Coby White is heading in the right direction.
The Chicago Bulls could get their breakout guard back on Thursday, as White informed reporters that he practiced fully on Wednesday. Whether or not he can take the floor against the Houston Rockets at 7:00 p.m. CT will still depend on how he feels tomorrow.
“I experienced everything in training. Tomorrow we’ll see how it feels,” White said (by Will Gottlieb). “I’m going to go through the shootaround. I’ve had a lot of treatments but overall I feel pretty good. We will see how tomorrow goes, how I wake up, if there is any pain or if I feel anything. Then we’ll go from there.
White has missed the team’s last three games because of a nasty fall during the Indiana Pacers game. As he moved to the rim in transition, big man Pascal Siakam launched into the pursuit block and landed on White’s back. The 23-year-old goalkeeper immediately grabbed his hip in pain and walked out towards the locker room.
Fortunately, the injury wasn’t as bad as it appeared, with White saying Wednesday that he even “dodged a bullet.” The Bulls also seemed to have some luck with the timing of the injury. While they struggled against Kawhi Leonard and Paul George in White’s first game in street clothes, Chicago then faced a bottom-of-the-barrel Wizards and Trail Blazers team. Thanks to Ayo Dosunmu’s 57 points and 19 assists in two games, the Bulls have won two straight.
Either way, the sooner White can get back on the field, the better. He has been by far the team’s second-best player after DeMar DeRozan this season, averaging 21.4 points, 5.7 assists and 5.2 rebounds since the calendar flipped to 2024. White also played in each of the team’s first 66 games of the year and led the league. a few minutes before this accident on the road. Few guards have proven reliable since October.
If Coby White can return to the lineup tomorrow, it will be perfect timing. A win against the Rockets would bring the Bulls back to .500 for the first time since early October. Granted, this probably wouldn’t have much effect on their ranking in Play-In tournaments. But that would highlight how much better this team has played over the last few months!
