MILWAUKEE – It wasn’t Patrick Williams pointing a finger as much as the Bulls forward was just trying to make a point.
In discussing his suddenly consistent play recently, Williams told the Sun-Times, “What I know is you can never compare your journey to someone else’s. I mean I came to the Bulls and we were trying to win right off the rip, so development was never a priority.”
That could be taken a couple of different ways.
It helped that Williams went onto say, “We were trying to win, and that’s 100 percent of what I wanted to do.”
Billy Donovan wasn’t about to hold it against Williams either way, but that doesn’t mean the coach was going to just let the comment go unchecked, either.
“I think part of the development is teaching guys what goes into winning and how to win, and I think for a guy that came in as maybe one of the youngest players in the league … it goes all the way back (to Williams’ rookie year), and this is not to embarrass Patrick, but when it’s an hour and 15 minutes or an hour before the game, and I’m writing stuff on the board and this guy has two huge pieces of chicken cutlet parmesan sitting on his plate, it’s probably not a good thing to eat,” Donovan explained. “But there are things he’s got to understand that’s going into it, that’s what you want to do, be a winning player. I actually think it was good for him that he got thrusted into that situation.”
But that also led to some serious growing pains for Williams, especially on the offensive end. It hasn’t been Williams’ inability to score as much as it’s his willingness to overcome a veteran presence and be aggressive enough to take shots.
Donovan didn’t hide from that point, but in his estimation, Williams might not have learned as much if he was thrown on to a roster with a bunch of young players and allowed to develop that way.
“There are situations where it can be, ‘Hey, we’re just going to give you a bunch of minutes and you just grow, take your shots, and figure out your game,’ ‘’ Donovan said. “I think guys lose the perspective of, ‘What are the things I’ve got to do as a player to impact winning?’
“He probably as a rookie didn’t get the opportunity offensively to do that as much, but I do think that what he was thrusted into can help him going forward.’’
Caru-no-show
Alex Caruso (left ankle) did give it a go in warmups before the Monday night game with Milwaukee, but the injured ankle from Friday did not respond well enough for the first-team all-defensive standout to play against the Bucks.
Not all entirely bad news, however. The fact that he did go through warmups to test it was a small victory for the team.
“We didn’t feel like it was going to be anything significantly long for him, but he’s obviously still dealing with it,” Donovan said. “The fact that he was trying to go (through warmups) is a positive sign.”
The Bulls host the Nuggets Tuesday, and Caruso will again test it.
Common cause
There’s numerous thoughts on why the Bulls have played better with Zach LaVine (right foot) sidelined, but Coby White had his own idea on the situation.
“We’re all just in it together,” White said. “Obviously, Zach is a helluva player and you can’t replace him, so we’re just trying to do it by committee. Everybody is locked in right now.”
