NBA: Way-too-early All-Rookie Team predictions for 2019-20

Shooting Guard: Coby White, Chicago Bulls

Coby White has been underrated for a good while now. Coming out of high school, where he is the all-time leading scorer in North Carolina basketball history, he was not among the top point guards ranking wise (4th in ESPN recruiting rankings). In his lone year at North Carolina gave fans a glimpse of White’s knack for scoring. When is the last time you have seen North Carolina’s head coach Roy Wiliams give the keys to the offense for his point guard?

The answer is never. White was North Carolina’s offense. He averaged 16.1 points per game on decent shooting splits.

The Chicago Bulls for the last couple of seasons have been building a very subtle-yet-big-potential based contender out East. Key young players that have been added to the roster such as Zach LaVine and Otto Porter Jr. The Bulls have two promising bigs in Lauri Markkanan and Wendell Carter Jr. All they have been missing was depth and a point guard. No more Kris Dunn experiments.

The Bulls finally have their man at the helm of the team. White instantly makes the Bulls a hot pick to make some noise out East in the playoffs. Let’s just hope most of the starting 5 stays healthy to accomplish the Windy City hope.

White showed in summer league his advanced pro-game. However, his dismal shooting stats in summer league show how far he has to come to be a consistent threat. With the Bulls this upcoming season he shouldn’t have a problem getting his own with multiple scoring options on the team getting much of the focus.

White’s quick up-and-down pace down the court will push a team that finished 19th in pace per play. You can expect him to put the Bulls back in playoff contention, somewhere they haven’t been since the 2016-17 season. His presence alone (plus a predicted 12-16 ppg) will put White on the All-Rookie First Team.