What is likely the most notable injury of the past four months for the Chicago Bulls is the former North Carolina Tar Heels point guard Coby White. A couple of months ago, White underwent a successful shoulder procedure following an injury he suffered away from team basketball activities.
That upper-body injury for White looked to sideline him, between the time for surgery and rehab/recovery, for roughly four months. The timeline for his recovery looked to originally keep him out likely through the start of Training Camp and the preseason.
But there was good news that surfaced surrounding the recovery process of White after the successful shoulder procedure late this month. In an interview on the night of the 2021 NBA Draft, the Bulls executive vice president of basketball operations Arturas Karnisovas mentioned that White is “doing great” in his recovery.
Arturas Karnisovas on Coby White’s recovery from shoulder injury: “He’s doing great. He’s recovering. He’s going through stages. Spirits are up.”
— Rob Schaefer (@rob_schaef) July 30, 2021
Said going through recovery with team doctors, looking better every day.
Update to the injury status of Chicago Bulls point guard Coby White
Specifically, Karnisovas noted that “he’s going through the stages” and that his “spirits are up”. Along with the part of the post on Twitter from Rob Schaefer late in the night of July 29 stating that White is “looking better every day” by way of “going through recovery with team doctors”, there’s a lot of encouraging parts about his timeline coming back from injury.
There was no specific mentioning of when White could return for the Bulls. But we still have a good while before even Training Camp or the preseason begins. Assuming that White was not going to play in the Las Vegas Summer League stint with the Bulls next month, he’s not missing a whole lot if he can return at some point during Training Camp.
The original fear for White was that he would have to miss some of the start of the 2021-22 regular season. If his recovery timeline continues to show encouraging results through the rest of the summer months, then that definitely won’t be the case.
Adding depth at the point guard position will be a key emphasis of the remainder of the offseason for the Bulls. Karnisovas and the Bulls already did a nice job, though, of adding guard depth with limited resources through the draft. The Bulls landed the former Illinois Fighting Illini star junior point guard Ayo Dosunmu with the 38th overall pick in the second round of the draft.
Another addition for Karnisovas and the Bulls on the night of the draft was an undrafted free agent signing in former Oregon State Beaves senior combo guard Ethan Thompson. For the time being, it appears that the Bulls have enough guard depth to at least make it through Training Camp if White isn’t back yet.