Even after just three Bulls games, it’s time for Billy Donovan to return to his preseason experiment of starting Javonte Green over Patrick Williams at power forward.
Williams is deferential by nature. Playing alongside All-Star players like DeMar DeRozan, LaVine and Nikola Vučević plays into this quality more often than not in a negative manner. There are too many stretches where Williams isn’t very noticeable on the court.
Williams showed flashes of this during his first rotational stint on Saturday, setting two good screens to free teammates for shots.This is less about rewarding Green for helping briefly flip the energy of an otherwise desultory, blowout loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers in Saturday’s home opener. It’s also not about some punitive demotion for Williams. It may not even have to be a permanent play.
Against the Cavaliers, both Green and Derrick Jones Jr. logged more playing time than Williams until the third-year forward passed Green with some late mop-up minutes. In fact, Williams exited at the 9:27 mark of the third quarter and didn’t re-enter until that late mop-up time.“I don’t think we started great in the third,” the coach said. “You’re trying to find and search for some energy. And when I put Javonte in there, put Alex in there, at that moment it changed.
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