SALT LAKE CITY, Utah – Coby White is no stranger to being on the opposing team’s scouting report.
He made sure of that with his jump in play last season.
What the Bulls guard has been learning since Zach LaVine was traded before the Feb. 6 deadline, however, is there’s a big difference in being mentioned on the scouting report and being in the crosshairs.
That’s the evolution he’s now working through, and obviously with some success, evident by the fact that he was named Eastern Conference Player of the Week on Monday afternoon.
But it’s not about to stop for him.
Just look at how Houston guarded him late in the loss on Saturday, and then some of the defenses he was seeing against Utah in the Bulls’ 111-97 win. A victory in which White finished with 26 points – a career-long ninth straight game in which he’s scored 20-plus points.
“I think you could even see it a little bit in the Houston game late, (Dillon) Brooks was just face-guarding him and denying him,” Bulls coach Billy Donovan said of White and the attention he’s now getting. “That probably has not happened to him before. Generally, that would have been Zach or DeMar (DeRozan), one of those guys that they would have tried to take out, so he’s adjusting to that.”
He’s not only adjusting to it, he’s embracing it. The win moved the Bulls into the No. 9 seed in the East, jumping Miami, and White’s been a big reason why.
For White it’s almost a badge to wear, but one that he also knows is going to take a lot more work to be worthy of continuing to wear it.
“Just picking and choosing and then being aggressive,” White said of the adjustments. “A lot of times, especially early on, (teammates) were telling me, ‘You’ve got to shoot more.’ So I’ve had to change my mindset a little bit in terms of when Zach was here I was the second or third option with Vooch (Nikola Vucevic), and now it is what it is.
“I still got a long way to go in adjusting with getting the best defender every night, but it’s a very exciting time for me to learn. For me, the way I look at it is I can only get better from this. That’s what I’m focused on, taking on that challenge every night and getting better. Gaining more information from every game and the way teams are strategizing against me.”
The Jazz were the latest to try and confuse White with different looks.
In the first quarter, it was more of a straight up defense and White scored nine points by just playing aggressively on the offensive end.
Utah then started paying closer attention to him by giving him less room on the perimeter and using their bigs to blow up screen attempts, so White played distributor and handed out three assists in the second quarter.
That’s where his mentality is these days – understanding there’s a give and take, and when opponents aren’t aggressively trying to slow him down, take it.
“The one thing he’s done a better job of, and we’ve talked to him about it, stylistically how we’re playing, he’s got to find it a lot in transition and in broken-floor situations,” Donovan said.
In other words, don’t give the defense time to try and handcuff his game.
“The one thing with him is he kind of leans into that stuff,” Donovan added. “When he doesn’t have good performances he’s always going to be pretty self-reflected, gets upset with himself, and always, for the most part, responds, but this has been a good period for him as far as his growth and trying to take that next step as a player.”
Besides White’s performance, Tre Jones chipped in with 18 points and 12 assists.
