White, Donovan agree game is ‘slowing down’ for Bulls’ PG originally appeared on NBC Sports Chicago
Coby White was a lightning-rod throughout his rookie season. Tasked with a variety of roles -- off-the-ball flamethrower, off-the-bench spark plug and off-the-cuff offensive centerpiece when injuries struck -- he at times dazzled with historic scoring displays. But just as often, cold shooting spells or the turnover bug struck for games or weeks at a time.
Now, the Bulls need a leap -- from lightning rod to all-around point guard. White knows this. Billy Donovan, who has termed White a “primary ball-handler” in his offense, certainly does too.
With the team practice portion of training camps up and running as of Sunday, White said after Monday’s practice that the work he put into honing his decision-making this offseason is paying dividends on the floor so far.
“Playing with the guys, my decision-making has came (sic) a long way from last year,” he said with a laugh following Monday practice. Then, in typical White form: “I still got a ways to go for sure. Like I said, it's gonna be ups and downs, just gotta keep moving, gotta keep getting better, that's all I can ask for.”
Throughout White’s first NBA season, that roll-with-the-punches, growth-focused mindset was a boon. It helped catalyze the post-All-Star break scoring tear that has sparked so much optimism for him entering this season. The task at hand now becomes channeling the electric energy that defines his game.
“Just slowing down. I think last year I played at one speed a lot, especially in the halfcourt,” White said when asked the differences in his processing from this year compared to last. “I feel like for me, it's just making the simple play, not making it harder than what it needs to be.”
Whether that translates to, you know, actual games remains to be seen. Anyone’s progress can appear revolutionary in intrasquad -- and, candidly, the only glimpses we’ve gotten into said practices come from carefully selected clips from the Bulls’ social media accounts.
Plus, when played the way Donovan envisions, the point guard position requires one’s all-encompassing attention. White’s development is still in the early stages, as his season-long assist and at-the-rim finishing figures from last year bear out.
“I think that point guard position is really, really challenging. There’s a lot on his plate. I think even for him and speaking to him about his rookie year, there’s so much of a learning curve for young guys coming in, especially as a perimeter player. He just said the size of the basket, passing angles that normally were open he couldn’t get the ball through,” said the Bulls head coach. “Things slowed down. Now, as a point guard, it’s not only about you playing well, but really absorbing and reading the game and understanding matchups, understanding who has the hot hand, understanding what’s going on, what does the team need, do we need to play fast or slower. And obviously as a coach, you have to help him. And our staff needs to.”
White, at least, is checking all the boxes required of him so far, in Donovan’s eyes.
“But he’s been great. I think he’s really eager to get better,” Donovan said. “I think he’s really driven to evolve and improve. But I think now in this position that he’s been, I think you can see he’s really digesting a lot in trying to figure out not only himself offensively but how does he incorporate and really help build out the group.”
It appears the Bulls’ offense under Donovan will be predicated on just that -- the group. Zach LaVine called the new system “free-flowing,” without clear delineations between him and White at the point and shooting guard spots. Wendell Carter Jr. is poised to take on an expanded role. Ball and player movement will be paramount.
“It's just more movement, way more movement, on and off the ball,” White said. “It's not just thinking this year and calling for a ball-screen at the top of the key or on the wing. It's a lot more movement with our bodies, on and off the ball.”
Donovan has also brought his preaching of interchangeability into action by mixing up lineup configurations and practice squads during group work.
“We’ve done a lot of that; just playing different players with different guys just almost every single day,” Donovan said. “I think that’s important to get different guys playing with each other. We’ve had obviously Lauri (Markkanen) and Wendell (Carter Jr.) playing together some. We’ve had Coby (White) and Zach (LaVine) playing together some, we’ve had [Tomáš Satoranský] playing with different guys.
“We have really mixed up the teams just to see what it looks like and I also think it’s good competitively when you are in practice and you mix up teams. You find out a lot of times what guys really impact winning, too. It really necessarily hasn’t been so much ‘Hey, we want to see these guys play together;’ more competitively just mixing up the teams.”
So take with a grain of salt that White was caught running with the second-stringers in the above Twitter video released by the team Monday morning. His responsibilities will go beyond that this season. How he responds to them will play a major part in dictating the Bulls' fate.
