Add this Coby White trade situation to list of fireable offenses

will we hear anything about this?

There was a minor, but significant bit of news from the Bulls trade deadline sell-off last week:

I’ll let HoopsRumors summarize:

The Bulls and Hornets have amended the terms of the trade that sent Coby White to Charlotte after a physical revealed the seventh-year guard had a left calf injury

White, who turns 26 years old later this month, had played in 11 of Chicago’s last 12 games before being traded to Charlotte, but Hornets president of basketball operations Jeff Peterson suggested White would likely be held out through the All-Star break because of his calf injury.

The Hornets originally agreed to send three second-round picks, now will retain the 2029 pick (least favorable Hornets/Nuggets) and will still send Chicago the two second-rounders in 2031 (Nuggets, Knicks)

That’s what I mean by ‘minor’, a 9th second round pick from the deadline is not that big of a deal.

But what this news implies…heck, it all but confirms, is damning for this front office. They can’t get big things - like acquiring star talent - right. With this, the tampering punishment¹ after signing Lonzo Ball, not recognizing cap trade rules in Lonzo’s (pointlessly signed) extension… they also screw up little things.

As mentioned above, Coby White had a calf injury recurrence but returned to play in many of the Bulls games: which are, by definition, meaningless, and even moreso heading into this trade deadline. This included both nights of a back-to-back on January 28+29, and then most egregiously playing 30 minutes after you had already made a sell trade in a game they were blown out of.

It’s clearly one of two things, or perhaps both:

1. Coby White, in a contract year no less, had the Bulls approve him playing while injured. Either/or (or both):

   1. they didn’t think the injury was as severe as the Hornets did

   2. they thought winning games these past couple weeks were more important than the Hornets did, a team that was not selling players and winning a lot more

2. Coby White, in trade rumors all year and on a team that indicated they were selling off players that very week, re-injured his calf in the especially-meaningless Bucks game that the Bulls played him in for no reason whatsoever. It was a pointless risk that backfired.

As HoopsRumors said in their post, this has happened before recently but slightly different. The very same Hornets had a trade of Mark Williams get voided after a failed physical, but that was more about a difference of concern over a potential long-term injury. The Sixers did this amended-second-rounder thing with Caleb Martin a year ago, but Martin wasn’t playing leading up to the deadline.

The Bulls’ Coby White trade was amended before the deadline (it had to be, else it would’ve been voided), yet it was not reported until after, and it went unmentioned by Arturas Karnisovas in his post-deadline remarks.

I believe it’s something that needs to be addressed. Have Karnisovas - or if he punts like usual, especially surrounding injuries - then instead Billy Donovan justify their injury clearance process and how much of a priority they put on the regular season in these directionally adrift near-.500 campaigns.

The Bulls had a home game on Saturday this all came out. I was passive-aggressively and even directed-aggressively trying to get acknowledgement from any reporter (and KC Johnson) that someone would ask the question. It never ceases to frustrate me that the Bulls have a superpower in that their irrelevance keeps them from scrutiny.

And sure enough, per Will Gottlieb of CHGO², neither he nor anybody else asked Donovan about it.

They even had an open opportunity - not that one was required - when playing their usual role of pregame Donovan stenographer: Jalen Smith was held out due to his own calf injury, even though he also played in that Bucks game like White did though he was on the injury report like White was. Easy question: did Smith re-injure himself too? or are they being more cautious with him than White?

These little things matter more when they overall suck so badly at everything³. The big things are at the top of fireable offenses, but a little thing like this - especially surrounding player health, and to a lesser extent perpetuates already shaky trust from other front offices - should give ownership cover to clean house.

The best time to fire AK and Mark Eversley is today, the next best time is tomorrow. It’s easy to do, and there’s no downside.

1. not that they tampered, but they somehow got caught

2. I should add, I give that crew some grief in their pursuit of all-year Bulls content, but they were really really good and necessary during this deadline.

3. including lack of transparency and awful communication, though to Bulls ownership that’s a feature not a bug