INDIANAPOLIS — Coby White doesn’t pretend to ignore the trade chatter.
That would be pointless. He knows what’s going on. Barely a week away from the Feb. 5 NBA trade deadline, White is the centerpiece of the Chicago Bulls’ offerings on the market. Consensus around the team and the league as a whole seems to pile up in agreement — if one player is going to get dealt in the next week, it’s most likely to be White.
White knows that teams have shown interest. He also knows there’s not much he can do about it. Any of it. Sure, he can make a strong impression, something he has been happy to do by shooting 49.1% from 3-point range over the last six games. But ultimately, the decision of where he will play on Feb. 6 belongs to someone else.
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“A lot of it’s out of my control,” White told the Tribune. “Obviously there’s a lot of scenarios out there. And you’ve got to always look at it like — it’s good to be wanted, you know? But I don’t really know what’s going to happen. I don’t have any clue.”
The trade-deadline decision is connected to another choice the Bulls must make this summer — whether to re-sign either White or Ayo Dosunmu, both of whom are in line to hit unrestricted free agency for the first time in their careers.
White is a more prolific scorer and ball handler. But Dosunmu is a better defender and more accustomed to filling a complementary role. Most importantly, he’s expected to be considerably less expensive, which would allow the Bulls to maintain a through-line in their backcourt while still exploring the “flexibility” they’re seeking after the expiration of up to eight contracts.
This is a notable shift for the Bulls, who once saw White as a budding young star who could be a building block with whom to create the foundation for their future success. Time passes quickly in the NBA. In his seventh season, White has become an awkward fit in a rapidly lengthening timeline for the Bulls’ youth development project.
“I’m getting older,” White said. “I’m about to be 26, so I’m not really that young in the league anymore in terms of being in the NBA. …It depends on what direction they go in. If they just go into the total rebuild and go really young, super young, and just try to build over the years — if they feel like that’s what’s best for the organization, that’s it.”
This was never really White’s team. Even in his breakout season as a Most Improved Player candidate, he was still always just a key part of the supporting cast behind Zach LaVine and DeMar DeRozan. Growing pains came and went when the Bulls moved White out of the point guard position last season in favor of Josh Giddey, a shift that began to re-center the offense around a new center of gravity.
Still, White has always been the heartbeat of the Bulls locker room. He marshals and rallies his teammates with the confidence of a captain. And although he is expected to at least test the market this summer if he remains in Chicago through the end of the season, White said he still feels the Bulls understand his value as both a player and a person.
“I feel very wanted since I’ve been here,” White said. “I’ve had multiple great conversations with the front office. Obviously me and Billy (Donovan) are close. I’ve always felt wanted, especially the last couple years.”
Trade conversations are frustrating. White regularly cracks a joke or two to that effect. Most NBA players are perfectionists. The lack of control — and, often, transparency — surrounding roster decisions rankles athletes who are used to spending hundreds of hours fixing the way their pointer finger drags into their follow-through.
But there’s more to it. These are decisions about people. The debate about whether to trade White or Dosunmu is mostly about basketball. But for White, it’s also a conversation about the future of himself and one of his best friends, a teammate he has supported and cheered on for years.
That doesn’t change, even when the stakes are raised. Neither do White’s feelings about his teammates and coaches and the Bulls as a whole. The guard hopes to carry this benevolent optimism with him as he enters this final week before the deadline — and whatever comes after.
“I just want to see everybody succeed,” White said. “Whatever direction they decide to go in or they’re deciding to go in, I want all these guys to succeed. I got drafted here, so I want the organization to succeed. I hope it works out for them, whatever they decide.”