Bulls’ Coby White is ascending into a star. But can Chicago risk keeping him?

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The Chicago Bulls are winning basketball games these days, which might seem like the point of a basketball team. Yet, the organization has long been in dire need of a full teardown, which makes this recent development all that more complicated.

They’re winning, in large part, due to the play of Coby White, who has channeled his inner Kevin Durant lately.

White is averaging 29.3 points over his past 13 games, and has morphed into one of the best plug-and-play guards in the NBA, due to his proficiency of playing both with the ball in his hands, and without. He’s been assisted on 75% of his 3-pointers and 34% of his two-pointers, which are numbers that highly agree with the eye-test in regards to his ability to both self-create, and play off of the attention given to others.

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After a bit of a sluggish start this season, the 25-year-old is sporting a true-shooting percentage of 61.1% after the turn of the calendar year and over the course of 33 games. He’s also a solid secondary ball-handler who doesn’t turn the ball over much, and his defense has improved over the past three years.

Big picture, White has fans wondering: “Is he good enough to build a roster around?”

Do the Bulls have a building block?

While there isn’t a clear answer yet to that question, White is currently the best candidate on the Bulls to warrant such an approach.

The hot name of late, Josh Giddey, comes with a large platter of concerns in regards to spacing and off-ball implementations. Giddey would need highly specific players around him for such an experiment to even get off the ground. White is, by far, the easier player to install in a role as a featured player given that his skill-set allows for much broader roster construction ideologies.

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Bulls rookie Matas Buzelis can be used as a bit of a litmus test, as he can develop in a variety of ways. The 6-foo-10 lanky forward is a solid shooter, but not an overwhelming one. That shot may improve, or it might end up being average.

Furthermore, Buzelis has solid on-ball chops, and it’s reasonable to expect him to become more of a ball-handler as he matures. With his…

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Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/nba/article/bulls-coby-white-is-ascending-into-a-star-but-can-chicago-risk-keeping-him-150810523.html

Author : Morten Stig Jensen

Publish date : 2025-03-27 15:08:00

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