The Whiteboard: What pieces should the Bulls keep for a rebuild?

The Bulls have three to four weeks to contemplate a potential rebuild as they wait for Zach LaVine to return from pain and inflammation in his right foot. They have indicated that if they make a trade they'd like to move him first but, presumably, trading LaVine would be quickly followed by trading DeMar DeRozan and Nikola Vucevic.

But as the Bulls weigh offers and consider how they might want to contstruct the next iteration of this team they also need evaluate what they have they might be worth keeping around for the long-term.

The Bulls have three players under the age of 24 who are playing meaningful roles this season — Patrick Williams, Ayo Dosunmu and Coby White. All have been disappointing compared to expectations over the previous few seasons but all have been better this year particularly over the past four games with Zach LaVine out of the lineup. Restricted free agency is coming for Williams and both Dosunmu and White are under contract for two more seasons at very reasonable numbers.

Four games is a small sample but it's also included four straight win for the Bulls, playing better basketball than they have at any other point this season. It's worth asking what roles they could play on a rebuilt Bulls team in the future and what Bulls fans would like to see from them over the next three or four weeks while LaVine recovers and the front office considers trade markets.

Coby White is finally making shots

White has already had great size for the point guard position but not quite enough playmaking chops to justify his minute there. He's averaged 4.4 assists per 36 minutes for his career, that's jumped to 4.7 so far this season and 5.3 over the past four games.

He doesn't have the quick-burst speed or elite handle to consistently create space for himself in one-on-one situations but his jumper has been red-hot this year which is forcing defenders to handle him differently.

White's shooting was the primary appeal in his pre-draft profile but he made a merely respectable 36.7 percent of his 3s through his first four seasons. So far this year, he's hitting 41.7 percent from beyond the arc, including 42.5 percent on pull-up jumpers.

Because his jumper has been so dangerous this season, defenders are having to give him much more attention beyond the arc and he's done a great job of leveraging that over-aggressiveness and hard closeouts into lanes for driving and kick outs.

So far this season, White has started every game, averaging a career-high 33.7 minutes, producing 15.6 points, 4.3 assists and 3.4 rebounds. There are still shaky moments in his decision-making, he's not a plus-defender and even if he can keep this up he's probably not quite good enough to justify a lead creation role.

But, at this level, he's certainly viable as a complementary creator on a strong playoff team or a third guard off the bench, leading the second unit. The catch would be building out depth in the rest of the roster and a star good enough to hold it all together.

Ayo Dosunmu can slash and score

Dosunmu was a second-round pick and a surprisingly NBA-ready contributor as a rookie. He regressed in several key areas last season, hitting just 31.2 percent from beyond the arc.

His shooting hasn't come all the way back, he's at 35.4 percent so far this season, but he's a threat from beyond the arc again and his slashing is a real weapon. He's excellent coming off curls and dribble hand-offs and he's excellent at attacking closeouts.

Dosunmu is probably not a starter on a good team. But his size, energy level, defense and offensive versatility could make him a high-value role player, who could work with a variety of different backcourt partners.

Patrick Williams is catching up

Patrick Williams had his moments as a 19-year-old rookie, starting 71 games, but a wrist injury limited him to just 17 games in his second season. He appeared in all 82 games last season but didn't show the growth many fans were hoping for and expectations were fairly low for him this season.

But he's still just 22 years old, 6-foot-7 and 215 pounds with the size and quickness to defend multiple positions and one of just 11 players this season who is averaging at least 1 block and 1 steal per game. He's very dependent on other players to create offense for him but he's made 40.4 percent of 515 career 3-point attempts and shot 77.0 percent from the free-throw line.

Right there you have a young, impactful, multi-position, 3-and-D role player. He's essentially entering his third season and showing flashes of improvement in his ability to read the floor at both ends. He also has the potential to be a very good passer, something he rarely gets the opportunity to explore because Nikola Vucevic and DeMar DeRozan take priority on elbow touches and pick-and-rolls in the middle of the floor, relegating Williams to spotting up in the corner.

But he can make plays like this and having him on a roster without Vucevic, LaVine or DeRozan could bring out significant untapped offensive potential.

Williams, Dosunmu and White have each looked much more efficient and effective this season, playing their roles more confidently and competently. The Bulls have played exactly 100 minutes with this trio on the floor together, outscoring opponents by 4.9 points per 100 possessions and scoring an absurd 122 points per 100.

Now, DeMar DeRozan and Nikola Vucevic have been both on the floor with them for all but 11 of those 100 minutes but it's still instructive. What the Bulls have in their young core is, what appears to be three very solid role players. They're playing well right now off DeRozan and Vucevic but they could just as easily play those roles well off of a pair of budding stars the Bulls land in the NBA Draft over the next few years. 

At this point, the Bulls don't have a foundational piece and it's unlikely that they get one outright by trading LaVine, DeRozan or Vucevic. But they do have a decent young support system that they could plug a lottery pick into, hopefully allowing them to develop into something special together.

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