Coby White trade grades for Hornets-Bulls deal

Coby White has been one of the Chicago Bulls’ lone bright spots during an otherwise forgettable stretch of basketball in the 2020s. Chicago chose White with the No. 7 overall pick in the 2019 draft, and watched him improve year-over-year to become arguably the team’s best player. Now the Bulls have traded White before he becomes an unrestricted free agent this summer.

The Charlotte Hornets have been the hottest team in the NBA over the last two months, and now they’re acquiring White and Mike Conley Jr. from the Bulls for Collin Sexton, Ousmane Dieng, and three second-round picks. The deal was first reported by Shams Charania.

Here are the details on the second-round picks Chicago is getting from Charlotte.

The Hornets are loading up for a playoff run, while the Bulls are tearing it down in their effort to retool a mediocre roster. Let’s grade this trade for both sides.

The Hornets have one of the NBA’s best young cores in place with LaMelo Ball, Kon Knueppel, and Brandon Miller leading the way. White offers an immediate upgrade from Sexton in the backcourt with his ability to play on- or off-the-ball with high-volume three-point shooting ability.

White has always been a streaky shooter, yet he winds up with a similar three-point percentage every year. White has made either 37 percent or 38 percent of his threes each of the last four seasons. He’s been a little slowed this season while battling a calf strain, and he’s only made 34.6 percent of his threes at the time of the trade.

White is not a very good defender. He currently ranks in the 14th percentile of defensive EPM. He’s an offense-first player ranking in the 84th percentile of offensive EPM, but this hasn’t been his best season. The Hornets have already bought low on White at the trade deadline, and it’s possible they can resign him to another bargain contract. He’s only 26 years old so he could have multiple suitors, but the North Carolina native could be motivated to stay in his home state with a rising young team.

I like the idea of White as a super sixth man in Charlotte who can play some point guard if Ball endures more injury troubles. This is a small price to pay for a good player.

Grade: A

The Bulls decided they weren’t going to resign White this summer, so they traded him for future assets while they still could. That’s fine, but Chicago could have gotten way more for him at last year’s deadline if they knew what they were doing.

It sure feels like the Bulls are fully rebuilding after trading White, Nikola Vucevic, and Kevin Huerter ahead of the trade deadline. Anfernee Simons will be a good replacement for White, but he needs a new contract. Jaden Ivey will step into a big role, but he hasn’t looked like the same player coming off a horrific leg injury, and he’ll also be a restricted free agent this summer. Chicago has one healthy big man on the roster in Jalen Smith, and he’s more of a power forward than a center as the league opts for more two-big lineups. The Bulls could be very bad the rest of this season.

Trying to get more ping-pong balls rather than going for another doomed play-in tournament run is a good move for Chicago’s front office, but it feels like too little, too late. The Bulls might be able to get to No. 9 or No. 10 in the reverse standings, but they’ll still need a lot of lottery luck to move up. Chicago deserves it: the Bulls have refused to lose on purpose for the last five years unlike the other star-less teams, and they have one of the biggest fanbases in the league that is starving for a superstar. Landing Cameron Boozer or Darryn Peterson would change everything for the Bulls, and now there’s a greater chance it happens even if it still requires a ton of luck.

The Bulls should have traded White a year ago to maximize his value. By holding onto him until the very last second, they got basically nothing in return for him.

Grade: C+