Patrick Williams is having his worst year

[lostonbase]

Between the injuries, the lack of on-court progress (except for assists, where he has improved, Pat's 2024-25 stats are across the board equal to or worse than his rookie performance), and his obvious problems with BBIQ, Pat has almost no chance of becoming a good NBA player. Consequently, there is almost no risk in the Bulls moving him, as long as the return for the trade is not even more negative.

It's time to give up, people.

The time to give up was before they paid him.

AKME loves paying themselves into corners.

[Ice Man]

The time to give up was before they paid him.

Yeah well, I agree with you there, but spilt milk and all. It's time for the Chicago Bulls to be a better franchise, and part of being a better franchise -- that is, making better decisions -- is learning when to cut one's losses. Just because the Bulls failed to do so last year with Pat doesn't mean that they shouldn't be doing so now. They should be.

[DASMACKDOWN]

The time to give up was before they paid him.

I know we have gone back and forth on PWill over the years. But I can concede and admit I was wrong.

But even as of right now, if Pat was bad before, he is even worse now. Which is hard to imagine. We are stuck with this contract and the only thing we can do is try to rebuild his confidence and play.

Its not a ridiculous contract to move eventually, but if you have zero value, it might as well be a 200 mil contract.

This season is an absolute disaster for him as a player.

[Jcool0]

Shouldn't the whole Williams saga be enough to get a GM fired? From the very beginning we heard the Bulls were banking on the 4th pick to be an All Star level talent. Now that isn't enough to get someone fired that he became just a role player (even though there wasn't much of a general consensus on pick #4 but most said take Deni Avdija and fans were on the Haliburton train). But then like Vuc to double down and sign him before even testing the market and give him a 5th year player option. Its insanity.

[MrSparkle]

His confidence is so low right now, he looks like an absolute-worst NBA player.

I think #4/$90M/Chicago has gotten to his head, combined with injuries and poor conditioning. Probably needs a change of scenery.

He should atleast change his number or something. #44 has been bad.

[sco]

The time to give up was before they paid him.

I know we have gone back and forth on PWill over the years. But I can concede and admit I was wrong.

But even as of right now, if Pat was bad before, he is even worse now. Which is hard to imagine. We are stuck with this contract and the only thing we can do is try to rebuild his confidence and play.

Its not a ridiculous contract to move eventually, but if you have zero value, it might as well be a 200 mil contract.

This season is an absolute disaster for him as a player.

I will say that I've seen countless times that players are viewed as being worse than they actually are (without any "improvement" required) in the aftermath of injuries, especially those that limited offseason work. To be sure, Pat is having a terrible season. That foot injury had the double negative impact of limiting both his offseason skill work AND drove weight gain that has obviously slowed him this season.

He is dead money at this point, and short of giving away picks for someone to take him. He'll be back next season. That said, I am optimistic that next season's version of Pat will be much better. While, to be sure, he isn't going to approach being an allstar, I do think he'll come back in good shape and with improved skills.

The thing is, I don't see a lot of blame to sling around on Pat or the org. Was he the right pick, of course not! But I gotta admit to liking the idea of drafting 3-D wings who have great measurables...he was the 4th pick in what was percieved as a 3 man draft at the time. I look at the upcoming draft similarly, and wouldn't be mad at the FO drafting a high-ceiling/low-floor guy for the upside. In terms of the org pushing him to develop into a 1st/2nd option offensive threat, again, while it didn't work out for a variety of reasons, I would have tried the same thing. And then, in terms of Pat himself, I think, in general, he's a good worker. I think he's been circumstantially hurt in several ways. Injuries, playing out of position, and behind the mid-3, all were headwinds to his development. With a healthy offseason, and those headwinds behind him, there are some decent reasons for optimism for him to play "starter level" basketball next season.

I for one, wish him luck.

[CROBulls]

Between the injuries, the lack of on-court progress (except for assists, where he has improved, Pat's 2024-25 stats are across the board equal to or worse than his rookie performance), and his obvious problems with BBIQ, Pat has almost no chance of becoming a good NBA player. Consequently, there is almost no risk in the Bulls moving him, as long as the return for the trade is not even more negative.

It's time to give up, people.

The time to give up was before they paid him.

AKME loves paying themselves into corners.

Yes they do that's why they are worst run franchise in NBA, even behind Mavs.

[Ctownbulls]

He is not even an NBA player right now. He has one of the worst contracts in the entire league and isn't even making $20M. They couldn't dump him if they tried.

[Jcool0]

The thing is, I don't see a lot of blame to sling around on Pat or the org. Was he the right pick, of course not! But I gotta admit to liking the idea of drafting 3-D wings who have great measurables...he was the 4th pick in what was percieved as a 3 man draft at the time. I look at the upcoming draft similarly, and wouldn't be mad at the FO drafting a high-ceiling/low-floor guy for the upside. In terms of the org pushing him to develop into a 1st/2nd option offensive threat, again, while it didn't work out for a variety of reasons, I would have tried the same thing. And then, in terms of Pat himself, I think, in general, he's a good worker. I think he's been circumstantially hurt in several ways. Injuries, playing out of position, and behind the mid-3, all were headwinds to his development. With a healthy offseason, and those headwinds behind him, there are some decent reasons for optimism for him to play "starter level" basketball next season.

