The Chicago Bulls select forward Patrick Williams #4 overall.

[Jello Biafra]

I can see why the Bulls fell in love with him. Every other word out of his mouth is "work"

Watch on YouTube

My goodness you can't help but like this kid! He is trying so hard to be polite. He appears to have an innocence and youthful naivete in the way carries himself that makes him seem younger than some of the one and done's you see coming into the league. I have a 19 year old daughter and a 20 year old son who are in college, and I can't help but think about their level of maturity watching this video. He's still a kid! I'd honestly hope my kids would have that same earnestness and friendliness when answering questions.

That being said, I hope there isn't a level of vulnerability with Pat. He clearly isn't some street hardened kid or one who appears to be wisened to the vagaries of the media and twitter. I could be wrong. I just hope the likes of Joe Cowley doesn't wipe that smile and youthful enthusiasm off the kids face. The Bulls organization will need to protect him from that and it was nice to hear him say that Thad Young has stepped up and has acted like a big brother to him.

That being said, I'm not expecting much off the bat from Pat. Heck, the Bulls don't even know what his role is. He repeatedly said in the video that "he just wants to fit in". In describing his high school career he said he deferred to the upperclassmen and was never the best on his team. I think he was just being polite but I do expect him to defer to his teammates this year. Once he gets comfortable in that role I hope he'll start to flourish, but that may be down the road a bit and I'm willing to cut him some slack and let him grow.

[Bankshot]

I think a lot of that was him still growing into his body and being a young player coming off the bench.
He'll get better.

In this instance, I'm not sure it is a matter of getting better. It is a matter of body type. I'm not sure that he's laterally quick enough to guard threes. From what I can see in college, he is not. I hope that proves to not be true in the NBA. I've said lots of times though, these guys have had 8 months to work on their bodies and change things to fit in the NBA, part of the reason he rose up so high on draft boards was what he's done in that period we haven't seen.

I'm excited to see what Williams can do, I have an opinion based on what I saw in college, but I'll acknowledge that I'm no expert in translating college to the pros and what he can do now may be a whole lot different than what he could do then anyway.

Here's a great pic of Williams trying to guard laterally on the perimeter:



That's how he looked in college as well. Having to resort to these side sprints, can't get low and move laterally. IMO, as he is now, he's gonna be a disaster trying to guard NBA 3's on the perimeter. It all ties into him not getting a lot of PT this season. He needs work.

LOL you using this photo as an example to make your point....man it takes everything in my power not to respond to you in a way that I for sure would get banned ...

[MGB8]

I know everybody is talking about his versatility, but I am against rookies playing more than one position their rookie year. Despite the marketing spin on positionless basketball, each position has slightly different responsibilities (especially on defense), and I think the struggle for rookies is needing to think about where to be on both ends of the court (which adds to reaction time and makes guys play worse as a result) and when you add complexity to that, it slows that learning curve. I am a big fan of giving rooks a defined (small) role and build on that as they demonstrate competence along the learning curve. That's actually why I didn't mind Coby starting off the bench in a scoring role.

Great sub-topic! I'm not sure where I stand. I would normally tend to agree with you that you want to keep players primarily at one role. But I'd also want to "spoon feed" them towards pushing their skillsets - at least if I thought that there was a future their. And "positionless basketball" adds another wrinkle, too.

So, for example, with Coby, I get the notion of starting him off as a bench scorer. It's natural and "easier" for him - quicker for him to "get up to NBA speed." But I also would have wanted to push him, with game time adversity, to do some creation/distribution work. Maybe a 90/10 split to start, then 80/20 after a while.

For Pat, I'm not sure that there's a heck of a lot of difference between him subbing in at the 3 vs. at the 4, per se, at least against most opponents. It's be slightly different defensive assignments - but a lot of switching and still team concepts. It could be different against, say, the Nuggets when they are running out Jokic and Millsap, the Knicks running out Robinson and Randle, the Heat playing Bam at the 4 with Leonard or Olynyk at the 5 - but there are very few teams that run "bruiser" PFs right now.

It's more about offensive role. The good thing is that starting him out as a slasher / bail-out 3 point / hustle-dirty-work guy on offense should be pretty easy as long as 2 of the 3 of Coby, LaVine and Lauri are on the Court.

[TheFinishSniper]

Nobody is saying redshirt. Most are thinking slow start. OPJ will need time to prove health to get traded. Thad wants Mins and complained last season about it. He will be playing. A healthy Hutch will play.

