NBA Trade: Next Great Backcourt? Former Lakers And Pelicans Star Lonzo Ball And NBA All-Star Zach LaVine Are Now Paired Up In The Central Division
The Chicago Bulls have done a sign and trade to acquire Lonzo Ball, according to Shams Charania of the Athletic.
The Tweet from Charania can be seen embedded below.
Ball is signing a four-year, $85 million deal with the Bulls, and the New Orleans Pelicans are getting Tomas Satoransky, Garrett Temple and a second round pick, according to Charania.
Last season, the Bulls were the 11th seed in the Eastern Conference, and third in the Central Division behind The NBA champion Milwaukee Bucks, and the Indiana Pacers.
The Bucks will likely be better than the Bulls no matter who they got this off-season, but the Pacers now have to deal with a Bulls team that will be a lot better next season.
The Bulls had a record of 31-41 only three games worse than the Pacers 34-38 record which got them one game away from the NBA Playoffs in the play-in tournament.
Now, they had a former number two overall pick in Ball who averaged 14.6 points, 4.8 rebounds and 5.7 assists per game last season.
He's also just 23-years-old with lots of room to become a potential All-Star during the duration of his four-year contract.
Not to mention All-Stars Zach LaVine and Nikola Vucevic have never played with a point guard that has the passing ability of Ball over the last few seasons.
LaVine averaged 27.4 points per game last season and made his first All-Star appearance, now he gets a major upgrade at point guard, which will only expand his game and make for potentially the best backcourt in the Central Division next season.
