Chicago Bulls head coach Jim Boylen told reporters on Monday he's going to start rookie point guard Coby White on Tuesday against the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Bulls fans have been dying to see White in the starting lineup, especially after his superb February run when he won Rookie of the Month.
Boylen says moving White to the starting lineup is just the next phase of his development:
“Well, I think the biggest thing is this is the next stage in his development,” Boylen said of the decision to go with White, via Joe Cowley of the Chicago Sun-Times. “He’s earned this opportunity. He’s grown into this opportunity. And we’ll take it a game at a time and we’ll coach him the same way we’ve been coaching him. I’m excited for him.
“He started off as a guy that was off-the-ball [at the start of the season], we gravitated him more to the ball, and now he’s going to be on the ball more with that first group. I think the progression has been good, it’s been good.”
White is averaging 13.1 points, 3.5 rebounds and 2.7 assists per game on the season for the Bulls, though his numbers have shot up of late. He’s shooting 39.4 percent from the field, 35.5 percent from beyond the arc and 79.0 percent from the free-throw line.
White is the first rookie in NBA history to score 30-plus points in three consecutive games coming off the bench. The Bulls didn’t draft White with the seventh overall pick in the 2019 NBA draft to be a bench player. Eventually, Chicago will hand the keys to the offense to the youngster and let him run the show alongside shooting guard Zach LaVine, who is currently out with a quad injury.
The Bulls are 21-43 on the season, which is 11th place in the Eastern Conference standings. They're eight games behind the eighth-seeded Orlando Magic.
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