Josh Giddey and Coby White can be the Bulls backcourt of the future...on one condition

The Unlikely Duo

It’s a guard sport.

Nikola Jokic earned his ring in 2023 and just wanted to go home. Giannis Antetokounmpo earned his ring in 2021 and will most likely leave Milwaukee down the road.

Aside from those elite players, guards run the sport.

Whether it’s Walter Clayton Jr. vs. LJ Cryer in the NCAA Championship or Shai Gilgeous-Alexander vs. Tyrese Haliburton in the NBA Finals, we’ve witnessed our share of greatness in the backcourt.

In Chicago, fans have waited for a duo who is worth their time and money. It’s been a tough stretch since Derrick Rose left town.

One approach was to circumvent any team building timeline and form the Three Alphas with Dwayne Wade, Jimmy Butler, and Rajon Rondo. There were too many egos in that room and not enough authority from the front of the room.

When a rebuild appeared on GarPax’s radar, dumping Jimmy Butler was their avenue for obtaining younger players and a better draft pick. They put all of their eggs in the Zach LaVine basket. If they actually followed through and surrounded him with significant talent, their evaluation could have been sound. LaVine was 22 and coming off a 51.5%/38.7%/83.6% shooting season in Minnesota. As point averages were raising around the league, acquiring a talented scorer was huge.

They hoped consecutive 7th overall picks would be enough to build a contender, but it was 2 more years until they selected a guard. Coby White was their man, but only the point guard spot was there for the taking.

White had plenty of question marks attached to his name heading into the draft. Is he just a scorer? Will he improve enough defensively to hold his own? Can he take care of the ball more effectively? Will his playmaking abilities catch up to his shooting to allow him to slot in as a facilitator?

GarPax bet on the talent and intangibles. But did they really see another pure scoring threat as the best match next to LaVine?

It wasn’t good enough, especially on the defensive end, and Arturas Karnisovas wanted nothing to do with that pair starting anymore games together after watching just one season.

The Sweet Life of Zach and Coby was a fun moment in time, and they’ll always have a ton of love for each other. It just wasn’t the solution.

After that breakup, we got to experience the joyful woe-is-me spiel from the front office for 3 years about Lonzo Ball’s injury like we did back in the Derrick Rose days.

Lonzo was actually the perfect quarterback for that offense. As Coby White shifted to a bench sparkplug role, Lonzo excelled in the first half of the season. He finished with 13.0p/5.4r/5.1a per game and shot a crazy 42.3% from 3PT. LaVine also had a very good season, but his numbers lined up very similarly to the few years before and after. The duo worked, but a new level to LaVine’s game was still not unlocked.

In the injury aftermath, the patchwork began. Coby still wasn’t trusted with a starting spot, so LaVine was next to a mix of Ayo Dosunmu, Alex Caruso, and Pat Beverley throughout the 2022-2023 season. There was no way Zach and Coby was the future plan…again. Right?

Well, the special thing about Coby is his ability to improve under any circumstances. He adapts with the best of them. He grabbed a stranglehold on the starting point guard spot in 2023-2024 and played a strong brand of basketball next to LaVine. I started to believe Coby could be the long awaited answer at point guard despite his long, rocky journey.

It turns out that Karnisovas did not believe. His first move to “reshape” the roster that had been left dormant for 3 years was…to acquire a point guard.

Of all the moves on the table (or off the table, shoutout Matt Eberflus) that offseason, I was shocked that:

1) Alex Caruso was the first to go

2) They traded with the 57-win up and coming Thunder

3) They wanted a point guard

4) The player they targeted had just been benched in the playoffs

I know everyone and their mother wanted the Bulls to get draft capital in a Caruso trade, but Giddey was a worthwhile prize for a front office who refuses to collect picks.

And so the unlikely duo was formed. AK’s backcourt. Alec and Josh. Sub-Zero and the SLOB Wizard.

Coby had an inconsistent 2024-2025 season, but it was arguably his best showing since being in the league. He took over the King of the 4th crown from DeMar and came up with clutch shots when they needed them. He averaged 20.4p/3.7r/4.5a and shot 45%/37%/90%.

