The OKC Thunder Interested in Patrick Williams? Why the Bulls Can’t Mess This Up

The OKC Thunder Interested in Patrick Williams? Why the Bulls Can’t Mess This Up

with NBA free agency set to start less than a month away for Bulls fans and the media most of the focus has been of course on the future of demard De R roen and whether the Bulls will resign him before he becomes an unrestricted free agent on July 1st or I guess now it’s the evening of June 30th and while Demars in pending free agency will have huge implications for the Bulls as it relates to their cap sheet their ability or inability to sign other free agents while remaining under the tax and also just the direction and overall future of this franchise should they resign dear or not so yes it’s no surprise that most of the focus of this Bulls off season has been on demard De rosan and his future with the team but what I feel hasn’t been talked about enough when it comes to the Bulls offseason is Patrick blams restricted free agency and whether the Bulls plan on keeping Patrick around can they afford to keep him and what’s the interest level going to be around the league for his services that is until we got a recent report from Darnell Mayberry who covers the Bulls for the athletic that there has been one team that has shown strong interest in acquiring ing Patrick Williams and that’s the Oklahoma City Thunder Darnell who of course previously covered the Thunder for a number of years before joining the Bulls beat and also covered the Thunder postseason this year and the report kind of saw mixed reactions from Bulls fans from some saying whatever let the Thunder have him to match any offer he receives the Bulls cannot afford to lose Patrick Williams a young player who hasn’t entered its prime yet and so I wanted to talk about it further to understand the implications of what it would mean for the Bulls to potentially lose Patrick Williams and what the cost would be to retain him so what’s going on everyone you’re listening to Bull Central here hope you’re all doing well now when the new front office drafted Patrick Williams in 2020 as one of their first orders of business in the new role well the first being firing Jim boand thank God but when they selected Pat fourth overall for a player who hadn’t even started for his own college team a player who had initially projected to be a late lottery selection before his stock started rising in the weeks leading up to the draft most people saw the pick as a bit of a stretch myself included but as we got to see Patrick play and open runs before the season seeing him in his rookie year and you thought okay there is potential with this kid after all he’s only 19 he has the tools to be a highle Defender but also a capable scoring option but unfortunately Pat’s sophomore season was cut short due to injury obviously with the bulls focusing on winning now Pat’s role and development fundamentally changed and while we’ve said it so many times we’ve seen the flashes we’ve seen the potential but at the same time it hasn’t been quick enough to what we would like to see as Bulls fans especially for a number four overall pick and look chalk it up however you like Patrick Williams career thus far and what he has delivered in his rookie contract has been underwhelming like even for the biggest Patrick STS you can’t deny that his progression overall from his rookie year to this past season has been disappointing especially when you see others from his class excelling and and even players who came in draft classes after him already outperforming him overall as a player now I’ll start with the basics on what it means to be a restrictive free agent just for those who aren’t aware although I’m sure most of you are familiar with how restriced free agency works but unlike an unrestricted free agent or a player has the ability to go wherever they want a restriced free agent on the other hand does have the ability to go out and get Contract offers from teams around the league and their current team has the ability to match any offer sheet within 24 hours to retain them it used to be 48 hours they reduced that as part of the new CBA but this rule of restrictive free agency was put in place to prevent stars who after finishing their rookie scale deals could just leave to any team they wanted because they were offered the most money I believe this was put in place after Shaq left the Orlando Magic for the Lakers after his rookie contract and the magic essentially lost him for nothing and didn’t have the ability to match an offer or even give him more money because he was a free agent and could go wherever he wanted so as it relates to the Bulls and Patrick Williams because they weren’t able to agree on an extension this past off season Pat will be a restrictive free agent come July 1st and he can get offer some other teams which the Bulls can match to keep him or the Bulls can actually sign him within the first few hours to prevent any team from even giving him an offer or a team makes him an offer the Bulls say is too rich for them choose not to match and Patrick Williams walks now the Oklahoma City Thunder potentially being interested in Patrick Williams which I don’t doubt is real I trust Darnell’s reporting you guys know I’ve had on the channel a handful of times I respect him as a journalist and he holds a lot of credibility in this industry and if this is in fact the case and the Thunder also being a team that has cap space to be able to sign him the Bulls need to start seriously thinking about making Pat a