Coach Billy Donovan isn’t one for playing the prediction game, and he wasn’t going to start Thursday when asked if guard Zach LaVine, recovering from a sprained right ankle, has played his last game in a Bulls uniform.
“I have no idea. I really don’t,” Donovan said. “There’s been nothing that I’ve communicated as it leads into this [Feb. 8] trade deadline where it’s been, ‘Hey, he’s staying here’ [or] ‘We’re moving him.’ There’s been nothing like that. I’d hate to even speculate.
“I’ve always taken the approach that this is our team — taken the approach that he’s going to be with us the whole entire year, and I hope he can get healthy. … I go into it [believing] he’s going to be here for the rest of the season. That’s how I view it.”
LaVine’s situation continues to take on new layers during the Bulls’ three-game West Coast trip, which continued Thursday night in a 141-132 loss to the Lakers at Crypto.com Arena.
First and foremost is his health. After he sprained the ankle last week in Toronto, the initial timetable for his return was one to two weeks. But that has changed, according to Donovan, who said LaVine is also having problems again with his right foot, which kept him out of 17 games from late November to early January.
“It’s a combination of everything,” Donovan said. “I think [his] foot has definitely flared up. I think the ankle has contributed to it. He has a lot of discomfort all around there. I think everything has been impacted with the ankle sprain. The hope was some of the pain would subside, but with where he’s at right now … it’s probably going to be another week before he’s reevaluated again.”
That’s early February just to be checked out again by the Bulls’ medical staff, then at least another week before he could return to the court — meaning he could be in street clothes still at the trade deadline.
On that front, interest in LaVine might finally be building. The Pistons were the first team other than the Lakers to reportedly speak to the Bulls about LaVine, but a source familiar with the situation downplayed how serious those talks were and said other teams have put out feelers to gauge the Bulls’ asking price for the two-time All-Star.
Detroit media outlets have reported that any deal the Pistons make would not include Cade Cunningham, Ausar Thompson, Jaden Ivey or Jalen Duran. If the Bulls are working within those parameters with a trade partner, it may be an indication they’d take anything to rid themselves of the $138 million LaVine has left on his contract over the next three years — essentially an admission by the Bulls’ front office that they made a mistake giving LaVine a maximum contact when they did.
The outside hope is that the Pistons-Bulls rumors could jump-start a trade market for LaVine that has been stagnant for months. But that becomes complicated if LaVine’s ankle and foot are bigger issues than first thought, hampering his availability no matter where he’s playing.
“He wants to play. He loves playing,” Donovan said. “I think it’s frustrating for him that he can’t play.”
Not that LaVine would have helped out much against LeBron James and the Lakers, as the issues were turnovers and Los Angeles uncharacteristically hitting three-pointers.
The Bulls (21-25) turned the ball over 16 times, allowing the Lakers to score 26 points, and watched James’ crew shoot 20-of-31 from three-point range.
“We were just rushing too much,” DeMar DeRozan said of the turnovers. “We were just trying to do too many things too fast. We put fuel on the fire by turning the ball over, letting them play out in transition. They killed us there, and they were hot (from three-point range). It was kind of deflating.”
