“The Toronto Raptors’ need for rangy combo forwards is a good illustration of how quickly rosters can change in the NBA. It wasn’t so long ago that the Raps were deep into the positionless experiment many dubbed “Project 6’9″”, during which they over-indexed on exactly that player type.
Scottie Barnes and Jalen McDaniels are the only such players under contract in Toronto for next year, which means a good chunk of the Raptors’ projected cap space should probably go to a free agent who can man the 3 or the 4 in flexible lineups.
Patrick Williams has battled injuries in two of his four pro seasons and might be gettable with a large enough offer to prevent the Chicago Bulls from matching in restricted free agency.
The Bulls have DeMar DeRozan’s unrestricted free agency to consider and tend to operate in a misguided win-now mode that could marginalize their 22-year-old former lottery pick. This is a bet that Toronto will swoop in with an offer sheet competitive enough to pry away the so-far underwhelming forward.
With Immanuel Quickley, Barnes and R.J. Barrett, Toronto is skewing younger with its core. That makes it a logical fit for Williams ahead of his age-23 season. A low-usage offensive player who hasn’t shown any knack for self-sufficient shot creation, Williams has quietly pumped his career hit-rate on threes up to 41.0 percent.
If he can add a little volume, focus on being a catch-and-shoot threat and defend across multiple positions, he’d be a stellar fit alongside the Raptors’ other early-20s pieces.”
Thoughts?
by MajorBag4
9 Comments
That would be a fucking home run. If we decline BB to create cap space and use the space to sign Patrick Williams? My opinion on the Pascal trade will do a 180
I don’t think it’s at all realistic, but a starting lineup of IQ, RJ, Patrick Williams, Scottie, and Poeltl is going to take you places, depending on how you fill out the bench
Okoro might be more realistic as a RFA poaching imo
It would depend entirely on the money… if you overpay him and he stays on his current flat trajectory, that has a potential to be a signing that just drags the roster down longterm.
It is worth noting that the NBA reduced the amount of time that an original team needs to respond to the offer sheet in. Other than during the moratorium, if a team files the offer sheet before noon one day, the other team needs to respond by midnight the following day (36 hours). So your money isn’t tied up for as long.
4 problems with a Patrick Williams signing:
1. He’s a restricted free agent so the Bulls can match
2. While it’s expected the Bulls will re-sign DeMar and thus could be considered vulnerable to losing him in an effort to avoid the luxury tax, it’s not guaranteed and they can simply trade away Lonzo to a cap team to keep him.
3. P-Will is currently expecting a $20M+ AAV contract which is a lot considering…
4. He’s really not that good? Frequently injured and inconsistent on the 3 and D of 3&D wing (If you think Gary Trent Jr. can get hot & cold then just wait and see Williams), the only reason i’d consider him is because of the Bulls other young guys they’ve traded (WCJ, Lauri) have broken out under new teams. If he’s signed and doesn’t show improvements then this could very easily backfire.
I could maybe be talked into a sign and trade with Brown going to Chicago if there’s no deal for Bruce on draft night but the Bulls haven’t exactly made a lot of trades since 2022 so that could be a 5th issue.
https://preview.redd.it/q4x02jvown0d1.png?width=2430&format=png&auto=webp&s=a6330c6d1f3732aa6ccd8f450bf56fefba9893be
Based on my spreadsheet, we won’t have enough cap space to get him — even after declining Brown’s option. As you can see above, I am assuming the following:
* We re-sign GTJ at 18M
* IQ will get paid, but his money comes last since he has a relatively small cap hold
* We waive JFL, Nwora, Barton (even if we keep JFL, the math here doesn’t change much)
With that, we have 9.2M in cap space. In order to sign PWill, we likely need 17-18M, but realistically a poison pill contract where we can front load it so the Bulls don’t match. Say something like 22M in the first year. So we need to make about 13M in cap space. There are a few ways to do this:
* Renounce GTJ’s rights and do not re-sign him (basically swapping GTJ for PWill)
* Trade Boucher into another team’s TPE + try to shave 1M off of GTJ’s first year (i.e. 17M in year 1 instead of 18M)
I doubt we make any major singing this off season
Sign and trade GTJ To the bulls
I’d be interested but it really depends on the cost. I like the idea of taking reclamation projects (Unwanted past lottery picks like RJ and Agbaji currently) and developing them. Chicago also has a track record of not developing guys properly sometimes like Markkanen and WCJ. Williams’ advanced stats are kind of underwhelming but RJ’s were underwhelming as well and we’ve seen what he has become in such a small amount of time here in Toronto.
Patrick Williams with proper development is a dream