LaVine traded to the Kings as part of 3 team deal (Huerter, Tre Jones to Bulls)

[dougthonus]

Oh, don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying that AK has been good or even “okay” at his job. I’m just saying that I think he got this particular action right. Albeit a year too late.

Yeah, I think this was a good decision in a vacuum. We will see what other decisions are made this trade deadline and the off-season to see if the overall direction seems good or bad in a big picture sense.

I don't think AK has missed on every decision he has made (FWIW), there are some clear wins. I think the problem is he has not shown that holistically he knows what he is doing at a strategic level, and so he doesn't package his decisions into a cohesive strategy that he can execute on either due to the strategy being poorly thought out and unreasonable or because he's not consistently good enough at execution to pull it off (or unfortunately, my view is both, that he's generally deficient in both strategy and execution which doesn't mean 100% wrong in both areas but certainly below average in both).

[Ballerkingn23]

I just glad we can move on and hopefully trade Voch he needs to go, and or a few other minor players. Let's get this tank rolling and get us Cooper or Ace up on this squad. We need a influx of young talent and this draft class and the next are loaded. So let's get us 2 stars and be in a more competitive position in 3 years tops.

[MrSparkle]

Oh, don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying that AK has been good or even “okay” at his job. I’m just saying that I think he got this particular action right. Albeit a year too late.

Yeah, I think this was a good decision in a vacuum. We will see what other decisions are made this trade deadline and the off-season to see if the overall direction seems good or bad in a big picture sense.

I don't think AK has missed on every decision he has made (FWIW), there are some clear wins. I think the problem is he has not shown that holistically he knows what he is doing at a strategic level, and so he doesn't package his decisions into a cohesive strategy that he can execute on either due to the strategy being poorly thought out and unreasonable or because he's not consistently good enough at execution to pull it off (or unfortunately, my view is both, that he's generally deficient in both strategy and execution which doesn't mean 100% wrong in both areas but certainly below average in both).

I want Flag but I don’t think we’ll get him (probably looking at 4-7% odds on lotto day). The whole lottery looks promising, though. There should be 1 star prospect available on that Bulls board, even if they end at 10 or 11. Of course even more stressful/crucial is getting a 2-4 pick right in a deep draft. Wish I could say I’d trust them. 2 & 4 will the trickiest, as 3 will be a no-brainer Bailey/Harper left-over. I’d be very nervous about AKME taking the wrong guy at those 2 spots.

If Matas’ stalls and their rookie next year is another Pat Terry, then AK and ME’s NBA careers in high places will be over, regardless how long Reinsdorf wants to drag it out.

[League Circles]

Zach’s deal wasn’t bad in the sense that there are worse players making more than him. But it wasn’t conducive to a rebuild. We would have either been wasting him or wasting the money. Now, we don’t have to worry about doing either. As you can see here, I’m just trying to help you feel less nauseous about this.

Well, now we're slated to waste more money next year than we would have been. The 3 guys we got have zero value to us.

They could if they can be used to facilitate bigger trades that we can extract value from. Don’t know if that will happen. Bit either way, these guys all expire before Zach would have.

It's possible, though worth noting that Zach was probably 50/50 to opt out next summer anyway.

[DASMACKDOWN]

Oh, don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying that AK has been good or even “okay” at his job. I’m just saying that I think he got this particular action right. Albeit a year too late.

Yeah, I think this was a good decision in a vacuum. We will see what other decisions are made this trade deadline and the off-season to see if the overall direction seems good or bad in a big picture sense.

I don't think AK has missed on every decision he has made (FWIW), there are some clear wins. I think the problem is he has not shown that holistically he knows what he is doing at a strategic level, and so he doesn't package his decisions into a cohesive strategy that he can execute on either due to the strategy being poorly thought out and unreasonable or because he's not consistently good enough at execution to pull it off (or unfortunately, my view is both, that he's generally deficient in both strategy and execution which doesn't mean 100% wrong in both areas but certainly below average in both).

To me its more of first impressions. That buys you a lot in the league but it doesn't mean you are perfect. His first impression was big and bold albeit risky,30 games into it the next season, we thought high of AK. Till the wheels fell off. If no one got hurt, people would feel completely different about AKME.

I think of it like Nico Harrison(Mavs GM) but in reverse. Nico has had a roller coaster of bad to good, back to poor decisions back to amazing. And now this last decision has made everyone hate his guts. Probably forever.

So right now this is part 2 for AKME. How will he handle this next rebuild and what decisions will he make to makes us better for the long run.

[WesPeace]

It's actually alarming at how many people were delusional about LaVine's value.

I disagree.. from all the trades around the league,we saw worse players net more in trades! Also I think its overblown that his contract was that awful, because pretty average were getting 25-30M per year.. he is borderline all star, soo around 40M per for player like him aint horrible.

[othawhitemeat]

One thing to add that, given our very clearly incompetent FO, can’t be overlooked. Which is that they didn’t completely blow it and trade him for that Denver package or some other desperate package to try to stay in the “playoff picture.”

We dodged a bullet that AK is perfectly capable of firing. Thank god for that. When AK is your GM, “it could have been a lot worse” isn’t something to sneeze at. Because it really, really could have been.

