Bulls guard Zach LaVine is eligible for a contract extension this offseason as he enters the final season of a four-year, $78MM deal that has turned into a bargain for his team. Asked about his situation following Team USA’s Monday practice in Tokyo, LaVine suggested to reporters that he’d like to be rewarded for his All-Star caliber player, writes Brian Windhorst of ESPN.
“I just want my respect, that’s the main thing,” LaVine said. “I outplayed my contract. I’ve been very loyal to Chicago. I like Chicago. I just want my respect. If that’s now or later, it’s something we’ve got to work out internally.”
Veteran extensions are generally based on the player’s previous salary. LaVine, who is earning $19.5MM this season, could get a 20% raise on that figure for a deal starting at $23.4MM, which would be worth nearly $105MM over four years. That likely won’t be enough to get something done.
However, as Windhorst notes, the Bulls are in a unique position due to their ability to create cap room this offseason. They could use a chunk of cap space to renegotiate LaVine’s 2021/22 salary, increasing his $19.5MM cap figure for next season and then offering an extension that features an additional 20% raise on that new salary. That would allow Chicago to offer LaVine a significantly more lucrative extension.
However, the Bulls’ cap flexibility is somewhat limited and the team is focused on adding a point guard in free agency. Landing a starting-caliber point guard and renegotiating LaVine’s contract would require the team to trim a substantial amount of salary from its books, including likely finding takers for Thaddeus Young and Tomas Satoransky, losing Lauri Markkanen, and waiving-and-stretching Al-Farouq Aminu‘s expiring contract.
We’ll have to see how the Bulls’ offseason plays out. If the team determines that a renegotiation of LaVine’s deal isn’t the best use of its cap space or if he wants to wait on an extension, Chicago would have his full Bird rights when he reaches free agency in 2022 and could offer him more years and more money than any rival suitor.
Thoughts and prayers.
Respect ? PLEASE. You were getting almost 19 million per. Shut up with this respect crap.
From what I hear/read from Lowe and others his defense is atrocious. I didn’t watch enough Bulls games this year to validate it myself but historically he’s been bad.
Still, 23.4m is way too low (in the NBA) for someone who puts up 27.4/4.9/5.0 on an efficient .507/.419/.849. If the Bulls don’t pay him more than that, I’m sure another team will.
Very few nba players play defense. Based on other contracts LeVine is going to need 28M+
win some games and then be respected. them stats are empty if they don’t contribute to winning right?
WRONG
Gotta love those egotistical one word arguments where people just assume that since they said it, it must be true.
They certainly are. It could also be argued that his stats are padded because he is the only real option in Chicago.
He not only is not the only option, he ain’t even the #1 guy in the team, for that there is Vucevic… there is such thing as empty wins, not stats!
LaVine is the Rodney Dangerfield of the Bulls !!
Has he really outperformed that contract, outside of maybe this past season? I dont know if that is 100% true, but he does score for them, and was very, very good for them offensively this year. If they were to put the right pieces around him, they might not be as hurt by everything else
All-star level play? Dude couldn’t even make the all-star game when it was in his own city. A single all-star appearance does not an all-star level player make. If he was worth a max salary he wouldn’t have only 1 season above .400 (0 above .500) even though he’s one of the leading scorers on all his teams. Guy’s a bum and it’s so sad to see us try to build around him. Franchise ia night and day from what it was with Rose and Noah, defense still matters, ask the ’16-’20 Rockets
He should be more worried about his team getting respect. He’s not due a max contract. He’s not a good D player. Any player with real talent. Will always get paid. That’s why you have agents and endorsements. You do t need to be crying about it. Let your agent do his job. Then do your freaking job. I’m not about stars who want theirs. They should want their team to be successful. Cause when they are. They will get paid even more. So STFU and play your way into a contract. Sick of these divas.
They should trade him while he still has high value. I don’t buy him as a team leader.
Ok Lebron, if you have to ask for it?
Philly will give you the max. Chicago can have Simmons.
It is incredibly sad that some people treat being respected and getting paid as synonymous. Your paycheck and being respected have ABSOLUTELY nothing to do with one another.
By respect he means money
Sign and trade. I liked Zack coming out, under-rated. You don’t call yourself a star with Zero playoff appearances. You don’t blame the supporting cast. You win to get paid.