Chicago Bulls ripped to shreds over ‘liability’ contract

The Chicago Bulls signed Patrick Williams to a five-year, $90 million contract with a player option before the 2024-25 season. It has aged incredibly poorly. Williams was one of Chicago’s worst players last season, just after signing the extension, making it one of the front office’s biggest misfires in recent memory. It’s also been hailed as one of the worst deals in the NBA.

Chicago Bulls’ deal with Patrick Williams crushed by analyst

The Chicago Bulls have to pay Patrick Williams $72 million for the next four years, and they’re already feeling the effects of the contract. Bleacher Report’s Dan Favale ranked it the fifth-worst contract in the entire league, even worse than the Jerami Grant, Jamal Murray, and Karl-Anthony Towns deals.

This is despite it being much less money, both annually and cumulatively, than the three other deals. Williams only accounts for just under 11% of the total salary cap, too, which isn’t bad for a mega-extension. So what makes it so bad?

“Patrick Williams is not the biggest financial roadblock in terms of percentage of the salary cap,” Favale admitted. “But he’s a bona fide financial liability when considering the length of his deal and the value he provides on the court.”

The analyst continued, saying some hold out hope that he can still provide some value on both ends of the court. Defensively, Favale isn’t convinced, but he can see the vision on offense. “His career 39.2 percent clip from deep is nice, although it’s built on negligible volume (3.1 attempts per game), and he’s never come close to qualifying as a positive-impact contributor on the more glamorous end,” he added.

In terms of BBall-Index’s O-LEBRON metric, which is a rough estimate of a player’s value relative to a replacement-level basketball player, Williams has been awful. In his rookie year, he was in the second percentile. He jumped to 13th in year two but regressed to the third percentile in the following season. He jumped to 22nd in 2023-24, which led to the extension, but then regressed to the 14th percentile. He’s never been impactful.

“At only 23, Williams remains capable of getting better. It is nevertheless baffling that the Bulls gave him a five-year contract and a player option while (likely) negotiating against themselves in 2024 restricted free agency,” Favale concluded.

Until he does somehow improve, this remains one of the sport’s worst contracts.