I for one, wish him luck.

You could have a point if say in this draft the Bulls had the 3rd pick and took Ace. Lets say because he is somewhat a project it doesn't work out. Well no team was going to pass on his upside in this draft. So they took the swing and missed. Like you said #4 was a wild card and with little consensus the Bulls still surprised a lot of people taking Williams #4. He was a late riser but more in the 7-10 range then 4th. He did have upside but it was the kind of upside that was a one in a million hit, almost everyone pegged him at best as a 3-D guy & he couldn't really even hit that level in the NBA. They didn't need to be that risky, heck Onyeka Okongwu would of been a fine pick at #4. Judging from everything they have done they really cant get the benefit of the doubt.

[Ice Man]

I wish Pat luck, sure. But it was a bad draft pick, in foresight as well as hindsight. The guy averaged only 7 boards per 40 minutes in college, despite his athletic gifts. For comparison's sake, Bobby Portis was 10 per 40 as a freshman and 12 per 40 as a soph. Cooper Flagg, for which rebounding is merely a side benefit, is 10 per 40. And so forth.

That happens because either a guy isn't trying, or he's trying but he doesn't have the motor/BBIQ to get the job done. All of which are HUGE warning signs for the NBA team that is drafting the player.

Pat was worth a flyer as a late-round pick, maybe even mid, but as a #4 ... not a chance. Just a fundamental drafting error.

[DASMACKDOWN]

He is not even an NBA player right now. He has one of the worst contracts in the entire league and isn't even making $20M. They couldn't dump him if they tried.

He is shooting 37.4% which is tied for 3rd worst in the entire league.

What is surprising, is that Jerami Grant is even worse at 37.3%

I think he might be the only guy that can compete with Pat with the worst contract.

[Ctownbulls]

He is not even an NBA player right now. He has one of the worst contracts in the entire league and isn't even making $20M. They couldn't dump him if they tried.

He is shooting 37.4% which is tied for 3rd worst in the entire league.

What is surprising, is that Jerami Grant is even worse at 37.3%

I think he might be the only guy that can compete with Pat with the worst contract.

Crazy - although I think Embiid has that title.

[sco]

He is not even an NBA player right now. He has one of the worst contracts in the entire league and isn't even making $20M. They couldn't dump him if they tried.

He is shooting 37.4% which is tied for 3rd worst in the entire league.

What is surprising, is that Jerami Grant is even worse at 37.3%

I think he might be the only guy that can compete with Pat with the worst contract.

Yeah, he is too slow to get over or by guys this season. Honestly, if he even gets his shot off is a bit of a relief because he has been trying to create off the dribble this season and his handles are so bad it is hard to watch.

Hopefully, what is obvious to me is obvious to our coaching staff, and they can have him work on his ball handling and weight. It would be great if he developed some post moves, but that may be asking too much.

[SHO'NUFF]

Maybe he'd be a good delivery driver for Derrick Rose's flower shop.

[GoBlue72391]

He is not even an NBA player right now. He has one of the worst contracts in the entire league and isn't even making $20M. They couldn't dump him if they tried.

He is shooting 37.4% which is tied for 3rd worst in the entire league.

What is surprising, is that Jerami Grant is even worse at 37.3%

I think he might be the only guy that can compete with Pat with the worst contract.

Yeah, he is too slow to get over or by guys this season. Honestly, if he even gets his shot off is a bit of a relief because he has been trying to create off the dribble this season and his handles are so bad it is hard to watch.

Hopefully, what is obvious to me is obvious to our coaching staff, and they can have him work on his ball handling and weight. It would be great if he developed some post moves, but that may be asking too much.

Honestly, I think we should stop spending time and energy trying to figure out ways to get him to improve. We've tried that for 5 years. There is no rebuilding his value. Our only goal in regards to Pat should be how to move on from him. Let his next team worry about tricking themselves into "unlocking him."

[DASMACKDOWN]

Honestly, I think we should stop spending time and energy trying to figure out ways to get him to improve. We've tried that for 5 years. There is no rebuilding his value. Our only goal in regards to Pat should be how to move on from him. Let his next team worry about tricking themselves into "unlocking him."

I don't think we are putting effort into unlocking him. It's just effort to get him to a point that he could actually be moved. It might take 2-3 seasons.

That is the reality of it unfortunately.

[MrSparkle]

Really Felicio’d ourselves here. 5Y guaranteed relatively far above the market…Why???

[DKB333]

The GM is terrible. Watch him give Giddey 40M a year. It would surprise me but not shock me at all.

[League Circles]

I've thought he looked OK for his role since being benched. Seem quite active last night in the little I was watching him. Hopefully he can still emerge into a good bench 3/4 behind Matas and Giddey. Though I definitely expect Huerter to challenge him for minutes the rest of the year and next.

[Dan Z]

Really Felicio’d ourselves here. 5Y guaranteed relatively far above the market…Why???

It's crazy. Why 5 years? What had he shown in his career up to that point that he deserved a contract that long? At a minimum make the last year a team option.

It's looking worse and worse as the season goes on. Hopefully PW shows some improvement to end the season.