Despite his solid play of late, forward Patrick Williams remains an enigma.
But the hope throughout the locker room is that Williams has got it . . . finally.
“Pat’s been really good the last couple of games,” center Nikola Vucevic said. “You can tell he’s more confident, more aggressive. He’s not overthinking. He’s just using his instincts and playing well for us on both ends of the floor.
“We’re a different team when he’s doing that.”
They’ve won four in a row and are playing a style that coach Billy Donovan was hoping to see since training camp. And Williams is a big reason why.
The first 16 games, he averaged 6.1 points and 3.7 rebounds and shot 33% from the field and 27.7% from three-point range. The Bulls went 5-11.
Since then, Williams is averaging 14.3 points, 5.3 rebounds, 1.3 steals and 1.1 blocks and shooting 58% from the field, including 45.8% from three-point range.
But put the numbers aside and just watch Williams play. He seems like a different player who’s starting to understand what he can do and what he can be.
“I think he’s started to realize just how good and how talented he really is, and when he plays with force, he’s so strong, so athletic, so physical that he’s hard to guard, especially when he’s getting downhill, when he’s crashing the glass,” guard Coby White said. “And he’s only scratching the surface.”
It’s tough to say what exactly has clicked for Williams. He has had flashes like this before — but never in as many consecutive games — and been asked about the fleeting flourishes each time. At times he has been accurate with his self-assessment, but other times he has offered up head-scratching replies.
His latest explanation stressed a “next-play mentality.”
“I don’t really hear the outside noise . . . none of it really,” Williams said. “Not that I even try to tune it out or anything, but most of it is on social media. I don’t really like social media, never been a real big social-media guy, so I don’t really see much of it. What I know is you can never compare your journey to someone else’s. I mean, I came to the Bulls, and we were trying to win right off the bat, so development was never a priority. We were trying to win, and that’s 100% of what I wanted to do. It was just a matter of coming around. It always comes around.”
Donovan is hoping it stays. He wants Williams to keep playing aggressively. Donovan should keep showing him what it looks like on film.
“I don’t think he feels anyone has to direct him or talk to him about it,” Donovan said. “The energy in the motor has to come from him. He always says it’s there. Sometimes he’s mentioned that he can overthink things, which at times takes away his aggressiveness, but it’s good to see how consistently he’s playing. Never mind the scoring, but just the way he’s been playing and attacking.”
