Zach LaVine’s Extension And What It Will Take
Zach LaVine has taken another leap in terms of his offensive production this year. He is averaging 27.0 ppg/5.3 rpg/5.3 apg while shooting over 50 percent from the field and 40 percent from deep. While there are still flaws, what LaVine does do well can not be overlooked any longer. Not to mention, he is still young, turning 26 in March. There is enough there where you can say LaVine is a good player, and is in the top two tiers in terms of offensive production.
LaVine’s mid-range numbers have gone up to where he is now deadly from all four phases; at the rim, in the midrange area, from deep, and the free throw line. On top of scoring efficiently from all four phases, he is getting his teammates more involved as well. LaVine is entering max contract territory, whether that is from the Bulls or some other team. LaVine has one more year left on his current contract, then he will enter the 2022 offseason as a free agent. The Bulls and LaVine can sign an extension this offseason (Aug. 1), and it is time to start discussing what that will take to get that done.
I want to give Eric Pincus credit here first, as he brought up this point that I missed until he mentioned it. There is a slight issue when it comes to extending Zach LaVine. Because LaVine only makes $19.5 million in his last season, there is a limit to what the Bulls can extend him to.
When you extend a player, the first year in that extension can NOT be more than 120 percent of the player’s previous salary. With LaVine only making $19.5 mil, the 1st year of his extension can not be over $23.4 million. And in an extension, the salary can only go up eight percent of the first year’s salary. Eight percent of $23.4 mil is $1,872,000.
So at most the Bulls can extend LaVine to the following amount the next four years:
2022/23: $23,400,000
2023/24: $25,272,000
2024/25: $27,144,000
2025/26: $29,016,000
That is a four year, $104.8 million extension. With the 2021/22 season included, that is a five year, $124.3 million contract. That is the absolute most money the Bulls can extend LaVine for at this time. That unfortunately is below LaVine’s max.
This is LaVine at his max amount in each of those seasons:
2022/23: $34,735,800
2023/24: $37,514,664
2024/25: $40,293,528
2025/26: $43,072,392
That’s $189.3 million over four years. That’s at least an $80 million dollar difference from what the Bulls can extend him at. For the Bulls to be able to offer LaVine his max, they need to let him hit unrestricted free agency. Then they can use his Bird rights, and sign him up to his max contract value.
The risk with this move is LaVine as an unrestricted free agent can sign with anyone. He doesn’t even have to talk to the Bulls ever again. He could just leave, and the Bulls could do nothing. Which is why teams usually try to get an extension done. But as I mentioned the Bulls are limited because LaVine has out performed his contract, and they can only offer him his max with him becoming a free agent. Well actually, there is a one way: The renegotiate and extend.
In the NBA you can renegotiate(to increase salary, never decrease) a player’s contract under the following conditions:
- Contract is at least four seasons or more.
- It has been at least three years since they signed the current contract
- The team must have the same amount of cap space in salary they want to increase
LaVine meets the first two requirements, and the Bulls have the ability to open significant cap space this off-season. If the Bulls want to have the ability to offer LaVine a max extension, they will need to renegotiate his 2021/22 salary of $19,500,000 to a much higher amount.
The Bulls can save $14.2 mil in cap space, and use that cap space to renegotiate LaVine to his max contract for the 2021/22 season. You would raise his salary from $19.5mil to 33.7mil. Then in the very same instance extend his contract the next 4 seasons at his max. Essentially, the Bulls will be extending LaVine to five years, $189 million, and it will start next season(2021/22) with his newly renegotiated salary of $33.7million. This is the only way the Bulls can offer LaVine a max contract before his free agency in 2022. They must set cap space aside for LaVine, and operate with $14.2 million less in cap space.
For an example, the Philadelphia 76ers did this years ago with Robert Covington when he outperformed his minimum contract.
LaVine’s play is making these decisions tougher for the Bulls front office. Again, Zach LaVine is playing well enough to where if you aren’t paying him his fair value, someone else definitely will. For the Bulls , if LaVine is their guy, they should start preparing to make him that offer this offseason. And to do so, they need to preserve cap space.
