Chicago Bulls stars Alex Caruso, Coby White, and DeMar DeRozan were among the award finalists announced by the NBA on April 21.
All three also appeared in a poll of anonymous players conducted by The Athletic’s Sam Amick and Josh Robbins and published on April 22. Caruso garnered an expected slot among the league’s best defenders.
White, however, found himself among the most underrated.
White enjoyed a breakout campaign in his fifth NBA season, averaging 19.1 points, 5.1 assists, and 4.5 rebounds; all career highs. He justified the three-year, $36 million contract that he signed in free agency last summer.
White also earned a slot among the finalists for the 2024 KIA Most Improved Player award.
Arturas Karnisovas Touts Coby White for Most Improved Player
The Bulls participated in the push late. But White’s season-long body of work was strong enough to warrant consideration long before that, as executive vice president of basketball operations Arturas Karnisovas’ comments show.
“He’s made huge strides,” Karnisovas told reporters on April 21. “He’s, for me, he’s Most Improved Player this year. And, obviously, he’s part of this group that kept us in it, in the playoff hunt. And how he’s played this year, it’s been unbelievable. So I think he’s still away from being – far away from being the final product. So I think he’s going to come back this offseason and he’s going to improve other things.”
“He’s seventh in the league in minutes played. I’m sure he didn’t expect that this year. But he’s going to approach his offseason and he’s going to come back even better.”
White has credited the work he puts in the offseason for his leap the last two years.
“I’m just proud of my growth overall, just getting better as the season went on,” White told reporters on April 20. “I think one thing I need to work on this offseason, to focus on probably is my conditioning. I don’t think anything I could have done this past offseason could have prepared me for the amount of minutes and load that I had this year.
“Moving forward, I just need to work on my conditioning so I’m prepared for anything coming into the season.”
White’s shooting tailed off toward the end of the season, particularly after the All-Star break.
He went from shooting 39.7% on 7.2 deep attempts before the break to 32.3% on 6.7 looks after returning. It was a similar story in the Play-In Tournament, with White going off for a would-be career-high 42 points versus the Atlanta Hawks in the first round.
But he could only muster 13 points and went 2-for-8 from downtown in the second round versus the Miami Heat.
The Bulls and White face an uncertain future as a group.
DeRozan is tracking toward free agency along with Patrick Williams (restricted). There also remains a desire to trade Zach LaVine. And Karnisovas vowed to make changes to a group that “hasn’t worked” as planned.
Coby White: Bulls Need ‘Some D*** Luck’
Asked what the team needs to do to get on a winning track, White was diplomatic in his answer concerning his teammates.
“Some d*** luck,” White said. “Obviously, injuries and everything else that comes with it. But we got to figure it out, figure something out. We can’t keep relying on the Play-In to get to the playoffs. Obviously, the last two seasons, we’ve been this close and we’ll make it so we don’t need to rely on the Play-In. Next year we need to, obviously, try to get that top six seed.
“I haven't really thought about things like that because I'm still upset about the loss. It hurts because the guys in this locker room came in every day and worked hard.
“I care – like, obviously, care a great deal – for everybody in this locker room and we all hate that they ended this way. We didn’t, obviously want it to end this way. But like I said, the loss still fresh, man. So I really ain’t thought about all that type of stuff.”
Pressed for what he would like to see done, White asserted he stays away from that.
“I just work here, brother. I’m not the front office,” White said. “I don’t really make those decisions and whatnot.”
