It’s time to finally wash away the lofty expectations that came with being the No. 4 overall selection in the 2020 NBA Draft.
Fair or unfair, Patrick Williams never met them.
Two seasons cut short by injuries and two more seasons with far too many underwhelming moments, only to then hear the Bulls organization throw out the age excuse: “He’s only 19 years old … He’s only 20 years old … “
Blah, blah, blah.
That doesn’t mean Williams is expectation free. Not even close. But the measuring stick is now does the 6-foot-7, 230-pounder meet $18-million status?
After being shut down with a foot fracture after 43 games last season, there were questions about Williams’ future with the Bulls. Not if they would look to re-sign him, but would the market overbid on the restricted free agent or would the Bulls simply extend him and never let it get to that point.
They chose the latter, as Williams signed a five-year, $90 million contract that could become very team friendly if he makes a Coby White-like jump the next few years.
A big if.
And that’s what it has seemed far too often with Williams. Great physical tools, but far too many ifs.
It’s time for that to change, and even Williams sounded like he understood that.
“Definitely, it’s different when you sign an extension,” Williams said. “You’re coming in and you’re asked to do more. I think that’s with any job on the planet. When they pay you a little bit more, you’re asked to do a little bit more. For me it’s kind of walking in and leaning into it.
“They’ve asked me to be more of a leader. I’ve been able to see how guys – obviously DeMar (DeRozan) – seen how he led. With Zach (LaVine), see how Vooch (Nikola Vucevic) leads. Early on it was Thad Young, Garrett Temple, you see the way they led. You pick up little things from them knowing that, and hoping that my time will come to lead, and I think that time has come. It’s a challenge for sure, something new, but I always try and lean into it.”
Not all he’ll have to lean into.
After Alex Caruso, Williams was the second-best wing defender. On most nights, if Caruso wasn’t defending the team’s best scorer, Williams was.
Caruso is now wearing Oklahoma City blue, so that leaves the stopper role solely on Williams. Pressure he seems to be embracing because he knows how important that will be for the Bulls if they want to truly become this up-tempo scoring team.
“(Rebounding was) mentioned, but I think getting stops is more important,” Williams said about igniting the offensive tempo. “We have a team with obviously a lot of guards, a lot of quick guards, quick hands, we can get a lot of deflections and cause a lot of problems switching one-through-four, one-through-five, whatever the case may be.
“Specifically with the way we have to play, my strengths fit into that. The wing position – small forward, power forward, whatever you want to call it – you gotta play fast. Maybe in the past there had to be more plays that we had to run just because of the lineups we had. Now, missing DeMar we have to play faster, we have to play in a way where positions matter even less. I plan on being in a bunch of different lineups where (my position) can change.”
That’s nice, but first things first. Play like an $18-million wing out of the gate. Let’s keep the expectations simple.
