Everyone knows Coby White can shoot the ball.
A career 36.7% shooter behind the 3-point arc, White is prolific and efficient from long range. But the true test for the Chicago Bulls guard has always been what he can do outside of his signature shot.
In the six weeks since the Bulls traded Zach LaVine, White has been focused on everything besides his shot — getting downhill, facilitating for his teammates, pushing the pace in full court. This versatility has paid off for White since the All-Star break, and it earned him Eastern Conference Player of the Week honors Monday after he averaged 27.7 points on 46% shooting in three games.
The Bulls are enjoying a rare stretch of positivity, winning five of their last six games — and White is the engine driving them through every win and loss.
When the Bulls traded LaVine, the move placed a new expectation on White’s shoulders as the centerpiece of the offense for the rest of the season. So far, he has delivered.
Before the All-Star break, White was averaging 14.3 field-goal attempts per game, third on the team behind LaVine and Nikola Vučević. In the 13 games since the break, White is averaging 18.6 attempts. He leads the team in shots, made field goals, points and minutes in that span.
Change is hard. White spends most games being harassed by top defenders such as Houston Rockets forward Dillon Brooks. He gets face-guarded and top-locked and double-teamed. Most opponents attempt to neutralize White’s 3-point shot, forcing him to get his points at the rim.
White is taking advantage of this strategy. Since the All-Star break, he’s taking 2.1 more attempts per game at the rim. He has scored the fourth-most points in transition (377) in the NBA this season, producing 32% of his total scoring output in the open court. And he draws a foul on 13.1% of those plays, forcing opponents into poor — and often desperate — decision-making.
“A lot of teams now have been trying to run me off the line, especially in transition,” White said. “I’m just taking what the defense gives me.”
White’s mentality in transition has permeated through the rest of the Bulls roster. At the start of the season, the Bulls struggled to physically challenge opponents. They couldn’t draw fouls or get buckets at the rim. Their entire offense was predicated on outrunning and outshooting their opponents.
After losing their top scorer, the remaining Bulls have adopted a new ethos — forcing more fouls, getting to the rim and bodying up their opponents despite being undersized.
“Early on, a lot of teams were bullying us, to be honest,” White said. “I think as a team, we kind of got tired of it. We see what happens when we consistently put forth the effort to be physical on both ends of the floor. It’s been working out in our favor.”
White didn’t reach this point as quickly as he hoped.
In the early months and years of his career, it was difficult not to compare himself with other players who entered the league at a similar time — Zion Williamson, Ja Morant, Trae Young, Luka Dončić.
“Everybody’s journey is different,” White said. “Some players are blessed to figure it out right away. Some people are just different.”
It’s hard to tell whether all of this will pay off for White. He finished second in Most Improved Player voting last season after an extensive process to transform himself into a facilitating point guard. But when the Bulls traded for Josh Giddey last summer, White was unceremoniously pushed back into the two-guard position without conversation.
After six years in Chicago — and with one year left on his contract — White’s role never has been the same from one season to the next. As the Bulls begin the next stage of constructing a roster without LaVine, it’s still unclear how the front office will prioritize White in a rebuild.
But through all of this instability, White is trying to focus on the work and embrace the opportunity to expand his game.
“I wasn’t very good when I came into the league,” he said. “I had a lot to learn. I knew that. It was all about humbling myself to the point where I looked in the mirror and said: ‘I have to get better. I have to get stronger. I have to be more physical. I have to figure out who I am as a player.’
“It was hard to humble myself and ask those questions, but it needed to be done.”
