Paolo Uggetti:
In a setting where highlights are currency, White has made a mark by being consistent. He’s scored at least 15 points in all three of the Bulls’ games (including 25 in the third), and averaged four assists in his first two games. He’s averaging 19 points, 4.3 rebounds, and 3.7 assists per game, and though he’s shooting only 40 percent, he is also averaging more than five trips to the line.
I’ve watched about a game and a half of the Bulls summer league so far1 and have been happy with what I’ve seen from White.
Gafford has actually been the one to impress me the most. I didn’t have very high expectations for Gafford, so that plays a part, but it’s still good to see how active he has been out there. He reminds me a little bit of the Knicks Mitchell Robinson. Gafford is a little bit less athletic, but also less erratic and maybe even a little stronger as a rookie. However, Gafford will need to learn to use that strength and be more assertive when it comes to grabbing defensive rebounds. I imagine he had an easy time cleaning up the defensive glass in college so he will have to adjust and use the same enegery he does for blocking shots on the boards.
Looking at White’s game, his size has definitely been a contributing factor in his success thus far in summer league, which was a big reason I said I liked him more than Garland in the first place. He’s also been looking to be more of a distributor, which is nice. His teammates in summer league aren’t finishing at a high clip, but that will improve around the likes of Lauri and Otto. So I expect to see the assist to turnover rate improve greatly as he joins those guys and gets comfortable learning their games. On the topic of turnovers, there have been a lot of situations where White is making college level passes that have a higher rate of getting picked off in the pros, and those have been happening at a pretty high clip. Point guard is a tough position, and it may take some time, but I’m confident the number of those passes will decrease. The big question for him becoming an elite passer is if he can still find a way to squeeze those in at the pro level.
I don’t have much to say about his scoring. His percentages aren’t great right now, but it’s summer league and I expect his shot to drop as he gets comfortable. Right now it’s about the other things, we already know he can score the ball. Figuring out everything else will give him the opportunity to be that scorer when needed.
plus some highlights of other games↩︎