White is finally playing like a more consistent point guard, especially compared to earlier this season. However, will it be enough to keep the front office from shopping for a starting point guard this summer?
Coby White is seeing progress.
The Bulls guard is seeing maturity in his own game.
Even on Monday in Miami, facing the third-best defensive team in the league as far as points allowed, White was very focused on picking his spots.
He was held scoreless in that opening quarter, but three assists and just one turnover from the point guard wasn’t going to anger anyone on the coaching staff.
Especially with the demand on White since the start of the season has be aggressive with his shot, but don’t hunt it down. Be a distributor, but also be yourself.
The last few weeks that all seems to be finally clicking.
“I think it’s just me continuing to get reps in and continuing to play,’’ White said. “Me being down on myself throughout the game because I have a bad start isn’t helping my teammates at all or helping my team. So I think I just got to continue to play through it. Because I’m going to make mistakes. Nobody is perfect. How you react from it is the biggest thing from it.’’
It’s been a journey for White under first-year Bulls coach Billy Donovan. He was given the benefit of the doubt to start the season, named the starting point guard despite just one start there in his rookie campaign, and then eventually lost that job after the All-Star Break.
Now it’s his again.
And while it would have been nice to have Zach LaVine to once again run alongside White in that starting unit, that’s just not the case with LaVine still in the health and safety protocol.
“He continues to get better,’’ Donovan said of White. “Certainly starting the year as a full-time point guard and then coming out of the starting lineup off the bench, He’s just gotten better. And the thing – I’ve always said this about him – I admire about him is he’s got a good perseverance and will to him. He’s a good fighter when things are not going well for him you know he’s gonna come back and respond. But I do think he continues to get better, he improves, and certainly since Zach’s been out, he’s played very, very well for us.’’
Where it will get interesting, however, is in the offseason. Will the Bulls search out a veteran point guard to take the starting role and continuing to mentor White? Or do they hope that a full offseason under Donovan and the coaching staff will help him progress enough that they can rely on him consistently next season?
That will speak volumes about how far White’s come this season.
Coach talk
Donovan was asked about coaching Nikola Vucevic as opposed to preparing to coach against the All-Star center, and was even asked if he felt the big man was underrated league-wide.
“I don’t think anybody in the league feels that way about him,’’ Donovan said. “I think any time you’re preparing to play against him, at least when he was in Orlando, you know he’s just a tough cover, just because of his skill set – 7 feet, shoots threes, can play with his back to the basket, he can post, he can take midrange jumpshots.
“So he maybe doesn’t get a lot of maybe the fanfare that other guys get, but I think if you talk to players and talk to coaches around the league, I think that they would have a high opinion of Vuch and just what he’s been able to do throughout his career.’’
from Chicago Sun-Times - All https://ift.tt/32T8MXo
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