Coby's back? No, actually it was his left shoulder. But the Bulls insouciant third-year guard finally seems ready to make his season debut following offseason surgery.
"Soon, real soon," White repeated to reporters after the Bulls morning practice Wednesday. "Hopefully I'll be back out there sooner than later. I'm back to normal. (Working with) Windy City, it basically was like a practice with them and a scrimmage at the end. I got a chance to play, basically a simulated game with four quarters, only six minutes (each). So I'm pretty much fully back right now. Just trying to get my legs back up underneath me, playing five-on-five."
Bulls coach Billy Donovan said prior to the game with the Dallas Mavericks that White will travel with the team when the Bulls leave for a five-game Western Conference road trip beginning in San Francisco Friday. Donovan sounded uncertain about playing White in, at least both, of the the Los Angeles back to back Sunday and Monday. But it seemed possible that White would play when the team is in Portland and/or Denver next week. That would be five months since his shoulder surgery. White apparently seriously aggravated a previous shoulder problem that had bothered him some in college and his first two seasons with the Bulls.
But the 6-5 guard, nevertheless, had been something of a rare ironman around those Bulls the last two seasons, missing just three games last season and none as a rookie.
"I think I missed one college game," White pointed out. "That was it. I never missed any. I don't think I missed any high school games during my career. I missed a couple AAU games, but other than that, nah.
"It's been a long road, it's been a long five, six months," White conceded. "So it's a blessing to be back out there and playing again, it's been fun."
While perfect health departed, White never lost his buoyant personality.
Teammates said he maintained a cheerful attitude around the team and often would duck into media interviews to mimic being a reporter.
Though what the Bulls could use most is his scoring.
The Bulls reserves, though with various bright spots, rank at the bottom of the league in scoring and especially shooting three pointers.
Enter Coby, who after regaining his starting job last season the last 18 games averaged 17.6 points and 5.9 assists on 40 percent three point shooting. For the season, White averaged 15.1 points after 13.2 points in his rookie year and as a rookie getting a start for one game before the Covid shutdown. White has a fabulous run the last nine games of his rookie season, averaging 26.1 points and shooting 43 percent on threes.
With the coaching change to add Donovan last season and basically auditions for jobs with the new management, White appeared to get caught up in mixed roles. The Bulls returned to starting Tomas Satoransky, but then went back to White to close the season.
But even with the changes from starting to bench and back, White never complained about losing his job or shots or his place as a high lottery pick. He remained a supportive and devoted teammate, and appears ready to embrace that reserve scoring role the team vitally needs.
When asked how he could help upon his return, White immediately mentioned coming off the bench.
"Being in that second unit, being able use to my offensive ability, make plays, get downhill and obviously shooting the basketball," White said. "Bringing that energy on both ends of the court. They already play with a bunch of energy and they're very good defensively, so me just trying to fit in on both ends of the court."
Players are not supposed to lose their starting job because they were injured.
But the Bulls overhauled their roster last summer to such a large extent with DeMar DeRozan and Lonzo Ball starters that it seems apparent White would return to a reserve role.
Perhaps it's possible DeRozan moves to power forward with Patrick Williams injured and replaced by Javonte Green. But Donovan seems satisfied with that makeup and has been adept at blending starters with reserve players. For example, DeRozan regularly exits early in the first quarter to return with reserves.
Caruso is the highest scoring reserve at 7.8 per game. The reserves more so have traded off scoring efforts. Rookie Ayo Dosunmu is an example. He had a big game with a career high 15 points against Brooklyn Monday. Earlier, he scored 14 points against Boston. But in the seven other games he played in combined he scored a total of 18 points. Derrick Jones Jr. had one double figure scoring game in the five he played in, all similar minutes.
So it seems the Bulls are ready for Coby and Coby is ready for the Bulls.
"Just keeping your head down and grinding (through rehab)," White said. "It was a chance for me to work on other aspects of my life and grow my faith. That kinda got me through it, growing my faith, my family and the people close to me. That made it pretty easy. Strength and power was the biggest ones (for recovery), over head especially. Just getting my range of motion back and focusing on getting that extension. It came back slowly but surely. It was slow, but every day you just gotta look at the positives and you gotta look at where you were last week and the week before that. Maybe (recovering) not as fast as I wanted it to be, but I was progressing.
"I don't really fear anything (about the shoulder), White said. "When I'm out there, I'm just playing. I got out there (with Windy City) and just played."
It's all everyone wants.