What we're talking about is trade value. What kind of a return can you get for Zach LaVine on an expiring contract at mid-season next year? And in that circumstance, he is a losing player unless/until he proves otherwise. It will be a factor in how much (if anything) a hypothetical team with a star player that fits our roster is going to ask for as a sweetener in order to add LaVine to their roster 3 months before he likely becomes a free agent anyway. Realistically, I personally think this is aiming for the moon. And
assuming you'll be able to get a deal like this done is poor planning.
I would start planning my roster moves around the idea that LaVine will
not be here after next season and hopefully I've already made my feelings about LaVine clear enough that I don't need to go into the reasons why. Again, just my preference.
@SacTownKid made the exact point I was going to respond with. If this all doesn't work and we're still a 40 win team next year with Sabonis already on record as "considering his options" before outright demanding a trade and giving us a very short list of teams he's willing to re-sign with, now you're another 80 million in the hole on an aging player who has to be considered an injury risk purely because of the years and mileage on his knees/ankles/tendons.
And you're still assuming that Boston is giving us a pick and Jrue for Monk. If I'm Boston and I'm giving up one of the best defenders in the league over the past decade
and a pick because of his huge contract, I'm asking for a lot more than Monk and I think at least one of the other 28 teams will give it to me. Jrue is a guy that contending teams will be interested in. The Lakers, the TWolves, the Clippers, the Rockets, the Warriors all appear to have a need for a backcourt player who ups their defensive floor. I make a deal for Jrue if we also move Sabonis and LaVine at the same time and start the Doug Christie era with a clean slate and a new defensive focus or I make it if he's the guy who makes me a contender for the next 3 years while he's still under contract. I don't make it to build a team around Holiday/LaVine/Sabonis and a supporting crew of young guys who will be forced to stand behind the 3pt line and wait for passes all game.
Marshall has length but that doesn't help with the league's 6'8" and bigger all-muscle freight trains of despair taking bodies and stealing souls in the paint. That's where our problem lies. There aren't as many players who fit that description in the current NBA as there were in decades past but all it takes is a couple of drafts to alter the math on that.