(670 The Score) The Bulls have finally found a taker for guard Zach LaVine after shopping him on the trade market for nearly two years.
Chicago has agreed to trade LaVine to Sacramento in a blockbuster three-team deal that will also send star guard De’Aaron Fox from the Kings to the Spurs, Shams Charania of ESPN reported Sunday evening. It marks the end of LaVine’s eight-season tenure in Chicago, which began with promise as the leading figure in a rebuild but which became awkward in recent years as both player and team understood a divorce was best for all.
In the complicated deal, the Bulls will acquire three players in guard Kevin Huerter from the Kings and guard Tre Jones and big man Zach Collins from the Spurs, Charania reported. Most importantly, the Bulls will reattain their own 2025 first-round pick from the Spurs, according to reports. That pick was top 10-protected in 2025, but the Bulls still would’ve owed it to the Spurs with top-eight protections in 2026 and 2027 if they retained it this season. Now, the Bulls will have full rights to the pick again, which they originally sent to the Spurs to acquire forward DeMar DeRozan in 2021.
The Bulls will also trade a 2025 second-round pick to the Kings in the deal, according to reports.
LaVine, 29, was averaging 24.0 points, 4.8 rebounds and 4.5 assists in 42 games for Chicago this season while posting career-best marks for efficiency. He’s shooting 51.1% overall and 44.6% on 3-pointers at a high volume. He was a two-time All-Star in Chicago, earning the honor in 2021 and 2022.
Huerter, 26, was averaging 7.9 points, 2.8 rebounds and 1.7 assists in 20.9 minutes in 43 games, including 15 starts, for Sacramento this season. Huerter was the 19th overall pick in the 2018 NBA Draft. His role in Sacramento had waned the past two seasons. He’s under contract through 2025-’26, a season in which he’s owed just shy of $18 million.
Jones, 25, was averaging 4.4 points and 3.7 assists in 16.1 minutes in 28 games for the Spurs this season. His contract is set to expire at the end of this season.
Collins, 27, was averaging 4.6 points and 2.8 rebounds in 11.8 minutes while shooting 46.2% from the field in 36 games for San Antonio this season. He was the 10th overall pick in the 2017 NBA Draft. Collins is under contract through the 2025-'26 season, when he's owed about $18.1 million.
LaVine initially landed in rumors at the trade deadline in 2023, and speculation intensified later that summer as the Bulls quietly shopped him. In November 2023, news broke that both LaVine and the Bulls were open to finding him a new home. While LaVine never explicitly stated he wanted out of town, that news leaking signaled what was to come eventually – his exit from Chicago. It just took the Bulls a great deal of time to find a willing trade partner, for a couple reasons.
LaVine’s lucrative contract was viewed as onerous by the NBA in relation to his production as the league operates under a more restrictive collective bargaining agreement. He’s currently in the third season of a five-year, $215-million contract. LaVine is owed $46 million in 2025-’26 and holds a $49-million player option for 2026-’27.
LaVine was also hampered by injuries last season, causing interest to wane. Eventually, LaVine opted to undergo season-ending right foot surgery last February. That announcement came right before the trade deadline, a choice that seemed to irk the Bulls, who in a team-issued press released put the entire onus for the decision on LaVine and his Klutch Sports Group agency.
In LaVine’s eight seasons with the Bulls, they went 248-349, which represented a .415 winning percentage. They made the playoffs just once, losing in five games to the Bucks in a first-round series in 2022.
LaVine had missed the Bulls’ past three games as he awaited the birth of his third child. In his final game as a Bull, he scored 21 points to help Chicago to a 129-121 win against Denver last Monday at the United Center.
In Sacramento, LaVine will join a Kings team that was sitting at 24-24 and in 10th place in the West on Sunday evening. He'll also reunite with DeRozan, with whom he played for three seasons in Chicago. The Kings signed LaVine to a four-year, $78-million offer sheet in summer 2018 before the Bulls matched it to retain him in his restricted free agency.
The Bulls dropped to 21-29 with a loss at the Detroit Pistons earlier Sunday. The Bulls are currently slated, if the math were to hold true in the lottery, to select at No. 9 overall in the NBA Draft in June. LaVine's exit may help them rise in the draft order as the team's play on the court figures to plummet.
The No. 9 draft lottery slot carries with it a 20.3% chance to jump into the top four of the NBA Draft with lottery luck. If the Bulls were to land the No. 7 draft lottery slot — only one game separates them from that spot in the standings — they'd have a 31.9% chance to leap into the top four of the draft order.