Entering Sunday, the Chicago Bulls held the No. 10 seed in the Eastern Conference with a record of 16-19.
Chicago is coming off a nice home victory over the New York Knicks on Saturday night. The Bulls are 6-4 over their last 10 games.
Even if Chicago is flirting with another Play-In berth this year, the franchise is undoubtedly in rebuild mode. If you want to call it a “youth movement” rather than a rebuild, so be it. But when the Bulls traded Alex Caruso over the summer and didn’t make an aggressive attempt to retain DeMar DeRozan, it was clear they were prioritizing the future.
As such, Chicago will be taking (and making) their fair share of phone calls in January as the February 6 trade deadline approaches.
The Bulls remain eager to sell Zach LaVine and Nikola Vučević, as they’ve been for months.
But neither LaVine nor Vučević is likely to garner as much attention from suitors compared to Chicago’s 24-year-old bucket-getter Coby White.
White’s talent and production come with one of the most bargain contracts in the NBA: just $12 million this season and $12.9 million next year before White becomes an unrestricted free agent in 2026.
White is averaging 18.4 points, 4.6 assists, and 3.5 rebounds through 33 games.
It’s for all of the above reasons that the Bulls should absolutely make White untouchable on the trade market.
White put the league on notice on Saturday night at the United Center by hitting 7-of-9 threes in a 33-point outing versus a top-five Knicks defense.
Buyers will be banging on Chicago’s door this month for White’s services, but the Bulls shouldn’t talk to any of them.
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