Bulls trade BOTH Coby and Ayo (and Dalen Terry and Julian Phillips too)

a few hours to see if there's a plan, here

I wrote up this bit on Coby, and then was going to go into the bizarre Guerschon Yabusele acquisition before previewing the rest of this morning. Then news broke that Ayo Dosunmu and Julian Phillips have been traded to the Timberwolves. We kind of know what they had to offer so I am not expecting much return here like they got not much in the White deal -yfbb

The Bulls have been one of the most active participants in this season’s trade deadline. On the one hand: the Bulls! On the other hand, we shouldn’t mistake activity for achievement.

On Wednesday, 24 hours before the deadline, the Bulls traded Coby White to his hometown team - and the team directly below them in the standings - in the Charlotte Hornets.

It was a very underwhelming return:

• Collin Sexton, another small guard who just turned 27 and is an unrestricted free agent this summer

• Ousmane Dieng, a big PF (or small C) who turns 23 in May and will be a restricted free agent this summer if the Bulls even want to risk the qualifying offer ($8.7M) on someone who’s shown nothing in the NBA in four seasons

• 3 second round picks: least favorable of Hornets/Nuggets in 2029; Knicks 2031; Nuggets 2031

I understand the league context depressing Coby’s value as Coby has been injured much of the year, and is approaching unrestricted free agency this summer. And I understand the Bulls context to where it’s possible there were better offers out there but Arturas Karnisovas really wanted to give another chance to two former lottery picks, in addition to his Jaden Ivey acquisition the day before.

But all that said…I think many playoff teams in either conference dropped the ball not beating that offer for White.

That’s on them, they are trying to win playoff series and that is a totally different strata than whatever the Bulls are trying to do.

What are the Bulls trying to do, again? Will Gottlieb said it well at Chuggo:

White represents the kind of player every team should build around. The former seventh overall pick and the final holdover from the Gar Forman, John Paxson regime, he turned himself into a fringe All-Star talent, navigating whatever role changes were thrown his way as the Bulls iterated year-to-year.

If the Bulls had built a better team over the last few seasons, it’s possible White would be getting ready to re-sign in Chicago. Alas, it’s best the Bulls move on.

As I said the day before, the Bulls should have had an idea of what they were willing to pay Coby this summer, and if they thought it was unrealistic then fine, trade him to the highest bidder.

But even that should be said with the caveat that the Bulls can’t evaluate anything correctly, so they may have underestimated Coby’s value AND overestimated the cap-space-having teams¹ ambitions to sign him. Any team that traded for him gained his Bird Rights, and I expect Charlotte to re-sign Coby this summer.

And then you have to add more waitaminute, here, because a better-managed team would’ve come to this decision a year ago. They held on to White for that going-nowhere season, and then publicly² and through rumors have made it known that he was likely going to be kept.

It is likely true that it no longer made sense for Coby White to remain a Bull. Coby White is a good player who can fit on any serious team. The Bulls are not serious.

1. fewer of those after this week’s moves, as both Utah and Washington made huge acquisitions

2. last summer “I wouldn't put any limitations on this roster and the way Josh Giddey and Coby White are playing”, when that’s his job