Lakers News: Bill Simmons Believes This LA-Bulls Trade Would Be "A Major Mistake"
In a recent episode of eponymous podcast, Bill Simmons of The Ringer chatted with Justin Termine of Sirius/XM NBA Radio about a handful of trades he alternately liked and loathed for your Los Angeles Lakers, the infamous Boston Celtics fan's least favorite franchise.
During their conversation (well worth a listen in full), Simmons revealed that he hates the idea of a Zach LaVine trade, but he does dig another Chicago Bulls guard's fit for LA: ex-2020 champion Alex Caruso.
"You know they're going to make a big trade," Simmons allowed. "They have a lot of pieces... they have a couple rookies that I think people like, they still have a pick, they have some contracts that they can put together. [If] it's a Zach LaVine type of trade, I think that would be a major mistake. Just to go get somebody else who we have no idea if the guy can come through in a playoff series [is the wrong call]. Could they be the Caruso team? It's going to be them or Philly."
"To me, [the ideal Zach LaVine destination] is like a Charlotte, where they have the [Gordon] Hayward expiring [contract], and maybe you wouldn't have to give up that much, maybe it's like a Bradley Beal-type trade where the other team just wants to get out of the contract, and you can kind of throw him with LaMelo [Ball] and see what it looks like."
As a sharpshooting two-time All-Star, even a disengaged LaVine still posted a decent state during the games he did play this season for Chicago, averaging 21 points on a good-but-not-great .443/.336/.866 slash line, along with 4.9 boards and 3.4 dimes.
The pod, released on November 29th, seems especially prescient in retrospect, as Chicago has absolutely thrived with Zach LaVine benched due to a "foot injury" that will conveniently keep him shelved until around January 15th, when LA can trade Austin Reaves, Rui Hachimura and D'Angelo Russell. The Bulls' recent success has only served to further crater his trade value around the league. Chicago has gone 5-3 since benching LaVine, with fifth-year starting point guard Coby White emerging as a surprise breakout.
LaVine's sticker tag is still his sticker tag (he'll have three years and $128 million remaining on his contract after this season), and it's unclear if Rob Pelinka and co. have the appetite to commit that much money to a guy who doesn't play defense and might not improve your team on offense.
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