Alex Caruso Addresses Zach LaVine Trade Rumors, Bulls' Struggles to Start NBA Season
Chicago Bulls guard Alex Caruso commented Thursday on the recent trade rumors surrounding teammate Zach LaVine and whether they have impacted the team.
Speaking to Darnell Mayberry of The Athletic, Caruso expressed his belief that the outside noise hasn't done anything to throw off LaVine or the team as a whole:
"Zach's been the same teammate that I think he's been since I've been here. I don't think any of this outside stuff, at least to me, it doesn't seem like it's affected us too much. I think it's more still about the product of basketball on the court that we're really not meeting the mark. But Zach, I haven't seen a change or a shift in his attitude or his daily routines since any of this stuff has popped up."
Although the Bulls signed LaVine to a five-year, $215.16 million contract last year, Shams Charania and Mayberry of The Athletic reported this month that Chicago has "increased openness" toward the idea of trading LaVine after a slow start to the season.
At just 5-11, the Bulls are in 13th place in the Eastern Conference, and they are in danger of missing the playoffs for a second consecutive season and sixth time in the past seven campaigns.
Caruso suggested that slow starts have contributed heavily to the Bulls' issues this season, as has an inability to execute down the stretch after making sizable comebacks:
"Honestly, I think there's maybe two or three games that we kind of wasted. But other than that it's just not being good enough in the final stages of games. And a lot of that has to do with our starts. We've gotten down and then had to make these heroic comebacks. And then just falling short at the end of four games now this season. We win those four and we're a couple games over .500 or whatever it is. And it changes the dynamic and the outlook of what the beginning of the season looks like.
"But for me, it's just about us finding it. Because we're really close, man. We watch the film. We do a good job with the stuff we're trying to do when we do it well. It's just about limiting the times that we don't do stuff well."
There is still plenty of time left this season to turn things around, but if the Bulls do decide to LaVine, it would essentially be an admission of defeat and a sign that a rebuild could be on the horizon.
The 28-year-old LaVine is a two-time All-Star who has been highly productive during his seven seasons in Chicago, averaging 24.4 points, 4.7 rebounds and 4.3 rebounds per game in 364 games.
Compared to the numbers he put up from the 2018-19 season through last season, LaVine's production is down thus far in 2023-24, as he is averaging just 21.3 points and 3.3 assists, and shooting only 43.1 percent from the field.
If the Bulls do sell off some assets, Caruso could potentially be on the move as well since he is in the penultimate year of his contract and his deal is only partially guaranteed next season.
Per Jovan Buha of The Athletic, the Los Angeles Lakers have interest in both LaVine and Caruso, the latter of whom spent four seasons with the Lakers and was a key bench player for their championship-winning team in 2020.
