Zach LaVine has scored 30-plus points in all five of the Chicago Bulls‘ games in the 2025 calendar year, and he’s done it with efficiency. His numbers have been particularly crazy during this stretch — 32.8 points, 4.8 rebounds, 5.0 assists and 1.0 steals per game; 68.7% true shooting on 29.5% usage — but, even before this, he was playing some of the best basketball of his career. LaVine is shooting a career-high 44.4% from deep this season, and, according to Cleaning The Glass, 51% of his made shots have been assisted, according to Cleaning The Glass. This is the highest that number has been since his final season with the Minnesota Timberwolves (2016-17), and it is a credit to guards Lonzo Ball and Josh Giddey.
All of this is to say that LaVine has come back from last February’s season-ending foot surgery as strong as anyone could have hoped. Despite this, though, the Bulls are 18-20 and 10th in the East, and the trade market for the 29-year-old wing does not appear to have heated up.
A trade to the Denver Nuggets isn’t completely off the table, but the talks have stalled, according to the Chicago Sun-Times’ Joe Cowley. If the Los Angeles Lakers were ever a realistic destination for LaVine, they are reportedly out of the picture after trading D’Angelo Russell’s $18.7 million contract to the Brooklyn Nets in the Dorian Finney-Smith deal. Other teams that may have interest in LaVine are waiting to see what happens with the Miami Heat’s Jimmy Butler, according to the Sun-Times, and are also reportedly monitoring the New Orleans Pelicans, whose season went sideways as soon as it started.
It is possible that the league is collectively undervaluing LaVine, given how well he’s played in a less ball-dominant role this season. He is making $43 million this season, though, and he’ll make $46 million next season, with a $49 million option for 2026-27. Due to the restrictions in the NBA’s new collective bargaining agreement, it is difficult mechanically for most teams to make a trade for a contract that size, and few teams are looking to add that kind of long-term money to their payroll. If LaVine remains in Chicago for the rest of the season, it will say more about the trade market in general than about him as a player.
Pistons changing gears?
Another potential complication for teams looking to make win-now trades before the Feb. 6 deadline: It might not be easy to dump salary.
The Detroit Pistons, who are $14 million below the salary cap and $44 million below the tax level, profile as exactly the type of team that could facilitate trades by taking on salary in exchange for future draft capital. But they might not be all that interested in doing it. According to ESPN’s Brian Windhorst, they “are adjusting their thinking and may be more judicious with their valuable cap space as they consider their own roster upgrades and flexibility for next season.”
Detroit is 19-19 and eighth in the East. Unlike the Bulls, though, most of its core is young and improving. This doesn’t necessarily mean that the Pistons will not be the “third team” in any deals around the trade deadline, but it suggests that they will be careful about adding long-term money to their books. And if a player on their timeline is available, why couldn’t they be buyers themselves?
