The Chicago Bulls reported Thursday that guard Coby White will be out until at least the latter stages of training camp subsequent to going through surgery to repair a left shoulder injury he suffered throughout the end of the week.
The group said the injury happened while White was “engaged in basketball activities away from the team.” After the surgery, which was performed Thursday at Chicago’s Rush University Medical Center, the team said White would be rethought in four months. That would mean an update would come not long before the mid-October beginning of the 2021-22 regular season. The NBA will reorient itself to its typical calendar after the previous two seasons were lost in view of the COVID-19 pandemic.
White, 21, is falling off an up-and-down sophomore season, having averaged 15.1 points, 4.1 rebounds and 4.8 assists while shooting 41.8% from the field and 35.9% from 3-point range in 69 games, including 54 beginnings, after solely falling off the seat as a youngster.
“It was up-and-down for him this year,” Bulls coach Billy Donovan told reporters in Chicago last month. “But I’ve always said this about him, he’s got great resolve. He’s got resiliency, and he’s got great bounce-back ability. After the trade was over with, I think he kind of found his footing and played really good basketball for us.”
In the wake of missing the playoffs, the Bulls will stand by to see whether they hold their draft pick – which Chicago traded to the Orlando Magic in March as a feature of the deal for All-Star center Nikola Vucevic. Chicago, which is right now slotted into the eighth spot in the lottery, will keep its pick on the off chance that it bounces into the top four spots in the lottery, which is set to occur June 22. Chicago had the fourth pick in last year’s draft, which it used to take Patrick Williams, in the wake of having the seventh pick the past two years, when it took White (2019) and center Wendell Carter Jr. (2018).