Bulls avoided Lauri Markkanen repeat mistake but will they regret it?

One of the Chicago Bulls’ many controversial decisions so far this offseason was the re-signing of Patrick Williams. 

Most fans were happy to bring Williams back but questioned the cost for a guy who has had injury issues and has yet to achieve much in the NBA. 

Five years and $90 million is a lot of money for an unproven player, but the Bulls were determined not to set up another disaster scenario. 

They were in a similar spot with Lauri Markkanen’s restricted free agency and decided to orchestrate a sign-and-trade rather than pay him his money. They now have nothing to show for a guy who has turned into an All-Star in Utah. 

At least the Bulls won’t have to watch Patrick Williams go off and be a star on another team, but Chicago paid a steep cost for that security. 

Will the Chicago Bulls regret the Patrick Williams’ contract? 

Williams is only 22 years old, so it will still be a few seasons before we know what he can be. 

The talent is there and given the state of the NBA, 3-and-D wings with size are a valuable commodity. But you have to ask yourself if there were other teams out there willing to pay that much for Williams. 

The Bulls may have avoided the mistake they made with Markkanen, which was selling low on a player too soon, but you could argue they had to overpay a worse player in Williams to do it. 

If Williams blossoms into a star like Markkanen did, then this will look like a great deal for the Bulls, one they bet big on. 

But if he doesn’t, the Markkanen trade will continue to haunt the Bulls, as they could have had them both and may have been stuck overpaying for the wrong one. 

This is always the risk when it comes to second contracts in the NBA, as the players are not yet what they are going to be and you are making a guess on a small sample size of their early years. 

The Bulls chose poorly before and we’ll have to wait and see if they made the wrong decision again.