Zach LaVine to Nuggets trade rumors: How Denver can acquire Bulls star in trade for Michael Porter Jr.

The Nuggets need a talent upgrade to win another championship. The Bulls need to trade their star Zach LaVine to keep their 2025 draft pick and continue to rebuild a low-ceiling roster. Could there be an agreement between the two parties on the way?

The answer may be yes, according to reporting from The Athletic’s Tony Jones and Sam Amick. The two of them issued a report Tuesday night indicating that the Nuggets have “expressed interest in” LaVine, among other players. They added that “the focus on LaVine in recent discussions is significant.”

The Nuggets are in a tight financial situation. They are above the first berth, which means they cannot take back more salary than they send out in any deal. And they don’t have a ton of negotiable contracts. Michael Porter Jr.’s $35.8 million salary should be one of the outgoing pieces in any big trade.

Zeke Nnaji is also available, according to Amick and Jones. And most importantly, there can be drafts that switch sides in this type of deal. “Any significant trade the Nuggets would make might also have to involve a trade as a sweetener,” according to The Athletic’s report.

Here’s how that LaVine trade would play out and whether it makes sense for both sides.

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Zach LaVine trades with Nuggets

The trade

Nuggets get:

Bulls get:

• Michael Porter Jr.
• Zeke Nnaji

Why the Nuggets are doing it

Nikola Jokic is likely going to win a fourth MVP award this season, and the Nuggets are going to waste his historic production if they don’t make a serious upgrade to their roster. Jamal Murray hasn’t looked like the player he was during his championship run, and Denver hasn’t gotten enough from the rest of their roster.

The Nuggets are well aware of this fact, which is why they are looking for upgrades. They don’t have much to offer. That puts them in the running for names like LaVine, Jordan Poole, Jordan Clarkson, De’Andre Hunter, Cam Johnson and Jonas Valanciunas, according to Amick and Jones.

LaVine is arguably the most talented offensive player in this group. He is a dead-eye 3-point shooter who has made 42.8% of his looks this season and 38.4% for his career. It’s a much-needed skill on a Nuggets roster that ranks 26th in 3-pointers this season — and that rank is despite Jokic hitting an incredible 48.9% of his 3s this year.

LaVine is more than just a shooter. The two-time dunk champion has a great first step and is shooting 56.9% from inside the 3-point arc. He can create his shot when he wants to, which will help boost a terrible bench unit that is being outscored by 16.6 points per game. 100 possessions when Jokic is on the bench.

LaVine is overpaid relative to his production, which has led to a stagnant market for him. But no one doubts he’s a good player, and he’s the most talented guy the Nuggets can get since they have zero first-round picks to offer. And given Jokic’s history of making teammates look good, he should be even better in Denver.

Torrey Craig is a throw-in as part of this deal. The former Nugget is still a useful rotation player the Nuggets need because of their shaky bench. By including him in this trade (he could be absorbed into a minimum salary exception), the Bulls will be able to create a $2.8 million trade exception that could be useful in later trades. The Nuggets would also benefit from the fact that they won’t be able to find a better player than Craig down the street.

The Nuggets are reportedly seeking some sort of draft equity in a Nnaji and Porter trade. The Bulls shouldn’t be offering anything, but they’ve been killed on the margins on pretty much every trade the current regime has made. The trade as constructed is fair, but perhaps the Nuggets are also negotiating a first-round trade that could turn one of their late first-rounders into a lottery pick.

Why the Bulls do it

The Bulls have to get a lot worse this season to keep their top-10 protected 2025 pick. If the season ended today, they would have a 20.2% chance of sending a late lottery pick to the Spurs. And more than just keeping the pick, they need a chance to select one of the top players like Cooper Flagg or Dylan Harper who could really turn the fortunes of the franchise around.

Moving LaVine is the fastest way to fall to the bottom of the standings. The Bulls are 1-3 in games he’s missed, with their only win coming in a 122-121 win over a low-key Raptors team that was missing several starters. He has had a label as a losing player, but the team’s play this season proves otherwise.

Getting Porter would certainly be a risk for the Bulls. He is a talented shooter and rebounder who hit 38.5% of his 3s and averaged 18.5 points per game. match this season. And he’s three years younger than LaVine, which aligns him more closely with the team’s current timeline.

Porter is a constant injury risk, though, and the Bulls haven’t exactly had luck with that kind of player in the past. He was red-flagged in the draft for back problems, causing him to miss his entire rookie year and most of his fourth year. He too must wear an adapted ankle brace at all timesone that greatly limits his movements due to how injuries have affected his left leg.

Porter is in the third year of a five-year, $179 million extension. If injuries strike him again, then that contract could be dead weight on a team’s books for several years. While his passing vision has improved this year and he’s worked to make himself a much better defender, he’s still an overall negative in both of those areas.

Still, 26-year-old shooters with Porter’s 6-foot-10 height don’t come along very often. There is a reason why he was considered the No. 1 player in his high school class and was taken in the lottery in the 2018 draft.

The bigger issue for the Bulls would be dealing with Nnaji, who himself was a first-round pick in the 2020 draft but has been a major disappointment since signing a four-year, $32 million contract. There’s a chance he’ll bounce back and live up to that deal, but it’s more likely his money will eat into the team’s cap until he becomes a free agent in 2028. He must be included in the deal to match LaVines pay.

The reality is the Bulls probably won’t be able to move LaVine without taking back a bad salary. Given the limitations of the new agreement, it is too difficult to make a deal any other way.

A player of LaVine’s caliber would have gotten a lot more in previous seasons, but that’s about the best they can hope for. A bad contract and a good young player who is also a little overpaid is not a bad package for LaVine. The real prize for this trade, however, will be the player Chicago gets in the 2025 draft.