Chicago Bulls: Could Coby White be best second half rookie point guard?

There could be something special brewing in the backcourt rotation for the Chicago Bulls with the recent emergence of rookie point guard Coby White.

The race for the Rookie of the Year honors in the NBA this season should boil down to two players, obviously neither of which play for the Chicago Bulls. Those two rookies are New Orleans Pelicans forward Zion Williamson and Memphis Grizzlies point guard Ja Morant. It would take a monumental final quarter of the regular season from someone like Miami Heat shooting guard Tyler Herro or New York Knicks small forward R.J. Barrett and a big collapse from Zion and Ja to get a legit competition going in the Rookie of the Year race.

For all intents and purposes, the Bulls rookie 6-foot-5 point guard Coby White is out of the Rookie of the Year race by now. He’s hot of late, but he didn’t do near enough in the first half of the regular season to keep pace with the rest of the field.

White is going through a scorching stretch offensively in the last three games that is record breaking. He combined to score more than 100 points in the last three games. In the Bulls 124-122 home loss at the United Center to the Oklahoma City Thunder on Feb. 25, White posted a career-high 35 points. That allowed him to shatter an NBA rookie record of posting 30+ points in three consecutive games while coming off the bench.

A poor start to his rookie season could turnaround if these last three outings for White are any indication of even a portion of what he’ll produce down the stretch. He’s in a good situation if head coach Jim Boylen continues to give him more playing time alongside shooting guard Zach LaVine for the remainder of the season.

Volume scoring rookie guards tend to produce sporadic numbers during their rookie campaign. White is no exception in this regard. He just didn’t play up to the level that Morant did for the Grizzlies in the first half of the regular season.

For most of the season so far, White shot around 37 percent from the field and 33 percent from beyond the arc. But three ultra-efficient games can do wonders for the shooting percentages of a rookie guard like White. He’s drawing rather close to hitting the 40 percent mark in shooting from the field. He’s also above 35.5 percent shooting from beyond the arc.

So far this season, White is averaging 12.3 points per game, 3.5 rebounds, and 2.4 assists, to go along with a player efficiency rating of 11.4 and 0.7 win shares. He’s finally starting to turn his numbers around for his rookie season, and the light is shining through at the end of the tunnel.

But the question if White can be the best rookie guard down the stretch this season is a very pertinent one given his recent play. With the rookie Heat guard duo of Herro and Kendrick Nunn starting to slow down a bit of late and Morant now without forward Jaren Jackson Jr. with the Grizzlies, there’s a good chance that White could make a big impact in this rookie class the rest of the way.