During one of the longer stretches of downtime for second-year head coach Billy Donovan and the Chicago Bulls during the January slate, there’s time to reflect on what’s happened so far this season. The Bulls are in a great spot right now as they’re sitting on a season-best eight-game winning streak following their Jan. 3 four-point triumph over the Orlando Magic at home.
A player that Bulls fans should be appreciating right now with the way he’s played lately is the third-year point guard Coby White. In the absence of point guard Lonzo Ball for about a five-game stretch in the last couple of weeks, Coby filled in admirably in the starting unit for the Bulls. He played some of his best basketball of the season, and it came at the exact time this team needed it.
Five of the six best game scores of the regular season to date for Coby came between Dec. 20 and Jan. 3. Considering the fact that he made his season debut back on Nov. 15 in a win over the Los Angeles Lakers, that is a pretty incredible run.
It makes sense that it took Coby at least a month to get his game going after making his season debut in mid-November. He’s a volume scorer that often relies on rhythm shooting to get his offensive game up and running.
And it sure looks like he’s found his rhythm lately.
If you look back to Dec. 20 (a seven-game stretch), White only scored fewer than a dozen points on one occasion. He was also a net positive on the floor in all but one of those seven games. And even in the one game where he wasn’t a net positive, he was still a net neutral.
This great run for Coby throughout late December and early January is encouraging thanks to a past career trend of his. Coby tends to pick up his game after the turn of the calendar year. That trend was very noticeable for Coby in his first two seasons in the NBA.
He might be turning a corner earlier this season, but if this trend holds, he could be in for a nice run with the Bulls in his third year. The signs are already there that he could be finding his game for good.
History tells us the Chicago Bulls will see Coby White turn a corner for good this season
Granted, I do want to note the fact that Coby will probably always be a streaky scorer. That’s just part of his game.
Nonetheless, throughout December and January thus far, Coby has averaged around 16 points per game, three rebounds, four assists, one steal, and 0.5 blocks. And he’s shot around 47 percent from the field, 44 percent from beyond the arc, and 81 percent from the free-throw line.
This awesome run for Coby might not slow down for good at any point for the rest of this season if his previous career trends hold up. Coby has posted the best offensive rating, defensive rating, and true shooting percentages of his career in February and March compared with any of the rest of the months through his career to date. January tends to be a turning point for Coby in his game in the last two seasons too.
Last season actually had some similarities to highlight for Coby compared to this one. Coby (along with the rest of the Bulls team) came into last season under different circumstances. There was a completely new coaching staff for the Bulls and a late start to the season due to COVID-19 circumstances.
Yet, Coby was able to start turning a corner for good in January last season. He improved his offensive rating from 98 to 108 and his true shooting percentage jumped from 49.5 to 53.5 between December and January last season. And his number only continued to pick up from there through the rest of the season.
I also don’t feel like I do have to dive too deep into that hot stretch that Coby found during the latter stages of his rookie campaign. He was the Eastern Conference Rookie of the Month in February, the final full month of his rookie season.
This tends to be a trend in Coby’s game in the last few seasons that once he finds his groove, it hangs around for good to some degree the rest of the way. If that holds true this season, this could be a special finish to the campaign for Coby and the Bulls.
Coby and the Bulls are now sporting a record of 25-10 following their Jan. 3 win over the Magic, good for the top spot in the Eastern Conference standings ahead of the Brooklyn Nets and Milwaukee Bucks. Next up for the Bulls is a meeting with the Washington Wizards at home on Jan. 7.