Report: Chicago Bulls, Patrick Williams Agree to 5-Year, $90 Million Contract Extension
![Report: Chicago Bulls, Patrick Williams Agree to 5-Year, $90 Million Contract Extension](http://res.cloudinary.com/ybmedia/image/upload/c_crop,h_675,w_1200,x_0,y_36/c_fill,f_auto,h_900,q_auto,w_1600/v1/m/7/b/7bbb712cccd4a405cc359b239e153f8132e834d6/patrick-williams.jpg)
Judging by moves made over the past couple of weeks, it appears that the Chicago Bulls have kickstarted a rebuild. Most of the conversation has revolved around whether older veterans DeMar DeRozan, Nikola Vucevic, and Zach LaVine are going to be back on the roster next year.
Another topic of discussion was the restricted free agency of Patrick Williams, the Williams has shown an expansive skill set but has not been able to put all the pieces together due to injuries in his young career. Bulls VP of Basketball Operations Artūras Karnišovas made fans uncomfortable at his post-NBA Draft press conference with his non-committal stance on Williams’ injury healing this offseason.
There were rumors that teams like the Oklahoma City Thunder were ready to offer an attractive package to the Bulls should they be receptive to making a move, but it looks like that was never the case.
Per Shams Charania, the Bulls and Williams agreed to a $90 million deal over five seasons. The initial reaction may seem like it is quite excessive for a player who only had averages of 10 points and four rebounds last season, especially if the rumored rebuild was about to kick in.
However, Williams plays into the Bulls’ youth movement. He is only 22 years old and has a skill set that is extremely desirable in today’s NBA environment.
Even in focusing on a younger lineup next season, Williams can easily slip into the power forward slot next to new draftee Matas Buzeli and either Vucevic or whichever younger replacement at center the Bulls can get if they move on from the veteran.
Ultimately, it seems like the Chicago Bulls front office struck a deal with a young asset that may very well be in the best interest of both parties. Others in Williams’ draft class have already signed bigger contracts than Williams, but roughly $18 million a year in two to three seasons may just be the going rate of an average NBA player the way that contracts are going. Locking in Williams at this rate seems like a good move for the Bulls front office regardless of whether the youth transition is happening or not.
All in all, it seems the Bulls were interested in locking down a young asset at a reasonable contract number. His youth and skill set can continue being a positive for the team whether they stay trying to be competitive or as a young piece in the next iteration of their team.
This article first appeared on On Tap Sports Net and was syndicated with permission.
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Paul George informs Clippers he’s signing with another team
The Clippers were unable to make any traction in negotiations with Paul George‘s representative and the veteran forward will sign elsewhere, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski (X link) Aaron Mintz of CAA, George’s agent, and Clippers president Lawrence Frank spoke a short time ago, Woj reports, but there was no new movement on a contract and both sides are now expecting George to depart. The Clippers have released a lengthy statement confirming the news, as Ohm Youngmisuk of ESPN relays (via X). “Paul has informed us that he is signing his next contract with another team,” the Clippers announced. “… We negotiated for months with Paul and his representative on a contract that would make sense for both sides, and we were left far apart.
The gap was significant. We understand and respect Paul’s decision to look elsewhere for his next contract. We explored an opt-in and trade scenario, but it would have left us in a similar position under the new CBA, with very little asset value to justify the restrictions.” The Sixers will meet with George in California this evening and are the strong frontrunners to sign him. Philadelphia is armed with ample cap room to sign a max-level free agent. The Clippers have remained steadfast on a three-year deal, similar to Kawhi Leonard’s contract extension. Leonard signed a three-year, $152.4M contract in January. George wants a four-year commitment. If George leaves, the Clippers will head into free agency without cap space to pursue a similar player.
They’ll only have the $12.9M mid-level exception and a $4.7M bi-annual exception at their disposal. (Twitter links found here). Another potential suitor, the Magic, essentially took themselves out of the picture by reaching a three-year agreement with another high-level wing, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope. A report earlier on Sunday expressed optimism on the Sixers’ front that they’d land their top free-agent target. The Athletic’s Law Murray now reports that George will likely make a decision tonight and no other teams besides Philadelphia are in the running for his services (X link).
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Steelers Are Giving Cordarrelle Patterson Plenty Of Frustrations Early On At Practice
The Pittsburgh Steelers are entering a new era. The kickoff game has completely changed, so to help adapt to it, the team went out and signed the best kick returner of his generation, Cordarrelle Patterson. With the idea that there will be a lot of extra space due to the new rule, the Steelers hope that they can unlock the version of Patterson that dominated with the Minnesota Vikings. However, the Steelers are not making everything easy on him just because the rules now suddenly benefit players like him. On an episode of The North Shore Drive podcast, Brian Batko talked about what has most likely been happening during camp for Patterson and the Steelers to help prepare for the new age of kickoff returns. “[Cordarrelle Patterson] has a love-hate relationship with [the new rules]. One day, he enjoys it. The next day, he hates it, probably because Danny Smith and co. are making it tough on him in practice, busting out all sorts of different kicks: sharp line drives, squibbers, and Patterson maybe he’s the Danny Glover: ‘I’m getting to old for this.'” Earlier in the podcast, Christopher Carter called out Danny Smith, the Steelers’ special teams coordinator, for being crazy. With how long he has been in the league as a special teams coach, he could easily retire with the new ruleset. Instead, Smith is taking this new challenge head-on, and Patterson has to deal with any kind of challenge or drill that gets thrown his way.
