The Chicago Bulls Finally Agree That Patrick Williams Is Bad At Basketball
For reasons beyond our comprehension, the overpaid forward has yet to get benched. For reasons we understand all too well, he's untradable.
FIRST, the good news, courtesy of the Chicago Sun-Times’ Joe Cowley:
“A source Saturday told the Sun-Times that [Chicago Bulls GM Artūras] Karnišovas finally has bought in to the idea that 23-year-old forward Patrick Williams needs a change of scenery, opening the door for him to be on the trade block, too.”
Now the bad news, courtesy of the Chicago Sun-Times’ Joe Cowley:
“The issue, however, is the organization signed him to a five-year, $90 million extension last summer.”
The below quickie Patrick Williams timeline tells us exactly why Chicago is finally rethinking the situation with their theoretical 3-and-D expert:
November 18, 2020
Chosen by the Bulls with the fourth pick of the NBA Draft over Tyreses Haliburton and Maxey.
November 19, 2020 - January 18, 2024
Remained mostly in the starting lineup, despite never averaging more than 10.2 points or 4.6 rebounds in a season.
Consistent injury issues forced him to miss 124 of 328 games between 2020 - 2024.
Remained mostly in the starting lineup, despite never averaging more than 10.2 points or 4.6 rebounds in a season.
Signed the aforementioned five-year, $90 million extension.
Remained mostly in the starting lineup, despite never averaging more than 10.2 points or 4.6 rebounds in a season.
And that, friends, is the Patrick Williams Experience in a nutshell: Unfulfilled potential from the player on the court, yet unshakeable belief from the people whose decision it is to put said player on the court.
WILLIAMS TRUTHERS — and I can’t imagine there are many left — will defend the Florida State product with claims along the lines of:
“He doesn’t get the minutes!”
“He doesn’t get the damn ball!”
“He misses so many games!”
“He’s only [fill in the year of justification]-years-old!”
“I bet his per-36 stats tell us he’d be a high-level starter!”
My refutations:
“He gets way more burn than he’s earned, and he rarely does anything helpful with the minutes he does get.”
“He’s a starting forward with massive pythons — he should go and get the damn ball.”
“He needs to either work on his balance, or get a better trainer, or, I dunno, start meditating.”
“Jared McCain, Gradey Dick, Jalen Suggs, Keegan Murray, Amen Thompson, and Cam Thomas are all younger than Williams, and they’re doing just fine, so age ain’t nothin’ but a number.”
“His per-36 stats tell us that if given those 36 minutes, he’d be somewhere at the level of Saadiq Bey, who’s averaging 13.6 points and 6.5 rebounds in 32.7 minutes, as opposed to Williams, who’s putting up 9.4 and 3.9 in just seven less minutes. And this season, Bey will earn $6 million as compared to Williams’ $19 million.”
If you’re an even slightly savvy NBA GM, are you going to fork over $19 million of assets to acquire a minor league version of Saadiq Bey?
Yeah, I didn’t think so.
AS HAS FAR TOO OFTEN been the case during the Karnišovas regime, the Bulls find themselves painted into a personnel corner.
There’s enough tape on Williams to prove he’s eminently average, and his contract is that of a mid-to-high-level starter, and, spoiler alert: it’s really, really, really difficult to trade overpaid mediocrity, even when the mediocrity in question is 23-years-old.
I challenge you to plow through the NBA’s depth charts and find a team on which Williams is needed…or would even be wanted. Here are five random potential landing spots…and why they’ll never be landing spots:
Indiana already has Obi Toppin at $12 million per year.
Charlotte already has Cody Martin at $8 million per year.
New Orleans already has Herb Jones at $12 million per year.
Dallas already has P.J. Washington at $15 million per year.
Detroit already has Simone Fontecchio at $7 million per year.
Point being, any team that might have the pieces to make a move won’t make a move, and any team that does have the pieces wouldn’t (or shouldn’t) want Williams in the first place.
So unless the Bulls buy out Williams’ contract after the trade deadline — highly unlikely — we’re stuck watching the kid do little-to-nothing until his deal is up in 2029.
Which brings us to Billy Donovan.
DOES PATRICK WILLIAMS have incriminating photos of his head coach? Because that’s the only logical reason Williams continues to log significant minutes while rookie Matas Buzelis sits, and sits, and sits.
Let’s take a peek at Buzelis’ per-36 numbers this season:
The analytics are very much on Team Matas: If given the minutes, Buzelis would out-produce the way higher-paid veteran.
Why isn’t Donovan letting Buzelis — who, it could be argued, is a major key to the Bulls’ near future — get more reps?
Donovan has publicly expressed frustration with Williams, saying last week, “He needs to help us on the glass more, both offensively and defensively.” This lack of aggressiveness has been Williams’ biggest bugaboo throughout his career, something of which Donovan is aware, but something of which he ignores.
So yeah, it has to be incriminating photos.
This is a typical NBA Catch-22: You’ve got an underperforming, overpaid player on your roster who you want to move, but you can’t move him unless he plays better, but he never plays better, so you can’t move him, plus it screws up your team’s win/loss record in the process.
The Chicago Bulls have once again realized their mistake too late to rectify the situation — see: Zach LaVine’s and Nikola Vucevic’s respective contracts — so what you see now from the forward position is what you’ll be seeing for years to come.
And that’s really bad news.