The Chicago Bulls have a few players that could be testing the free-agent market this summer if the team doesn’t extend their contracts soon. One NBA analyst thinks a Bulls player would thrive outside head coach Billy Donovan’s system.
This is a pivotal offseason for the Bulls’ front office, which wants to compete with stars DeMar DeRozan and Zach LaVine. They are in talks to extend Nikola Vucevic on a long-term deal. While the Bulls may want to win this core, they didn’t even make the playoffs with the current team. Losing point guard Lonzo Ball didn’t help their cause, but many in the front office think his career is over.
Coby White is predicted to play better in a new system
One point guard many in Chicago had high hopes for, Coby White, will be a restricted free agent this offseason. Grant Hughes with Bleacher Report wrote about five free agents that could succeed more with a new team. Hughes wrote that White is the perfect candidate for a new city:
“Coby White’s failure to meet expectations as the No. 7 overall pick from 2019 is at least partly due to a tough situation. The restricted free agent found himself in a high-usage on-ball role as a teenaged rookie, and the growing pains were predictably pronounced.
As the Bulls acquired more experienced (and expensive) guards, his responsibilities diminished. That reduced role obscured his steady year-over-year improvement. Quietly, his true shooting percentage hit a career-high 57.2 percent in 2022-23. He and Alperen Sengün were the only players 22 or younger to log at least 70 games while averaging over 14.0 points, 4.0 assists and 4.0 rebounds per 36 minutes with that level of scoring efficiency.
That’s some admittedly thin-sliced data, but a zoomed-out perspective makes just as compelling of a case for White as a breakout candidate. He’s heading into his age-23 season with four years of experience and consistently climbing catch-all metrics. Both his Estimated Plus/Minus and Box Plus/Minus have improved every season, and he broke into positive territory in the latter for the first time in 2022-23.
White has excellent positional size at 6’5″, reps as a primary ball-handler and secondary scorer, an 85.4 percent career free-throw percentage that suggests his 36.7 percent hit rate from deep will climb and promising per-minute numbers for his age.
The only thing he needs to bust out is a chance to play someplace that doesn’t have well-compensated All-Stars and All-Defensive team members ahead of him in the pecking order.”
White was inconsistent with the Chicago Bulls
White has been a frustrating player to watch in Chicago. He has flashes where he looks like he can be a star for the Bulls in a game. In the next game, White looks like a bench player. White’s inconsistency probably won’t go away with a new team. He had a chance to earn more reps this season with Ball’s injury. White didn’t take advantage of it like a former number seven overall pick should.
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