This five-team trade proposal sends DeMar DeRozan to Lakers, James Harden to Heat

DeMar DeRozan's days with the Chicago Bulls appear to be numbered.

Two years ago, when he first arrived on the scene, DeRozan put together an MVP-caliber campaign and had the Bulls playing like the East’s best team at certain points throughout the season.

Unfortunately, Chicago regressed badly in 2022, and by all accounts it seems like the front office is ready to retool its roster.

Over the past couple of months DeRozan has been linked to multiple teams in a potential trade. This week, NBA analyst Lee Tran proposed a five-team trade that includes sending DeRozan to the Los Angeles Lakers.

In the proposed deal, DeRozan goes to L.A., while James Harden heads to the Miami Heat.

From there, D’Angelo Russell, Duncan Robinson, Jaime Jaquez Jr. and Grayson Allen all go to the Philadelphia 76ers, while Kyle Lowry, Jalen Hood-Schifino, MarJon Beauchamp and Max Christie head to the Chicago Bulls. Finally, P.J. Tucker plus a 2028 second-rounder from Chicago get routed to the Milwaukee Bucks.

It is a complex scenario, obviously, but one that would definitely be a win-win-win-win-win for all participants.

In DeRozan, the Lakers would get a guy who can create his own offense and lose a redundancy in Russell. Reaves should be taking up more minutes at point guard anyway, plus the team added Gabe Vincent this summer.

Miami, who clearly won’t get Damian Lillard at this point, would get the next best available option in Harden.

The Sixers would come away with some much-needed depth, while the Bulls would get a mishmash of veteran and young parts to help facilitate the rebuild.

Finally, Milwaukee would get a great glue guy as it attempts to get back into the NBA title picture.

Obviously five-team deals are notoriously difficult to pull off because of all the moving pieces, but if it happened, this would be a huge dub for all parties involved.

It goes without saying that DeRozan would need to forgive the Lakers for how shadily they treated him a few years back. But there is a reason he has been linked to the team so much in recent months.

Where there is smoke, there’s fire.

Will the Lakers be able to pull off one final big move and add DeRozan ahead of the 2023-24 NBA season? Time will tell.