Bulls officially match Kings offer for Zach LaVine

Although Adrian Wojnarowski quickly reported on Friday that the Bulls intended to match Sacramento’s offer of 4 years and $78 million to Zach LaVine, the news became official today per an announcement from the Bulls.

Unfortunately for the Kings, their cap space could be tied up for a little while longer. Per ESPN’s Bobby Marks, the Bulls can take up to 48 hours to give LaVine a physical, in which case the Kings can’t use that allocated cap space.

It remains to be seen what the Kings will do once their cap space is freed up. The free agent market has dried up, and the best remaining options are also restricted free agents where the same problem of the original team matching comes up. Both Jabari Parker and Marcus Smart would seem to fit the team’s need for additional talent, but the Kings haven’t seem to express the same interest in those two players as they did for LaVine.

The Kings could also use their cap space to take on other contracts in return for future picks. Many fans have wanted the Kings to take this route for years, but so far that has yet to happen.