Patrick Williams

Williams missed most of last year due to a sprained left wrist that required surgery in late October. He played the first five games of the year and then didn't see the court again until March 21. During his brief regular season run and the Bulls' foray into the playoffs - a first-round loss to the Bucks - Williams played 30-plus minutes in only nine games, with four occurring in the postseason. In his 22 total appearances, the sophomore averaged 9.6 points, 4.4 rebounds, 0.9 assists and 1.1 combined steals-plus-blocks in 26.1 minutes. He saw sparse usage (12.3%), but he shot an impressive 51.0 percent from the field and hit 1.0 three per game at 44.0 percent. Williams should remain in a catch-and-shoot offensive role this season - Lonzo Ball, Zach LaVine, DeMar DeRozan and Nikola Vucevic dominate the offense - but he'll start at power forward and has a clear path to 30-35 minutes per game as a 3-and-D specialist in the frontcourt. As a rookie, he ranked 185th in per-game fantasy production over 27.9 minutes per game. There's reason to consider him with a flier in standard drafts when factoring in Williams' expected minutes increase and additional development.

Williams was a surprise selection at No. 4 in the 2020 NBA Draft, but he put together a nice rookie season as one of the youngest players in the league. The forward started all 71 games he appeared in and averaged 9.2 points, 4.6 rebounds, 1.4 assists and 1.5 combined steals-plus-blocks in 27.9 minutes. He was also relatively efficient with shooting splits of 48/39/73. That resulted in Williams ranking 185th in fantasy on a per-game basis, but his availability led to him ranking 113th in total production. He's farther along defensively than offensively, where he often relies on other players to put him in position to score, and he leans heavily on mid-range jumpers. Williams was given a long leash in 2021 Summer League, where he averaged 21.0 points on 19.3 shots per game. However, he wasn't especially efficient (37.9 FG%) and committed nearly twice as many turnovers than assists. Heading into 2021-22, the 20-year-old will likely remain in a low-usage offensive role, especially given the additions of Lonzo Ball and DeMar DeRozan. It's conceivable that he'll be worth a late-round flier in standard fantasy leagues, but a lot would have to break right for it to be worth rostering him over the course of a season. As it stands, he appears to just be a role player on a competitive team.

Many didn't expect Williams going No. 4 in the draft, but nevertheless, he will now join a young and rebuilding Chicago squad. Williams has tremendous upside despite his mediocre averages with Florida State last season. The 6-foot-8, 225-pound forward averaged 9.2 points, 4.0 rebounds, and 1.0 blocks while shooting 45.9 percent from the floor and 83.8 percent at the charity stripe with the Seminoles. Assuming Otto Porter remains the starting small forward and Lauri Markkanen the power forward, Williams will presumably come in off the bench and battle for minutes with veteran Thaddeus Young. As a rookie, we shouldn't expect Williams to be a great fantasy contributor, limiting his fantasy relevance exclusively to deep formats.