25-under-25: Coby White has arrived

There were signs that Bulls guard Coby White had star potential. Everybody could see the promise from his rookie season, when he averaged nearly 24 points per game over his final month. Or in year two, when he upped his efficiency and volume, following the typical path of a developing point guard.

Then came two years of stagnation — to put it gently — and the question of "What can Coby White become?" which began as a question full of promise, appeared to be answered: a run-of-the-mill bench guard who brings scoring pop but not a ton else.

White entered the 2023-24 season — his fifth in the NBA — with the lowest expectations of his career. He averaged career-lows across the board the year prior, but he did enter 2023-24 as the Bulls starting point guard after coming off the bench all of 2022-23. It wasn't White's final chance to prove he was an NBA player, because he had already proved that he belonged in some capacity. But it did feel like the 2023-24 season would give us a better idea of how exactly White fit into Chicago's future plans.

It started off a little erratically. White's scoring bounced back, and he looked relatively comfortable in a starting role again, but his ceiling didn't appear to have changed and he couldn't be relied on to lead the Bulls nightly. He would cycle through a few good games, a few bad games, and a few middling games. Then December rolled around, and the bad games became less frequent. The common middle-teen scoring nights turned into common 20-plus point nights, and the occasional 20-point night turned into the occasional 30-point night. White was electric, and Chicago went 9-5 in the month thanks in large part to his 22.6 points and 5.7 assists per game.

But Bulls fans didn't want to get fooled again; White had numerous hot stretches in his career before that point, but always seemed to regress to the mean with a cold streak directly after. If this time was different, great; but Bulls fans weren't going to hold out hope.

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This time was different for Coby White

January showed, as it always does, and Coby White just kept scoring. More efficiently than the month before, in fact. The trepidation began to dissipate as Bulls fans started to believe what they were seeing. Coby White was turning into the player he looked like on occasion for the first four years of his career. He was shooting at an elite clip (39 percent on 6.7 attempts) and hitting timely shots seemingly every couple days. In just a few months, White's career prospects had done a complete one-eighty.

By season's end, White averaged 19.1 points, 5.1 assists and shot 37.6 percent from deep on a career-high 7.0 attempts per game. The numbers were significantly better but still didn't do justice to how much better White looked on the court and how much more of a positive presence he was on the court. He was in command often in 2023-24, after getting lost in the flow of a game too often in season's past.

White didn't overhaul his game in 2023-24, he just really bought into his strengths. He's fast, but not in a typical NBA point guard manner. He doesn't have speed similar like Ja Morant, who bends and slides and slithers around the court, and he also doesn't move like De'Aaron Fox, who uses astonishing acceleration to get to his spots. Instead, White can only be described as "horizontally bouncy."

While some players possess vertical bounciness leading to highlight dunks, White bounces from side to side like he drove over one of those speed boost panels on Mario Kart. When defenders think they have him contained, he simply bounces away from danger, then bounces toward the hoop, where he often bounces (vertically, this time) for a layup or occasional dunk.

From nonessential to indespensable

As quickly as he fell out of Chicago's future plans, White emerged from the 2023-24 season as the most important part of Chicago's future. Now, still only 24, he appears to be a cornerstone player for the Bulls. Is he the player they'll build around when the franchise inevitably (hopefully) decides to prioritize youth and development? Probably not. But can he be a core piece on a good, growing team? If the 2023-24 Coby White is the Coby White we see each year, then yes, absolutely.

And boy, did Chicago need that to happen. Because outside of White, there's not a whole lot of young talent on this team for Bulls fans to plant a flag in going forward. Patrick Williams is a good NBA player who can still grow into a very good NBA player, and 2024 draft pick Matas Buzelis brings a pretty intriguing mix of size and skill. But White, at least for now, is the rock among this team's young players.

In 2024-25, Chicago will be fighting for a play-in berth once more. The roster is still too talented to tank, but not talented enough to compete for anything significant. Still, even in a season that feels pretty inconsequential for the franchise, Coby White's continued growth as a reliable, everyday point guard gives fans something positive to cling onto.

Coby White ranked No. 19 on FanSided's 2024-25 25-under-25, ranking the best young players in the NBA. Check out the rest of the list here.