Chicago Bulls: These 3 are now under pressure after Mitchell trade

2. Zach LaVine

For the Chicago Bulls to become contenders, Zach LaVine needs to be elite.

The 215 million dollar man himself, Zach LaVine is another player under a lot of pressure going into this upcoming season, especially in light of the Donovan Mitchell trade.

The Chicago Bulls, by extending Zach, are trusting him to be the bridge between their current big 3 of him, DeMar, and Vooch, and the big 3 of tomorrow featuring him, Patrick Williams (we hope), and likely Ayo Dosunmu.

With the eastern conference becoming more stacked every day, having star power is crucial. Zach LaVine is without a doubt a star, as evidenced by his back-to-back all-star nods. However, now it’s time to see him take the next step.

In 2022, Zach has to get back to the defensive prowess he showed on the Olympic team and also stay healthy (which I get is totally out of his control). If he does these things and trends towards being an All-NBA level player, the Chicago Bulls can rest easy that their play is working to fruition.

As now the unquestioned face of the franchise and bridge to the future, there’s a lot of pressure on Zach to show that he was worth the investment of not only this max contract but also the investment of bringing in other star players like DeMar and Vucevic to make a playoff push.

As he’s only 27, I think Zach is nowhere close to how good he can be as a player and that sparks optimism and excitement to see where his game goes from here.

However, make no mistake about it, with that contract in hand, the expectations for him to consistently perform on both ends of the floor have risen.