Bulls make it clear to forward Patrick Williams that runway is short

The Bulls provided the runway for forward Patrick Williams years ago. All he had to do was take off.

Heading into his sixth season with the Bulls, the No. 4 overall pick of 2020 is still mostly grounded.

After the Bulls finished off their second game of the preseason Thursday, beating the visiting Cavaliers 119-112, coach Billy Donovan discussed Williams — who finished with eight points and three rebounds in 21½ minutes — but didn’t dwell on him. If he wants to succeed at this point, it’s clearly on him.

“When you talk to Patrick, he’s a guy that
assumes responsibility,” Donovan said. “I talked to him, even, like, his rookie year when he was going through some things where he had to learn a lot. I tell all these young guys the same thing: There’s a certain amount of runway you end up having, and that runway kind of ends, and it’s like, ‘OK, you’ve got to step up.’ ”

Williams had already gone through numerous development coaches who work with players individually, including former shooting guru Peter Patton, who actually connected with him. But, as the Sun-Times reported this summer, he was told during exit meetings that the days of catering to him were ending. The Bulls gave him a five-year, $90 million deal last offseason and wanted more results.

To Williams’ credit, he came into training camp this month in much better shape, having obviously shed some weight. But Matas Buzelis took his starting spot in the middle of last season, Isaac Okoro was added in the summer to fill his role as wing defender, and now just a piece off the bench — sometimes an extremely deep piece.

In the preseason opener Tuesday, he was the 11th player in the rotation. On Thursday, he jumped up to seventh, but the Bulls were also without Nikola Vucevic, Kevin Huerter and Julian Phillips.

“It’s like that old adage, ‘Oh, it’s talent, talent. Then it’s potential, potential,’ ” Donovan said. “Then, over a period of time it’s like, ‘The potential thing … there’s a runway here and it’s Year 6, Year 7.

“He can carve out a really good niche for himself as an NBA player. He’s really good defensively. But can he play with a consistent motor up and down the floor? And I think he knows that’s coming from within himself and he really wants to do that. You can tell he’s tried to focus on his conditioning and being really in shape, but we’ve talked a lot about that.”

Williams was solid in his debut in Cleveland with 11 points. He was a plus-8 in plus/minus on Thursday.

“He has to accept the fact that he knows [what needs fixing] and he wants to make that step,” Donovan said. “That’s what I’ve heard from him.”