The Chicago Bulls made a calculated decision last offseason. With Zach LaVine entering a contract year on a below-market deal, they could have give him a raise by renegotiating and extending his contract. Instead, they used their cap flexibility to upgrade the rest of the roster. If you include the 2021 trade deadline, they added Nikola Vucevic, DeMar DeRozan, Lonzo Ball and Alex Caruso in the span of a few months.
If the goal was to build a winner LaVine would be comfortable waiting to re-sign with, the results wound up being mixed. The Bulls were a stellar regular-season team. They held the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference as late as the end of February. Injuries cost them, though, and after falling to No. 6 in the standings, they were waxed 4-1 by the Milwaukee Bucks in a gentleman’s sweep. Now LaVine’s contract has officially expired, and as he revealed Friday, he’s in no rush to make any decisions.
“I plan to enjoy free agency,” LaVine told reporters. We’re going to have to experience A through Z without making any fast decisions. I think that’s something me and [agent Rich Paul] are going to go through and experience.”
When asked if the Bulls are the frontrunners for his services, LaVine was non-committal. “You guys have been a really, really soft spot in my heart,” he said. “I have to do this as a business decision, as a man, to not just be viewed one way and be like I’m automatically coming back or I’m automatically leaving.”
When LaVine was discussing a possible contract last August, he cited “respect” as a primary motivator. “I just want my respect. I think that’s the main thing,” LaVine said. “I outplayed my contract; I’ve been very loyal to Chicago, I like Chicago. I just want my respect. If it’s now, later, it’s something that we gotta work out internally and we’ll go from there.”
LaVine has grown into a player worthy of a maximum-salary contract, but he has spent…
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