MILWAUKEE — Coach Billy Donovan says Bulls power forward Patrick Williams does have an identity.
The issue is getting Williams to consistently play to that identity.
“You have to have an awareness when you’re playing like, ‘How far is this guy off me? Who’s off me? Does this guy have length or not? Is he closing hard?’ That’s where he can start to build an identity. When he’s getting closeouts, he’s got to play better against them,” Donovan said Friday.
“The other thing for him is he’s got to put himself in more possessions. There are times when the ball is coming down the floor, and Coby [White] may have it or Ayo [Dosunmu] can have it, and [Williams] has got to get out and up ahead of the ball, so we can throw it to him. When you’re trailing the play all the time, you can’t get in the play.”
So if Williams plays better against closeouts and gets more aggressive when running the floor, he’ll finally live up to his No. 4-pick status?
Unlikely.
Forget about playing like a top-five draft pick; that ship left the dock awhile ago. Williams can, however, play like a starter who was just given a $90 million extension for the next five years.
Williams was coming off a season-opening loss Wednesday in New Orleans in which he had only six points and three rebounds.
“Being aggressive is a broad term,” Williams said. “Just pick your spots is how I see it, how I view it. What I’m working on is picking my spots. With a lot of younger guys on this team, you never want to make it seem like you’re selfish, shooting every time you touch it.
‘‘There has to be a rhythm of the game but still be aggressive. I have to know what I bring to the game on the offensive end. That’s something I did not feel confident with in my first few seasons, but now I do.
‘‘You’re never always going to make the right decisions in basketball. Sometimes you’re going to shoot it when you shouldn’t have shot it; sometimes you should have shot it and made the play. Just trying to play through it. Just go make plays. That’s what I have to subscribe to.”
The wait continues.
Ball out
As expected, Lonzo Ball missed the game Friday against the Bucks, sitting out the front end of a back-to-back. Ball will play in the home opener Saturday against the Thunder.
Besides the minutes restriction because of Ball’s surgically repaired left knee, it was determined before the season that he would also miss one of the games in all the back-to-backs. It’s up to the Bulls’ medical staff and Ball to decide which is more beneficial to sit out.
The good news was that Ball had no setbacks or soreness after the opener against the Pelicans.
Musical rotation chairs
Donovan went with an 11-man rotation Wednesday and didn’t like the way it looked or performed.
He’s happiest with a nine-man rotation, but he also knows it would be hard to implement with this group with the increase in pace that he’s pushing as well as Ball’s minutes restriction.
So Donovan is still searching.
“We’re still working through some of that,” Donovan said. “Ideally, I don’t want to play 11. I think that’s too many. There were a couple of times we got caught there.
“So, for us, I think it’s still a work in progress with some of the rotations.”