CHICAGO — Patrick Williams didn’t express major concern about his latest setback, but he conceded that he isn’t sure when he’ll return to the team’s lineup.
Left foot inflammation caused the fifth-year Chicago Bulls forward to miss his second straight contest Friday, a 136-122 home win against the Atlanta Hawks in NBA Cup play. It’s the same foot Williams had season-ending surgery on in March after sustaining a stress fracture. Tests performed this week did not show further structural damage, so the Bulls’ plan for Williams is to rest until the inflammation subsides.
“If it was up to me, I’d be playing now,” Williams said. “But I don’t want it to get back to where it was.”
There is no timetable for Williams’ return. Ayo Dosunmu replaced Williams in the starting lineup.
“I’m not really concerned,” Williams said. “With this type of stuff, I’m just leaning on the doctors and our training staff.
“Nobody seems to be worried. It’s just kind of a thing that happens post-surgery. The first year after surgery is always kind of the toughest. It’s always trying to figure out new parameters, trying to work through different things. It did kind of swell up there a little bit. I’m trying to get that down.”
Patrick Williams said he isn’t worried about inflammation in his foot. pic.twitter.com/wQEJ4bOvhw
— Darnell Mayberry (@DarnellMayberry) November 23, 2024
Williams was limited to 43 games last season due to the injury. The Athletic reported that Williams also experienced discomfort in his surgically repaired foot during the team’s minicamp in September, which caused him to scale back weeks before training camp.
“You’re always a little bit concerned because it’s in the same area of where he had surgery,” Bulls coach Billy Donovan said. “But the imaging is just showing that there’s inflammation there. Is that something going forward that we’ll have to manage or deal with? I don’t know.”
Williams signed a five-year, $90 million contract extension this offseason. The deal was a show of continued faith by the Bulls in their No. 4 pick of the 2020 NBA Draft, despite career inconsistency partly because of injury setbacks. Williams appeared in 71 of the team’s 72 games as a rookie but played only 17 contests in 2021-22 because of a broken wrist. He appeared in all 82 games two seasons ago before his foot issues developed midway through last season.
Williams cited the Bulls’ condensed playing schedule as one reason inflammation might have set in. He said he began experiencing discomfort before Sunday’s home game against Houston, but he downplayed the severity compared to pre-surgery last season.
“I couldn’t even really push off of it,” Williams said. “Every step, every run was tough before the surgery, so that’s why I’m not worried because I remember what it felt like before, and it’s not even close to that.”
For now, the Bulls are proceeding with optimism. Williams will not play Saturday against Memphis but said he will travel with the team for next week’s back-to-back set at Washington and Orlando. He hasn’t been ruled out for next week, but the Bulls are making it clear no one can be sure when Williams will return to the court.
“It’s going to be all about how he responds,” Donovan said. “It wasn’t a situation where we’ve got to shut this guy down for a couple of months or we’ve got to go in there and do something to the foot. None of that stuff’s even been talked about or mentioned. It’s all just been, ‘Hey, get it to calm down. Put him back out there.’ That’s really where we’re at.”
In the first contest Williams missed, Donovan turned to veteran forward Torrey Craig to fill in as the starting four to help defend Milwaukee Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo. On Friday against the Hawks, the Bulls plugged in Dosunmu to help contend with star guard Trae Young.
Donovan said the Bulls also can turn to rookie Matas Buzelis more, as well as second-year forward Julian Phillips.
“That’s one position that we’ve had a little bit of a logjam with Patrick, Julian and (Matas) in terms of the minutes and trying to distribute them and, at the same point, get Matas some experience by playing him,” Donovan said. “But with Patrick being down, hopefully that would open up an opportunity for him to play some more.”
(Photo: David Banks / Imagn Images)
