Coby White has cooled off, and the Bulls offense cannot afford that

the improvement looks real, just not completely sustainable

Unlike a critically-beloved high-concept network sitcom in the 2000s, NBA seasons don’t get cancelled due to lack of interest. It’s been relatively overlooked due to the holidays up towards the biggest one of all, the NBA trade deadline, but the Bulls are still playing games, like all the time.

I will try to get something up regularly, even if the games are not that interesting compared to commenting on the hilarious Zach LaVine trade market.

While it’s very purposeful to break up the segments of the season as pre-Zach and post-Zach, it’s a bit more arbitrary but still accurate that the past four games the Bulls have kinda stunk. They have won 2 of them: one because they were playing the Spurs and another because they offensive rebounded their way to a clutch toss-up win against the Hawks.

And a huge focus is on Coby White, who has really cooled off from distance and it’s tanked the team’s offense:

Again, kind of arbitrary: White has been playing a ton of minutes while dealing with a sore shooting wrist, but he was doing that this entire post-Zach run.

It could be a lag in the scouting report. Teams are more up on Coby as they are more respecting him as a shooting threat. It’s great that he’s countering that by going inside, but 2 is less than 3 and he’s still not made any leap as an inside finisher.

But what will be worse for the offense is if Coby starts to get more gun-shy:

Notice the attempts are down from three with the makes. Part of the revelation of a post-Zach world is that the Bulls put the ball in someone’s hands who would launch instead of probe (or whatever Zach likes to think he’s doing).

We have to assume no matter what happens with LaVine, it won’t mean getting someone who is going to dominate the ball. It’s either going to be prospects or role players, and that relative lack of return means the team’s fortunes rest on the internal development of White.