Hands down, the best and quickest stepback shot on the Chicago Bulls belongs to the talented rookie point guard Coby White.
A lot of the future of this young core for the Chicago Bulls will rely on what the former North Carolina Tar Heels 6-foot-5 rookie point guard Coby White brings to the table over the long haul. Before the 2019-20 regular season slate for the Bulls ended prematurely in the midst of the novel coronavirus pandemic, White was on fire.
But that didn’t ultimately help the Bulls finish up much better than the last two seasons of the rebuild. Through 65 games prior to the COVID-19 pandemic-induced season hiatus, the Bulls wrapped up with a record of 22-43.
A significant moment for White came through in what would be the final game of the regular season, and his rookie campaign, for the Bulls. Back on March 10, the Bulls would play in what amounted to their regular season finale against the Central Division foe Cleveland Cavaliers.
White got his first career start in that home win at the United Center back in mid-March over the Cavaliers. He also took the Eastern Conference Rookie of the Month honors for February back to the Windy City. White got those honors by really heating up in late January and throughout February. In February alone, White averaged more than 20 points per game.
Stepback confirmed 😂😂 https://t.co/5NCq66G0wd
— whitecoby2 (@CobyWhite) July 16, 2020
But this current hiatus for the bottom eight teams in the NBA means that the growth White was showing near the stretch run of the regular season was cut way too short. Bulls fans are now left wondering what is to come from White during his second season in the NBA. They will have a long offseason to do so.
White at least has a good number of his highlights getting shown off on social media to help Bulls fans get through this lengthy and mostly quiet 2020 offseason up to this point. On July 16, the UNC basketball Twitter page posted a video of White’s killer stepback shot.
That tweet from UNC basketball’s official Twitter page stated “Coby’s stebacks cause problems”. Coby then quote tweeted that with “stepback confirmed” along with two crying laughing face emojis.
Since the start of the Las Vegas Summer League last offseason, White got to continually show off his impressive stepback shot that could give opposing defenders in the NBA problems for a long time. He’s had that insanely quick stepback that would keep opposing defenders on skates since before his time with the Tar Heels.
White is a natural scorer, and really put that on display since his high school hoops days. He is the leading point getter in North Carolina high school basketball history.
During his rookie season with the Bulls, White wasn’t the most efficient on a consistent basis. But he was impressive in the stretch run of his rookie campaign. He played in all 65 games with the (starting in that final game of the regular season against the Cavs). White averaged 13.2 points per game, 3.5 rebounds, 2.7 assists, 0.8 steals, and 0.1 blocks.
And White was able to do all of that while shooting 39.4 percent from the field, 35.4 percent from beyond the arc, and 79.1 percent from the free-throw line. That amounted to a 50.6 true shooting percentage, -2.8 box plus/minus rating, and a 11.9 player efficiency rating.
White should be a real force to be reckoned with during his sophomore run in the NBA. He’s becoming one of the faces of this Bulls young core quickly and will assemble a potent projected starting backcourt next season in the Windy City along with 25-year-old rising star 6-foot-6 shooting guard Zach LaVine.