The Chicago Bulls will start the season without their longest-tenured player as guard Coby White remains sidelined with a right calf strain.
White returned to practice Saturday after missing training camp and all five preseason games. At the time, White and coach Billy Donovan told reporters they planned for him to be available for limited playing time — as many as 20 to 24 minutes, per Donovan — in Wednesday’s season opener against the Detroit Pistons.
Instead, the team announced Monday morning that White won’t play for the next two weeks, at which point he will be reevaluated.
Donovan said White experienced tightness in his calf Sunday morning after participating in “most of” practice Saturday. He said White isn’t experiencing pain on a regular basis, but the Bulls are approaching his discomfort and tightness with wariness due to the risk of a worse injury in the Achilles tendon.
White won’t be allowed to run or cut for the next two weeks, during which time his activity will be limited to weight lifting and rehab activities. That means the Bulls will play at least six games without White, who will have to undergo a ramp-up process to regain his cardio fitness before he can be cleared to play.
“My concern with the time that he’s been gone is just, when you have a lower-leg extremity injury like that, it’s just hard,” Donovan said. “Even though he’s doing everything he can do from a conditioning standpoint, it’s not the same as playing and banging and going against guys. ”
In the meantime, Donovan isn’t showing his hand for White’s potential replacement in the starting lineup. Backup point guard Tre Jones appears to be the natural successor after starting throughout the preseason, giving the Bulls another facilitator alongside Josh Giddey.
White’s absence leaves a substantial hole in the Bulls stat sheet. He averaged a career-high 20.4 points last season and led the team with 23.1 points per game over the 31 games after Zach LaVine was traded to the Sacramento Kings. The Bulls expect White to maintain that role as a primary engine for the offense this season.
Giddey said the extensive time without White in the preseason gave the Bulls enough time to get comfortable in different lineups without their leading scorer, but those rotations still are figuring out how to match White’s production in the aggregate.
“They’re different players,” Giddey said. “Coby is kind of that go-to scorer. When Tre or Ayo (Dosunmu) or us other guards are in the game, it’s a different look. When we’ve got guys like that out there, it has to be more by committee, more moving the ball. We’re not really an isolation team where we’re giving it to one guy and letting him go to work.”
Zach Collins undergoes wrist surgery
The Bulls are further short-handed to start the season after backup center Zach Collins underwent surgery Saturday to repair a non-displaced left wrist fracture. The injury occurred when Collins collided with Julius Randle while taking a charge in a preseason game against the Minnesota Timberwolves.
Collins won’t be available for at least four weeks, when he will be evaluated to be potentially cleared to return to basketball activities. He will miss at least 16 games.
Collins won the backup center role quickly after landing in Chicago at the trade deadline last season, averaging 8.6 points and 6.7 rebounds in 28 games. His absence will push Jalen Smith back into the backup role behind starter Nikola Vučević.
Yuki Kawamura waived
Fan favorite Yuki Kawamura did not make the final cut for the Bulls roster after earning a two-way contract off his summer league performance.
The Bulls waived Kawamura due to a medical condition after the 5-foot-8 guard was sidelined for the latter half of the preseason with right lower leg pain. He will remain in Chicago to receive treatment despite no longer being on the roster. He was present at the Advocate Center during practice Monday to lift weights and meet with team medical staff.