Bulls select Florida State forward Patrick Williams with No. 4 pick in NBA draft
The Bulls selected Florida State forward Patrick Williams with the No.4 overall pick in the 2020 NBA draft on Wednesday.
Williams, who turned 19 in August and is one of the youngest players in the draft, has skyrocketed up draft boards in recent weeks as teams have started to fall in love with the versatile 6-foot-8 wing. Williams averaged 9.2 points, 4.0 rebounds and 1.0 assist in 29 games during his lone season at Florida State. Williams also was voted the ACC Sixth Man of the Year.
Williams is a versatile defender who is capable of playing and defending multiple positions on the floor. The addition of Williams should help a Bulls team that declined guard Kris Dunn’s qualifying offer, their best perimeter defender, earlier this week. He is a solid shooter (32% from 3 and 84% free-throw shooter in college) and athletic enough to get to the rim and finish, which gives him a chance to be one of the few two-way wings in this draft. The NBA’s oversized wings — such as Jimmy Butler or Kawhi Leonard — have become highly coveted to build a team around.
The selection comes eight months after the Bulls’ season abruptly ended on March 10 because of COVID-19 and five months after the originally scheduled NBA draft date of June 25.
The Bulls represented a potential swing point in Wednesday’s draft at No. 4 — their highest selection since taking Derrick Rose first in 2008 — especially considering the speculation about what they would do with the pick. Depending on the day and mock draft, the Bulls were connected to a wide range of players and rumored as one of the teams pushing to make a move.
This marks the first major roster decision for new head executive Arturas Karnisovas since being hired as the team’s lead decision maker this spring. The Bulls have taken several major steps during their organizational overhaul under Karnisovas, revamping the front office, changing their coaching staff and beefing up the player development department to inject life into a rebuild that had grown stagnant.
It has garnered goodwill for this new regime, which includes general manager Marc Eversley, from a frustrated fan base for now. However, ultimately Karnisovas will be judged by what he does to the roster and how quickly he can transform the Bulls back into a winner.
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