Key Notes: Bulls, Nnaji, Strus, Wade, Middleton

Though Taurus has allegedly spoken with Nuggets about a possible exchange centered around Zach LaVine and Michael Porter Jr.have they shown no interest in taking Zeke Nnaji‘s contract remaining in a deal with Denver, reports KC Johnson of the Chicago Sports Network (Twitter link).

Porter is making $35.9MM this season and LaVine’s cap hit is around $43MM. The Nuggets wouldn’t be allowed to take back more salary than they send out in any trade, so adding Nnaji ($8.9MM) would make perfect sense for Denver. However, the forward/center, who is in the first season of a four-year contract and isn’t playing consistent rotation minutes, has negative trade value.

The Bulls’ stance on Nnaji doesn’t necessarily mean the two sides can’t get a deal done. The Nuggets could try to offer additional sweeteners to convince Chicago to take him or find a third team willing to absorb Nnaji’s contract along with some sort of draft compensation. The two teams could also strike a deal without including Nnaji – that would mean they would have to join Dario Saric and one more low salary player (all except Jalen Pickett or Hunter Tyson) to Porter to exceed LaVine’s incoming cap hit.

Here’s more from all over Central:

• It was a successful season debut last Friday for Cavalier wing Max Struswho made a trio of three-pointers and was +20 in 19 minutes of action in a blowout win over Milwaukee, writes Chris Fedor of Cleveland.com (subscriber link). Strus, who sat out the first 27 games of the season while recovering from an ankle injury, was on a minutes limit Friday and then sat out Saturday during the second game of a back-to-back set for injury management purposes, notes Fedor (Twitter link).
• With Isaac Okoro out and Strus returns straight back, Dean Wade started at small rather than the Cavalier on both Friday and Saturday and was +34 in 46 total minutes, recording 21 total points on 7-of-9 shooting in a pair of resounding victories. Seam Fedor writes in another Cleveland.com storyWade’s performance is a reminder that the Cavs will have 11 players worthy of rotation minutes when all are healthy. Head coach Kenny Atkinson would ideally like to find playing time for all of them, sources tell Fedor. “Everybody can easily (say), ‘I deserve my minutes. We have the best record in the league. Why shouldn’t I keep playing my minutes?'” Atkinson said. “But with Max back, we’ll have those conversations individually and as a team.”
• After missing the first 21 games of the season while recovering from offseason surgeries on both ankles, Bucks forward Chris Middleton still rounding to shape. He took a big step forward Saturday in a win over Washington, playing his first back-to-back and setting personal season highs with 18 points, eight assists, six rebounds, four three-pointers and 24 minutes played. “There’s still a bit to go, but tonight definitely felt like the best night I’ve had so far,” Middleton said after the game (Twitter link via Eric Nehm of The Athletic). “Always great to get a couple of threes going, midrange.”