The Chicago Bulls should bench and trade Patrick Williams

Enough is enough. The Chicago Bulls need to cut their losses and end the Patrick Williams experiment right now.

Now three games into his fourth NBA season, Williams has done absolutely nothing to justify all of the hype around his “potential” during the course of his NBA career.

Even worse, he’s making headlines for reasons other than his consistently atrocious performances.

It would be prudent of the Chicago Bulls to bench and trade their newest bust, Patrick Williams.

As a former believer of Patrick Williams, I wish I was writing this solely in response to a lack of production.

Unfortunately, that’s not the case.

Let’s go back to where this all began, nine days ago when a report surfaced from ESPN’s Zach Lowe that had Bulls Nation either shaking with laughter or fuming with anger.

How could anyone justify a player whose career-high points-per-game average is 10 points earning an annual salary of $20M+, I’ll never know.

The initial report shown in the tweet below indicates a desired contract of $200M+ in total, but it was later clarified that the annual $20M+ salary was the true goal.

Either way, those demands are entirely delusional. How exactly has he earned that request besides being lucky genetically?

While it’s never been confirmed that Williams himself truly believes this, the fact that nobody has come out publicly to deny it while the Chicago Bulls have declined to extend him speaks volumes.

However, this report was released before the start of the 2023-24 NBA season. In my optimistic mind, I wondered if Patrick Williams had taken a leap over the summer and was prepared to explode toward superstardom.

Alas, that is not the case. Through three games during a contract year, Patrick Williams is averaging 3.7 PPG, 2 APG, and 3 RPG while shooting a beyond-abysmal 27.8% from the field, including 11.1% from beyond the arc.

Those numbers are so terrible that I felt lying while typing. It’s not much of a stretch to believe that I could find someone at the local YMCA who could hit shots a better percentage for the Bulls.

It’s not like he’s the focus of anyone’s defensive game plan. Why would he be? He’s done nothing to justify that.

In fact, if I was constructing a game plan against the Chicago Bulls, it would center around making sure he has the ball the most. Let Patrick Williams beat you if he can; he’s never beaten anyone in over three years as a pro in a game that matters.

His passiveness is embarrassing for a professional basketball player. I used to excuse him because of his youth, but I refuse to do so any longer, and neither should anyone else.

Just look at the box score from yesterday’s loss to the Pistons. You might need to do so even if you watched the game.

Against Detroit, he played for 21 minutes. During his time, he attempted a measly three shots and missed them all. He finished with a stat line of no points, three rebounds, one assist, and one steal.

This shockingly awful performance came one night after Patrick Williams stunk up the floor against the Toronto Raptors so badly that Billy Donovan, a man who will never be known for accountability, benched him in the third quarter for the rest of the game.

With such a disappointing career to this point, you’d think getting benched would signal to Williams that he needs to step up his performance in all areas.

Instead, he pouted on the bench like a child as if he didn’t have millions of reasons to consider his attitude and be a good teammate. That leads me to the most damning moment of Patrick Williams’ career thus far in my opinion.

In the video below, Williams showcases just how immature he is. It’s hard to find him, but once you find him (he walks to the right at the end), watch it again and keep an eye on him through the entire video.

Patrick Williams decided not to celebrate with his teammates during the second game of the season after a game-winning three-pointer because his child-like feelings were hurt.

Maybe that was a sign that he cares about getting benched, but for this particular player on a contract year, if that’s his line of thinking and how he responds to adversity… well, I wouldn’t pay him the change in my pocket, let alone his apparently ridiculous contract wishes.

For most of his career, Williams has been compared to Kawhi Leonard due to his measurables. While Leonard will likely never win an award for being an emotional leader, his production when on the floor leveled everything out.

Patrick Williams doesn’t have that luxury. If I ever hear his name mentioned with Leonard’s in the same sentence again without a statistical correlation between the two, I might vomit.

While I seriously question if Billy Donovan has the analytic sense or the stones to make the necessary change now, whenever he decides to do so, Torrey Craig should start instead.

Then the Chicago Bulls front office should make him someone else’s potential cap albatross by trading him. They must be aggressive in doing so because each game Williams plays or sits on the bench lowers his trade value.

I don’t care what the Chicago Bulls get back for him. At this point, I’ll take anything for a player who is squarely on the path to being worth nothing.

It’s a shame that we’ve reached this point, but Patrick Williams has given us no other choice. It’s time to move on.