In the first season of a new five-year, $90MM contract, Bulls forward Patrick Williams has continued to struggle to carve out a consistent gig as a role player. Darnell Mayberry of The Athletic wonders if Williams’ window to prove he can effectively do so is closing.
With the Bulls’ third-leading scorer, Coby White, unavailable, Chicago was hoping for the 23-year-old to take on a bigger offensive role in a 109-97 loss to Philadelphia on Saturday. Instead, he scored two points while shooting just 1-of-9 from the field and coughed up the ball in a critical possession with just over three minutes left in the game.
Following that turnover, head coach Billy Donovan quickly removed Williams from the lineup for the game’s final minutes, which has become increasingly common, Mayberry notes. In his fifth season, the 6’7″ pro is struggling both to finish at the rim and connect from long range for the 19-27 Bulls.
“He’s going to need to do that to continue to evolve,” Donovan said. “Earlier in his career, he never would have done any of that stuff. He would always defer and feel like, ‘I’m a young guy. I’ve just got to fit in.’ I think now he’s trying to do more, but we all want to have better results out of it.”
There’s more out of the Central Division:
- Bulls rookie forward Matas Buzelis has played sparingly this season for Chicago thus far. The No. 11 overall pick has averaged just 12.7 minutes per game, which ranks 31st among first-year players. As Kyle Williams of The Chicago Sun-Times notes, Donovan doesn’t think Buzelis is capable of playing major minutes just yet. “[Buzelis] has to understand the things that go into winning, how he can impact winning and the things he has to do on a consistent basis,” the Bulls’ coach said.
- Cavaliers guard Ty Jerome enjoyed a career night in a 132-129 loss to Philadelphia on Friday, scoring a personal-best 33 points on 11-of-14 shooting from the floor, including 8-of-8 shooting from long range. He also went 3-of-4 from the foul line. As Chris Fedor of Cleveland.com notes in a subscriber-only story, the 6’5″ guard’s big night wasn’t enough to help the club overcome the Sixers, but the 27-year-old is enjoying his best pro season since his 2020/21 run with the Thunder, averaging a career-best 10.8 points, plus 3.3 assists, 2.3 rebounds, and 1.2 steals per night.
- Pistons forward Ausar Thompson, whose development was slowed by a blood clot issue that caused him to miss time at the end of 2023/24 and the start of this season, took a major step on Saturday, playing a season-high 29 minutes in a 121-113 loss to Orlando. Thompson, who scored 16 points on 6-of-8 shooting from the field, spoke after the game about gradually getting back to 100%, per Omari Sankofa II of The Detroit Free Press (Twitter link). “I feel great,” Thompson said. “It feels good to almost reach the 30-minute mark. I feel great, feel conditioned and however many minutes they need me to play, I’m ready to play.” Thompson has been on a minutes restriction for much of the season. Detroit head coach J.B. Bickerstaff spoke glowingly of the second-year forward’s progress, Sankofa tweets. “His activity was great, his aggressiveness,” Bickerstaff said. “He was attacking the paint, making plays, rebounding the ball, four steals. I thought he did a great job of showing exactly who he is and how he can contribute to help this team win.”
Donavan needs to go, he does not develop players in the NBA. When he was at OKC he didn’t make anyone better. Does not look like Bulls are any better. Williams is a sf not a pf, Buzelis has to play. Their FO needs to get off the veterans and accept losing for awhile. They are not a destination in FA everyone they got they traded for except damaged Lonzo.
I’m genuinely surprised he is still employed as an NBA head coach. Not a Bulls fan either but they seem to consistently share the same opinion and they would know better than I.
It must be so frustrating cheering for that team. When will they step off the treadmill?
Williams is a 4 on the Bulls because they literally have nobody else. Abominable roster construction over the years.
Would be nice to play him at the 3 but they have LaVine there since they can’t bring themselves to move White, Dosunmu, and previously Caruso.
Hell they had Caruso playing the 4 when Williams was hurt last year
OG last night against Kings. 35 mins,,,
33 pts, 12/18 FG, 4,ast, 3 reb, 2 stl, 1 blk, +7
I see Williams as an OG type talent. Maybe not as good. But he’s 80% of OG that’s a real nice player. And a pkayer that adds to good chemistry. Bulls are damaging his career.
If I were Cavs. I would talk to Bulls about Williams. They might just give him away. Bulls should be tanking. That is the right move. I’m sure they listen to offers. Williams can blossom there. Cavs just want to win. They don’t need a big scorer. Just another solid piece. That impacts winning. Plus he gives them good size at the three. And with those two bigs there. He could see the floor better lols.
Okoro to Bulls plus. Player who also benefits in new place.
I’m Cavs, I try to upgrade the team. For a good playoff run. Also watching to see who gets waived or bought out. Looking like a three team race in the East.
You trade contracts, not players. Okoro is on $11M per year, and Williams is on roughly double that. Even if the trade were allowed, I’m not sure the Cavs owners would want to go deeper into the luxury tax for a guy who hasn’t proven himself yet.
That’s what plus means. Okoro is a suggestion. Williams is the asset for Cavs.
Stick to Knicks analysis lol
Okoro is better AND Williams has one of the worst contracts in the league
He’s Keita Bates-Diop making 90M
Al why don’t you get the Knicks to give something off value for PWill. You are mistaken about his future. If he turns into anything I will fess up here. Will you, if he continues on this path of uselessness?
Remember all who were talking about Richards to Suns. I know it’s Wizards. But definitely helps Duns.
34 mins, 20 pts, 19 rebounds, +7 ….
Knicks were scouting him hard.
Patrick Williams is a bust of a #4 pick. I don’t know what he has done throughout his career to be given a $90 mil contract this past offseason. Also, not surprising that they want to try and trade him off now, but maybe you should’ve just let him walk this past offseason. The Bulls are likely stuck with him (and LaVine) because of the stupidity of their FO.
I’d personally like to see him somewhere else before pulling the plug on his career. Is Lauri Markannen a bust too? Someone else made a similar comment.
I don’t think Lauri is a bust. He’s shown more talent so far in his career than Williams has ever done in almost 5 years now. You could definitely say the Bulls may have given up way too early on Lauri, and have held onto Williams too long.
It’s sad that Williams can’t even average double digit points in his career and has already been rewarded $90 mil for it.
Williams is an awful contract. Nobody is touching that.
Markkanen was actually good with the Bulls. He showed flashes but was inconsistent. Patrick Williams has shown nothing. He doesn’t deserve to even be in the league
Yeah well what do the advanced stats say? And are you watching for fundamentals when you watch him play? I don’t trust Billy Donovan. He is too busy running plays to make coby white look good.
Teams get scared and throw the extensions out. The FOs need to look around the league, most teams are over the cap with no money. If Okoro didn’t get any offers PW was not going to get any. Same thing with Nuggets signing Nnaji who never plays.
So Buzelis isn’t ready for big minutes but you’ll let Patrick Williams stand around and do nothing for most of the game?
Fr. Buzelis gonna make mistakes but he shows flashes and gives real effort at the very least, whereas Williams is TSnell 2.0. Genuinely forget he’s in the game