1. How much are Bulls willing to pay for LaVine?
Considering the Bulls dealt away one of the best two-way players in the league in Jimmy Butler, it is all but a foregone conclusion they have every intention of working out a deal with LaVine. The question is, what kind of price tag will the team be okay with?
On one side of the equation, the front office didn’t set the bar too high for a player who was returning to the court 11 months after a torn ACL injury.
"“My expectations are just to get him back in the flow of playing basketball,” John Paxson told the Chicago Tribune. “There are no expectations in terms of how he’s going to play. If he misses shots, so be it.”"
While LaVine’s scoring average isn’t far off his output from last season (18.9 points per contest), his overall shooting efficiency has plummeted from 45.9 percent to 38.3 percent in 24 games this season.
On the flip side of the equation, would it be wise to offer big money to any player who still has a ways to go in regards to recapturing his previous form? A few years ago, the Bulls offered Butler a four-year, $44 million deal following the 2013-14 campaign – a season in which he averaged 13.1 points per contest.
Butler rejected the deal and went on to record the first of three seasons in which he averaged 20 points or better per contest. The result was the two sides agreeing on a five-year deal worth $95 million.
With that in mind, along with the fact that many teams will not be in position to offer LaVine a max deal, will the Bulls allow LaVine to play on his qualifying offer of $4.4 million next season, or will they opt to lock him up for the long-term sooner rather than later?
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More than likely, it will be the latter of the two scenarios, but only time will tell.