Bulls’ Billy Donovan challenges Patrick Williams to rebound more
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Donovan challenges Williams to rebound more consistently originally appeared on NBC Sports Chicago
After posting the fifth double-double of his career and first since March 31, 2022, from last season, Patrick Williams is averaging 4.3 rebounds.
Chicago Bulls coach Billy Donovan thinks Williams can more than double that.
“He’s a guy that’s gotta try to go get double-figure rebounds for us,” Donovan said following the Bulls’ third straight win, a 111-100 decision over the Atlanta Hawks.
Williams finished with 18 points and a season-high 10 rebounds. It’s his fourth straight scoring game in double figures and fifth of his last six. But Donovan knows on a team with DeMar DeRozan, Zach LaVine and Nikola Vucevic that rebounding, not scoring, is where Williams truly can make his mark.
“You’ve gotta feel him on the backboard. He’s got great explosiveness off the floor, and he doesn’t need a big gather or long run to jump. He’s explosive off two feet,” Donovan said. “When he makes those efforts to get on the backboard, he’s an elite rebounder. And we need him to do that.”
Former Bulls coach Scott Skiles once offered this classic response when asked how Eddy Curry could be a better rebounder.
“Jump,” Skiles said.
Donovan didn’t go that sarcastically. But he did go that simplistically when asked how Williams consistently can become a double-digit rebounder.
“He’s gotta go hard and go aggressively,” Donovan said.
It always seems to come back to aggressiveness when it comes to Williams, the supremely physically gifted third-year forward. That’s why DeRozan offered this thought about how he tries to help motivate Williams, a point DeRozan delivered lightheartedly but emphatically.
“I think you all don’t see how much I get on his nerves. I really get on his nerves. Like, really get on his nerves,” DeRozan said. “If he plays bad or don’t compete like the way I know he can compete, it’s verbal abuse.”
That’s because…
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