Bulls' Coby White statement just made the future painfully obvious

The Chicago Bulls would like to keep Coby White around for a long time, but according to a front office executive who spoke with Spotrac’s Keith Smith at Summer League, they know it may be difficult based on his current contract. Since White is only slated to make $10 million next season, the Bulls can’t give him an extension that’s worth what he’d likely get in free agency.

“The contract is what it is. We probably can’t extend him, because the rules don’t allow for us to pay him enough,” a Bulls front office executive told Smith. “But we want Coby to be a Bull for a long time. He knows how we feel about him.”

The question is, will White want to stick around in Chicago?

What’s the deal with Coby White?

Next season, White is only slated to make roughly $12.9 million. At that number, there’s a significant limit regarding how much the Bulls can give him in a potential extension.

At most, the Bulls can hand White a four-year, $89 million contract—a veteran extension worth 140 percent of the salary of the final season of his contract, with eight percent annual raises.

That comes out to around $22.25 million per season, and with how well White has been playing for the past few years, he could get way more than that on the open market.

Though free agency money is drying up more and more every year, especially with teams trying to dodge the second apron, teams could certainly try to make space for White. And Chicago could be one of those teams.

They could try to free up some money in an attempt to keep White around, but it will be up to him whether or not he wants to stay in Chicago or go elsewhere.

And with how much Josh Giddey is supposedly demanding this summer, Chicago may not have a ton of money to work with when they try to bring back White next offseason.

That said, the Bulls appear to be very interested in keeping White around beyond this year. The interest is there. They love White. They want to keep him as part of their core. But with how little they can legally give him in an extension, the choice is somewhat out of their hands.

From here on out, Bulls fans should keep an eye on two key factors: How much White wants to stay in Chicago and what other teams are setting up to have cap space next summer.