Coby White is not a difference maker for this Bulls team.
On another team, especially one that is searching for that final backcourt piece to become the reason the playoff push goes deeper into the spring? Absolutely. But for an 18-20 collection of mediocrity that is once again looking to hang a participation banner for reaching Eastern Conference play-in status for a fourth straight season, White is just another piece on a worn-down chessboard.
The Bulls with White in the lineup are 8-9 after Saturday’s 125-107 beatdown of Dallas. Without him this season they are 10-11.
If anything, the closest the roster has to a star is the system. The pace and space offense that Billy Donovan turned to last year is really the secret sauce for the Bulls to have any chance of winning games on a nightly basis. Wear the opponent down and hope that the lack of having an elite player and defensive physicality isn’t overly exposed.
Donovan and the coaching staff are telling everyone around the league that without telling them.
So the idea that the Bulls can’t trade White by the approaching Feb. 5 deadline is laughable. There’s actually not a piece they shouldn’t be looking to trade unless the back of the jersey reads “Buzelis,” and even then it’s at least picking up the phone call for a listen.
The good news is that executive vice president of basketball operations Arturas Karnisovas has finally come to the realization that this on-the-fly reload he’s been attempting to pull off since the start of the 2024-25 campaign doesn’t have real legs.
The Sun-Times reported last February that more than a handful of NBA executives said that Karnisovas was as open-minded and transparent about trade talks as he’s been since taking the job in 2020. Progress for Karnisovas that has carried on since.
The newspaper also reported in early December that Karnisovas and the Timberwolves had engaged in serious discussions for White. Those talks cooled for a bit with White’s camp drawing a line in the sand that the unrestricted free agent would go shopping in July – traded or not – but they haven’t completely gone away.
With the market on White again picking up some momentum, Minnesota could try and jump back in or explore the other moveable backcourt pieces the Bulls have in Ayo Dosunmu or Tre Jones. Like White, Dosunmu is an expiring contract at the end of the season. The Illinois product is having a career season and does give a bit more than White on the defensive end.
What makes Jones attractive is not only his play this year, but financial certainty because of the three-year, $24-million deal he signed last July.
Guard Josh Giddey isn’t going anywhere, so something has to give.
What unfortunately no longer looks like an option is a package to New Orleans for Zion Williamson – baggage and all. The Sun-Times has reported several times over the last two years that the Bulls front office had coveted the idea of Williamson giving them a true low-post presence when the offense bogs down, as well as allowing Matas Buzelis to slide to the three where he is a better fit.
Several media outlets, however, recently reported that the Pelicans are not open for business when it comes to Williamson or the likes of Trey Murphy, Herbert Jones or rookies Derik Queen and Jeremiah Fears.
Posturing? Maybe, but in a year of odd New Orleans decision making, it tracks.
Finally, there’s the rumor hanging over the Bulls that won’t go away. Don’t expect that to change, either. A source reiterated that Karnisovas has coveted Golden State’s Jonathan Kuminga for over a year and is still trying to figure out if that’s the exact path to travel down.
Would Kuminga be a difference maker for the Bulls? No. So he would fit right in.
