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The Chicago Bulls stayed busy after a very busy Tuesday.
After trading Nikola Vucevic, Dario Saric and Kevin Huerter in two separate deals, they’ve made arguably the biggest deal of the week. The Bulls have reportedly traded guard Coby White.
What we know:
The Bulls are trading White to the Hornets, according to reports.
This season, White has averaged 18.5 points per game and 4.8 assists per game. In his Bulls career, which has spanned 450 games in Chicago with 250 starts, White has averaged 15.6 points per game, scored 6,924 points and was a steady piece for the Bulls even as the team never found sustained success.
The Bulls will send White and the recently-acquired Mike Conley Jr. to the Charlotte Hornets for Collin Sexton, Ousmane Dieng and three second-round picks, ESPN reported.
White was the last player remaining on the Bulls roster drafted by the John Paxson and Gar Forman era.
The Bulls built around White, and made him a featured player in coach Billy Donovan’s offense. One of his best moments was a 40-point explosion to beat the Atlanta Hawks in the 2024 NBA Play-In Tournament.
White was a face for the franchise, too. In what felt like years of transition, White was a voice in the locker room that players, especially the younger talents, trusted.
Now, the Bulls will need to find ways to replace that voice.
The Bulls reportedly made their second trade in four days earlier on Tuesday, acquiring Jaden Ivey, a 23-year-old guard who was the fifth-overall pick in the 2022 NBA Draft out of Purdue, and Mike Conley in exchange for two players.
Later, they traded Nikola Vucevic to the Celtics for Anfernee Simons. ESPN reported the Bulls and Celtics also exchanged second-round picks.
The Bulls’ core that the front office had put together in the 2021 offseason is now officially gone out of Chicago. What remains are draft picks and players with expiring contracts.
Full Trade Details:
Hornets: Coby White and Mike Conley Jr.
Bulls: Collin Sexton, Ousmane Dieng and three second-round picks
What’s next:
For the Bulls, acquiring Ivey and Simons added two guards to the Bulls’ rotation. Simons is an unrestricted free agent after this season. Ivey is a restricted free agent, but the Bulls have control over his future in Chicago.
Both White and Ayo Dosunmu were set to be unrestricted free agents this summer.
What remains to be seen is if the Bulls decide to trade Dosunmu before the trade deadline on Feb. 5.