There are a lot of shoulders in the Bulls’ guard room. And plenty have chips on them.
Coach Billy Donovan has been warned.
‘‘I’m looking forward to seeing how it plays out,’’ Coby White said Monday of the guard rotation. ‘‘Every guard is good. It’s tough decisions. This is what the NBA is. Everybody has played well in camp, so it’s going to be a tough decision for the staff.’’
Those decisions will go to another level when the preseason tips off Tuesday in Cleveland.
What’s known is that White and Zach LaVine are guaranteed to start. Josh Giddey has been slowed while recovering from an ankle injury, but he went through full-contact practices last week, and Donovan was leaning on the side of getting him some minutes against the Cavaliers.
The other shoo-in is Ayo Dosunmu, who played like a starter in the last six weeks of last season and is easily one of the better defenders in the Bulls’ backcourt with Alex Caruso now with the Thunder.
After that, it gets cloudy.
Lonzo Ball is trying to come back from a replacement surgery on his left knee that no pro athlete previously has pulled off. And while he did practice on the weekend and Monday with no setbacks, Donovan wanted to speak with him and the medical staff before the game to make a final decision about his availability.
Dalen Terry was the No. 18 overall pick in the 2022 draft, and the Bulls have to start making decisions about his long-term future.
Jevon Carter was the Bulls’ big free-agent signing in the 2023 offseason but barely saw the court in the second half of last season.
Chris Duarte was acquired from the Kings in the sign-and-trade of DeMar DeRozan and, at 27, is looking to recapture the magic he displayed as a rookie with the Pacers in 2021-22.
The list goes on, with Talen Horton-Tucker and Julian Phillips falling under the category of ‘‘tweeners’’ between guards and forwards.
Either way, it’s a lot for Donovan and his staff to decipher.
‘‘I think it’s going to be a hard situation from the standpoint of these guys are all highly competitive [and] work really hard in the offseason to get themselves ready to play,’’ Donovan said. ‘‘And, quite honestly, in some of these situations with the way our team is, they just may not get that opportunity. I’m not saying it’s Jevon, Chris or Dalen or whoever it is. We’ve got to see how camp plays out.
‘‘We’ve obviously had to deal with the injuries with Josh and Lonzo, but there’s no question that with the number of guards there, I think we’ll have to play with three guards. I think Ayo is a really, really good perimeter defender, [so we’ll] try and match someone with that. I agree, someone is going to be sitting. We’re not able to play them all.’’
Maybe they won’t have to.
While LaVine and the front office have tried to get in front of the ongoing trade rumors, the speculation isn’t going anywhere. The Sun-Times has reported the Bulls won’t attach draft picks to move LaVine, but they might attach a player such as Duarte or Carter to make the money work.
Such decisions are out of White’s pay grade. All he knows is that every day has been a battle.
‘‘Really tough, going at it,’’ White said of the daily scrimmages in camp. ‘‘You can’t just single one guy out because everybody has been playing really well and competing on both ends of the floor. We’ve got a lot of guards, especially guards with chips on their shoulders. So, like I said, it’s going to be a tough decision for the staff.’’