In the first season of a new five-year, $90MM contract, Bulls forward Patrick Williams has continued to struggle to carve out a consistent gig as a role player. Darnell Mayberry of The Athletic wonders if Williams’ window to prove he can effectively do so is closing.
With the Bulls’ third-leading scorer, Coby White, unavailable, Chicago was hoping for the 23-year-old to take on a bigger offensive role in a 109-97 loss to Philadelphia on Saturday. Instead, he scored two points while shooting just 1-of-9 from the field and coughed up the ball in a critical possession with just over three minutes left in the game.
Following that turnover, head coach Billy Donovan quickly removed Williams from the lineup for the game’s final minutes, which has become increasingly common, Mayberry notes. In his fifth season, the 6’7″ pro is struggling both to finish at the rim and connect from long range for the 19-27 Bulls.
“He’s going to need to do that to continue to evolve,” Donovan said. “Earlier in his career, he never would have done any of that stuff. He would always defer and feel like, ‘I’m a young guy. I’ve just got to fit in.’ I think now he’s trying to do more, but we all want to have better results out of it.”
There’s more out of the Central Division:
- Bulls rookie forward Matas Buzelis has played sparingly this season for Chicago thus far. The No. 11 overall pick has averaged just 12.7 minutes per game, which ranks 31st among first-year players. As Kyle Williams of The Chicago Sun-Times notes, Donovan doesn’t think Buzelis is capable of playing major minutes just yet. “[Buzelis] has to understand the things that go into winning, how he can impact winning and the things he has to do on a consistent basis,” the Bulls’ coach said.
- Cavaliers guard Ty Jerome enjoyed a career night in a 132-129 loss to Philadelphia on Friday, scoring a personal-best 33 points on 11-of-14 shooting from the floor, including 8-of-8 shooting from long range. He also went 3-of-4 from the foul line. As Chris Fedor of Cleveland.com notes in a subscriber-only story, the 6’5″ guard’s big night wasn’t enough to help the club overcome the Sixers, but the 27-year-old is enjoying his best pro season since his 2020/21 run with the Thunder, averaging a career-best 10.8 points, plus 3.3 assists, 2.3 rebounds, and 1.2 steals per night.
- Pistons forward Ausar Thompson, whose development was slowed by a blood clot issue that caused him to miss time at the end of 2023/24 and the start of this season, took a major step on Saturday, playing a season-high 29 minutes in a 121-113 loss to Orlando. Thompson, who scored 16 points on 6-of-8 shooting from the field, spoke after the game about gradually getting back to 100%, per Omari Sankofa II of The Detroit Free Press (Twitter link). “I feel great,” Thompson said. “It feels good to almost reach the 30-minute mark. I feel great, feel conditioned and however many minutes they need me to play, I’m ready to play.” Thompson has been on a minutes restriction for much of the season. Detroit head coach J.B. Bickerstaff spoke glowingly of the second-year forward’s progress, Sankofa tweets. “His activity was great, his aggressiveness,” Bickerstaff said. “He was attacking the paint, making plays, rebounding the ball, four steals. I thought he did a great job of showing exactly who he is and how he can contribute to help this team win.”