Coby White has missed all of the Bulls‘ red-hot start to the season with a calf strain, but his time on the sidelines may soon be coming to an end, reports Joel Lorenzi of The Athletic (subscriber link).
Lorenzi writes that White pointed to Chicago’s three-game road trip starting on November 16 or one of the following games against the Nuggets and Trail Blazers as “what [he’s] been told” in terms of a potential return.
White and head coach Billy Donovan both said that White will likely begin practicing next week, and Donovan points to the team’s three-day break starting November 13 as a chance for White to get some full-contact practice reps in. White is currently going through 2-on-2 and 3-on-3 work with teammates and the coaching staff.
White has been out since mid-August with the injury, which was supposed to be healed by the time of the season opener, before calf tightness forced him to push his timetable back.
“I just practiced, and I probably practiced a little too long, and I felt some symptoms,” White said of the delay. “It wasn’t a re-strain or anything, it was just a minor setback.”
The team tested the calf extensively, especially after last season’s run of Achilles tears that seemed to follow calf injuries, and says his strain wasn’t a serious injury, just one that required a longer-than-expected recovery.
“I feel good physically,” White said, as relayed by Joe Cowley of the Chicago Sun-Times. “I’ve been running a lot, and a lot, and a lot, so it’s been good just trying to stay with my conditioning. I’ve been pushing it just to build the tolerance in my calf, so it’s been good.”
White has averaged 19.7 points and 4.8 assists over the last two seasons with the Bulls, but he’s returning to a team that is playing at a different pace and competitiveness than what he’s used to, which has him itching to get back on the floor.
“I think the way I play fits perfectly with the way that we play,” he said. “Quick decisions. I’m not a ball stopper, I don’t hold the ball. I just play to win. So I don’t see no problem or anything when it comes to me getting back to it.”
Donovan is excited to get him back on the floor, but also issued a few words of caution when it comes to reintegrating to a team that’s already operating at full speed. The Bulls are currently 6-1, with the top record in the Eastern Conference.
“I think the mistake he can make is to come back tip-toeing in, that’d be the first issue. Then the second thing, I think he’s got to give himself some grace,” Donovan said. “I don’t think that you can go a good portion of August, all of September, October training camp, and doing a several-week ramp up where he’s not in any 5-on-5, and think he’s gonna be at his normal as a player. It’s going to take him some time. And I think he needs to be patient with himself.”
White is set to become an unrestricted free agent this summer, and while he didn’t come to terms on an extension with the Bulls, Cowley writes that the two sides have stayed on good terms throughout the negotiation process and both hope to get a deal done once free agency opens up next summer.