Patrick Williams out 4-6 weeks UPDATE since Sept 15

[Michael Jackson]

The loss of Pat to start the season IMO is more about limiting his development, which is probably the linch-pin for our ability to contend down the road than it is about wins/losses without him to start the season.

That said, I think Pat has gotten a TON of offseason development in with the combo of team USA and summer league.

Coby's injury was much more detrimental, as he didn't get any real offseason work in.

Williams got a ton of offseason work and as has been projected he isn’t our most important player. He is also super young and and 4-6 weeks is nothing compared to the balance of his career. It’s also not like the whole team has to find redefined roles and “learn” new ARS and I am pretty sure he can still be coached on plays while having an injury. The fact he has been playing so much this offseason his body might need a rest. Let’s be happy it isn’t a torn ACL now that would be terrible.

I know this is getting on the Bulls are cursed, but did anyone watch the playoffs last year, every team suffered way bigger injuries last year than this. Every player is bigger stronger and having to move faster than in the past, injuries are part of the game.

Is Williams that much better today than Johnson(s), DJJ or even TBJ if DDR starts at PF? I mean long term he is projected out to be but today for the first couple weeks of the season is he? This doesn’t compare to Kawhi having to sit out a year or Zach, Ball, DDR or Vuc suffering an injury and missing opening night. This also isn’t some long term injury that will hamper his career. Hell in the old days he would still be in his JR year this season. This isn’t a Jay Williams career ending thing either. Just saying the Bulls will be fine with this as will Pat this isn’t a sky is falling scenario.

[chitowndish]

The Bulls may have wanted to wait to have a timeframe before making it public at least I hope that’s what it is but they really haven’t had a good track record with communicating about injury. Really bummed about it from that development perspective though he’s getting ready to take that next step and now he’ll be playing catch-up. I agree I’m not too worried and it’s better than at the end of the season.

One positive at least is it will give Donovan a chance to compare all of these wing defenders at PF and decide who he thinks works best. With Williams there may not be as many minutes to tinker but this way he should get a good chance to compare these guys and figure out a mix of them he likes.

[Michael Jackson]

The Bulls may have wanted to wait to have a timeframe before making it public at least I hope that’s what it is but they really haven’t had a good track record with communicating about injury. Really bummed about it from that development perspective though he’s getting ready to take that next step and now he’ll be playing catch-up. I agree I’m not too worried and it’s better than at the end of the season.

One positive at least is it will give Donovan a chance to compare all of these wing defenders at PF and decide who he thinks works best. With Williams there may not be as many minutes to tinker but this way he should get a good chance to compare these guys and figure out a mix of them he likes.

He is losing a little development time for sure but he gained some over the summer playing with the national team. TBH this team is going to take some time to figure out it’s roles anyway and Pat wasn’t going to be featured much at this point anyway, except on defense. Although as fans we expect a breakout season, on this team as it got built over the summer it is highly unlikely that it was going to be this year anyway. He was put in a position to be able to be developed slowly as is. This really doesn’t impact much of anything, except we get to see if there is any value from the guys behind him and will help in determining mid season moves by AK. It isn’t a blessing but there surely is a silver lining. Pats return may be right in the thick of that early season schedule which looks tough and might be a nice morale boost too. Thibs already taught us this, “more than enough”

[GoBlue72391]

Funny that our 4th best player has a minor injury and everyone is saying "here we go again" or "only the Bulls".

This is standard.

Sent from my Pixel 5 using Tapatalk

I'd say he's at best our 5th best player. I've never been a Lonzo fan but he's clearly better than PWill by a pretty wide margin. You could argue that Caruso is better than PWill too.

Snapshots in time re: production. I doubt the Bulls would trade Pat for either one of those older, more developed players. Question can be revisited later.

Oh, he certainly has more potential than them, but right now they're better players than him. I'm not even particularly high on PWill but I think it's pretty safe to say he'll eventually be better than Caruso and probably Lonzo.

[DuckIII]

Damn. Lauri got derailed his second season with an elbow injury...now PWill gets derailed. Damn when will fortune favor the bulls?

PWill is not derailed, he’s injured. It’s not the same thing.

[Michael Jackson]

Damn. Lauri got derailed his second season with an elbow injury...now PWill gets derailed. Damn when will fortune favor the bulls?

