me. I’m the first guy out there, however you gotta get a win, get a win. We’re in a spot where early we weren’t looking very good. And whatever may have sparked it, if it was me off the court and that’s a narrative that people want to run with it, we’ve won three games. I’m happy for it. Me off the court, on the court, hopefully I can get this foot right to get back out there and help my guys.”
The bigger picture, however, is making sure LaVine is fully healed and playing his best basketball as trade talks heat up going into the Feb. 8 deadline.
Multiple reports – including the Sun-Times – indicated there was no current market for LaVine. That could change on Dec. 15 when a majority of the players that signed offseason deals become eligible to be moved. The rest will become eligible on Jan. 15.
Expect the Bulls to be patient in moving LaVine, with executive vice president of basketball operations Arturas Karnisovas trying to reload on the fly rather than a full rebuild.
A source reiterated that Karnisovas has no intention of making calls for the likes of DeRozan or Alex Caruso at this time, only taking them, with the immediate plan to move LaVine and see what the product looks like with the one-two punch of DeRozan and Vucevic, as well as whatever they receive in return in the deal.
While the Bulls have come up short in the standings (8-14) so far this season, they’ve been among the league leaders in drama thanks to the trade rumors.
Strange timing, especially for a player that was more enigma from game-to-game than two-time All-Star. Even before he was shut down, LaVine was averaging 21 points per game – his lowest average since the 2017-18 season in which he was returning from anterior cruciate ligament surgery, was shooting just 44.3% from the field and a career-low 33.6% from three-point range.
What LaVine has definitely shown in his 10-year career is he’s one of the league’s elite performers. All well and good, but competitors win championships and are in the postseason year after year, not performers.
That’s where he’s still fallen short.
Just one playoff run in that decade of work, and it was a quick one at that, ended by Milwaukee in 2022 in a Round 1 gentleman’s sweep.
