Chicago’s Coby White is fresh off his best NBA campaign — one that ended at the hands of the Miami Heat, the third consecutive year that’s been the case. So sending White to South Beach in a trade that makes you worse and your most bitter rival better makes zero sense, right?

Apparently, that’s not the opinion of Bleacher Report scribe Zach Buckley.

In a piece detailing the best trade packages all 30 teams could find for their top assets, White lands with the Heat for an uninspiring return.

Chicago Bulls trade Coby White to Miami Heat in mock proposal

Here’s the deal in its entirety:

The appeal of this move for Miami is pretty straightforward. Even after Jimmy Butler tremendously tanked the franchise for most of last season, the Heat finished as a No. 10 seed but, being the Heat, still made the playoffs after dispatching Chicago via blowout in the final Eastern Conference Play-In Tournament match.

Miami was led by Tyler Herro, who had a bounce-back season, starting 77 games and averaging 23.9 points, 5.2 rebounds and 5.5 assists en route to an All-Star berth. Bam Adebayo, Andrew Wiggins, Davion Mitchell and Kel’el Ware were all productive as head coach Erik Spoelstra once again pulled all the right strings.

However, guard Terry Rozier cratered. Mitchell had a productive 30 games in Miami, but has never been an intimidating scorer. Adebayo isn’t a dominant offensive threat, and Wiggins is a solid player but not someone who will get consistent buckets. As good as they were, the Heat finished 21st in offensive rating.

Enter White, who averaged a career-high 20.4 points per game last season. He bumped that up to 26.0 points in his final 21 contests and hit 38.3 percent from three during that span. He scored 20 points or more in 18 of 19 games between Feb. 28 and April 6.

White would clearly fill a need in Miami.

Grading the Coby White mock trade for the Bulls

Buckley brings up the much-ballyhooed subject of White’s status as an unrestricted free agent after this season. Unlike Josh Giddey, the former North Carolina star will be free to sign any deal with any team next summer.

It’s also important to note, however, that Chicago is on course to have the most cap space in the league in the 2026 offseason, and it’s a far more straightforward process to re-sign your own free agents as opposed to scouring the market and overpaying for one.

Jović is a promising 22-year-old who presents an intriguing skill set as a 6-foot-10 forward who can handle and shoot. He averaged 10.7 points, 3.9 rebounds and 2.8 assists last year in 25.1 minutes a night across 46 contests. He shot 45.6 percent from the field and 37.1 percent from three (4.6 attempts).

However, Jović is a restricted free agent next summer, and that hasn’t necessarily been a treat for Chicago to manage with Giddey over the last few months.

Fontecchio isn’t necessarily a throw-in, but he’s 29 and has career averages of 5.9 points and 2.9 rebounds in 193 NBA games. His 3-point percentage dropped from 42.6 percent on more than six attempts in 2023-24 to 33.5 percent on 3.0 attempts last year.

The Bulls are much, much, much, much better off holding onto White and doing their best to re-sign him with their large amount of cap space next summer. He’s the best player in this trade and has the highest upside.