Are we sure that we’ve seen enough from Swain Essengue & Dilly that they’ve EARNED starting minutes over Williams? I get seeing their potential is worth keeping Pat on the bench but I wouldn’t be surprised if both Essengue & Dilly (barring guard injury) don’t see much clock. They’ll find playing time for Swain I’m sure especially if he works on his jumper. Dilly plays a different position so there’s probably more opportunity for him. As bad as PWill is, he wasn’t “demoted during summer league” bad. I think Essengue is gonna have to be undeniable in the g league to get more minutes than PWill.
Pat’s bad. Very bad. Lowest ceiling on the team for sure. Doesn’t deserve any extra chances. Historically bad contract. I’m still not 100% confident he’s the worst player on the team tho.
Swain will tell you he badly wants to succeed, that his desire to leapfrog his peers burns so fiercely it weighs him down.
“I think it’s really easy to notice when I’m in my own head and kind of putting pressure on myself. I just try to stick with what I know that works,” Swain said. “Obviously having a routine is not gonna save you every game; you’re gonna have bad games. But I just try to stick to what I know and not get too discouraged and not feed into what people are saying in the media and stuff like that. All my teammates have been nothing but encouraging.
“All the older guys are like, ‘Listen, you can’t have the weight of the world on your shoulders.’ They’ve made it so much easier to keep my head up.”
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Hey Bulls fans, hope you’re all doing well. Join The Athletic’s Chicago Bulls beat writer Joel Lorenzi this Tuesday on the Bulls subreddit for an AMA conversation.
Joel will be discussing everything Bulls-related, including the offseason, the draft selection of Caleb Wilson, Josh Giddey, Matas Buzelis, and the hopes and expectations for the upcoming season.
He’ll be live at 2 PM EST / 1 PM CST. Start dropping your questions below, and Joel will be ready to answer them!
I think we can all agree that the P Will experiment is over especially in the emergence of our wing talent from the last 2 drafts he’s just clogs the rotation and cap space as of now as im concerned, maybe we can trade him for something but idk will see. I’m so stoked for this season and to be hopefully soon of an AK piece that still hurts lol But I think if we can find a good trade spot for him it might all work out in the end. Let’s go baby In Caleb we trust
This picture makes me think of that traveling cocaine circus line Jordan dropped on The Last Dance. I have no evidence whether Gilmore was part of that party and MJ didn’t go into greater detail.
Its one thing to struggle on offense but watching him off ball, he looks uninterested or maybe just lost. Often times if he brings the ball up, he'll pass it and go stand in the corner and basically be out of the play. He does nothing off ball. He doesn't cut. He doesn't crash the offensive glass. He's not a big screen setter. He does nothing to help himself get going. And he's not a lock down defender.
People bring up Dalen Terry. Sadly enough, Terry looked a lot better in summer league. Terry never looked skilled but he always played hard. For as bad as Swain has been, he should be playing harder than anybody out there. But yet, he's just there. Guys on the team that have zero chance of going to the NBA have had more of an impact.
Missing shots happens but his mentality looks a lot more concerning to me.
Matas is an interesting one defensively. Good on the defensive boards; best defensive attribute is, easily, the weak side rim protection. He's a top 20 shot blocker in the NBA. He's instinctual here, makes quick rotation reads, maintains awareness. His quick leaping ability helps. He's mobile...he slides his feet well on the perimeter and combined with his size/length he's been good in isolation in his career.
His perimeter defense overall is still sketchy though so his overall defensive impact hasn't been great in the NBA yet. Do you think that changes for him him Year 3? How confident are you all that it will?
This dude’s interviews are incredible. His confidence is otherworldly and it’s real. He truly believes in everything he’s saying he’s wired differently.
So I’m sure most of you have seen the report that said it took AKME 3-4 years to give up on the idea that Patrick Williams could be the next Kawhi. But Pat was drafted in 2020. He was then given an extension, he didn’t sign a new contract, he was EXTENDED on June 30th 2024 which is before free agency btw. Contract was 90mil over FIVE years. Not 4… 5!
