Chicago Bulls rookie point guard Coby White had an up and down run during his first year in the NBA, and could soon be one of the best in his draft class.
The 2019-20 NBA rookie class is pretty top heavy, and has been since the night of the 2019 NBA Draft. The likes of New Orleans Pelicans potential superstar forward Zion Williamson and Memphis Grizzlies uber-athletic point guard Ja Morant command the tone of this rookie class to date. But there’s others, like Chicago Bulls point guard Coby White, Denver Nuggets forward Michael Porter Jr., and fellow Grizzlies standout Brandon Clarke, that could also take the torch for this rookie class in the near future.
This rookie class wasn’t as prominent out of the gates as the one from 2018-19. Guards like Luka Doncic of the Dallas Mavericks and Trae Young of the Atlanta Hawks were stars almost right away. And there wasn’t really a player in the current rookie class that could claim that same stake. Morant could be argued now, and Zion should get there in the very near future. But others like White, MPJ, and even New York Knicks wing RJ Barrett could take some time to get there.
In the Bulls case, White is one of the more important pieces of the young core at this point in time. He was the seventh overall pick coming out of the North Carolina Tar Heels basketball program in the 2019 NBA Draft. While he didn’t come out of the gates hot, he did start to get in the right groove down the stretch, prior to the novel coronavirus-induced NBA season hiatus.
Here’s a look into three rookies in this class that are considered to be more valuable than White for the Bulls at the moment that he will surpass later on down the line.