NBA Mock Trade: Thunder Acquire Coby White from Bulls

The Bulls could be looking to offload young players in exchange for win-now players or picks to bolster trade packages.

With Chicago currently one of the hottest teams in the NBA, the Bulls could be looking to offload younger assets in order to make a run at the championship.

At 21-years-old, guard Coby White could fit into that category.

[Dale Zanine]

Taken as the seventh overall pick in the 2019 draft, White hasn’t quite lived up to his expectations just yet.

In his rookie season, he saw 25 minutes a night, scoring 13.2 points on 39 percent shooting from the field and 35 percent shooting from beyond the arc.

White saw a minor bump in efficiency in Year 2, scoring 15.1 points on 41 percent shooting and a nearly identical mark from three.

But in the offseason, Chicago signed a slew of win-now performers at the guard position in MVP candidate Demar DeRozan, Lonzo Ball and Alex Caruso. Not to mention their newest All-Star Zach Lavine.

After thirty-plus minutes a night as a sophomore, White has been downgraded back to 23 in this current season. He’s scoring just 10.4 points per game, and is back down to 40 percent shooting from the field.

His assists have dropped from 4.8 last season to 2.4 this season, and his rebounding has seen a similar drop.

It goes unsaid that White’s tenure with the Bulls could be coming to a close.

While Oklahoma City doesn’t have a vast array of win-now assets, they do have a few. And they could certainly find a few picks laying around that could bolster and future trades the Bulls have in mind.

Kenrich Williams would add a win-now veteran to an already fiery Bulls squad, and although the Jazz pick will be a late one, it’s hard to see Chicago fetching more than that for White.

Alonzo Adams / USA TODAY Sports

All of this, of course, hinges on the fact that Oklahoma City likes what they’ve seen from White. Which is likely not the case.

With a guard-heavy lineup, OKC would have to be certain that a fresh start would yield valuable playing time alongside cornerstone Shai Gilgeous-Alexander or budding star Josh Giddey.

With rejuvenated scoring efforts bolstered by a new start, White could function as a spark plug sixth-man for the Thunder.

Oklahoma City’s offer: Kenrich Williams, 2024 Jazz FRP for Coby White