Pros and Cons of Raptors trading for Bulls star Zach LaVine
By Mike Luciano
Cons
LaVine might be 29, but athletic guards have a tendency to age more poorly than some other positions. With his defense starting to fade away, would it be wise to trade what little assets the Raptors have to acquire a player who may have spent his best years with the Bulls?
LaVine will help the half-court offense immeasurably, but would he be enough to fix everything? Considering that Toronto has already struggled to find any sort of consistent bench rotation, Ujiri would have to take an even bigger sledgehammer to this group to bring LaVine in.
The Toronto Raptors would need to give up a ton for Zach LaVine.
LaVine needs the ball in his hands to be effective, as does Barnes. The Raptors have done anything and everything to make sure that Barnes eventually becomes the leading man on both sides of the floor, and trading for LaVine would immediately throw that plan out the window.
The Raptors don’t have any draft picks in 2024, and they would likely need to move off what little they have to acquire LaVine. With the troubles that come with attracting free agent talent to Toronto, Ujiri would have even less financial flexibility to work with.