Chicago Bulls will face uphill battle to begin season after injury to Pat Williams

The Chicago Bulls will open the season with an uphill battle. 

During the offseason, there wasn’t a team that made bigger moves than the Chicago Bulls. And after adding Lonzo Ball and DeMar DeRozan, the expectation is that the team is going to be a playoff factor in the Eastern Conference.

However, somewhat unfortunately, the Bulls are going to be facing an uphill battle to begin the season. During a workout in preparation for the season, second-year wing Patrick Williams suffered a serious ankle sprain that is expected to keep him off the floor for at least a month.

Depending on how his recovery progresses, he could miss the start of the season for the Bulls.

Considering the momentum that this team was heading into training camp with, this is a huge hit to a team that many expect to be a dark horse contender in the East this season.

Williams was the fourth overall pick in the 2020 NBA Draft and averaged nine points and five rebounds per game on 48 percent shooting from the field and 39 percent shooting from 3-point range during his rookie season with the Bulls. He also started 71 games for the team. Penciled in as a start ahead of the 2021-22 NBA season, it’ll be interesting to see how Chicago approaches the season under the assumption that he’ll miss the start of it.

Even though he might only miss a week or two of the season, not having a fully healthy starting 5 that will be trying to earn some chemistry ahead of the regular season is not ideal. Plus, let’s not forget that Nikola Vucevic was acquired by the team at the NBA Trade Deadline and played in less than 30 games for the Bulls – he played even less with Zach LaVine.

Especially for a team like the Bulls, that will be featuring two new starters (three if you include Vucevic), every day that this team will be without their top 5, whether that’s due to injury or anything else, will put them at a disadvantage.