Giddey overcame a brutal start to his Bulls career with low confidence and zero effort on defense to turn in an amazing second half. He finished with 14.6p/8.1r/7.2a and shot a career-best 37.8% from 3PT. He developed his shot (thanks and goodbye Peter Patton) and utilized his stature to attack the basket more effectively.

Both players took steps last season and have unlimited ceilings. They may cap out at their current levels, but I’m not going to be the one who assumes this is it. Whether or not either of them becomes a superstar is up in the air, but both of them are already very good players. We know AK wants a bunch of those…so are these two good enough to be the Bulls’ guards for a long time?

On One Condition

I love a Coby and Giddey backcourt. They can run the court, they have size, they can both score at multiple levels, and they complement each other well. Coby has been able to slide back into an off-the-ball role and be a primary scorer. Giddey is cemented as the quarterback, and Coby is the heart and soul of the Bulls.

The big speed bump ahead is the salary cap.

With Giddey nearing an extension as an RFA in the $25M/year range and Coby up for an extension next summer, the Bulls could be looking at a backcourt taking up $60M or more of their available money.

We know the Bulls don’t spend into the aprons, so every “cap” we look at moving forward should really be the 1st apron. In 2025-2026, they have approximately $43M available under the 1st apron (via Spotrac). After Giddey’s extension, they won’t have much wiggle room and will have a full roster anyway. Besides the swirling trade rumors that could lead to a minor deal of some sort, the roster is nearly set in stone for next season.

In 2026-2027, most of the team comes off the books. Marc Eversley bragged about their financial flexibility next summer, and it’s accurate. The problem is the Bulls don’t know how to land free agents, and they haven’t been collecting any assets to trade away when an under-contract star becomes available. Nobody actually goes to free agency anymore.

So even though they will have money to spend, the big fish won’t be coming to Chicago. The more likely scenario is they find “win now” players like when they acquired Nikola Vucevic and the rest of the veteran cast when they first took over the Bulls. Their plan to “not skip steps”, their excitement for salary cap money, and their lack of draft picks are all contradictory to each other.

Since they will try to compete and improve the roster every year, the money will be spent in some fashion. And this year’s problem will return: the money will be gone. Can Coby and Giddey account for $60M of a $209M (28.7%) 1st apron threshold?

Two ascending guards is a better use of that money than whatever else they could dream up.

I’d be confident in those two staying in Chicago for that kind of money on one condition: Matas Buzelis becomes a star.

I’ve written about the Bulls’ futile pursuit of very good players instead of stars. They will only become relevant again when they have a star. I’m not putting it past Coby or Giddey, but their real hope right now is Buzelis. We have only seen flashes, he only has 1 year under his belt, and his usage needs to get ironed out, so it’s not like we’re sure of an exponential development.

But with an aging Vucevic down low and a strange mix of wings at the power forward spot, there isn’t much else to get excited about.

The defensive missteps by the backcourt would get covered up by a star Buzelis and a tough frontcourt.

The shooting slumps by the backcourt would get covered up by a star Buzelis.

The turnover machine nights by the backcourt would get covered up by a star Buzelis.

Coby and Giddey may have fatal flaws as a duo if they are relied upon to carry a team to the promised land.

If Buzelis lands on this trajectory, I would love to see this backcourt play alongside him for many years. We’ve already seen those 3 light up the league a few times:

Last season, those 3 were a part of the Bulls’ 3rd best 5-man lineup by net rating. Surprisingly, Patrick Williams was in the best one, but those top two lineups are now irrelevant moving forward because LaVine and Lonzo Ball were traded.

The best offensive lineup (122.9 rating) was Giddey/Coby/Huerter/Buzelis/Vucevic. The defense suffered, but let’s be honest, that frontcourt was getting bowled over.

Buzelis’ rookie contract will help the books for 3 more years as well. When he’s up for an extension, the number won’t matter if he is dominating night in and night out. He always talks about being the best. Being the greatest player ever. Not putting a ceiling on himself. Having the drive to be great.

That determination will take him far, and hopefully it lifts his teammates around him.

In a few months, we’ll see the Giddey/Coby/Buzelis in action for (hopefully) 82 games. It will probably be rocky and the defense will get leaky. But that trio has a chance to form something special.

For a Bulls team lacking direction, their guards have already started leading the way.