Coby White had the best month of his career in March, and he now has the hardware to prove it.
The NBA officially announced on Tuesday that the Chicago Bulls guard won Eastern Conference player of the Month honors. He joined MVP frontrunner Shai Gilegous-Alexander in the West as the two players recognized by the league. All things considered, the announcement shouldn’t surprise anyone. White became the second Bulls player in franchise history to earn back-to-back Player of the Week last month, all but paving the way for today’s news.
White now joins Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, Derrick Rose, Jimmy Butler, and DeMar DeRozan as the only players in the organization’s history to earn the acknowledgment, per K.C. Johnson of Chicago Sports Network. That’s some pretty outstanding company!
Coby White Wins Player of the Month
As the award suggests, Coby White reached a new level over the last four weeks of the season. He became one of the most reliable pure scorers in the league, averaging 27.6 points, 4.6 rebounds, and 3.7 assists over his 15 games played. He also shot 49.5 percent from the field during this stretch, as well as 37.4 percent from downtown on 8.2 attempts per game.
Overall, he ended up as the NBA’s fifth-highest scorer in the month of March and led the Bulls to a shocking 9-6 record. Chicago truly played like a completely different team, and White’s relentless bucket-getting was a major reason for that. His driving skills, in particular, jumped off the screen the entire month. White finished 11th in total drives in March and scored on a 57.8 percent clip, per NBA Stats. This was the HIGHEST field goal percentage of the 11 players who recorded more than 200 drives to the rim. It was even better than his Player of the Month counterpart and true superstar Shai Gilgeous-Alexander!
While his three-ball eventually came back around, his downhill execution helped him remain extremely impactful despite a multi-game shooting slump. Indeed, the fact that he took home this award in a month where he shot 31.0 percent from three over the first nine games says a lot about his development.
All eyes will now be on whether White can build off this momentum moving forward. Your average player doesn’t take home a Player of the Month award. These honors are usually reserved for a tier of star-level talent. Coby White has now raised expectations with this league-wide recognition, and the Bulls can only hope he continues to meet those expectations in the final weeks of this season and into next season.
For what it’s worth, the guard did drop back down to earth on Monday night against the OKC Thunder. His streak of 20+ points was snapped at 15 games, as he only scored 7 points in 21 minutes of action during the Bulls’ blowout loss. His chance to bounce back will come not even 24 hours later against the Toronto Raptors at the United Center. Let’s see what Player of the Month Coby can do!
written by
Elias Schuster
Elias Schuster is the Lead Chicago Bulls writer at Bleacher Nation. He started with BN full-time in 2019 immediately after graduating from the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign with a degree in Journalism (yes, he started with the Jim Boylen Era). Since joining, Elias has been the driving force behind Bulls and NBA content for both the site and social accounts. You can follow him on Twitter/X @Schuster_Elias.
