The Zach LaVine era has ended in Chicago.
The Bulls are sending the two-time All-Star shooting guard to the Sacramento Kings in a three-team trade also headlined by De’Aaron Fox, a source confirmed to the Tribune. ESPN was the first to report the news Sunday. The team announced the move Monday.
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The Bulls will receive Tre Jones and Zach Collins from the San Antonio Spurs and Kevin Huerter from the Kings in addition to regaining full rights to their own 2025 first-round draft pick from the Spurs, per a report from ESPN. The team announced Monday they waived forward Torrey Craig and guard Chris Duarte in corresponding moves.
LaVine’s tenure with the Bulls has been beleaguered by trade chatter, which intensified last season after he requested the front office to explore options to move on from Chicago. That effort did not result in a trade as LaVine struggled to play through a foot injury that ultimately cut his 2023-24 season short before the trade deadline.
But LaVine vindicated himself this season — and rebuilt his trade value in the process — with one of the most efficient seasons of his career, averaging 24 points while shooting 51.1% from the floor and 44.6% from 3-point range. His composure off the court as a locker-room leader drew open praise from coaches, teammates and Bulls executives, who saw LaVine approaching the game with a renewed focus and responsibility.
“I can be a star in whatever situation I’m in,” LaVine told the Tribune in November. “I’m still super effective — and I’m going to keep it that way. I understand what I have to do for the team. I’ve tried to really embrace and accept that role, whether that’s taking the challenge defensively, being a facilitator or even fitting into a role, helping guys out and then asserting myself when I need to.”
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In the first seven years since he was traded to the Bulls from the Minnesota Timberwolves, LaVine weathered two coaching changes and six losing seasons. The team made the playoffs just once — in 2022, at the conclusion of the only winning season in LaVine’s time with the Bulls — resulting in a 4-1 first-round exit at the hands of the Milwaukee Bucks.
There was a time when LaVine and the Bulls appeared headed in the right direction. The team brought in Nikola Vučević, Lonzo Ball and DeMar DeRozan over a five-month span in 2021 to craft an offensive vision centered around LaVine, who earned back-to-back All-Star selections in ’21 and ’22.
And it worked, ever so briefly, as the Bulls climbed to the top of the Eastern Conference standings in January 2022 before crashing back down and eventually out of the playoffs.
That project finally ended last summer, when the Bulls sent DeRozan to the Kings in a sign-and-trade deal and began to reshape the roster by trading Alex Caruso to the Oklahoma City Thunder for Josh Giddey. LaVine and DeRozan now will reunite in Sacramento, where the Kings are attempting to stay afloat in a competitive Western Conference.
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After three years of standing pat at the trade deadline, this move marks a major victory for executive vice president of basketball operations Artūras Karnišovas, allowing the Bulls to finally begin a rebuilding process that is years overdue. The trade removes the largest roadblock from their attempt to restructure the roster — LaVine’s maximum contract, a five-year, $215 million deal with a player option for 2026-27.
But the Bulls once again failed to gain significant draft capital in a trade for a highly valued player. The only draft asset they acquired in this trade is the full rights to their 2025 first-round pick, which was previously top-10 protected.
The Bulls were in position to retain that pick as they currently sit in the bottom third of the NBA standings at 21-29. If the pick was not conveyed to the Spurs this year, however, it only would have kicked the issue down the road as they would have owed the Spurs either a 2026 first-round pick (top-eight protected), a 2027 first-rounder (top-eight protected) or a 2028 second-rounder to complete the 2021 DeRozan deal.
That would have been debilitating for the Bulls, who would have needed to finish among the bottom eight teams in the league for two more seasons to protect that first-round pick. Now they can operate with more freedom through full ownership of their first-rounder.
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Still, after failing to recoup a single pick for Caruso — one of the best defensive players in the league — the Bulls front office has sunk into a pattern of selling low on the team’s top talent.
Karnišovas aims to move more pieces ahead of Thursday’s trade deadline, including center Nikola Vučević. By the end of this week, the Bulls roster likely will have undergone significant change — paving the way for Karnišovas’ second attempt at building a contender in Chicago.
LaVine did not play in the Bulls’ last three games to be with his wife, Hunter, for the birth of their third child. His final game in a Bulls jersey occurred last Monday, a quiet 21-point performance in an upset win over the Denver Nuggets.
LaVine spent longer than expected on the bench on his final night with the team — but he didn’t mind. The Bulls had gained an unexpected upper hand on the Nuggets in the fourth quarter thanks to a flurry of activity from a second unit led by guard Ayo Dosunmu and rookie forward Matas Buzelis.
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When coach Billy Donovan told LaVine he wanted to let the young guys run a little longer, the veteran agreed with a smile.
“I was like, ‘Man, this, this is the way that we’re supposed to be playing,’” LaVine said after the win.
The future of the Bulls now belongs to those young players. They will finish the season without LaVine’s scoring and leadership that had buoyed the roster to its meager successes.
Whether they can find success in the future will rely on the results of the next three days before the trade deadline — and the 2025 draft, in which the next era of the franchise will truly begin.