3 players the Chicago Bulls should be building around

Thaddeus Young, Zach LaVine, Chicago Bulls (Photo by Nuccio DiNuzzo/Getty Images)
Thaddeus Young, Zach LaVine, Chicago Bulls (Photo by Nuccio DiNuzzo/Getty Images) /
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Coby White, Chicago Bulls
Coby White, Chicago Bulls (Photo by Thearon W. Henderson/Getty Images) /

2. Coby White, Point Guard

At this point, maybe the most potent player that the Bulls could build around is the former North Carolina Tar Heel and 6-foot-5 floor general White. In his first year in the NBA, White didn’t have the most efficient season of any rookie guard. His advanced metrics were pretty putrid, but started to pick up near the end of the regular season, prior to the hiatus.

White played in all 65 games in the season that was for the Bulls (starting in the final one of them). He and the other Bulls point guard that got the most playing time this season, former Washington Wizard Tomas Satoransky, both played in every single one of their games. But White only got the start in the final game, which resulted in a home win over the Cleveland Cavaliers back on March 10, and did well in that outing.

He averaged 13.2 points per game, 3.5 rebounds, 2.7 assists, 0.8 steals, and 0.1 blocks. White shot 39.4 percent from the field, 35.4 percent from beyond the arc, and 79.1 percent from the free-throw line. But his box plus/minus rating sat at -2.8, -0.3 value over replacement player rating, and a 100 offensive rating/112 defensive rating.

There’s a ton of room for improvement for White, but he started to really show some progress down the stretch during his rookie campaign. He did start to turn the ball over less, and shoot much more efficiently from beyond 10-feet from the rim in the final month and a half of his rookie season. Hopefully that will continue on into next season.