Chicago Bulls: 3 bold predictions for Patrick Williams in rookie season

3) Bold predictions for Chicago Bulls F Patrick Williams

He will shoot 37 percent from downtown as a rookie

A lot of the buy in that Karnisovas and general manager Marc Eversley had to put in with Williams with the fourth overall pick in the 2020 NBA Draft was that his promise would win the day. Some of the per game stats and shooting efficiencies that Williams put on display during his one year playing for Florida State didn’t inspire much confidence.

While Williams did win the ACC Sixth Man of the Year honors, you will rarely see a freshman that wasn’t even a starter in his one college season picked in the top four in the NBA Draft. Williams did play in 29 games during the 2019-20 college hoops season with Florida State (none of which he started in).

And he averaged 9.2 points per game, 4.0 rebounds, 1.0 assists, 1.0 steals, and 1.0 blocks. Williams shot 45.9 percent from the field, 32.0 percent from beyond the arc, and 83.8 percent from the free-throw line. Those shooting percentages were good for a 49.8 effective field goal percentage and 55.3 true shooting percentage.

So far in two preseason games, Williams is shooting a solid 40.0 percent from beyond the arc, to go along with 43 percent from the field and 62.5 percent from the charity stripe. If Williams can continue to show a high level of improvement shooting from downtown, then it’s not out of the question that he could stroke it from at least 35-37 percent from beyond the arc during his rookie season.