Bulls’ Zach LaVine in ‘Preliminary Discussions’ for Blazers Trade

The Portland Trail Blazers are the first of many dominoes in the trade landscape in the NBA.

With Damian Lillard requesting a trade last week, many are figuring out how to get in on the conversation.

NBC Sports Chicago insider K.C. Johnson reports that LaVine is in talks for a potential trade to the Philadelphia 76ers or Blazers.

The LaVine trade chatter isn’t going away. In fact, league sources said that LaVine has landed in preliminary conversations with both the Philadelphia 76ers and Portland Trail Blazers, who are working with James Harden and Damian Lillard, respectively, to find them new homes.

Neither Harden nor Lillard want to end up with the Chicago Bulls, so they would act as a potential third team in a trade scenario.

In the Blazers’ case, Portland would trade Lillard likely to the Miami Heat, while the Bulls would get a package centered around Tyler Herro. That would leave the Blazers to acquire LaVine as the key piece in a Lillard deal.

LaVine, 28, averaged 24.8 points per game this past season with the Bulls. He made the All-Star Game in 2021 and 2022 but narrowly missed out this past year.

He’s scheduled to make $40 million this season, $43 million in 2024-25 and $45 million in 2025-26, the final year before he can opt out of a $48 million contract.

The money is similar to Lillard and he’s slightly younger, but also not as good. That being said, he would be another scoring option outside of Anfernee Simons, Scoot Henderson and Shaedon Sharpe in the backcourt.

The caveat for LaVine coming to the Bulls is that he may roadblock Simons or Sharpe in the starting lineup, but if the Blazers found a deal for Ant, who was on the trade block earlier this summer, Portland could land a former All-Star in its trade for Lillard.