Bulls hope Williams' return isn't too late to stop slide
Bears legend Mike Singletary was a special guest at Sunday's Bulls practice.
The '85 Bears lost only one game, so he may not have had any useful advice on how the Bulls can turn things around after losing eight of their last 10. Maybe Singletary compared Patrick Williams' return to Jim McMahon coming off the bench to beat the Vikings in the Metrodome.
The Bulls made it official: Williams will return to game action Monday when the Bulls host Toronto at the United Center. The second-year forward hasn't played since Oct. 28, when he hit the floor hard after a flagrant foul and suffered ligament damage in his left wrist.
"He certainly helps our team, he makes our team better, and they'll probably be some growing pains so to speak of him finding a rhythm," Bulls coach Billy Donovan said. "With Patrick, the biggest thing is going to be how he fits into a rotation and what a realistic number of minutes look like for him to at least build up some tolerance for this."
After the Phoenix game Friday, DeMar DeRozan promised to go support Williams at the Windy City Bulls game in Hoffman Estates on Sunday. But the Bulls opted against that strategy. Williams will return to the varsity after one formal practice and a shootaround.
"I'm just happy for him moving in the right direction," DeRozan said. "He's very excited just to get back out there on the court. It's definitely going to be fun to see him."
The Bulls' leading scorer was then asked what the team should expect from Williams under tough circumstances.
"We're going to see," DeRozan said. "His talent alone speaks for itself. Been a long time and he's kind of getting thrown in the mess right away. It's on the coaching staff and on us to kind of make his transition as easy as possible and make him as comfortable as possible as well.
"His talent alone, he's going to figure it out. I just wish it was earlier in the season and not in the midst of us having 12 games or whatever is left."
It makes sense to take things slowly after such a long layoff, but the Bulls also need to figure out how to get Williams more involved. During the five games he played this season, he averaged just 6.6 points and 2.2 rebounds.
Like everyone else, Williams was trying to adjust to a radically different lineup and ended up largely uninvolved in the offense. He did have a very good defensive rating in those games.
During the Bulls' three-game road trip last week, Donovan suggested Williams is more likely to come off the bench when he returns, which could be a chance to get him more involved in the offense. As a rookie, the No. 4 overall draft pick averaged 9.2 points and shot 39% from 3-point range.
As of Sunday morning, the Bulls had fallen to fifth place in the Eastern Conference standings, 1½ games behind Boston and just two games ahead of Toronto for seventh place, which would mean a spot in the play-in tournament.
So that puts some importance on Monday's meeting with the Raptors. But the Bulls also have a tough back-to-back, going to Milwaukee on Tuesday, the start of a five-game road trip.
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