The Chicago Bulls committed to a rebuild when they traded Ayo Dosunmu, Nikola Vucevic, and Coby White in 2025-26. They also committed to Josh Giddey as the guard of the future over Dosunmu and White in specific. It's still early in 2026-27, but it's looking like they made the wrong choice.
While Giddey is younger and perhaps more well-rounded on offense than Dosunmu and White, both players would've been better fits with Caleb Wilson than what the 24-year-old is proving to be.
Giddey and Wilson haven't exactly hit the ground running as a dynamic duo. Wilson has thrived individually relative to his inexperience, but Giddey has yet to find his own success as a player or teammate under new head coach Tiago Splitter.
Though it's too early to make any final proclamations, Giddey's inability to assert himself when the Bulls need him to take over and the defensive flaws his critics are none too surprised by are tough to overlook.
This isn't to say that Dosunmu or White are perfect players, nor that keeping them would've been simple. Both Dosunmu and White were pending free agents who re-signed with the teams they were traded to—teams that have more realistic postseason ambitions than the Bulls.
If the option existed to re-sign Dosunmu or White, however, then the Bulls seem to have made the wrong decision.
Ayo Dosunmu, Coby White would've fit better with Caleb Wilson
When a rookie is a team's go-to scorer, as Wilson has been with a team-leading 19.1 points and 17.5 field goal attempts per game, adequate support is essential. First-year players inevitably face a learning curve in a high-volume role and having teammates who can take pressure off of them is thus essential.
Though Giddey's playmaking ability can help, his 9.3 points and 9.0 field goal attempts per game do little to alleviate pressure from Wilson as a scorer.
Dosunmu, meanwhile, is currently averaging 16.3 points per game on an injury-plagued Minnesota Timberwolves team—on .513/.382/.800 shooting, no less. He's also widely regarded as a plus defender, which would've done far more to make the Wilson pairing work than Giddey's deficiencies.
White has admittedly been on a minutes restriction as he returns to the Charlotte Hornets' rotation, but he's a proven scorer himself at 19.1 points on .441/.370/.856 shooting over the past three completed seasons.
Josh Giddey's passive scoring tendencies are hurting Caleb Wilson
Rather than having a volume scorer who won't shy away from tough matchups, however, Wilson is playing with a questionable fit who has been tepid, at best, on offense. That's only increased the weight of the burden he's carrying and acted to make the game more difficult for him to learn.
Yes, there's obvious value in learning by fire, but there's no reason Wilson's role couldn't remain the same with a teammate like Dosunmu or White taking pressure off of him and giving Chicago a better chance at victory.
Unfortunately, what's done is done—and the Bulls will pay Giddey more than what Dosunmu and White are making as more ideal fits. Giddey will make $25 million per season over the next three years, while Dosunmu will receive $22.4 million per year over the next five and Coby White will make roughly $24.67 million over the next three.
Perhaps Giddey will turn things around and prove that his flashes of All-Star potential in 2025-26 were real. If he can't, then Wilson will have the wrong running mate.
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