Lavine signs $215.2M max deal; Kings pick up sharpshooter Kevin Huerter
Zach Lavine will remain a Bull after inking a five-year, $215.2 million deal to return to Chicago after his first summer as an unrestricted free agent.
The deal, announced Friday by agency Klutch Sports Group, includes a player option in the fifth year.
Lavine’s contract is the largest in Bulls history. Before this season, the team had never signed a player to more than $100 million at once.
Despite hearing offers throughout the league, Lavine wasn’t featured much in the NBA rumor mill as free agency opened Thursday evening. The guard emphasized his loyalty — sticking with losing programs in Minnesota and Chicago to lead long-term rebuilds — during his media exit interview in April.
Lavine has been the heartbeat of the Bulls roster since he was acquired in a 2017 trade with the Timberwolves. Averaging 24.4 points per game across five seasons in Chicago, Lavine provided the bulk of the highlights through four brutal seasons before the arrival of Demar Derozan. With a prodigious scoring partner and an improved supporting cast, Lavine helped lead the Bulls to their first postseason berth in five years — his first trip to the playoffs.
This offseason was marred by a familiar concern for Lavine — arthroscopic surgery for a left-knee injury, which sidelined and slowed the guard for most of the latter half of the season. Lavine previously tore the ACL in the same knee in 2016 and injuries have hounded him throughout his career.
Lavine’s health will remain a focus as the Bulls build toward the season. Executive vice president of basketball operations Artūras Karnišovas said the surgery and recovery have been a smooth process for Lavine and the team expects him to be fully available for the upcoming season.
“I think he’s going to be healthy and he’s now progressing great,” Karnišovas said.
The Bulls made several other moves to bulk up their secondary rotation after the opening of the free agency window on Thursday night, acquiring Andre Drummond as a backup center.
The team also re-signed
Derrick Jones Jr. to a twoyear, $6.6 million deal, according to a report by The Athletic. Jones was one of the most utilized rotational players for the Bulls during the last season, averaging 5.6 points and 3.3 rebounds while providing some of the team’s most explosive dunks off the bench.
After re-signing Jones, the Bulls have 14 players under contract. Teams are allowed to carry only 15 players on the roster during the regular season but are afforded 20 spots in the offseason.
Source: Kings acquire sharpshooter Kevin Huerter
The Kings made yet another move to address their need for shooting Friday, acquiring Kevin Huerter in a trade with the Atlanta Hawks.
The Kings traded Maurice Harkless, Justin Holiday and a protected future first-round draft pick to the Hawks in exchange for Huerter, league sources told
The Sacramento Bee, confirming a report from ESPN’S Adrian Wojnarowski.
The outgoing pick is top-14 protected in 2024, top-12 protected in 2025 and top-10 protected in 2026, sources said. If it does not convey by 2026, the Hawks will instead receive Sacramento’s second-round picks in 2026 and 2027.
Huerter is a 6-foot-7, 198-pound shooting guard who came out of Maryland as the No. 19 pick in the 2018 NBA draft. He is entering the first year of a four-year, $65 million contract after signing an extension with the Hawks in October. He started 216 of 274 games over four seasons with the Hawks.
Huerter averaged 12.1 points, 3.4 rebounds and 2.7 assists for Atlanta last season. He shot 45.4% from the field and 38.9% from 3-point range. He has made 563 3-pointers over his first four NBA seasons.
Harkless, 29, is a 10-year NBA veteran who spent the last two seasons with the Kings. He averaged 4.6 points and 2.4 rebounds in 18.4 minutes per game last season.
Holiday, 33, came to Sacramento along with Domantas Sabonis in the February trade that sent Tyrese Haliburton, Buddy Hield and Tristan Thompson to the Indiana Pacers. He averaged 8.3 points and 2.2 rebounds in 25 games for the Kings.
The Kings acquired Huerter a day after signing free-agent Malik Monk, a 24-year-old shooting guard who averaged career highs of 13.8 points, 3.4 rebounds and 2.9 assists while shooting 39.1% from 3-point range with the Los Angeles Lakers last season.
Kings general manager Monte Mcnair identified shooting as one of the team’s biggest needs after the Kings finished 24th in the NBA in 3-point shooting (.344) last season. Sacramento has taken steps to address that need, first with the selection of rookie forward Keegan Murray, the No. 4 pick in last week’s NBA draft, and now with the acquisitions of Monk and Huerter.
Looney expected to re-sign with Warriors
After some early losses to free agency, the Warriors reportedly secured a key piece in their 2022 title run.
Three-time NBA champion Kevon Looney has agreed to a threeyear, $25.5 million deal to return to the Warriors, league sources confirmed Friday afternoon.
Looney was widely considered the Warriors’ top free-agent priority. The importance of resigning him, which was first reported by ESPN’S Adrian Wojnarowski, was heightened when rotational players like Gary Payton II and Otto Porter Jr. reportedly took deals elsewhere.
At 26, Looney, whom the Warriors picked 30th overall in the 2015 NBA draft, is in his prime and played his best and most complete season in the NBA. Hampered by injuries in past years, Looney played all 82 regular-season games for the Warriors for the first time in his career, averaging six points, 7.3 rebounds and two assists. He was essential in the Warriors pursuit for their fourth title in eight years.
Looney snatched a career-high 22 rebounds in the Warriors’ seriesclinching Game 6 win over the Memphis Grizzlies to advance to the Western Conference finals. He also scored a career-high 21 points in Game 1 of the Western Conference finals, a blowout win over the Dallas Mavericks.
Re-signing Looney seemed like a no-brainer for the Warriors, who were thin at center last season. He adds pressure on the boards and in the paint. It also takes some pressure off of James Wiseman, the former No. 2 overall pick who missed all of last season with persistent knee issues.
It’s still unclear when Wiseman will return to live game action. He’s been testing his knee at Summer League practices and hasn’t experienced any setbacks in his recovery since receiving an orthobiologic injection in his arm in April about a month after the Warriors shut him down for the season. The goal is for Wiseman to play in the latter part of the Las
Vegas portion of Summer League later this month.