Preseason training camp often is considered a time to learn. So with the Bulls in Nashville practicing this week at Belmont University, I decided to immerse myself in academia and stay at a hotel on the campus of the university known as Southern Ivy for its selective enrollment and research and academic credentials: Vanderbilt University.
It also gave me a chance to seek out the statues of alumni Will Perdue, Luke Kornet and Jay Cutler. No luck yet, though there were sculptures named “the Fault” and “Eternal Hope,” which seemed to suggest Chicago pro sports.
In any case, in the tradition of higher education I decided I should administer a test. Given we are basketball fans, I knew I had to make it multiple choice.
So how can the Bulls go from a non-playoff 40-win team this season to a 50-win Eastern Conference contender?
A) Unleash the Big Three of LaVine, DeRozan and Vučević.
B) Bring on the Bench Brigade with Caruso, Carter and Craig.
C) Try to get Dalen Terry to come out of his shell of shyness.
D) It’s Coby White and Patrick Williams time.
"This season I'm going to go back to my roots,” White said. “Go back to the high school Coby. That's the vibe I'm on right now. That's the wave I'm on. I'm just going with the flow right now.”
White actually was talking about his free flowing shock on the top of his head these days, which happens to be the same look he came to the Bulls with in 2019. When White was ranked with the likes of Bernard King and Robert Parish among the top high school scorers ever. But White also could have been talking about the difference he — along with North Carolina buddy Patrick Williams — can mean to changing the Bulls fortunes and enabling them to finally bust out from the post-Lonzo Ball surgery slog that has bogged down the team’s progress.
DeMar DeRozan, Zach LaVine and Nikola Vučević.
They all have a chance to be All-Stars. All have been multiple seasons in their careers. We pretty much know what we’ll get from them. The same with the likes of Alex Caruso, Jevon Carter, Ayo Dosunmu and Torrey Craig, forceful, aggressive role players who will do more to keep opponents from scoring than they will score on their own. That’s fine; they’ve been those guys their entire careers.
The two players who have the potential to be so much more are Williams, 22, and White, 23. Both going into their fourth and fifth seasons, respectively, are where NBA players in this era who leave college after one year are on the cusp of a breakthrough or a breakdown.
They either, as the cliche goes, are who they are. Or they have that landmark season that launches their careers. And the fates of their team.
Williams and White are poised. But do they have the poise, and does it finally justify their places in NBA analysis when both were top-10, highly regarded draft prospects whom many believed could be top stars for their teams. There have been major injuries for both White and Williams, and frequent role changes as they’ve had to adapt to everything around them instead of being featured. But White’s play became more spirited and determined the second half of last season and the Bulls, after entertaining trade thoughts the previous year, rewarded White with a multiyear extension. Williams is now in position to follow that lead, both financially and favorably in the box scores.
If they can continue and emerge from the shadows of their teammates and tremendous potential, the Bulls could be a lot more than anyone around the NBA expects.
White is considered one of three candidates along with newly acquired Carter and Dosunmu to start at point guard. But something that gets overlooked about White is what he can do and has done that neither Carter or Dosunmu ever entertained. Which is dominating.
"When I got to the league, and before that, I was known as a scorer. That's who I was,” White pointed out earlier this week at Media Day. “I was the leading scorer in North Carolina basketball history in high school (more than you know who). Obviously, my thing was scoring.”
White was asked repeatedly, and in his welcomingly honest and candid way as much or more than anyone on the team has talked about being a facilitator, helping his better known teammates get in position to do what they do. But the Bulls probably more so need White to do what he can do, which is score.
We finally saw evidences of that the second part of last season when White began to take a star trek turn going boldly where few Bulls have gone, which was to the rim. Finally healthy after an injury-riddled 2021-22 season and playoff debacle against the Milwaukee Bucks, White showed not only the shooting prowess but the power and elusiveness to get to the rim and make plays. Remember, this was a kid during his rookie season after being left off the Rising Stars team for the All-Star game in Chicago who averaged 26 points in nine straight games before the Covid league shutdown.
White never got that opportunity again amidst Bulls coaching and management changes and a player who probably more than anyone on the roster was put in positions where almost no one could succeed.
Yet, he never complained and, instead, embraced the suck, as that Cubs manager would say.
“Like I said since I've been here, I'm just here to play basketball and do what I can to help my team win,” said the 6-foot-5 guard. “Whatever role that is. I've been in so many different roles since I've been here. For me, it's just whatever I can do to help the team win. I feel good about the position that I'm in. Honestly, over the years, it might sound weird, but I kind of learned and grown to love the chaos and unpredictability of my situations. I kind of love being in those challenging situations. Kind of just to prove to myself what I'm really made of and how I continue to fight through everything. This year whatever role I get, hopefully it stays stable and I'm in that role for the majority of the year and I continue to grow and find that consistency that I'm looking for.”
Just let Coby be Coby.
