Patrick Williams’ Versatility Could Unlock Bulls’ Excellence in 2022
The 2nd youngest player in the NBA had flashes of brilliance throughout a solid rookie season.
Patrick Williams was not the favorite to be the Bulls pick at four in the 2020 NBA Draft. In fact, I hadn’t seen many even link the forward to Chicago until NBC Sports Chicago Bulls Insider K.C. Johnson mention Williams’ name as one to keep an eye out for at the fourth pick in the draft.
But it didn’t take long to see what the Bulls front office saw in Williams.
My assessment of him — seen here — was that he was a player that would clearly turn into a plus on defense, but provide little on offense outside of some low-level scoring (i.e., open jumpers, drives to the rim off of closeouts).
I wasn’t too far off in my assessment but I definitely underrated what Williams — with proper coaching — could become.
Williams led the Bulls in games played, appearing in 71 games in the 2021 season. He was a solid defender for the team, but the numbers showed the little impact rookies generally have on winning basketball.
The Bulls' offense and defense were better (by the numbers) with Williams off the floor.
Of course, the numbers don’t know that Williams is tasked with developing into a key piece of the Bulls’ core and being Arturas Karnisovas’ first “A+” move as Chicago’s Vice President of Basketball Operations.
So while Williams being the second-youngest player in the NBA tells us we can’t judge him too harshly, the fact that he was a top-five pick in what is shaping up to be a great draft class tells us that we can have high standards when assessing him.
Let’s take a closer look at Patrick Williams’ rookie season.
Offense:
Williams was debatably better on offense than defense this season. Coming out of his lone year at Florida State, his reputation was that it would take some time for him to develop into a competent perimeter shooter.
Well, take a look at the image below from Cleaning The Glass, which shows that Williams shot the ball well from all over the floor throughout the 2021 season.
(The orange/blue numbers show the player’s percentile rank in that stat relative to their position.)
As you can see, the only place on the floor that Williams wasn’t great from was the short midrange area, AKA “floater range.”
We’ll see Williams develop a nice floater as he gets more reps in the pick-and-roll and in transition, spots that will allow him to get deep into the teeth of the defense.
Patrick Williams is already a solid finisher at the basket and his midrange skills are well-known. When he mixes his drives to the rim with his midrange shot attempts, he is difficult to guard because he can absolutely drill tough off the dribble midrange jumpers. This was evident in his career-high 24-point performance.
Williams — who already wasn't an aggressive offensive player — took an even further step back once the Nikola Vucevic acquisition happened. Picking up an All-Star will do that to a 19-year old rookie still finding his way.
But the numbers show that rather than Vucevic being a detriment to Williams’ game, it was the lack of minutes at power forward that hurt him. Per Cleaning The Glass, Williams had an eFG% of 57.4% when playing PF, as opposed to 52.1% when he played SF.
TL;DR (Patrick Williams’ Offense):
Patrick Williams shot the ball well from all over the floor, a remarkable feat for the 2nd-youngest player in the league. The big thing to look for in Year 2 for Williams is an uptick in 3-point attempts and post-ups, which will open up more opportunities to attack size mismatches.
Defense:
Coming out of Florida State, Williams was known as a defense-first player and with good reason.
Williams used his tremendous physical tools and great basketball IQ— 6-foot-11 wingspan, 215 lbs. — to help lead the Seminoles to a top-15 defense in the nation (per KenPom).
He did a similar thing during his rookie season in Chicago, leading the Bulls in games played as the team finished, you guessed it, 15th in defensive efficiency per Cleaning The Glass (website filters out garbage time).
Patrick Williams was one of two players on the Bulls to finish with above-average marks in steal and block rate, the other being Javonte Green. Williams wasn’t remarkable on defense, but he did a great job of limiting his personal fouls (1.8 fouls per game).
The fact that Williams was even respectable on defense in the NBA as a 19-year old starter shows that he was top-5 pick material.
Players defended by Williams shot 1.8% worse than their season average per NBA Stats. This is incredibly impressive when you remember that he was often guarding players like LeBron James, Kawhi Leonard, and Kevin Durant.
Even with Williams’ game being more understated rather than “in-your-face,” he still had occasional flashes of big-time athleticism and defensive playmaking, like his now infamous swat on a DeAndre Ayton alley-oop attempt in Phoenix.
TL;DR (Patrick Williams’ Defense):
Patrick Williams was one of two players on the Bulls to finish with above-average marks in steal and block rate. He also did an excellent job of limiting his fouls. The key for Williams’ defense in Year 2 will be continuing to grow as a weakside shot blocker while also staying in proper physical condition to guard opponents with a speed advantage on the perimeter.
2022 Outlook:
Patrick Williams is the key to the Bulls transforming into a legit playoff contender. He is already one the most versatile players on the team, capable of playing multiple positions — even shooting guard! — on both sides of the ball.
Williams is amazing because he can act as the rim protector on defense and in the same game, bring the ball down the court and initiate a pick-and-roll on offense.
Because he is a jack-of-all-trades, you can argue that he could improve in every facet. But since I expect Williams’ defense to improve dramatically every season as he gets more experience, the offense is where the offseason work needs to be put in.
To be the best version of himself in Year 2, Williams needs to work on tightening up his ball-handling, which will afford him more pick-and-roll chances from Billy Donovan.
Outside of that, he needs to work on developing some semblance of a post-game. For a player like Patrick Williams, who will see opponent switch smaller players onto him until he gets more aggressive, having some post moves would give him a surefire way to generate free throw attempts against the many, many switch-heavy defenses in the NBA.
