NBA Free Agency: Bulls insist LaVine ‘can help this group’ if healthy
The Chicago Bulls insist Zach Lavine “can help this group” if he is healthy for the new season, according to a pair of executives.
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BULLS INSIST LAVINE CAN ‘HELP THIS GROUP’ AMID TRADE RUMORS
The Bulls insisted that Lavine can still “help this group” amid trade rumors surrounding the All-Star guard.
Furthermore, Bulls executive vice president Arturas Karnisovas and Marc Eversley expect Lavine to recover from his foot surgery in March and show up in training camp.
“We expect Zach being fully healthy. I think he can help this group next year,” Karnisovas told Chicago-based writers as reported by Yahoo! Sports.
“Again, he’s healthy. We expect him to be with us at the start of training camp,” he added.
Moreover, the “new group” Karnisovas is referring to would be newly acquired guard Josh Giddey, rookie draft pick Matas Buzelis, and guard Chris Duarte.
Lavine, for the time being, will join them along with the re-signed Patrick Williams, Jalen Smith, Torrey Craig, and Coby White.
KARNISOVAS SAYS BULLS WON’T MAKE BAD TRADE TO MOVE LAVINE
Moreover, Karnisovas said the Bulls won’t make bad trades if the team is not going to be better.
The Chicago executive didn’t mention Lavine directly, but insisted any lineup change is not final.
“After the season, I said everything is on the table. We’re not going to make deals that are not going to make us better,” Karnisovas said.
“We’re going to be patient with that (trades). But I think we’re far away from a finished product now,” he added.
Meanwhile, expectations are high on the Bulls on the 22-year-old Williams, who was re-signed for five years and USD90 million.
“I think expectations, again, it’s going to be up to Patrick. He knows that he had four years of up and down, had two seasons that he was hurt,” Karnisovas said.
“But I think we thought we signed him to a pretty good deal to a player who has already been four years in our league and is still only 22 years old,” he added.
BULLS TO MISS DEROZAN AFTER TRADE WITH KINGS
Understandably, the Bulls will miss All-Star guard DeMar DeRozan who was part of a sign-and-trade deal Chicago went with the Sacramento Kings early this month.
“I think leadership, both on and off the court. I think he (DeRozan) was an extension of (coach) Billy (Donovan) on the court and off the court,” Eversley said.
“Like we told him, we’re gonna give him an opportunity to win and he was a gigantic part of that reason why we did that (trade),” he added.
Karnisovas cited the group of DeRozan, Lavine, Nikola Vucevic, and Lonzo Ball were given a chance to win.
However, that group only produced one playoff victory and two non-playoff seasons.
“We felt that we owed to that group to give them a chance to figure it out,” Karnisovas said.
“And when we cannot figure it out, that’s when it’s up to us to have direction of the team and make changes. And that’s what happened,” he added.
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