Chicago Bulls: 3 players bound to struggle mightily on defense

Chicago Bulls players bound to struggle on defense this season: Coby White

One of the worst developments in the game of the former North Carolina Tar Heels point guard Coby White last season was his unaware play and poor on-ball defense. All around, it was tough to find many positives with White’s play on the defensive end of the floor through his first two seasons in the NBA.

While White does have the quickness, and length, to theoretically contend in defending point guards and smaller combo guards, that has yet to translate in his career to date.

It also won’t help that White will be joining the Bulls late this season. He’s missed the last few months recovering from a shoulder injury he suffered earlier in the offseason. White will be coming into a system on defense that will feature mostly different players than he played with last season.

And if the plan is to play White with the second unit in more of a scoring combo guard role this season, he’s going to be with a group that is completely different than he played with last season. White is going to be with a smaller unit that relies more on length and help defense to wreak havoc and get turnovers with hands in the passing lanes.

White will have to become a more aware defender on and off-ball this season to fit in better with how this Bulls defense is likely to operate. Unnecessary fouls on three-point shooters, getting beat off-the-dribble due to overcommitting, and getting caught napping off-ball, are all aspects that White needs to clean up.

But there is a lot of change going on around him with the Bulls right now. This will be a difficult adjustment for White as really the last remaining piece of the previous Bulls young core.