Coby White is entering the final year of his current contract with the Chicago Bulls. The new season hasn't even begun yet, and there's already plenty of questions about whether the Bulls will be able to keep their young guard.
Reports have suggested that White may command a contract paying north of $30 million per year in an extension. After recently locking down an extension for Josh Giddey, the Bulls are in a bit of a limited financial situation.
And that's juts the crux of this issue. If Chicago is unable to pay Coby the kind of money he is hoping for in the coming season, they're going to risk losing him in free agency for nothing. With the knowledge that their young guard could leave, the Bulls' coaching staff is faced with a dilemma: how do they handle his on-court role?
What I mean by that is this: Chicago could go one of two ways. The first option involves heavily featuring White on offense and allowing him to get up 15+ shots per game for a third consecutive season.
The Bulls have to decide how much they're comfortable paying White
The second option would be the one where the coaches opt to restrain his usage a bit. They would do this in order to preserve his trade value, and avoid the sort of potential "handicaps" that would give other teams pause in completing a hypothetical deal. Of course, both of these options are going to have an effect on how the rest of the Bulls' rotation shakes out.
If we take a look at Chicago's financial situation, we can see that Giddey's new deal already takes up a pretty large portion of the backcourt payroll. Adding an extension for Coby White would certainly cause to further complicate things in terms of how much flexibility the Bulls would have in the future. Chicago may have some tradeable assets, but a big extension demand from number 0 might force some difficult decisions to be made.
There's certainly a world in which the Bulls look at whatever number White ends up asking for and decides they simply can't justify spending that. If that becomes the case, I think they would likely begin to explore potential trade opportunities ahead of the February deadline to ensure they can get something in return.
Then again, if Chicago goes the route of lessening his role this coming season, it's a move that could backfire on them because his trade value may not end up being maximized to the fullest. Bulls fans know White has been one of the most consistent scorers on their team, but paying him isn't exactly going to be an easy situation.