Chicago Bulls: Winners and losers of the Zach LaVine deal

Winner: Zach LaVine (who else?)

This should come as no surprise. While this doesn’t even remotely resemble the restricted free agency frenzy from summers ago, it surely acts as a reminder.

Love it, hate it, whatever. LaVine is the clearest and most obvious winner in this entire deal. Bulls fans will probably curse the Sacramento Kings for cornering GarPax into matching what may be a very risky deal. As far as Zach is concerned, he probably got the money he wanted.

Maybe even more.

Smart money (no pun intended) says that the Bulls weren’t offering him $19.5 million annually. Whether the recent rumblings over the team not being so high on him as they once were a year ago played into that is up for debate. LaVine and his agent likely knew the only way he’d be in Chicago at the price tag of his preference

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If we want to split hairs over it, the one negative might be that he now faces a little bit of pressure to make good on the deal. The potential for him to do so is there for sure. It will be interesting to see how LaVine responds to signing the lucrative contract.

The other side of the coin could be disastrous.