NBA Trades: Bulls jumpstart their rebuild with polarizing proposed offseason deal with Nets

NBA Trades: The Bulls jumpstart their rebuild by trading Zach LaVine for Ben Simmons.

The hypothetical deal would see the Nets ship out Ben Simmons, a 2026 and 2028 second-round pick and a 2029 unprotected first-round pick to the Bulls in exchange for Zach LaVine. Depending on your fandom, that could be quite a polarizing deal. The Bulls previously shopped LaVine this season, only to see a handful of teams register interest but none make a serious offer.

Actually, given his health concerns and his contract, which will pay him $178 million over the next three seasons, there were rumors that the Bulls may have to give up assets to unload him. Meanwhile, for the Nets, they seem to be stuck with former number one overall pick Ben Simmons.

With Simmons being ruled out for the remainder of the 2023–24 season, his already low trade value has cratered. While he did play well when healthy, he missed all of the 2021–22 season, then played just 42 games last season and 15 this season.

That's 42 games in three seasons, and with another year on his contract that will pay him $40 million, teams may shy away from trading for him. Then again, he will be on an expiring contract that would allow a team, such as the Bulls, to shed long-term salary by acquiring Simmons. However, would either team actually agree to the deal?