Could this former North Carolina Tar Heels star get traded to the Dallas Mavericks this NBA season?
Former North Carolina Tar Heels star Coby White has yet to play a game with the Chicago Bulls this NBA season due to a calf injury, and while the Bulls initially got off to a 5-0 start without him, they have lost five of their last six games and are clearly missing their most gifted scorer.
But is it possible that White could be in his final days in Chicago anyway?
Sam Quinn of CBS Sports feels it's a possibility, naming White as a potential piece in a hypothetical trade that would send Dallas Mavericks big man Anthony Davis to the Bulls.
"It's a slightly easier sell for Chicago. Davis is from there! Nikola Vučević has been great, but he's limited and older than even Davis. The Bulls have played so well without Coby White that they could probably justify including him in the trade and fully handing the backcourt over to Josh Giddey, Tre Jones and Ayo Dosunmu," Quinn wrote. "Having Davis around would go a long way for the development of Matas Buzelis and Noa Essengue. The Bulls have their picks and they have a bunch of expiring contracts. This is doable."
This certainly isn't the first time that White has been floated as a potential trade candidate, and given that he is in the final year of his contact, it almost definitely won't be the last.
Chicago Bulls guard Coby White. Credit: David Banks-Imagn Images.White was originally selected by Chicago with the seventh overall pick of the 2019 NBA Draft after spending on season at North Carolina, where he averaged 16.1 points and 4.5 assists per game.
The 25-year-old struggled with consistency over his first few NBA seasons and was even relegated to a bench role in 2022-23, but he then broke out during the 2023-24 campaign, registering 19.1 points, 5.1 assists and 4.5 rebounds a night on 44.7/37.6/83.8 shooting splits.
Then, last year, White posted a career-high 20.4 points per game, establishing himself as a clearly reliable scorer for the Bulls.
White is making just $12.9 million this season, which is an absolute steal given his production, but he is in line for a much bigger pay day next summer.
With Chicago in rebuilding mode, a White trade seems rather imminent, because it doesn't seem all that likely that the Bulls will want to pay him $30 million per year — and probably more — on a new deal.
The Tar Heels product is still very young and has plenty of room to grow, so it would definitely be interesting to see what White could do on another team.