PWill is not derailed, he’s injured. It’s not the same thing.

This is a standard run of the mill type injury. This isn’t altering anyone’s career and to boot it happened in the offseason. Definitely not a huge derailment at all. Unfortunate yes, but every player has some injury at some point. LaVine had an injury that could really derail a career and he seems ok now. Sprained ankles suck but they don’t for ever impact your basketball career.

[Chi town]

Ideally some of the young vets play well and PW has to perform to earn his burn. Hopefully that helps him play aggressive. I’m convinced an aggressive PW can be a real player. Passive Pat would be an act starter.

[fleet]

I'd say he's at best our 5th best player. I've never been a Lonzo fan but he's clearly better than PWill by a pretty wide margin. You could argue that Caruso is better than PWill too.

Snapshots in time re: production. I doubt the Bulls would trade Pat for either one of those older, more developed players. Question can be revisited later.

Oh, he certainly has more potential than them, but right now they're better players than him. I'm not even particularly high on PWill but I think it's pretty safe to say he'll eventually be better than Caruso and probably Lonzo.

When folks have gotten worked up about the 4th or 5th (whatever) guy getting banged up OH NO!, it is an overreaction I agree. Seen however through the prism of a Bulls team that historically perhaps has not had great luck with health, understandable. And Pat is a pretty important player to worry about. If the Bulls don’t take a step to get this team to reach it’s possibilities, the most likely reason imo was that Pat didn’t have a great year. Pat is the wildcard.

[dabig3]

It sucks that PWill is going to miss training camp with all the new guys in this new system - but he's young and the team will still be new when he comes back. The entire first half of that season is going to be a learning process for everyone. He'll pick it up though.

I'm more worried about Coby, but only because he's going to be missing more time and also because he's more impacted by the new rotation.

[FranchisePlayer]

Snapshots in time re: production. I doubt the Bulls would trade Pat for either one of those older, more developed players. Question can be revisited later.

Oh, he certainly has more potential than them, but right now they're better players than him. I'm not even particularly high on PWill but I think it's pretty safe to say he'll eventually be better than Caruso and probably Lonzo.

When folks have gotten worked up about the 4th or 5th (whatever) guy getting banged up OH NO!, it is an overreaction I agree.

IMO it's not an overreaction but understandabe. A designated starter out and no real PF behind him to take his minutes. Anyone saying this is not a big deal is in denial.

[MrSparkle]

Bummer but we have many players at his position, time, and he shouldn’t rush back.

[dougthonus]

IMO it's not an overreaction but understandabe. A designated starter out and no real PF behind him to take his minutes. Anyone saying this is not a big deal is in denial.

He's your 5th best starter and probably even lower on the pecking order presently in terms of his impact on the game. His recovery timetable is such that he may not even miss a single regular season game.

If you want to think it's a big deal then be my guest. Based on his role, if he were to miss 30 games then I'd probably be there with you, but he may literally miss zero at this point. The 6 week timeframe has him missing four games. Until we see this drag into significant real time missed, it isn't that big a deal. Even if he does miss significant time, at best he's the 5th most important guy on the team. Teams lose guys like that and manage.

[PaKii94]

Damn. Lauri got derailed his second season with an elbow injury...now PWill gets derailed. Damn when will fortune favor the bulls?

PWill is not derailed, he’s injured. It’s not the same thing.

Missing training camp and preseason in my mind is a derailment. PWill isn't a vet who doesn't need those things

[Portiseyes]

I think the Bulls are playing to win, which is why I don't think PWill will be getting a ton of minutes this year even as a starter. But regardless of playing to win, the beginning of the season is about trying out rotations to see what works, especially with the huge player overhaul on the Bulls. Assuming PWill works his way back into the starting lineup when his ankle is fully healed, him being out a bit gives a good opportunity to try different starter rotations and see what works (...where the 4 other starters are set in stone barring injury). If it were me, and understanding that the PF position is sort of that 'by committee' position for a team with playoff aspirations, I would switch off between starting Alize and DJJ in PWill's place depending on the matchups and how BD wants to look at running the offence, while getting a look at more defensive support to the interior (Vuc) with Alize vs wings (DDR) with DJJ. I think both Alize and DJJ will set a high bar for PWill in terms of the energy they'll bring to starting rotation. I think they'll also both model different aspects that it will be important for PWill to bring to the starting PF role, along with his better shooting/spacing. Finally I don't think it will change the rhythm of early substitutions much because I think that, as alluded to at the top, PWill should be the first starter to come out this season because the 4 other starters are better than him right now and because he probably won't be able to sustain the energy we'll need from his position for long runs. During the first switch, and just for a few minutes until the 2nd switch, I expect Caruso to come in, Lonzo to move to the three and DDR to the four (unless DDR switches out as well). Then either DDR or Vuc are taken out for a breather, let Lonzo have full control of the half-court point for a while either at point guard or point forward, and with DDR being first starter brought back in to run the bench rotation while Zach gets his extended 1st half breather.