Arturas Karsinovas: At least he’s not Nico Harrison.

LOL, I can't believe how bad he is. I long for the days of Pax without Gar. AKME has to be a top 3 worst GM in the game currently. I hope the Bulls fire the dude after the season so we draft the right player and right moves going forward.

Just to play devils advocate for a moment, AK put together a roster that he believed in and for a brief moment, it looked like it might work. I would imagine that as a GM, it could be hard to check out on that early even when people think you should. The most important thing is that he seems to have embraced the idea that what needs to be done needs to be done.

Sort of - I could understand a year, but we waited 3 years for Lonzo to return, lol, and to wait on the health of Lonzo is crazy. Pat Williams is a bust, and we literally have littered in mediocrity while our assets become untradeable. every move has sucked honestly.

[SfBull]

Trade grades:

Clutch Points

Simply put, this is a disappointing return for a 24-points per game scorer who’s bounced back from an injury-ravaged 2023-24 season. Perhaps this is more indicative of how LaVine’s trade value actually is when factoring in his huge contract. But the overall sense is that the Bulls have once again sold low on another one of their most valuable assets.

Bulls’ trade grade: D

SBNation

Spurs grade: A-
Kings grade: A

This is pretty poor value for LaVine. If Chicago played its cards right, they shouldn’t have been in jeopardy of losing their protected draft pick in the first place. The Bulls continue to be one of the most directionless organizations in the league. How long until Arturas Karnisovas is fired? He’s made too many mistakes to be trusted with Chicago’s next rebuild.

Bulls grade: C-

Sporting News

Kings grade: B+
Spurs grade: B

This isn't great value for LaVine, but it's what the market said was out there. There is an alternate universe where they waited until the summer to trade him, got a significantly better offer, and were still bad enough to not have to give their pick away to the Spurs in 2026 or 2027 when it was top-eight protected.

That path would also have resulted in getting their pick back from the Spurs, and they wouldn't have had to move LaVine for peanuts in order to do it. That's the way I would've gone, and it's what I suggested previously.

If the Bulls continue to sell off their players, which they very well may do, then this starts to look better. It also looks fantastic if it does end up with them winning the lottery. If we're basing this on process rather than results, then it's an uninspiring return.

Bulls grade: C

For The Win

Spurs: Grade: A
Kings: Grade: D+

But they essentially netted zero first-round picks for LaVine after also not returning any draft picks for Alex Caruso this past offseason either.

We can expect that Chicago could continue to make moves to continue its potential rebuild, likely including trading away notable players like Nikola Vucevic and perhaps Lonzo Ball.

Grade: D-

Kevin O'Connor:

The Bulls got such a terrible return for Zach LaVine. Horrific. Don’t care how overpaid he is, he’s have an excellent year once again. Elite shooter, dynamic shot-creator with All-Star caliber numbers. Besides the year he missed 57 games he’s been great in 4 of the last 5 years.

Collectively, nobody thought this was a good trade for Chicago.

That's it.Posters are trying to rationalize the trade but it was simply a very bad trade made again by a very bad FO.
Just it.

[Jcool0]

Read on Twitter

[MrSparkle]

TBF, the trade is both rational and bad. I think I'm OKAY with a D-grade trade at this point.

The parts in/out are bad.
Securing our next 2 lotto picks and cap space in 2026 are good.

No different than the Demar trade. That was a horrible trade, which was rational.

I'd rate the Caruso trade as a C+ , yet despite being a better "value" trade (arguably) by getting some form of (limited) talent in Giddey, it will probably end up not being as productive/positive as the Zach trade, in the 2-3 year scape.

2 years ago, AKME could've really turned the team around and had us in a promising situation today. He preached continuity with a trio that my mom could tell was a broken concept (Zach-Vuc-Demar). 3y of keeping an aging $100M trio with the same coach together, which averaged a net-negative line-up rating! And the Lonzo injury severity was very apparent in the 2nd year of his contract. The times to act were 2022, 23 and even 24. Time was up by the 2024 draft, yet even then AKME stood pat!

3 entire years of stalling. What more could you ask for? His trade options the last half-year were either "Ds" or "Fs" - and rightfully so.

[Repeat 3-peat]

Read on Twitter

TC and Duarte have been waived.

[Infinity2152]

Everyone wanted Zach gone and everyone knew his market was limited because of his contract. Why where so many expecting multiple firsts and a player?

Everybody didn't want Zach gone. I personally loved Lavine as a Bull. Some of us were willing to let him go if we got better doing so. DeAaron Fox is in the same tier as Zach, has a huge contract, will get an even bigger one, and they got Zach playing at an AllStar level, multiple firsts and seconds. We got our pick back which might never have conveyed and some mediocre talent, much of which will still be on our books next season. Compare Fox and Lavine's careers and tell me why Fox commands so much more.

[WesPeace]

Craig just waived is also mind boggling.. couldnt even get late pick for him? Daaamn..

[boozapalooza]

Read on Twitter

TC and Duarte have been waived.

