NEWSLETTER
THE. SEASON. STARTS. IN. ONE. MONTH.
• We have no idea who Patrick Williams can become. As the youngest NCAA prospect in the 2020 NBA Draft, he arguably has even more room for growth than anyone. In fact, chances are, that was part of the appeal for Arturas Karnisovas and Marc Eversley. While the organization wants to turn this around in a somewhat efficient manner, they still must keep the future in mind. The ultimate goal is to build a consistent competitor and selecting high-upside picks like Williams coincides with that goal.
• At the same time, Karnisovas did sound as if he expects Williams to make an immediate impact in his post-draft interview (not often does a team expect the opposite for a top-5 pick). For all the rookies, it’ll be very interesting to follow how effective they can be from the jump. The NBA is dealing with their shortest offseason ever, which means these young studs don’t have much time to get acclimated (let’s also not forget that many of them haven’t played competitively in over 6 months). Training camp will start on December 1st, and the season will tip-off only a couple of weeks later on December 22nd. Will Williams start the season as the primary backup to Otto Porter? Will he split time with Chandler Hutchison? Can he clock minutes at power forward with Thaddeus Young on the roster? That’s for Billy Donovan to decide.
• If Spencer Dinwiddie was the Bulls coach (bad idea?), it sounds like he would throw Williams into the starting lineup. Some recent open gym footage showed the former-Bull playing with the current Bull, and the current Bull looked anything but raw. Dinwiddie was asked on Twitter yesterday what he thought of playing with Williams, and his answer should give Bulls fans some optimism.
He has no ceiling
— Spencer Dinwiddie (@SDinwiddie_25) November 21, 2020
• I know, what do we expect him to say? Nah, that kid sucks. He didn’t have to say that – let alone answer the question. Williams did look like the versatile talent Karnisovas talked about in that 5-on-5 action, and if he can flash some skills in preseason action, we could see him get on the right track sooner than later.
I Know It’s Just Practice, But Daaaaang … Patrick Williams Looks Good (VIDEO)https://t.co/c9FmKwerb6
— Bleacher Nation Bulls (@BN_Bulls) November 22, 2020
• This is important:
As an aside to this — and catching up to some of the reactions — if you’re mad that the Hawks are making moves while the Bulls aren’t, I have to assume you’re ignoring the most obvious of facts:
The Hawks had ~$44m in cap space, the Bulls have zero and can only use exceptions. https://t.co/NGfP6iQLNQ
— Mark (@mkhoops) November 21, 2020
• I agree it’s a tad frustrating to watch some of these bottom of the Eastern Conference teams add talent, but we must keep in mind the Bulls situation. Teams like the Hornets and Hawks have a ton of cap space to spend, while the Bulls had really nothing more than the mid-level exception. If anything, that could prove to work in the Bulls favor, as the team will instead have max-level money to spend in the coveted 2021 free agency. When Karnisovas took over, the plan was never to add high-impact talent during the offseason – at least, not through free agency. I think it’s very possible the organization makes a trade or two over the course of this season but greatly improving the roster this offseason was probably never part of the agenda.
• Denzel Valentine and Garrett Temple kind of offer the same thing. If anything, Temple has the more versatile skillset, so it’ll be interesting to see how this rotation falls into place.
Will Valentine be able to earn rotation minutes with the addition of Garrett Temple? It will be interesting to see how Billy Donovan handles his backcourt rotation. https://t.co/0jFqCOlSz3
— Mark Schanowski (@MarkSchanowski) November 21, 2020
• Big-time money for an up-and-coming superstar. Man, I wish Donovan Mitchell was on the Bulls.
Utah Jazz All-Star guard Donovan Mitchell has agreed to a five-year, $195M designated rookie max extension, his agents Ty Sullivan and Austin Brown of @caa_sports tell ESPN. Story soon.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) November 22, 2020
