Day: December 21, 2023

Zach LaVine wants a trade from the Chicago Bulls. Depending on who you believe, LaVine may or may not have his sights set on the Los Angeles Lakers as his next team. For their part, the Lakers are reportedly interested in LaVine, provided they can center a trade around D’Angelo Russell.

One challenge in trading for LaVine is matching his $40.1 million salary in a deal. For the Lakers, that would likely start with Russell and his $17.3 million contract. The Lakers would need to add other players to a deal for LaVine. That would likely involve Rui Hachimura ($15.7 million) or, less likely, Austin Reaves ($12 million) to match salary for the Bulls star.

If either Hachimura or Reaves is involved in a trade, it will have to wait until January 15 to be completed. Because both players were signed with Bird right and got big enough raises over their prior salaries, the Lakers can’t trade them until January 15.

As for Russell, he waived his ability to block a trade as part of re-signing with Los Angeles this past summer. It’s been expected since Russell re-signed that if the Lakers make a significant trade that he would be a part of it.

Jayson Tatum rarely misses games for the Boston Celtics. In his career, Tatum has missed only a handful of games each season, and most of those have been scheduled rest days. That made Tatum missing Wednesday’s game at the Sacramento Kings a notable occasion.

Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla said Tatum is considered day-to-day due to the sprained left ankle he suffered on Tuesday night at the Golden State Warriors. Tatum finished that game but said afterwards that he had swelling and stiffness in his left ankle.

Boston now has two days off on this west coast swing. They next play on Saturday afternoon at the LA Clippers. Then Boston completes the road trip with a Christmas Day matchup at the Los Angeles Lakers. It’s unknown if Tatum will be available for either of those games.