30 NBA Players in 30 Days: Patrick Williams
Day 19 of our NBA season countdown brings us to the Windy City. It’s time to talk about the Chicago Bulls and their intriguing young prospect, Patrick Williams. The forward out of Florida State had a ligament tear in his left wrist very early in the season last year, and he went on to miss about 5 months of his 2nd NBA season. It was supposed to be a promising year of development and reps playing with a fun core of players of Zach LaVine, DeMar DeRozan, and Lonzo Ball. Unfortunately, Williams and Ball only played a combined total of 52 games of the season, and the Bulls stumbled their way into the 5th seed to play Giannis and the Bucks in the 1st round of the playoffs. It was a pretty unlucky ending to a season where the Bulls showed a lot of promise and excitement for the 1st half. The DeRozan signing made most NBA people scratch their heads, but it turned out that he still has a lot left in the tank as he was in the MVP conversation during the winter. Williams has a lot of potential as a big wing that can guard multiple positions and has some sneaky offensive talent that any team would love in a young player. Especially with the scary situation with Lonzo Ball, Williams will have a lot of opportunity playing off of the Bulls’ stars, and I’m sure he will show off the talent that made him the 4th pick in the 2020 draft.
FSU’s NBA prospects recently all have similar builds and archetypes as basketball players. Williams follows a couple of top wing prospects like Scottie Barnes, Devin Vassell, and Johnathan Isaac. Each one of them is a long, versatile athlete with a few elite traits. Williams projects as a prototypical 3&D wing with size and some skill off the dribble. He does not get a lot of chances to show off what he can do with the ball, but we got a little taste in the final regular season game last year when he went off for 36 points against the Timberwolves. What was really interesting about that game was that he scored in different ways. He showed off his shot from beyond the arc, he had some nice pull-up mid-range jumpers, and displayed creative finishes around the rim. For his frame and body type, Williams can get some serious hangtime, and he uses that to his advantage on drives and taking contact in the air. The most impressive part of his offensive game is just his ability to shoot. His body type does not scream shooter off first glance, but in his 17 games played last year, he shot 15 for 29. Even for barely 2 attempts per game, it’s still a decent sized sample size that can be translated to a pretty good shooting season. His rookie year he shot 39.1 FG3% in 71 games with 2 attempts per game. I think the thing that holds him back is his unwillingness to shoot at times. As a young guy who does not have an alpha mentality, I can see how it’s hard to try and get your own shots up when you have Lonzo handling the rock, and then having LaVine and DeRozan as your main scorers. And we cannot forget about Nikola Vučević as their offensive minded center as well. With another year of experience, and a full offseason of playing with the star players, I’m sure Williams will feel more comfortable about getting a bigger volume of shots, especially from behind the arc. It will certainly be beneficial since a couple of their main rotation players aren’t good 3-pt shooters, or they are DeRozan, who barely takes any shots from beyond the arc. The confidence and comfortability in the Bulls’ offense will translate into an exponential improvement for Williams on that end of the floor.
For a big wing drafted for his defensive versatility and potential, he has a really underrated offensive game, and the fit with the two big scorers will be key for the Bulls. Other than LaVine and DeRozan, the wing depth for the Bulls is not very good. If Williams does not improve a good amount this year, they will be relying on guys like Javonte Green and Derrick Jones Jr. (Airplane Mode!) at those positions. Williams is a very quiet guy, and I never hear him mentioned with the rest of the 2020 draft class as one of the better players. With a leap this season, he could definitely enter that conversation. A versatile forward is at the top of every team’s wishlist every offseason, and the Bulls could have one of the better ones for a long time waiting in the wing.