I think PW will play but not much until after the trade deadline. Amp his Mins then and let him earn more Mins if he can before then.

I expect him to make more of an impact than Coby in his Mins due to defense. He will struggle but will figure it out and I think he will be more than happy by seasons end.

I think he should play all minutes he can wherever it is on the floor. Not only on SF and be replacement for Otto for example. But also play PG, SG, SF, PF and even C if teams play with no big. I dont mind it. Really. I am saying he does not need to play just certain style of basketball in mold of some player. I mean NBA become switch everything (on defense), PnR everything (on offense) and shoot 3's . I think its time we throw away prejudices who is who on NBA floor. Either you can play basketball or you cant. I think he will learn be best basketball player exactly this way. Eventually he will find where he is best (position wise), match up with who (type of players he can guard and those he can take advantage of) and be productive.

As far as I know PW is exactly type of player who isnt good at anything but also isnt bad at everything. Maybe we can mold him to be all around player and not put in some kind of box in what we think he should be. For example that he needs to start as corner 3 and play defense type of player and then build it from there. This team also is not nowhere near good enough where he shouldnt be playing big minutes unless he doesnt even know how to play basketball. I mean for god sake we won 22,22 and 27 games in last 3 years....

I know everybody is talking about his versatility, but I am against rookies playing more than one position their rookie year. Despite the marketing spin on positionless basketball, each position has slightly different responsibilities (especially on defense), and I think the struggle for rookies is needing to think about where to be on both ends of the court (which adds to reaction time and makes guys play worse as a result) and when you add complexity to that, it slows that learning curve. I am a big fan of giving rooks a defined (small) role and build on that as they demonstrate competence along the learning curve. That's actually why I didn't mind Coby starting off the bench in a scoring role.

I am ok with small role, just not put in box role. I am fine with him not being main player, shooter, scorer, creator etc. But I want him to experience all that even in small role. To get ball and try make a play here and there. But try to do PnR play, drive to basket, cut to basket, shoot 3's, shoot 2's, with ball, off ball, shoot at the rim. On defense switch on 3's, switch on 2's, switch on 1's. I mean I am done with put in box role players. That's why everyone thinks Coby cant be PG because he is asked to just score. And Lauri seems being asked to be stretch 4. And nobody now a year since draft has no idea if Coby can be PG or Lauri can be in 3rd year more than role player...I want to avoid this crap from now on with our players. Not just PW but all of our players.

[Michael Jackson]

I know everybody is talking about his versatility, but I am against rookies playing more than one position their rookie year. Despite the marketing spin on positionless basketball, each position has slightly different responsibilities (especially on defense), and I think the struggle for rookies is needing to think about where to be on both ends of the court (which adds to reaction time and makes guys play worse as a result) and when you add complexity to that, it slows that learning curve. I am a big fan of giving rooks a defined (small) role and build on that as they demonstrate competence along the learning curve. That's actually why I didn't mind Coby starting off the bench in a scoring role.

Great sub-topic! I'm not sure where I stand. I would normally tend to agree with you that you want to keep players primarily at one role. But I'd also want to "spoon feed" them towards pushing their skillsets - at least if I thought that there was a future their. And "positionless basketball" adds another wrinkle, too.

So, for example, with Coby, I get the notion of starting him off as a bench scorer. It's natural and "easier" for him - quicker for him to "get up to NBA speed." But I also would have wanted to push him, with game time adversity, to do some creation/distribution work. Maybe a 90/10 split to start, then 80/20 after a while.

For Pat, I'm not sure that there's a heck of a lot of difference between him subbing in at the 3 vs. at the 4, per se, at least against most opponents. It's be slightly different defensive assignments - but a lot of switching and still team concepts. It could be different against, say, the Nuggets when they are running out Jokic and Millsap, the Knicks running out Robinson and Randle, the Heat playing Bam at the 4 with Leonard or Olynyk at the 5 - but there are very few teams that run "bruiser" PFs right now.

It's more about offensive role. The good thing is that starting him out as a slasher / bail-out 3 point / hustle-dirty-work guy on offense should be pretty easy as long as 2 of the 3 of Coby, LaVine and Lauri are on the Court.

While its not in anyway really relatable to P Will, Magic Johnson dropping 42 pts (15 and 7 too) in a game winning finals as a 20 year old rookie playing well out of position at center always comes to mind. Granted, this was Magic and absolutely not comparable to P Will and even at that it was a complete outlier of a performance regardless. I guess it has no point but damn I love that NBA performance.

