Chicago Bulls Stepping up with Zach LaVine Out: Coby White
Last but certainly not least is Coby White, who has taken full advantage of the opportunity LaVine’s absence has provided him individually and as a result, has been crucial in the Bulls success over their last five games.
After a move to the bench shortly after the all-star break, White found himself struggling to make a consistent impact. Once LaVine was ruled out, head coach Billy Donovan inserted White back into the starting unit to provide a scoring punch that would be missing without him.
White has done more than just provide that scoring punch. For the first time in a long time, he is playing like a point guard more than a scoring guard.
His 17.2 points and 6.4 assists per game are nice, but they are nothing when compared to the almost non-existent turnovers he has been committing. Over the last five games, in 30.9 minutes per contest, he is averaging just 1.4 turnovers per game.
That is 7 turnovers in 154 minutes of being on the court running the offense. It is not what any Bulls fans would have expected but it is a welcome tendency to see the young guard displaying.
More importantly, he seems to have control of both the game and himself like never before. Sure, he will still have bad shooting nights and moments where he is going too fast, but the control he has taken of the game recently has been crucial in the Bulls winning three out of their last five games.
White was atop the list of players that needed to step up with LaVine going out for multiple games, but what he has done is even better than I could have imagined. It seems like he may have a real chance of remaining in the starting five when the team is back at full strength.