Chicago Bulls participant retains lacking vast open dunks, and the numbers are brutal

The Chicago Bulls drafted Patrick Williams with the No. 4 general choose within the 2020 NBA Draft due to his potential, not his polish. Williams got here off the bench all yr in his one-and-done season at Florida State whereas placing up pedestrian numbers, however he had all of the bodily instruments groups search for out of a contemporary wing. The youngest American born participant within the NBA as a rookie, Williams began all 71 video games as a 19-year-old in his first season, and continued to point out flashes that he might be the kind of two-way ahead each good crew wants.

Now in yr 5 of his profession, issues have by no means actually clicked for Williams. He’s averaged between 9.0 and 10.2 factors per sport in each season of his profession, with about 4.5 rebounds and 1.5 assists. Because the Bulls have perennially underachieved, Williams has grow to be the avatar of the crew’s struggles in some methods. Regardless of by no means actually filling up the field rating, Chicago nonetheless noticed sufficient of their younger ahead to provide him a five-year, $90 million extension this summer time.

Williams shouldn’t be unhealthy participant, however he’s the kind of athlete who leaves you wanting extra. At 6’8 with a robust 215-pound body, capturing stroke, and strong defensive instincts, Williams seems like he must be higher than he’s. The overly passive and usually underwhelming nature of his sport exhibits up specifically when he will get a large open dunk.

Williams is lacking dunks at an astounding price. He’s missed 7-of-9 dunk makes an attempt this yr, in keeping with knowledge on NBA.com. The numbers comply with a pattern all through his profession that Williams simply can’t convert an open dunk, and it would really be worse than it appears. Right here’s a compilation of each dunk try for Williams this season. Behold all these misses.

Williams lastly put down a dunk within the Bulls’ twelfth sport of the season towards the New York Knicks final week. His head coach Billy Donovan had a hilarious quote about it after the sport, saying he nearly known as a timeout to have a good time with the crew after Williams lastly dunked.

Lacking dunks is nothing new for Williams. He’s been doing it his complete profession.

Bulls beat reporter Drew Stevens of The Bigs dove into the numbers and noticed Williams is simply a 63 % shooter on dunks for his profession. That is an astonishingly unhealthy quantity.

A Patrick Williams dunk try is a worse wager than a Giannis Antetokounmpo free throw. How is that even potential? The monitoring knowledge from this season doesn’t even embrace a large open miss Williams had on Sunday in Chicago’s loss to the Rockets.

Perhaps this isn’t technically a missed dunk, nevertheless it certain ought to have been a made dunk:

Williams was famous for having big palms through the pre-draft course of. He’s made loads of athletic performs by means of his profession, like this driving dunk towards the Cavs within the preseason, and this big block on Deandre Ayton just a few years in the past.

Right here’s a photograph of Williams’ missed dunk towards the Pistons on Monday evening. This must be two factors. One way or the other, it wasn’t.

NBAE through Getty Photographs

How is somebody this massive and this athletic so unhealthy at dunking? It simply continues to play into the concept that Williams must be higher than he’s. As soon as regarded as the high-upside lottery ticket who might convey Chicago out of mediocrity, it’s turning into clear that Williams is only a bit underwhelming as a participant in so some ways.