[MrFortune3]

I hope he can, but he struggled when matched up 1:1 with wings in college. He was a great help defender, but he isn't a great lateral quickness guy and great man defender on wings IMO. We'll see what happens though, he's had 8 months to transform himself (physically / skills / whatever) and I am excited to see what he can do.

I think a lot of that was him still growing into his body and being a young player coming off the bench.
He'll get better.

In this instance, I'm not sure it is a matter of getting better. It is a matter of body type. I'm not sure that he's laterally quick enough to guard threes. From what I can see in college, he is not. I hope that proves to not be true in the NBA. I've said lots of times though, these guys have had 8 months to work on their bodies and change things to fit in the NBA, part of the reason he rose up so high on draft boards was what he's done in that period we haven't seen.

I'm excited to see what Williams can do, I have an opinion based on what I saw in college, but I'll acknowledge that I'm no expert in translating college to the pros and what he can do now may be a whole lot different than what he could do then anyway.

Much like with Coby and not playing the play making PH role...the sample size is too small to judge and the role he was asked to play is different than what he’s capable of playing.

His body type is not gonna stop him from successfully defending 3’s in the NBA. He’s only 19 and has barely scratched the surface of his potential both in his game and his body.

[dougthonus]

His body type is not gonna stop him from successfully defending 3’s in the NBA. He’s only 19 and has barely scratched the surface of his potential both in his game and his body.

I'm not sure how much he can improve lateral quickness which seemed deficient, but I'll pleasantly wait and see. I don't expect players to make big strides in those types of areas. I think you typically are kind of who you are from a quickness perspective coming out of college.

[RedBulls23]

AK and Eversley seem to think he can do what many think he can't. He must have shown them something during private workouts that make them feel like he can defend 3s and other positions outside of the 4.

We'll see. I personally don't have any pre-conceived notions about his game.

[Evil_Headband]

Well, it's nice that we'll be able to start watching games in just one week and start seeing things with our own eyes instead of watching nearly year-old game video or workout videos.

[Jello Biafra]

[CjayC]

I think a lot of that was him still growing into his body and being a young player coming off the bench.
He'll get better.

In this instance, I'm not sure it is a matter of getting better. It is a matter of body type. I'm not sure that he's laterally quick enough to guard threes. From what I can see in college, he is not. I hope that proves to not be true in the NBA. I've said lots of times though, these guys have had 8 months to work on their bodies and change things to fit in the NBA, part of the reason he rose up so high on draft boards was what he's done in that period we haven't seen.

I'm excited to see what Williams can do, I have an opinion based on what I saw in college, but I'll acknowledge that I'm no expert in translating college to the pros and what he can do now may be a whole lot different than what he could do then anyway.

Here's a great pic of Williams trying to guard laterally on the perimeter:



That's how he looked in college as well. Having to resort to these side sprints, can't get low and move laterally. IMO, as he is now, he's gonna be a disaster trying to guard NBA 3's on the perimeter. It all ties into him not getting a lot of PT this season. He needs work.

Am I taking crazy pills or what?

That is not Pat Will on Lavine. The beard doesn't connect the same, and Pat Will looks a lil lighter than buddy. Also could be the angle, but I don't see the blonde patch.

[DASMACKDOWN]

In this instance, I'm not sure it is a matter of getting better. It is a matter of body type. I'm not sure that he's laterally quick enough to guard threes. From what I can see in college, he is not. I hope that proves to not be true in the NBA. I've said lots of times though, these guys have had 8 months to work on their bodies and change things to fit in the NBA, part of the reason he rose up so high on draft boards was what he's done in that period we haven't seen.

I'm excited to see what Williams can do, I have an opinion based on what I saw in college, but I'll acknowledge that I'm no expert in translating college to the pros and what he can do now may be a whole lot different than what he could do then anyway.

Here's a great pic of Williams trying to guard laterally on the perimeter:



That's how he looked in college as well. Having to resort to these side sprints, can't get low and move laterally. IMO, as he is now, he's gonna be a disaster trying to guard NBA 3's on the perimeter. It all ties into him not getting a lot of PT this season. He needs work.

Am I taking crazy pills or what?

That is not Pat Will on Lavine.

That is NOT Patrick Williams.

[sco]

Here's a great pic of Williams trying to guard laterally on the perimeter:



That's how he looked in college as well. Having to resort to these side sprints, can't get low and move laterally. IMO, as he is now, he's gonna be a disaster trying to guard NBA 3's on the perimeter. It all ties into him not getting a lot of PT this season. He needs work.

Am I taking crazy pills or what?

