Bulls guard Coby White bet on himself for the 2025-26 season. On Monday, the first roll of the dice came up snake eyes.
After White (strained calf) was cleared for full-contact practice last weekend, the Bulls announced he wouldn’t be ready for the start of the regular season Wednesday and would be reevaluated in two weeks.
‘‘It wasn’t a setback,’’ head coach Billy Donovan said of the news. ‘‘He went through the majority [of the practice Saturday], but I think coming out of that practice he felt tightness again back there. . . . I think we had talked about the minutes restriction was going to be 20 to 24 minutes, but we’re not even at that point right now until he can get out on the court without significant tightness in his calf.’’
At the very least, White will miss games against the Pistons, Magic, Hawks and Kings and two against the Knicks.
And that’s best-case scenario.
Just because White is being reevaluated in two weeks, that doesn’t mean he will be cleared. In all likelihood, he also will miss games against the 76ers, Bucks and Cavaliers.
‘‘I mean, it sucks,’’ guard Josh Giddey said. ‘‘You never want to see a player injured, and I know for myself how hard it is to be on the sideline, watching. Coby is such an important piece to what we do.’’
That was evident after the trade deadline last season. Giddey and White finally got into a rhythm of playing with each other and put up some gaudy numbers in the Bulls’ 15-5 finish to the regular season.
‘‘We had a really good, strong end of the season last year, and that was obviously momentum we were hoping to build off of,’’ Giddey said. ‘‘Injuries are part of the game; it happens. When he’s back, I think that momentum will pick up fairly quickly from where we left off.’’
All involved had better hope so. Not only did the Bulls stress starting the season on solid ground, but White had walked away from talks about a contract extension before the season, banking on the fact that he would be better served to wait until next summer. At that time, he hoped to be in position to land a much bigger payday as an unrestricted free agent.
The Bulls understood that, and the Sun-Times reported the sides had agreed to sit down next offseason and try to make that happen before White went looking elsewhere.
This setback doesn’t change that, but it does throw a monkey wrench into the plans White and the Bulls were hoping for out of the gate this month.
The Bulls already had learned during the weekend that they would be without reserve center Zach Collins (wrist surgery) for at least a month. Now they got the White gut punch on top of that.
‘‘It’s definitely a bummer being without Coby and Zach,’’ guard Tre Jones said. ‘‘With an NBA season, it’s a long season, and everyone has to stay ready. Depth is a huge thing for this team, so we have guys that will be ready to step up.’’
Considering White averaged 24.5 points and 4.4 rebounds in the Bulls’ final 26 regular-season games last season, they need a jump-up, not just a step-up.
Jones and Ayo Dosunmu will get the first opportunities to slide into White’s starting role, and it might change from game to game, Donovan said.
‘‘I feel bad for those guys,’’ Donovan said of White and Collins. ‘‘Those are two of our better workers. . . . For us, it’s two big losses, obviously.’’
