The Chicago Bulls could look to replace Lonzo Ball with Hawks’ Trae Young
This is an idea that was being floated around amid last season’s turmoil where the Hawks saw former team president Travis Schlenk step down followed by the dismissal of Nate McMillan as head coach.
Chicago is preparing to be without intended starting point guard Lonzo Ball for the entire 2023-24 season, their second consecutive without the $80 million star.
Ball is recovering from a knee injury suffered in January 2022.
The Bulls sat atop the Eastern Conference with him in the lineup and could be desperate with an ever-shrinking window for contention after starting center Nikola Vucevic suggested this could be the core’s final season together. Going all in for Young would certainly be one way to go for the front office.
He wouldn’t replicate Ball’s defensive impact. But the Bulls’ offense would flow more freely than it did far too often last season with Young’s preternatural passing skills controlling the flow of the game.
The Bulls have also been gauging the trade interest in Zach LaVine this offseason, making contact with the New York Knicks and Philadelphia 76ers among others.
LaVine also hails from Washington state just like Dejounte Murray.
This deal doesn’t alter either team’s financial outlook, nor does it hurt their goals of contention. If anything it balances out both rosters, though in that case, it’s fair to wonder if either team would have such an interest considering they built these teams around LaVine and Young, respectively.
Still, Chicago would get its much-needed table-setter while the Hawks get a bonafide scorer in LaVine who has averaged better than 23.0 points per game on at least 56.8% true shooting in each of the last five seasons.
As was the case with LA, the Bulls would need to throw the kitchen sink at the Hawks in terms of draft capital.
They control most of their future picks but they would likely fall toward the end of the first round.