Bulls Notes: Coby White, Josh Giddey, Ayo Dosunmu

The Bulls closed last season on a tear, going 15-5 over the final 20 games of 2024/25, fueled largely by the backcourt pairing of Coby White and Josh Giddey. That duo hasn’t had much runway together this season, though, mostly due to White’s lingering calf issues.

White said Tuesday in Atlanta that he’s confident the chemistry will come back, according to Joe Cowley of the Chicago Sun-Times. Head coach Billy Donovan believes that would be a welcome development.

“I think it would definitely help us,” Donovan said. “I think the hard part has been Coby just trying to get back and find a rhythm with him being out. So with him being out, he and Josh also finding a rhythm. But I think last year, they coexisted very well.

“They have a very good relationship, they talk and they communicate. Certainly for us, those two guys playing at a high level is going to help, but we’re going to have to rely on the other guys, too.”

The results showed up quickly. In Tuesday’s comeback win, White finished with a team-high 24 points, four assists, and three steals, while Giddey posted a monster line of 19 points, 15 assists, and 11 rebounds, per Bill Trocchi of the Associated Press.

Chicago has now won four straight.

Giddey Finds Balance

Giddey insists his focus remains on winning, but he’s not pretending individual goals don’t exist.

“Every player wants to be an All-Star — all those things when they first get drafted, get into the league — and I’m no different,” Giddey told Cowley. “Everyone has individual aspirations. They’re lying if they say they don’t, but it’s about not letting it get in the way of the team.

“I want to be an All-Star; everybody inside [the locker room] wants to be an All-Star. But you’ve got to be able to do that inside the team and win games while trying to do individual things, as well. Winning solves everything, and all the individual stuff comes after that.”

Through 27 games, Giddey is averaging career highs across the board: 20.0 points, 9.3 rebounds, and 9.1 assists per game, while shooting a career-best 40.2 percent from three. His seven triple-doubles trail only Nikola Jokic, who has 14.

Resilience Showing 

Aside from rookie Noa Essengue, who is out for the season following shoulder surgery, the Bulls are healthy for the first time all year. Guard Ayo Dosunmu said that stability is paying off.

“This has been about continuing to stay together, continuing to get better,” Dosunmu said, via Cowley. “We understood that (the losing streak) was not the best basketball that we were playing, but we all knew what we were capable of.

“We put it together and have been playing a great stretch of basketball. Now we’ve got to just keep doing it.”

Chicago dropped seven straight earlier this season. Four wins in a row later, the Bulls are starting to look like themselves again.