The Chicago Bulls had a golden opportunity to reshape the franchise in the 2020 NBA draft. They were finally moving on from the Derrick Rose and Jimmy Butler eras. If they could hit on the #4 pick, which had been granted to them via the lottery, everything could fall into place quickly. New VP of Basketball Operations Arturas Karnisovas just had to not get cute. So you can imagine the concern among Bulls scouts and staffers when he became fixated on Florida State’s Patrick Williams. Not only was he the second-youngest player in the draft, but he wasn’t even a starter. Taking somebody that unpolished so high was entirely too risky.
Karnisovas didn’t care. He reportedly saw visions of Kawhi Leonard, who’d just led Toronto to its first NBA championship the year prior. Given enough time, Williams could be that. It didn’t take long to recognize that was not true. For all the similarities in measurements and athleticism, it was painfully obvious he lacked the alpha personality and instincts for the game. According to Jamal Collier of ESPN, some within the organization grew to resent that pick so much that they embraced a rather uncouth nickname for Williams.
The late Stacey King, the legendary Bulls announcer, eventually dubbed Williams “The Paw” as a comparison to Leonard’s moniker, “The Claw.”
The comp stuck within the organization for years.
“Being the first draft that those guys ran and having [the pandemic] circumstances I think was a recipe for disaster,” one ex-staffer told ESPN. “That being said, they way over-indexed on Pat’s potential. It was just a really bad misevaluation.”
Calling Patrick Williams soft was rough, but not untrue.
For all of the incredible potential the young wing possessed, it became obvious almost immediately that he operated with a passive personality. He was content with being a role player rather than looking to seize control of the team who’d just made him their highest draft choice in years. You never want to call a player soft, but Williams played that way. Too often, he wasn’t willing to get his hands dirty and mix it up with opponents. It was a classic case of someone just happy being in the NBA rather than striving to own it.
You don’t spend top 5 picks on players like that. The further away you get from that selection, the more egregious the misevaluation looks. People use the COVID year and lack of in-person scouting as an excuse for Karnisovas. In reality, that just makes it look worse. He was willing to burn the 4th overall pick on a player that was already surrounded by question marks without getting to meet or work him out in person. Executives have been fired for far lesser offenses.
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It is a dark period the team is trying to shake.
Thankfully, new VP Bryson Graham didn’t get tunnel vision when he secured the #4 pick in the 2026 NBA Draft. He evaluated the available players and ended up making the obvious decision. Caleb Wilson was the antithesis to Patrick Williams: a starter, an alpha, explosive, aggressive, and physical. That doesn’t guarantee success in the pros, but everybody agrees that Wilson’s odds are far better than Williams’ ever were. The only question at this point is how much longer he’ll be on the roster.
If Bulls fans had their way, he’d already be gone. We already know several inside the organization hope they can put “the Paw” behind them soon. Perhaps the team can put him in a trade package at some point. As things stand, there are three seasons left on his deal, with the last being a player option. Unless Chicago is content just letting him hang around until then, there will be a trade at some point. It is only a matter of finding the right situation to make it happen.
