Lakers rumors: Rival NBA executive offers creative Zach LaVine pitch

The Los Angeles Lakers are rapidly approaching the 2024-25 NBA regular season with an all but identical roster to what was rolled out in 2023-24. It's not an inherently bad approach to take, but concerns understandably exist based on the fact that the team lost in the first round of the playoffs.

As Lakers fans debate whether 2024-25 will become a rebuilding year, others outside of the fanbase are exploring avenues for improvement.

Dan Woike of The Los Angeles Times recently spoke with a Western Conference executive who offered an interesting approach to how the Lakers could acquire Chicago Bulls star Zach LaVine. The goal of the trade would be trading for LaVIne without having to give up any draft compensation.

It's unclear how realistic that goal is, but the result of the proposed deal would be LaVine joining the Lakers in exchange for Rui Hachimura, D'Angelo Russell, and either Jarred Vanderbilt or Gabe Vincent.

It's an interesting proposal that seems to factor in LaVine's injury history and contract, as well as the Lakers' understandable reluctance to part with draft picks.

Lakers avoid giving up draft picks to land Zach LaVine in trade proposal

LaVine is entering the third season of a backloaded five-year, $215,159,700 contract. He's set to receive $43,031,940 for the 2024-25 campaign, has $45,999,660 guaranteed for the 2025-26 season, and reserves the right to accept a player option worth $48,967,380 for 2026-27.

Those are colossal contract figures that would force Los Angeles to continually reside in the second apron when factoring in the salaries of Anthony Davis and, if not yet retired, LeBron James.

Keeping Austin Reaves and either Vanderbilt or Vincent would certainly be an ideal outcome for the Lakers in this scenario. The same can be said for its future draft assets, as acquiring LaVine would mean having to pinch pennies during any season that Davis and James play alongside him.

Being able to add players on rookie-scale contracts, while paying less than $14 million per season to Reaves in each of the next two seasons, would be as necessary as it would be beneficial.

Chicago could be open to this type of trade for those very reasons. Nikola Vucevic will make a guaranteed $21,481,481 in 2025-26, Lonzo Ball is a 2025 free agent who could play his way into a new contract in 2024-25, and both Ayo Dosunmu and Coby White are due for new deals in 2026.

Furthermore, Chicago traded All-Defense mainstay Alex Caruso for Josh Giddey earlier this summer, and Giddey will become a free agent in 2025—meaning yet another large salary could be added to the payroll.

Even if that financial reality results in Chicago being willing to trade LaVine without requiring draft compensation, however, there are hurdles in place. Chief among them is the fact that he missed 57 games in 2023-24 due to foot injuries that continued a career-long issue with leg-related ailments.

As LaVine approaches his age-30 season, the question is simple: How much of a risk is it to add him to the roster, even if the cost does qualify as reasonable?

The answer could determine the Lakers' overall trajectory as a franchise.