Fifth-year Bulls forward Patrick Williams is still searching for his identity

MILWAUKEE – Billy Donovan feels like Patrick Williams actually has an identity.

The Bulls coach made that clear Friday when he talked about the starting power forward.

Now it's about getting Williams to consistently live up to this identity.

“When you're playing, you have to be aware of, 'How far away is this guy from me?' Who is away from me? Does this guy have length or not? Does it close hard?' That’s where he can start to build an identity that when he gets closeouts, he has to play better against them,” Donovan said. “The other thing for him is he needs to acquire more possessions. There are times when the ball is coming down the floor and Coby (White) can have it, or Ayo (Dosunmu) can have it, and (Williams) has to get out and in front of the ball so we can throw it to him. If you’re behind the game all the time, you won’t get into the game.”

So do better against closeouts and run the floor more aggressively, and then Williams will finally realize the potential of a No. 4 overall pick?

Unlikely.

Forget playing like a top-five draft pick. This ship left the dock some time ago. What Williams can do, however, is play like a starter who was just extended for $90 million over the next five years. And even more important would be to talk about it less and do it more.

Williams doesn't realize it, especially after a season-opening loss at New Orleans in which he scored just six points and grabbed three rebounds.

“Being aggressive is a broad term,” Williams said when asked again if he wanted to increase his aggressiveness on offense. “Just pick your seats, that’s how I see it. I'm working on picking my seats. Since there are a lot of younger players on this team, you should never give the impression that you are selfish, but rather shoot every time you touch it. There has to be a rhythm to the game, but still be aggressive. I have to know what I bring to the game offensively. That’s something I wasn’t confident about in my first few seasons, but I am now.”

In basketball you will never always make the right decisions. Sometimes you shoot when you shouldn't have shot it, sometimes you should have shot and made the play. I'm just trying to play through it. Just make plays. I have to agree with that.”

The waiting continues.

Ball out

As expected, Lonzo Ball missed the game against Milwaukee and sat in the second round. Ball will play in Saturday's home game against Oklahoma City.

Aside from the minute restrictions due to the surgically repaired left knee, it was determined before the season that he would also miss one of the games in all consecutive games. It's up to Bulls Medical and Ball to figure out which game is more beneficial for him if he's out.

The good news was that he came out of the opening game without any setbacks or soreness.

Musical rotating chairs

Donovan went with an 11-man rotation against the Pelicans and didn't like the way they looked or performed.

The coach's happy place is a nine-man rotation, but he also knows that would be difficult to accomplish with this group due to the increase in tempo at which they are expected to play as well as Ball's minute limitations.

What does this mean for Donovan? Still looking.

“Some of it is still a work in progress,” Donovan said. “Ideally I wouldn’t want to play 11th. I think there are too many. There were a few times we got caught there.

“For us, I think it’s still a work in progress on some rotations.”