Lakers need to shift focus to Alex Caruso, not Zach LaVine

The biggest hurdle for the Lakers in a LaVine deal is his $40.1 million salary for the 2023-24 season. 

For the Lakers to match LaVine's salary in a trade, they will need to wait until Dec. 15 for players such as D'Angelo Russell, Taurean Prince and Cam Reddish to become trade-eligible. Austin Reaves and Rui Hachimura become trade-eligible one month later, but the team isn't interested in moving Reaves despite his recent role change of coming off the bench, according to Buha.

If the Bulls are looking to blow up their roster earlier to maximize their draft lottery odds, they might not be willing to wait multiple months for a Lakers deal to materialize.

Russell and Hachimura have performed well for the Lakers, with the former averaging 18.8 points and 6.6 assists and 37.1 percent from three, and the latter averaging 12.8 points on 57.8 percent field-goal shooting off the bench.

The Bulls wanting to move quickly might be a blessing in disguise for the Lakers. Trading for LaVine is a bad idea to begin with. He is a below-average defender and isn't a good enough playmaker to justify taking the ball out of the hands of LeBron James and Anthony Davis.

The assets required to acquire LaVine will gut the Lakers' depth -- a key focus for general manager Rob Pelinka this past offseason -- and leave the team in a similar situation to when they traded for Russell Westbrook.

Should the Bulls decide to blow things up, the one player the Lakers should look into trading for is Alex Caruso. The irony, of course, is Caruso started his career with the Lakers but signed with the Bulls following the 2020-21 season after the team declined to match the Bulls' offer.

Caruso would be the perfect addition to this team as he is a superb point-of-attack defender and excels playing off the ball. Caruso already played a key role in the Lakers 2020 NBA championship run and can make up for the defensive headache that comes with starting Russell.

In addition, his small contract ($9.6 million) means the Lakers won't have to give up as many assets to acquire him.

The Lakers have already demonstrated they aren't afraid to shake things up if they feel the roster is underperforming, and if the Bulls (4-8) continue their losing ways, a deal might be in the works.