That is not Pat Will on Lavine.

That is NOT Patrick Williams.

That's not the point. Someone who looks a little like Pat can't guard Lavine (maybe the quickest SG in the game). I have no problem extrapolating that Pat won't be able to guard SF's. This is us. We don't let reality get in the way of a passionate argument!

[TheFinishSniper]

No this is Patrick.



sorry guys I needed to use it

[Bankshot]

Here's a great pic of Williams trying to guard laterally on the perimeter:



That's how he looked in college as well. Having to resort to these side sprints, can't get low and move laterally. IMO, as he is now, he's gonna be a disaster trying to guard NBA 3's on the perimeter. It all ties into him not getting a lot of PT this season. He needs work.

Am I taking crazy pills or what?

That is not Pat Will on Lavine.

That is NOT Patrick Williams.

Regardless (and I don't think it is him either) just further proves my point what a ridiculous post-it was

[fleet]

AK and Eversley seem to think he can do what many think he can't. He must have shown them something during private workouts that make them feel like he can defend 3s and other positions outside of the 4.

We'll see. I personally don't have any pre-conceived notions about his game.

[gardenofsound]

I think a lot of that was him still growing into his body and being a young player coming off the bench.
He'll get better.

In this instance, I'm not sure it is a matter of getting better. It is a matter of body type. I'm not sure that he's laterally quick enough to guard threes. From what I can see in college, he is not. I hope that proves to not be true in the NBA. I've said lots of times though, these guys have had 8 months to work on their bodies and change things to fit in the NBA, part of the reason he rose up so high on draft boards was what he's done in that period we haven't seen.

I'm excited to see what Williams can do, I have an opinion based on what I saw in college, but I'll acknowledge that I'm no expert in translating college to the pros and what he can do now may be a whole lot different than what he could do then anyway.

Here's a great pic of Williams trying to guard laterally on the perimeter:



That's how he looked in college as well. Having to resort to these side sprints, can't get low and move laterally. IMO, as he is now, he's gonna be a disaster trying to guard NBA 3's on the perimeter. It all ties into him not getting a lot of PT this season. He needs work.

Sorry if I'm missing it, but is that actually Patrick Williams guarding LaVine in that shot? The hair looks different from his presser and honestly so does the face. I think that may be someone else (though I'm not sure who...).

EDIT: just saw some subsequent posts. Yeah, that ain't Williams.

[fleet]

Here's a great pic of Williams trying to guard laterally on the perimeter:



That's how he looked in college as well. Having to resort to these side sprints, can't get low and move laterally. IMO, as he is now, he's gonna be a disaster trying to guard NBA 3's on the perimeter. It all ties into him not getting a lot of PT this season. He needs work.

Am I taking crazy pills or what?

That is not Pat Will on Lavine.

That is NOT Patrick Williams.

Patrick Williams snuck in to Bulls minicamp practice in September, so you’re wrong.

[gardenofsound]

Am I taking crazy pills or what?

That is not Pat Will on Lavine.

That is NOT Patrick Williams.

Patrick Williams snuck in to Bulls minicamp practice in September, so you’re wrong.

LOL now I'm really interested.

Who the **** is this guy?

[Chi town]

Does anyone know BD’s past approaches with rookies? Does he purposely play them, purposely not play them or vary it based on their talent.

Donovan's rookies have been Cameron Payne, Josh Huestis, Domantas Sabonis, Alexis Abrines, Semaj Christon, Terrance Ferguson, Daniel Hamilton, Dakari Johnson, PJ Dozier, Hamidou Diallo, Deonte Burton, Tyler Davis, Donte Grantham, Darius Bazley, Lu Dort, Kevin Hervey, Isaiah Roby and Devon Hall.

Not a lot of household names given the Thunder were good and a playoff team drafting late. Further, because Oklahoma City had mostly veteran-laden teams, there weren't many minutes for rookies.

Of the above list, Dort last season played the most at 22.8/game. Sabonis averaged the second most at 20.1. Bazley is next at 18.5 mpg, but his playing time shot up to 27.5 mpg after the All-Star break, a good indication that Donovan is willing to play deserving rookies who work hard and develop. Dort's minutes rose to 25.3 per game after the All-Star break last season, and in the postseason he averaged 29.2 minutes.

What Donovan did last season with Dort and Bazley is probably the best indicator of how he would potentially use Williams. With what he did with Dort and Bazley, Donovan showed he trusts rookies and won't hesitate to play them. But they have to earn it.

This. Totally agree.