It sounds simple enough, but here’s a kid who was one of the nation’s greatest scorers prep scorers ever. And who showed in nine magical games he could do that in the NBA. Imagine what that could mean with the likes of LaVine, DeRozan and Vučević.
“I'm just going to play my game,” said White. “No matter what's going on, I'm just going to be me. Be who I am. I don't feel like I need to change anything or do anything differently than I normally do. I'm just going to continue to grow. Whatever ends up happening, I'm going to try to play that role to the best of my capabilities. But no, I'm just going to be who I am, be who Coby is at the end of the day.
"I just want to grow and continue to get better,” White added. “The biggest thing is to just be more consistent. Play the same way day in and day out. Obviously, you're going to have bad nights here and there. Try to eliminate all the bad nights, especially the consecutive bad nights. In my career, I've been labeled as an up-and-down player. And to a certain extent, that's kind of true. Some nights you don't know which Coby you're going to get. So for me, I just want to be more consistent. And that started this summer with the mental approach.”
Like with his buddy from Charlotte and Florida State, Williams, who was the fourth selection in the 2020 draft, a 6-foot-7 man/child who scouts at the time of the draft said you might not think much of him now. But in five years he might be the best player from that draft. That’s probably not going to happen with the career arcs of No. 1 pick Anthony Edwards, LaMelo Ball and Tyrese Haliburton. But Williams is powerful, had the best three-point shooting percentage on the team last season and often defends the opponent’s best power player because of his defensive abilities.
While Williams fits perhaps more than anyone on the team — and maybe it’s unfair given he came into the NBA at 18 and then missed basically an entire season injured — Winston Churchill’s prophesy of the riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.
Williams knows he’s been there, but he also seems ready to step out. If also up.
“I never want to shy away from the pressure but step into it,” Williams said after the opening practice Tuesday. “I don’t think anything has gone wrong (with my NBA career). I feel extremely comfortable going into my fourth year. I’m not ashamed. I’m pretty proud of the steps I’ve taken to get to this point and I think I’ve put myself in a really good position going into my fourth year to show what I can do.
“I’m from Florida State. You (media) guys know my stats there don’t match up to a No. 4 pick. It just doesn’t,” Williams admitted about his career scoring average of just under 10 points, which is similar to his college season. “Talent wise, for sure, I feel I deserve to be a No. 4 pick. But I truly believe winning takes care of everything.”
“Consistency,” Williams agreed like White, “is going to be a big factor. Learning how to be really good every night. That’s a big step all the great players have taken in their careers at different times and different levels, but they all have taken that step. It’s not going to be perfect every game, but for me it’s just going out there with the intent to be aggressive, play downhill and make plays I know I can make on both ends. Being more consistent rebounding, pushing the ball, being aggressive in transition, creating off the dribble, catch-and-shoots. Just a more forceful me. I feel I’ve shown it all. Now it’s time to put all the pieces together, put the puzzle together.”
White is a year ahead and is the more valuable. DeRozan joked after practice Tuesday that he hopes the phlegmatic Williams finally gets called for a technical foul this season.
“Pat, he’s still not talking more,” said DeRozan with a laugh as Williams, which he never much did before, playfully commented during DeRozan’s media session while he waited ask turn. “If he gets a tech this year, one, I’ll pay it and two, you'll all see how far he came.”
Williams came out of last season saying he finally understood he’s really a wing player. That’s not going to occur, at least immediately, with both DeRozan and LaVine back with the team. But Williams said coach Billy Donovan has altered the offense to provide more playmaking for the so called power forwards, like he and Craig and perhaps also Caruso. Donovan seems dedicated to the smaller lineups.
“The guys at the four are more involved with the ball in their hands and making plays with the ball in their hands,” said Williams. “So it’s not necessarily, I’m a four. It’s more so being a wing, which I like more. It’s going to allow guys like me specifically, Coby White, Ayo to be able to go downhill, do what we are really good at and affect the game on the offensive end.”
Donovan said he’s still uncertain about a starter at power forward, but Williams appears to be the favorite. Donovan has indicated in the past he likes White’s injection of offense off the bench, but White could be too much of an offensive factor to limit playing time off the bench.
“Going into this training camp, they're going to see which one fits better with that first unit,” White noted. “But like I said, it is what it is at the end of the day. We all love to compete. We all want to win. And that's the biggest thing for us, we just want to win. So whatever happens I think we're all going to agree.”
But there’s those special talents North Carolina’s leading prep scorer has that few do.
“Pushing the pace, “ White said, “playing in transition, playing with speed. How I played in college and high school, I think that fits me.”
Maybe it’s just in the hair. Time to break out and go back to the future?
“My body,” said White with a smile, “is telling me to just have the ‘fro right now.”
It’s meant big things in the past. Talk about a hair-raising journey. If White and Williams can deliver this season, then the Bulls may just be looking at being their own institution of high scoring.
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