Just when it feels like the Damian Lillard trade saga seems to be cooling off a bit, an NBA rumor bomb was dropped by Kyle Neubeck of the PHLY Sports Network who said that the Chicago Bulls have their ears open for a potential transaction that would land them the Portland Trail Blazers superstar point guard.
Neubeck did not directly say that the Bulls are already all in on a mission to acquire Lillard, but he did say he’s hearing that Chicago might be open to the idea of moving Zach LaVine in a “multi-team deal” that could potentially net them the future Hall of Fame guard. In theory, LaVine would have to be flipped by the Bulls for assets the Bulls could use to entice the Blazers into sending Lillard their way.
South Beach is the desired landing spot of Lillard, which isn’t a secret, but months have passed and he’s still with Portland. Apparently, the Heat are not too keen about mortgaging nearly the entire farm to get Lillard. Enter Marcus J. Spears of ESPN who recently floated a rumor about a mystery Eastern Conference club that’s not Miami that might throw its hat into the Lillard Sweepstakes.
Whether Spears was referring to the Bulls or another team or not, Chicago has now entered the conversation.
If the Bulls ended up absorbing Lillard, that would give them a duo of ringless veterans, with DeMar DeRozan still in Windy City. A Lillard-DeRozan pairing is going to be intriguing, to say the least. Both are bucket-getters, but Lillard was also one of the highest-usage guys in terms of isolation during the 2022-23 NBA season. During that campaign, Lillard was seventh in the league in terms of isolation possessions, while neither DeRozan nor LaVine were inside the top 15.