Chicago Bulls: Why the team shouldn’t trade Zach LaVine

Reason #1: Why would the Bulls trade LaVine during a hot streak?

I know this question doesn’t exactly seem like an argument against trading LaVine. I’ve seen some Bulls analysts online saying that the ideal time to trade LaVine would be during a time where he’s making impressive plays and filling out the stat sheet.

There’s no question he’s doing that right now in the course of this season. During Monday’s overtime win against the Indiana Pacers, LaVine hit an absolutely ridiculous stepback three-pointer to give the Bulls a lead with less than 30 seconds left.

Although we’re not quite halfway through the season yet, LaVine is currently sixth in scoring in the entire NBA averaging 28.2 points per game. If he continues on that pace, not only should he be an All-Star Game starter, but he’ll get a lot more eyes on him around the NBA.

The one hurdle the Bulls could face is if LaVine wants a large raise when his contract’s up after next season. That would provide the strongest argument for trading LaVine if the financials were just too much for the team to build around.

The Bulls would be able to offer LaVine up to $190 million over five-years when his contract is up, in what’s known as the “Supermax” contract. However, there are still contractual reasons for the Bulls to wait on a LaVine trade now and see how the market shakes out this season.