Bulls’ Zach LaVine on Trade Rumors: I’ve Done a Better Job of Canceling Out the Noise

January 12, 2025

Chicago Bulls guard Zach LaVine is in his second full season of being at the center of NBA trade rumors. Not surprisingly, he’s seeing and reading the same things the rest of us are.

“People are supposed to talk about you, have opinions about you,’’ LaVine said, via Joe Cowley of the Chicago Sun-Times. ‘‘If you’re not at that level, they wouldn’t talk about you at all.

‘‘I’ve done a better job this year of just canceling out a lot of the noise.’’

The Bulls have 25 days to move LaVine, with the NBA trade deadline arriving on Feb. 6. They reportedly have had plenty of conversations around LaVine, as well as center Nikola Vucevic.

But it’s not been easy.

“The ongoing issue in trying to trade LaVine is that there’s a pecking order in the trade market, and the Bulls find themselves fighting against LaVine’s previous reputation — given his max contract — even though he has evolved as a player and a person,” Cowley wrote.

So far, any efforts to move LaVine have failed miserably.

“The Sun-Times reported last month that there was ‘light momentum’ in trade talks with the Nuggets, but those have stalled,” Cowley wrote. “A source also said there was early-season talk about LaVine and the Lakers, but the puzzle pieces didn’t fit at the time.

“And with the Lakers recently trading guard D’Angelo Russell and his contract to the Nets for forward Dorian Finney-Smith, the puzzle has all but been thrown in the garbage.”

In other words, with the new labor rules being what they are and LaVine’s contract being what it is, a lot of folks around the NBA believe a deal is unlikely. But there’s no doubt his play has improved.

“In five games since the calendar flipped to 2025, LaVine is averaging an eye-opening 32.8 points on 60% shooting from the field, including 42.4% from three-point range,” Cowley wrote.