So what do we think we can get for Lonzo? Yes hes an expiring and has been hurt, but hes back to a solid 24-28mpg range and can make an impact for any playoff team off the bench. Downside being health can torpedo his season any minute.

1-2 future 2nds? Highly protected FRP?

[Infinity2152]

Craig just waived is also mind boggling.. couldnt even get late pick for him? Daaamn..

To be fair, Craig is the type of player you usually get from the waiver wire, given his age, contributions and health. He'll be 35 this year. Better to waive him than a young player who might still have some potential.

If they trade Lonzo for crap, I'm done with the Bulls for awhile. Just increased his minutes, he's literally the only player you can really have hope for on the Bulls right now outside Matas and Giddey, and most of you have given up on Giddey. Most Chicago fans are not going to be okay with 2 years of tanking. Let's get rid of the only player on the team with high basketball IQ.

They need to change the draft process even more to prevent tanking. It's shady, dishonest, and a disservice to the fans. Goes against everything sports is supposed to stand for. Teams deliberately working hard to make themselves worse, smh.

[Dez]

It's actually alarming at how many people were delusional about LaVine's value.

I disagree.. from all the trades around the league,we saw worse players net more in trades! Also I think its overblown that his contract was that awful, because pretty average were getting 25-30M per year.. he is borderline all star, soo around 40M per for player like him aint horrible.

He was getting paid the max at the time, that's not what a "borderline all-star" should be making.

Like I said, people were delusional about his value. Getting the pick back and not attaching an asset to him is a massive win.

[jnrjr79]

Are we 100% sure we got our 1st rounder back forever? Or is it just this year?

The Bulls didn't trade their 2026 or 2027 picks, they only traded their 2025 pick.

Not sure what you mean here exactly, but the Bulls could very likely have lost their pick in 2026 or 2027 to San Antonio had they retained the pick in 2025 due to it being in the top 10. So, to Guru’s question, yes, that pick traded to SA is now back “forever.”

[Betta Bulleavit]

Trade grades:

Clutch Points

Simply put, this is a disappointing return for a 24-points per game scorer who’s bounced back from an injury-ravaged 2023-24 season. Perhaps this is more indicative of how LaVine’s trade value actually is when factoring in his huge contract. But the overall sense is that the Bulls have once again sold low on another one of their most valuable assets.

Bulls’ trade grade: D

SBNation

Spurs grade: A-
Kings grade: A

This is pretty poor value for LaVine. If Chicago played its cards right, they shouldn’t have been in jeopardy of losing their protected draft pick in the first place. The Bulls continue to be one of the most directionless organizations in the league. How long until Arturas Karnisovas is fired? He’s made too many mistakes to be trusted with Chicago’s next rebuild.

Bulls grade: C-

Sporting News

Kings grade: B+
Spurs grade: B

This isn't great value for LaVine, but it's what the market said was out there. There is an alternate universe where they waited until the summer to trade him, got a significantly better offer, and were still bad enough to not have to give their pick away to the Spurs in 2026 or 2027 when it was top-eight protected.

That path would also have resulted in getting their pick back from the Spurs, and they wouldn't have had to move LaVine for peanuts in order to do it. That's the way I would've gone, and it's what I suggested previously.

If the Bulls continue to sell off their players, which they very well may do, then this starts to look better. It also looks fantastic if it does end up with them winning the lottery. If we're basing this on process rather than results, then it's an uninspiring return.

Bulls grade: C

For The Win

Spurs: Grade: A
Kings: Grade: D+

But they essentially netted zero first-round picks for LaVine after also not returning any draft picks for Alex Caruso this past offseason either.

We can expect that Chicago could continue to make moves to continue its potential rebuild, likely including trading away notable players like Nikola Vucevic and perhaps Lonzo Ball.

Grade: D-

Kevin O'Connor:

The Bulls got such a terrible return for Zach LaVine. Horrific. Don’t care how overpaid he is, he’s have an excellent year once again. Elite shooter, dynamic shot-creator with All-Star caliber numbers. Besides the year he missed 57 games he’s been great in 4 of the last 5 years.

Collectively, nobody thought this was a good trade for Chicago.

That's it.Posters are trying to rationalize the trade but it was simply a very bad trade made again by a very bad FO.
Just it.

No, that’s not it. Half of these so called analysts don’t know what they are talking about beyond initial returns simply put, they’re wrong far more often than they are right. I had previously asked what you felt made this such a bad trade. But you never responded. Would you be willing to?

[Muzbar]

Are we 100% sure we got our 1st rounder back forever? Or is it just this year?

The Bulls didn't trade their 2026 or 2027 picks, they only traded their 2025 pick.

Not sure what you mean here exactly, but the Bulls could very likely have lost their pick in 2026 or 2027 to San Antonio had they retained the pick in 2025 due to it being in the top 10. So, to Guru’s question, yes, that pick traded to SA is now back “forever.”

What I mean is the Bulls traded their 2025 FRP for DeRozan, the only way the Spurs could get a pick out of the Bulls in 2026 or 2027 is if the 2025 pick didn't convey.

That pick had now been traded back to Chicago.

[Guru]

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Don't we need to drop players to make it official?