Donovan challenges White to organize Bulls offense
After the Bulls' lopsided loss to Atlanta on Wednesday, coach Billy Donovan had some pointed criticism for second-year guard Coby White.
For the majority of his basketball career, White has been more of a scoring guard than point guard. The Bulls are asking him to do both.
"I certainly don't expect him to be Chris Paul in terms of just completely manipulating the game," Donovan said Thursday on a Zoom call with reporters. "But he is more than capable of getting us organized.
"I'm not looking to try to reinvent him or make him something he's not. But if he's going to have any future, in my opinion, in the league, he's going to have to be able to learn how to run and manage and basically guide a team."
Donovan coached Paul, maybe the NBA's consummate floor general, last season in Oklahoma City. But during his first four years with the Thunder, the point guard was Russell Westbrook, a high-assist, but aggressive player on offense.
White did OK as a distributor Wednesday, finishing with 7 assists. He had a rough shooting night, going 2-for-11 from the field for 9 points. What Donovan wants to see is more along the lines of White calling out plays and getting his teammates organized, especially in those moments when things are starting to go badly for the Bulls.
"(Donovan) just told me I've got to get us in something," White said after the game. "Can't just come down and not know what we're running. I've just got to get us in something and get the ball movement and get more player movement out there on the offensive end."
Every Bulls player needs to look back and try to learn from the season-opening blowout. Defense was clearly the biggest problem in the first half, when the Hawks scored a whopping 83 points.
This was also the first time White and Zach LaVine started together in the backcourt. White started just once as a rookie, and that happened in the last game of the season while LaVine was out with an injury.
"He had a tough game, but I think that's what's going to help him," LaVine said of White. "I think he's going to have a really good bounce back game. We have to all help him collectively, we're all leaders out there. Obviously Coby's the point guard, but we've got to help him with that too.
"And I take that upon myself. I tried to do a little bit of that in the second and third quarters, but as a team we just got beat. It's not one person, we've got to do better. I'm looking forward to playing Indiana (on Saturday), bouncing back and having a better game - all of us collectively."
There really aren't many examples around the NBA of the type of player the Bulls want White to become. Portland's Damian Lillard is a point guard with dynamic scoring skills, but he's an established all-star and White is one game into his second season. Guys like Boston's Kemba Walker or Toronto's Kyle Lowry likely ran the point most of their basketball lives.
"(White) is going to have to get other people involved." Donovan said. "Like, I thought there were times in the second unit when he was out there that Otto (Porter) wasn't engaged and involved enough and he's got to help him get a little more involved.
"I'm not asking him to be a traffic cop point guard where he doesn't shoot, doesn't drive, doesn't try to penetrate. But he's got to organize the group a little bit. That's just his responsibility."
Twitter: @McGrawDHBulls