The Nuggets are credibly rumored to have interest in Zach LaVine: Here's how a trade would work
A follow up on The Athletic's Tuesday night report indicating a LaVine trade market
It took over a year, but we finally have a somewhat credible trade rumor involving Zach LaVine. Tony Jones and Sam Amick of The Athletic dropped a report during the NBA Cup Final indicating that the Nuggets have had “significant” discussions on a trade for the Bulls star.
It shouldn’t have been much of a surprise that Arturas Karnisovas went to old friend Calvin Booth to try and work a deal for LaVine. Not only does that make sense from a fit perspective, but Karnisovas obviously has some level of comfort with a Nuggets regime that still has some pieces from when he worked there.
The basic structure for this deal is fairly straightforward. Unless there is some complicated three-team mechanism, it’s going to be Michael Porter Jr. and Zeke Nnaji for LaVine and possibly one other minimum-salaried Bulls veteran.
I wrote out why a hypothetic deal makes sense for both sides over at Sporting News. Check it out!
You do a great job showing how the trade makes sense. The potential for Porter to sustain an injury that would get his salary paid by insurance likely increases his appeal to the Reinsdorfs, too.
I am very afraid of AK throwing in draft consideration because he thinks Porter would be a building block. A pick swap in Denver's favor would be insane. Also, there is no guarantee that this trade would improve the Bulls draft pick this year. It's risky even without a pick swap.