NEW ORLEANS — At some point this season, one of the Bulls’ guards will have to step up with a “Not on my watch” attitude. “Individual pride” is what coach Billy Donovan calls it.

But as Wednesday’s season-opening 123-111 loss to the Pelicans showed, the search for that person continues.

When the Bulls (0-1) traded Alex Caruso to the Thunder for Josh Giddey in June, they added a lengthy ball-handler but also created a hole on defense, where Caruso was both the lead communicator and a pit bull who locked onto the opposing team’s best guard.

Forward Patrick Williams is considered the best wing defender the Bulls have, but what about in the backcourt? What about when it comes down to blowing up screens or just locking down a ball-handler in isolation?

“I get it — Patrick’s a good defender,” Donovan said. “I think for every team, there’s a formula you’ve got to do to win. We can’t turn the ball over, we cannot get dominated the way we did [against the Pelicans] on loose balls. And the other part of it is we’re going to have to play with some more physicality because we are undersized in a way. Patrick can’t stop five guys, and we’re going to have to do it as a team. There’s going to have to be some individual pride.”

Coby White hopes the line can start behind him. He showed flashes of better defense two seasons ago, but when his role changed last season to be more of a high-minutes scorer, he admittedly slipped a bit on defense. Over the summer, he worked hard on his conditioning, looking to remedy that issue and help account for Caruso’s absence.

“I told myself at the start of the summer, ‘I want to be a two-way guy,’ ” White said. “And [Donovan] always challenges me on that. He always talks about that leap that I had a few years ago. Last year, it kind of went down with the usage rate and the amount of minutes. I want to get back to being that guy on defense that can be relied on, be very detail-oriented on that side of the ball.”

White sees the Bulls as having guards who can defend at a high level, but only in certain matchups. Against an athletic ball-handler, Zach LaVine is generally the best option. If it’s a taller guard, then it’s Giddey, and if it’s a more physical guard, White wants his name called.

What about a guy who can just lock down a player no matter his strengths or weaknesses? Ayo Dosunmu is a key reserve for now, but he was on the floor in the final few minutes Wednesday night as Donovan was making one last push to get back in the game.

“We obviously don’t have just a guy you can say, ‘He’s a stopper,’ like Alex Caruso was for our defense,” White said. “That’s the reality of it. Now, do I think that Ayo is one day going to become that? For sure. That two-way player that can be an offensive player and be named All-Defensive? For sure. I think Ayo can guard anyone.”

That sounded good to Dosunmu.

“It means a lot,” he said of White’s assessment. “It means he has a lot of confidence in me. And, yeah, I think I can do it.”

Someone needs to.