Bulls’ Coby White gets some love in NBA Rookie Survey

NBA.com’s John Schuhmann has made the NBA Rookie Survey an annual tradition, and he just released the results of the 2019-20 version. While Bulls rookie Coby White doesn’t lead the pack of 42 rookies in any of the categories, he’s actually tied for most categories with a vote with five. Second-round pick Carsen Edwards is the other one with five.

Note: Players were asked not to vote for themselves, college teammates or NBA teammates. These votes were discounted.

Rookie of the Year

To the surprise of nobody, No. 1 overall pick Zion Williamson is on top of this category with 35% of the vote, edging out No. 2 pick Ja Morant (27%).

White got just one vote for Rookie of the Year. I don’t envision White being a legitimate candidate for this award because I think he’s going to struggle a bit to start his career, and the Bulls currently have a number of other players to get minutes at his positions. However, the hope is he’ll get better as his rookie season goes on and can play a significant role down the stretch.

Best career

The results of this one were a shocker. Cam Reddish got 19% of the vote to lead the way despite a poor freshman season at Duke. Reddish was followed by Ja Morant (16%) and De’Andre Hunter (11%), with White, Zion, RJ Barrett and Jaxson Hayes all at 5%.

White getting 5% here isn’t crazy. He’s a talented prospect who could wind up being a legitimate point guard of the future in Chicago. White getting the same amount of votes as Zion is wild, though, and Reddish getting the most votes is eye-opening.

Biggest steal

Bol Bol (pick No. 44) and Kevin Porter Jr. (pick No. 30) lead the way here with 19% of the vote each. White is then in a group of five at 5%. The point guard is by far the highest pick of this group, with Grant Williams next at pick No. 22. In fact, White is the highest pick to receive a vote in this category.

Best defender

Matisse Thybulle (37%) and De’Andre Hunter (29%) dominate this category. While White isn’t exactly known for his defense, he still earned a single vote here. Let’s hope he can surprise defensively and come close to living up to this vote.

Best playmaker

Ja Morant is the runaway winner of this category at 40%, and it makes total sense given he led the country in assists by a wide margin and showed off incredible vision at Murray State. Darius Garland (15%) is in second, and then there’s White and Ty Jerome at 10%.

White may not be a natural at his position and will need time to develop, his spot in this category is reasonable given he was the third point guard drafted.