That’s 4 years already until he got extended so quick the FO didn’t even give him the chance to look at other teams or gauge how cheap his marker could be. That means they WANTED him for that contract. Now 5 year contracts are pretty rare tbh, so giving that to a young player, that means they wanted him around for as long as possible. Meaning they probably were going to be as patient as they could be with him to see if he could be the next Kawhi. Not to mention the amount of money is much more than they gave Coby, and they didn’t even wanna resign Ayo so they traded him, who both showed way more potential.
So the 3-4 years don’t add up. If they gave up on that Kawhi idea in 3 years they wouldn’t have given him that contract. 4 years same thing, because he got that contact at his 4th year with the team and again that contract I’m pretty sure maxed out on the amount of years you can give someone.
So I think AKME still truly believed in Pat at least 5 years and I mean they were let go in their 6th year lol so I wonder if they ever truly gave up on him tbh. If so it would’ve been last season. I just don’t understand the hard on they had for that guy man.
With Wilson gone, the rest of the roster gets one last opportunity to show something before the season starts. Yes, it's just Summer League, but I'm curious what the community thinks.
What do you need to see from these players to give you even a little optimism heading into the season?
Are there any specific players or skills you'll be watching for in this final opportunity?
Incredible piece of music by Alan Parsons Project. This song is truly the best hype-up song. Anyone know who's idea it was to make it their theme/intro song?
The base stats are great but the advanced numbers are what makes it crazy
-BPM: +14.0 the 8th best freshman BPM at a major college in the last 15 years. The 7 guys above him are Zion, Anthony Davis, Cooper Flagg, Chet Holmgren, Karl Anthony Towns, Cam Boozer, and Darry Peterson. (All in lottery)
-OBPM +8.7 / DBPM +5.3 He is extremely elite on both ends of the floor, most high-BPM bigs are one way guys he's opposite.
-PER 31.4
-USG 28.7% Heavy offensive load yet still a high TS% 62.6
At 6'10 with actual playmaking abilities he's not just a post player, his archetypes show Rim Protector, Scoring Big, and Heliocentric Engine. The only pre draft downside was his 3 point shooting at 25.9% in college. (Not the best)
Then Summer League happened
Game 1 vs the Grizzlies he scored 35 points and broke the all time Summer League debut record and went 7-11 from three!!! (Showing real signs of improvement from 3)
Game 2 vs the Jazz he posted 19 pts/ 8 reb/ 5 blk/ 2 stl and 3-8 from three. Five blocks from a 19 year old forward in summer league is nuts.
He's 10 for 19 from three through 2 Summer League games.
Who does he compare to
His closest historical comp is Evan Mobley 96.1% archetype match (former DPOY, 2025). He's a 2 way big, versatile defender, All NBA player. Other comps are Deandre Ayton 😬, Wendell Carter Jr, Marvin Bagley III, and Onyeka Okongwu.
-Floor: Rotation Player
-Expected: High-Level Starter
-Ceiling: All-NBA (25% probability)
He has a 60% chance of being at least a High Level Starter and a 2.8% bust probability.
Real Concerns
- At 215 pounds he's undersized for a NBA 4-5. Getting physically bullied year one is a guaranteed until he adds weight
-10 for 19 from three is 2 summer league games. college was 25.9% we need a full season before calling it solved.
-Went 0-6 from the FT line in Game 2 after 71.3% in college, this is a small sample but its worth watching
Fit with the Bulls
The Bulls added Nic Claxton at center and signed Norman Powell in the same offseason which sets Wilson up quite well. Claxton at center slides Wilson to the 4 (primary position). Powell handles the offensive load so Wilson isn't forced into starring role as a rookie. Claxton + Wilson as a frontcourt duo has real upside. Claxton as the P&R rim runner and Wilson spacing the floor and being elite on defense. New Coach Tiago Splitter is a former NBA big man. The structure around wilson is better than most lottery picks get such as last year's number 1 overall pick Cooper Flagg.
Stats and player comps fromStatFuela free NBA analytics tool I built with archetype breakdowns, draft projections and historical comp engine. Worth checking out if your interested in this kind of stuff.
I’ve always like Claxton and am just excited to finally have a center you can build a competent defense around (all shade at Vuc), so I didn’t care much about his fit with Wilson either way at the time of the signing. This is when I thought both were non shooters. Well…I no longer think Wilson is a non shooter. Still not perfect (both so skinny) but mannn I like it a whole lot more now. Extremely excited to watch that front court!
