The Lakers traded Westbrook before the start of the season and became one of the favourite teams to compete for the title this season. But the combination between Westbrook and the Lakers after nearly a season doesn't seem to have had the desired effect, and the Lakers are struggling painfully on the edge of the playoffs. Another star player on the team, Anthony Davis, was injured in a game against the Jazz and will be sidelined for four weeks. This made the James-led Lakers even worse.
As the core of the Lakers' interior line, Davis has made a great contribution to the Lakers' re-championship. But in the past two seasons, Davis has been plagued by injuries, and the Lakers management originally planned to wait until James retired or left the team to form a team around Davis. But the ongoing injuries caused the Lakers' management to change their initial thinking. Rumors about the Lakers' trade in Davis have also been blown up. At present, several championship-fighting teams, including the Heat and warriors, have made offers for Anthony Davis. If the price given by other teams is appropriate, it is not ruled out that the Lakers will break up the Big Three lineup and reorganize the championship lineup to help James win the championship.
The Bulls, currently number one in the East in the regular season, have also joined Davis in the scramble. NBA reporter Ryan Stone wrote about how the Bulls will strengthen this summer, and an anonymous NBA executive said that the team may trade the Lakers star's thick eyebrows. The league executive believes That Anthony Davis is a Chicago native who has always been eager to play for his hometown team, which is the most powerful factor for the Bulls to compete for Davis. According to the latest revelations in the US media, the current Bulls' star LaVine has rejected the Bulls' contract extension, and he is likely to leave the team this summer. Once LaVine leaves the team, the Bulls need to bring in a new core player to become the team's leader and lead the team to continue to attack the championship. The Bulls have improved by leaps and bounds this season and now occupy the top spot in the Eastern Conference regular season, while Bulls executives have publicly stated that the team will pay a luxury tax for the goal of the championship. It is understood that in order to get Anthony Davis, the Bulls may use DeRozan and White as the main chips in the trade, plus two first-round picks.
Long before the start of the season, DeRozan, who had already expired his contract with the Spurs, had offered to show favor to the Los Angeles Lakers. According to the latest revelations in the US media, DeRozan originally planned to join the Lakers on a three-year, 90 million contract, and DeRozan was very eager to join James to play for his hometown team at the end of his career, but the Lakers finally chose Westbrozan to join the Lakers. The Bulls then extended an olive branch to DeRozan. The brightest moment of DeRozan's career was spent with the Raptors, who and Lowry formed the Raptors' golden double gun, and DeRozan had a strong single combat ability and mid-shot skills. In Toronto, he also earned the reputation of king of the North. But in the end he was traded to the Spurs in a deal with The Small card.
After coming to the Spurs, trapped by Popovich's tactical system, DeRozan sacrificed a lot of ball power to serve the Spurs' overall tactics. This led to a serious decline in his personal data, and the US media began to question DeRozan's personal ability, but DeRozan, who joined the Bulls this season, completely released his offensive nature and staged many wonderful kills. It is worth mentioning that during James's time with the Cavaliers, the Raptors were one of the Cavaliers' biggest competitors, but James used one magical performance after another to end DeRozan's dream of reaching the Finals, and now the two are likely to join forces next season. I don't know what the officials want to say about this, anyway, Xiaobian is very much looking forward to it.