3 reasons the Chicago Bulls should let Zach LaVine walk

Bulls need to exercise fiscal responsibility

The Bulls have taken a surprisingly smart approach to free agency recently. In a weak Eastern Conference, it might be tempting to aggressively pursue free agents to try to compete. For a while, it seemed the Bulls might go that route. For a few years, they were just good enough to be in the playoff hunt but bad enough that they had no legitimate shot of getting past the first round.

All this approach does is delay the inevitable. It’s like putting a band-aid on a hatchet wound. It also ensures that you are continually drafting in the middle-to-late first round where chances of landing a franchise player are slimmer.

However, the Bulls have seemed to embrace the idea of a full rebuild the last couple of years. As Mark Schanowski of NBCSportsChicago pointed out last summer, the Bulls refrained from going after any big-ticket free agents in 2016. The goal was to maintain some financial flexibility for the monster free agent class in 2018.

Now, with a young duo of Kris Dunn and Lauri Markkanen, and a top-10 draft pick this year, the Bulls should have a dynamic young nucleus. Therefore, they can begin to add some free agent pieces to balance out this roster and start to make it competitive. In every rebuild there’s a transition point when youth merges with experience and the team takes the next step in learning how to win. This is that time for the Bulls.

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The only way they could screw this up is by signing LaVine to anything close to a max deal. Committing a substantial portion of your salary cap to a player who has played in 71 games in the last two seasons is risky. It’s even riskier considering LaVine’s skill set. If the team is able to sign him to a very “team-friendly” deal, then maybe they consider it. But this idea of matching “any offer” is ludicrous, especially if it significantly limits what they can do in free agency in the future.