strong offer you know initially when we were discussing the bull salary cap situation at the end of the season we were talking about the possibility of Pat taking the qualifying offer which I I believe is around $13 million taking that offer betting on himself and hoping for a bigger Longer term contract given he’s coming off a pretty big injury and that there probably isn’t going to be much interest in him and the Bulls might actually be able to get away with getting him on a cheap deal if teams are showing interest especially for teams that have cap space they have to rethink everything and assume that if they want to keep Pat they’re going to have to pay up and match an offer sheet that is probably going to make them uncomfortable and the reason it’s even more troubling if it’s a team with cap space like the Thunder they don’t necessarily have to do a sign and trade to fit him into their cap sheet so the Bulls also can’t assume that well if any team really wants Pat and they give him some crazy offer that we’re not keen on matching we’ll just work out aside and trade so we can get something for them in return not if they don’t have to if the team that makes him an offer has the cap space to bring him in without acquiring him via trade they can say too bad we’re giving him an offer you can choose to match it or not we’re not giving up assets to get him and look wherever you stand on Patrick Williams you like him or not you’re a big time believer and think he’s a star in the making or you think he’s a scrub that won’t amount to anything wherever you land you absolutely cannot let Patrick Williams Walk For Nothing the Bulls cannot let their former number four overall pick their 22-year-old power forward just leave for nothing I know I tweeted this yesterday when the news broke but Patrick Williams in his skill set a player with size athleticism long lengthy Wing Defender can guard multiple positions but also shoot threes at a 40% clip even if all Pat ever becomes just a role player in the NBA he has a skill set that is highly CED in this league you can’t let that go for nothing at a minimum the Bulls if the offer is too high and they’re too cheap and the amount puts them well over the tax line at a minimum the Bulls have to execute a sign and trade of some kind if they decide to do away with their Patrick Williams experiment now Darnell Mayberry did say hey the Thunder could make this deal more attractive by including some of the draft picks they have at their disposal and in that instance depending on what kind of picks we’re talking about here then okay that could be something to entertain but when the Bulls are already lack in size on this roster they’re likely going to lose Andre Drummond in free agency I mean unless they draft a big and then plan to pick up another one or two big bodies in free agency with the money they don’t have by the way what do they do then no the Bulls need size shooting defense and most importantly they need youth they have to hold on to their young players when the future of this franchise is so uncertain like that’s the thing whether the bulls look to stay competitive or rebuilt Patrick can be part of both of those equations he’s good enough to still be a rotational player a team looking to compete and then also being a foundational piece that you would want to develop in a rebuild there was just no scenario in which the Bulls can allow Pat to walk for nothing they need to match any offer he gets or do a sign and trade with whatever team makes him the highest offer now I’m not going to say the Bulls should match any offer like it has to be within reason but at the same time though we also know Pat’s not getting a max deal from some team he’s not even going to get a near max deal he hasn’t proven enough in the early stages of his career for any team to Warrant that especially with his injury history as well so whatever potential contract offer he receives from another team it is going to be within reason teams aren’t going to look to overpay for Patrick Williams and so it’ll be on the Bulls now to open up the checkbook and pay up because for a player at his age with his skill set even if he doesn’t work out for the Bulls long term he’ll be a tradable asset for the future on a contract that is not absurd unlike the situation the Bulls have found themselves in right now with Zack LaVine so what could a contract look like for Pat I’ve said before but I expect to see him getting something in the $1 15 to $20 million a year range and I know some will say that’s absurd but keep in mind the mid-level exception going into the season is $129 million at 15 million that’s just slightly above the mid-level and even on the high end at 20 million it might seem steep right now relative to Pat’s production but the salary cap is only going up every year and even at $20 million that’s going to look more and more favorable over time as he starts to enter his prime but either way it’s going to be interesting to see how everything shakes out a month from now not only for Patrick willims in his future but that of dear as well and of course how the Bulls approach the direction of this franchise going forward so I’d love to hear what you guys think though let me know in the comments as always be sure to subscribe and I’ll see you in the next one

Discussing the recent reports that the OKC Thunder are a team that has shown interest in Patrick Williams as a restricted free agent and why the Bulls absolutely cannot let Pat go for nothing

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