With the Chicago Bulls’ regular season opener near, it’s time to look at their projected starting lineup and rank it from worst to best.
Man, the start of the NBA season really crept up on us, didn’t it? Most of the teams will open play on Dec. 23, and that includes the Chicago Bulls, who will begin their 2020-21 campaign against the Atlanta Hawks.
If you’ve watched any of the Bulls this preseason, you probably have a good idea of what new head coach Billy Donovan’s rotations will look like this year, particularly the starting lineup. For the most part, this year’s starting five resembles last season’s outfit, which engenders either concern or excitement depending on how much blame you assign to former coach Jim Boylen (to be clear, he deserves plenty).
However, if you merely view Boylen as a symptom of a larger disease — though the team trimmed some of that fatty tissue by replacing Gar Forman and Jim Paxson with Arturas Karnisovas and Merc Eversley — then the team’s numbers from last year, specifically their 27th ranked offense (if you go by offensive rating) and their 22nd ranked net rating, likely won’t give you much hope for this club’s prospects this year.
Still, it’s worth taking some time to rank the five guys who will get the primary helping of the minutes this year (provided they remain mostly healthy).
5. Coby White (PG)
The Bulls’ foregoing enticing options like Killian Hayes and Tyrese Haliburton to select Patrick Williams during last November’s NBA Draft led many to question who would steer things for the team on offense. Would they turn to the relatively steady hand of Tomas Satoransky or would they go with the up-and-down Coby White?
Ultimately, Billy Donovan handed White the keys (though they are to an offense more akin to a stalling station wagon than a sleek sports car), and with that decision comes the possibility for great highs and frustrating lows.
The rollercoaster ride that was White’s 2019-20 season featured some dazzling flashes of brilliance, but once those heat checks simmered, a number of cracks in his game showed; cracks that would preclude you from fully endorsing this experiment.
Much like his backcourt mate, Zach LaVine (who we’ll get to later), White struggled to create opportunities for his teammates last year, and if that trend continues in 2020-21, the offense will sputter out once again.
It’s encouraging to hear White point out his need to improve his passing and decision making, but we’ll see if the work put he’s put in translates to on-court production.