It may be quite a hot take for some, but hear me out. This is a hypothetical so in this case we have enough picks and assets that the post-imploded Bulls wants. That may not happen at all in real life, but lets start with the discussion.

Lavine is an all star level player, yes, but his pay is all star level too. He’s currently being paid nearly 1/3 of the cap space, and would be paid for the next 2/3 years still, depending on his player option. Is locking up a third of our cap to a person really worth it, after we already locked up nearly the same amount for Lamelo starting next year? Remember, he"s 28 so if we want to have optimal use of his talents we should already be competing like last week, but every hornets fan and their mothers know that this season is shot. Would trading for him fix our roster issues and this season, or is it just a bandaid solution to the fact that our coach is outdated? I dont really know, but I dont think his addition makes us a playoff team, not now, not in a couple of years.

Secondly, he wont solve our backcourt defense. Lamelo has shown he can be a good defender in spurts, but he cant do that and focus on carrying the offense and making plays at the same time. We are using Brandon Miller as our point of attack defender and while his length affects some players, he is ineffective against large bodies and is prone to rookie mistakes. Can Lavine fix that issue and be our main defender instead? I don’t think so. He isn’t bottom of the barrel per se, but while he is serviceable on ball he is bad at off-ball and lacks instincts. Caruso, in the other hand, is great both at POA and at off-ball defense, and his bounce surprises people especially if he blocks them.

Caruso is also only getting paid a quarter of Lavine at about 10 million. In comparison, that’s like 1/3 of what we’re paying Hayward.

A thing that might sour people on Caruso is that he’s not really a scorer. His 3P is also below average. And what I might counter to that is, well, nothing. Because on the offensive side the best thing we need to do is to have Lamelo, Miller and Mark develop chemistry on that side of the court. Removing touches from our young core is not really advisable, I’m thinking long term here. I mean I only listed the young core, but we still have MB, PJ, Hayward or Rozier to score (whomever is not traded in this hypothetical). Lavine would need at least 15 FGA per game (from his playing history). If we traded Rozier that would be where his touches would come from but would the Bulls want his contract? What if they wanted Hayward’s contract so they’ll have a free cap space next year? We’d have to get about 5 more attempts from other players if that happens. While he isnt a shooter Caruso is most definitely a cutter, and Lamelo could feed him a lot of easy layups from distracted defenders focusing on other shooters just like how Lebron did.

So yeah, TLDR, if the Bulls implode, we need to trade for Caruso before ever thinking of Lavine because 1) he’s paid a lot less, 2) we arent forced to adapt to his timeframe 3) he fixes our backcourt defense and 4) he doesnt demand.a lot of touches. I havent even started on how we might not have enough assets to trade for Lavine in the first place so we should settle for Caruso instead.

Thoughts? Is this the ramblings of a guy who just drank a cup of coffee in a single gulp? Yes, hahaha. Good morning everyone.