The Bulls are hoping that guard Coby White’s strained calf is fully healed in time for the regular-season opener Wednesday against the Pistons.
The reality of the situation is a little cloudier.
White, who injured the calf in late August, still needs to clear one last hurdle in his rehab process: a full-contact practice. Coach Billy Donovan said Thursday that time isn’t exactly on White’s side.
The original timetable had White possibly ready for the preseason finale against the Timberwolves, but early this week, it became clear that wasn’t happening. The Bulls had to fly to Denver on Monday, play the game Tuesday, stay the night and did not practice Wednesday, so White has been forced to stay in bubble wrap.
The Bulls will have a day off Friday, then the bubble wrap comes off.
“The only box for him to check right now is contact, and we just haven’t been able to do that,” Donovan said. “Saturday will be a day we’ll get back to practice or contact, so I think that would be the monitoring of him once we get back to practice. So that’s the only hurdle he hasn’t gotten over that the medical staff wants to see how he responds.”
That’s all well and good, considering how hard White has attacked his rehab, but it also comes with a warning. Calf strains can be tricky to deal with, and he’s in a free-agent year in which he has bet on himself. White turned down any extension talk for the 2025-26 season, and both sides agreed to revisit talks once the season ends.
Plus, as Donovan pointed out, the high-octane offense the Bulls play is hard to simulate in practice settings.
“When you have a lower leg extremity injury like he does, I don’t care how hard he’s worked — and he’s worked really hard — you’re just never going to be in the shape that these guys are in,” Donovan said. “That’s going to be a challenge for him, and that will be his process in getting back on the floor.”
No matter how Saturday goes for White, he’ll start the season on a minutes restriction to make sure the calf is holding up and to build up his conditioning.
Handle required
The goal, obviously, is to develop rookie Noa Essengue but not to overwhelm him.
That’s why when Essengue, 18, has been on the floor throughout the preseason, he has been surrounded by several ballhandlers to at least take that pressure off him.
“The thing we’ve tried to do with him is make sure there’s ballhandling around him,’’ Donovan said. ‘‘Not to say that he can’t do it. It’s just something he’s probably not accustomed to.
“His primary role when he was playing overseas was he was out in transition, he got to the free-throw line quite a bit and he was a really good defender. So we’ve wanted to put him out there with guys where there is some extra ballhandling for him.”
Bumps and bruises
Not having White and Isaac Okoro (knee) for the preseason finale wasn’t ideal, but it wasn’t all bad against the Timberwolves.
The Bulls did get Tre Jones, Kevin Huerter and Julian Phillips back after all three were dealing with general soreness. They were kept on minutes restrictions, however.
