Chicago Bulls: Why it’s time to bench Coby White

At a glance, Coby White is off to a solid start this season. Averaging 15.9 points per game on the 6-8 Chicago Bulls, things seemingly are off to a decent start for the second year guard.

After taking a deeper look, both at the numbers and at his play, things are far worse than they seem. Before his recent cold shooting streak, fans were mostly optimistic about White’s start to the season.

Sadly though, it seems his recent struggles are emblematic of larger underlying issues. Amongst all qualified point guards, Coby White ranks 49th out of 50 in player efficiency rating. 

The league average PER is 15.00, while White sits at an abysmal 10.94.

That is unacceptable for a starting guard, but so far this season the Bulls have not had much of a choice. Ravaged by COVID-19 and subsequent contact tracing, the Bulls’ depth has been decimated, leaving White as the clear choice to start for the shallow roster.

But now with veteran point guard Tomas Satoransky returning to the team, there are no excuses left for White.

Besides PER, there are numerous other metrics that point to the fact that White’s solid counting stats (15.9 PPG, 5.9 AST, 5.2 REB) are nothing more than empty numbers.

In terms of NBA Math’s Total Points Added, Coby White is about as bad as it gets. The metric is a ‘catch all’ attempting to compile a player’s impact on both ends of the court to one number. By this metric, White is lagging way too far behind.

On both the offensive and defensive end of the court, White has had a negative impact on the Bulls’ play.

Proof in the pudding for the Chicago Bulls

This is also reflected in Value Added. According to ESPN NBA analyst John Hollinger, Value Added reflects “the estimated number of points a player adds to a teams season total above what a ‘replacement player’ (for instance, the 12th man on the roster) would produce.” (ESPN)

For example, superstar point guard Damian Lillard leads all point guards in Value Added this season with 102.1. This means that compared to a ‘replacement player’, Lillard has given the Portland Trail Blazers an additional 102.1 points on average according to the VA metric.

A second year player like White would not nearly be that high, but considering rookie guard LaMelo Ball has a 36.3 VA, a former Bulls’ third string guard Cameron Payne has 16.2 VA on the Phoenix Suns, it can be expected that White would be adding some form of value to the Bulls.

That is not the case. Amongst the 50 qualified guards, White is one of the only two with a NEGATIVE VA. White sits at 49th with a -0.4 in the metric, only above Washington Wizards backup Ish Smith (-0.6 VA).

Although the a deep dive in stats shows White’s many shortcomings, its more than clear from just watching him play that he is not ready for a starting spot yet.

White lacks key attributes that every NBA point guard needs to have: strong shot selection, solid court awareness, and an overall ability to lead an offense.

White struggles to get the offense into a rhythm, and instead ends up jacking up misguided shots like the one above.

If the Bulls are serious about chasing the eighth seed in the Eastern Conference, moving White to the bench is the correct move. With Sato back, LaVine now has a veteran guard to start alongside and help him run the offense.

Meanwhile, White could benefit from getting run against second units, giving him more time to develop from net negative, to the up and coming guard Bulls fans hope he can become.