Breaking: Wild Turn of Events For Zach LaVine Trade Saga

All the trade talk for Chicago Bulls star Zach LaVine can be put to bed. The team has just announced that he'll have season-ending foot surgery.

Zach LaVine is expected to have surgery during the upcoming week and miss a total of 4-to-6 months. https://t.co/ORe6buhLHm

— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) February 3, 2024

He's expected to have the surgery this coming week and will miss a total of 4-to-6 months. 

This comes on the heels of months of trade rumors, without much of a real market for him, until the Detroit Pistons appeared just this week to be serious about taking on the two-time All-Star.

Per Zach Lowe on his Lowe Post podcast on Friday: 

I think the Detroit/Zach LaVine noise is real, and that if they do that, Bulls fans need to be prepared for a return that will underwhelm them, but we’ll see.

But now, with surgery ending his season, it's highly unlikely anybody—even the desperate Pistons—would be ready to take him on. 

All of this means that the Bulls will now have to keep LaVine and his massive contract ($46M AAV over the next three seasons after this one) for now at least. Perhaps in the summer, after he's shown that he's healthy, LaVine can hit the trade market once again. 

LaVine already missed 17 games with the injury earlier this season, returned to play seven games, then re-aggravated it while spraining his ankle. He finishes the 2023-24 season with averages of 19.5 points and 3.9 assists in just 25 games.

Photo: Kamil Krzaczynski-USA TODAY Sports