Patrick Williams is looking for something different in his sixth season with the Chicago Bulls.
For five years, the forward has stumbled through every step of the NBA gauntlet for promising young prospects — flashing his potential as a rookie, suffering an injury setback in Year 2, then struggling to find his place for the three seasons that followed. Last season, he was played out of the starting lineup by then-rookie Matas Buzelis, who has quickly overtaken Williams as the young talent dominating the hopes of the frontcourt.
Coach Billy Donovan emphasizes this reality on a regular basis. Williams, though only 24, is no longer a newcomer. Five years have wiped away the shine of his draft scouting reports. The Bulls need him to be reliable at least, a leader at best. And at a certain point, a player has to perform.
“There’s a certain amount of runway that you end up having,” Donovan said. “And when that runway ends, then it’s like, ‘OK, you got to step up.’ … It’s like that old adage — talent is talent and potential is potential.”
Williams wants to be more forceful, both with his voice and with his physical presence on the court. He is the second-longest-tenured player on the Bulls roster behind guard Coby White, who was drafted in 2019. In training camp, the forward recognized the responsibility that comes with this longevity. But he also has been forced to acknowledge the urgency with which he needs to take a step forward.
This might sound familiar. It’s not the first time Williams took to the podium in preseason to espouse the importance of accountability and preach a promise of improved play. But hopefully — for Williams and the Bulls — it will be the last.
“You have to look yourself in the mirror and say, ‘OK, I need to be better,’” Williams said. “Before Billy does it, before the coaching staff does it, before my teammates do it, I had to look myself in the mirror and say, ‘I got to be better for those guys and for myself.’”
One key factor: staying healthy.
After three of his five seasons ended prematurely by injury, it would be easy to label Williams as physically fragile — except for the lingering memory of his 82-game season in 2022-23. At his best, Williams has shown an ability to be remarkably durable, but that resilience has never lasted consistently.
“You really start to value your health,” Williams said. “It takes a lot more for me — mentally, physically — to preserve that, to make sure that I’m on the court each and every day.”
This year, Williams feels confident in his ability to lay a foundation of health to sustain an entire season, a process that began with a goal of losing weight. Due to the timeline of a foot surgery in February 2024, Williams was unable to lift weights or work into a cardio routine for most of last summer. As a result, he came into the season bulkier than expected — a look that seemed helpful at first but ultimately limited his agility as the season wore on.
This year, Williams is opting for a lighter build. After a summer dedicated to high-cardio workouts in Los Angeles such as running sand dunes, the forward is notably slimmer in his torso. Williams declined to specify the amount of weight he lost, but he feels his current physique will improve his versatility.
“I always wanted to be strong and fit, be able to guard fours, guard fives, guard ones, guard twos, guard threes,” Williams said. “That was kind of the mindfulness of it — not wanting to be too slim where I can’t guard different positions, but also being slim enough where my joints and stuff aren’t just aching after games. Not just taking that constant beating and pounding with however many pounds of weight driving on them each and every day. (These are) things that over time you just become mindful of after you deal with a few injuries.”
This improved athleticism goes hand in hand with the style of play that Williams must provide off the bench.
Williams spent the summer drilling his ballhandling, which will be crucial after his struggles last season to drive to the rim from the perimeter. In preseason games, Williams has been used more to initiate the offense by advancing the ball across half-court, leaving point guards such as Josh Giddey and Tre Jones off ball to create more motion from the jump.
But Donovan will mostly ask the forward to lean into his strengths — defensive assignments and 3-point shooting.
“I think he can really carve out a really good niche for himself as an NBA player,” Donovan said. “He’s been a really consistent defender for us. He’s been a pretty consistent shooter. But a lot of this stuff that (we’re) talking about is — can he play with that consistent motor up and down the floor on a regular basis? He knows that’s coming from within himself. I think he really wants to do that.”
Williams doesn’t want to end another season with apologies. Not after this many seasons in the league. It has been too long and he has worked too hard to keep underperforming to his potential.
And Williams feels that accepting his new status — as a bench player with the potential to become a game changer — is a crucial piece of fulfilling his abilities.
“A lot of people want to win on their terms,” Williams said. “Winning may not always be on your terms. It has to be whatever it takes and each night it’ll take something different. Each possession has an identity of its own, so you never know what it’s going to take. I’ve been around enough to kind of be able to mend and bend into whatever needs to be done at that moment.”