So yeah, while I think PWill will be starting once his ankle isn't limiting him, I think he, DJJ and Alize will ideally (if showing positive play) all get their minutes with 3 or more other starters on the floor. Whereas I see Coby, TBJ, and Bradley as getting most of their minutes with only 1 or 2 starter on the floor. I generally like the team build in that there's a clear 2nd string player at the 1 and the 5 (and then rookies in deep bench roles at these positions to back-up in case of injury), but you have 4 players in white/tbj/djj/alize for the remaining three positions and can sort of slide up or down depending on what's needed. Any of these players can impact the mix and their play time by either taking a big step (Coby turns around his D and raises his true shooting, TBJ showing he has built up the strength to guard wings effectively and shoots well / cleans up his playmaking blunders, DJJ gets into the mid-thirties w/ his three ball and really makes an impact by doing all the little things along with the athleticism he brings, Alize shows that his monster /36 isn't just a fluke and brings that winning basketball Dog impact to the floor on a nightly basis)... or by underperforming. I'm excited to see this whole team develop, how they fit together, and to see how the coaching staff helps turn these pieces into a winning basketball team.

[Almost Retired]

I think we will be fine to start the season can slide Derrick Jones Jr or alize in at the 4 or even put derozan at the 4 and slide caruso into the starting line up. Our bench is going to suffer though until coby gets back.

In the immortal words of Tommy Thibs....We Have Enough.

[Almost Retired]

Damn. Lauri got derailed his second season with an elbow injury...now PWill gets derailed. Damn when will fortune favor the bulls?

PWill is not derailed, he’s injured. It’s not the same thing.

Missing training camp and preseason in my mind is a derailment. PWill isn't a vet who doesn't need those things

But the flip side is that he got a lot of high quality practice time against Team USA prior to the Olympics. So his off season was more productive than it was for many players. And young players recover a little quicker usually. He's 20. He might make the opener. I hope so.

[Chicago-Bull-E]

Wonder who would get the starting nod if it came to it? Alize fits nicely with the starters, but not sure how his defense is against 4s.

[FriedRise]

Wonder who would get the starting nod if it came to it? Alize fits nicely with the starters, but not sure how his defense is against 4s.

They'll try out different combos for sure during preseason, but I think it'll end up being somebody more seasoned like Caruso or DJJ, with DeMar sliding to the 4 like he did most of last season in San Antonio.

Caruso gives you a bit more in terms of point of attack defense and shooting, but might be redundant with Ball also playing that role. With DJJ, you sacrifice a bit of shooting, but it'll be simpler to balance the rest of the rotations having Caruso come off the bench.

Either way, get ready for a 4-guard lineup!

[PaKii94]

PWill is not derailed, he’s injured. It’s not the same thing.

Missing training camp and preseason in my mind is a derailment. PWill isn't a vet who doesn't need those things

But the flip side is that he got a lot of high quality practice time against Team USA prior to the Olympics. So his off season was more productive than it was for many players. And young players recover a little quicker usually. He's 20. He might make the opener. I hope so.

Agreed. Hopefully it balances out.

[WindyCityBorn]

Oh, he certainly has more potential than them, but right now they're better players than him. I'm not even particularly high on PWill but I think it's pretty safe to say he'll eventually be better than Caruso and probably Lonzo.

When folks have gotten worked up about the 4th or 5th (whatever) guy getting banged up OH NO!, it is an overreaction I agree.

IMO it's not an overreaction but understandabe. A designated starter out and no real PF behind him to take his minutes. Anyone saying this is not a big deal is in denial.

PWill is not a real PF either. They knew this when they filled out the roster so we will see how it goes.