Steelers Are Challenging Patterson In Case Of Trickery By Kickoff Team With this new kickoff format, the return game is not the only one coming up with new ideas and strategies on exploiting it. The kickoff team also has its own challenge to go through, and they have to find ways to prevent the returners from getting too much space and getting an easy touchdown. Patterson has to be ready for any and every piece of trickery that gets thrown his way. Smith knows about these new strategies and formations obviously, since he’s helping to make some of these adjustments for the kickoff team as well. He is most likely preparing Patterson for every kind of kickoff situation that he would draw up for the Steelers.
If there’s a will, there’s a way, and Smith is probably coming up with many ways to make kickoffs as hard as humanly possible on opposing returners. With every new way to play the game, a new opportunity arises to exploit it. The Steelers signed Patterson as a way to exploit it, but they have to prepare for any way that they could be exploited. Line drive kicks that are placed correctly could lead to Patterson having to scramble to field the ball and not gain momentum.
Sky kicks that are placed correctly could also pull Patterson near the top of the landing zone, making it harder for him to gain enough speed before the opponents close in on him. No matter what happens, as long as Smith can make Patterson ready to take on this new rule, anything he throws at him in practice will be a success. Patterson still has plenty of explosiveness and speed, so if he can get past that initial wave of defenders, he could score. There’s only one way to find out how successful Smith and Patterson will be in this new endeavor: watch the games and watch Patterson leave all 11 tacklers in the dust.
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Free-agent forward agrees to multiyear deal with Suns
According to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN, free agent Royce O’Neale intends to sign a four-year, $44M contract to remain with the Suns. Zach Lowe of ESPN adds that the deal won’t feature a team or player option and will be fully guaranteed. It will be the most lucrative contract of O’Neale’s career, topping his previous four-year, $36M extension that will expire. The No. 19 player on our list of this year’s top 50 free agents, O’Neale has been a reliable, durable wing since entering the league in 2017, never appearing in fewer than 69 games in a season across stints in Utah, Brooklyn, and Phoenix. The Suns acquired the former Baylor standout from Brooklyn in a three-team deal at February’s trade deadline.
A versatile defender with the size to match up against bigger wings and forwards, O’Neale isn’t much of an offensive threat, having never averaged more than 8.8 points per game in a season. But he’s a solid three-point shooter, with a career rate of 38.1% from beyond the arc, and he has averaged 3.2 assists per game over the past two seasons. Because Phoenix projects to operate over the second tax apron in 2024-25, the team would have had no means to replace O’Neale or Grayson Allen with an equivalent player in free agency, so there was an expectation that both players would be re-signed. The Suns extended Allen in April and have now reached a deal to retain O’Neale. Since O’Neale was expected to receive interest on the open market from rival suitors, the belief was that Phoenix would have to go up to three or four years to beat out clubs who might offer a higher starting salary.
That was the case, with the Suns making a guaranteed four-year commitment to the 31-year-old. As cap expert Yossi Gozlan reports, adding O’Neale’s new deal to the Suns’ books increases their projected team salary for next season to nearly $217M. The luxury tax line is expected to come in at around $171.3M. There may be more moves pushing the Suns’ salary in one direction or the other, but based on the current projections and tax penalties, it would be the second-most expensive roster in NBA history, says Gozlan.
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Hooters decals removed from Chase Elliott’s car amid nationwide store closures
NASCAR fans have noticed that Hooters decals have been removed from Chase Elliott’s No. 9 Chevrolet for Sunday’s Ally 400 at Nashville Superspeedway.
In addition, Hooters no longer appears on the Hendrick Motorsports partner page on its website and the Hooters Racing URL now redirects back to the restaurant’s homepage. This comes less than a week after at least 44 Hooters restaurants across 14 states permanently closed due to “pressure from current market conditions,” the chain told USA TODAY.
Has Hooters broken off its partnership with Elliott and Hendrick? That could very well be the case, bringing an end to an era. Elliott is slated to use the Hooters paint scheme one more time this season at Richmond in August, though it remains to be seen if it happens.
Chase Elliott, Hooters partnership dates back nearly a decade For the past eight years, Hooters has served as a primary sponsor for Elliott. In 2021, it extended its sponsorship of Elliott through 2024.
Beyond Elliott, Hooters’ involvement with NASCAR dates back to more than three decades ago. Hooters served as the full-time sponsor for Alan Kulwicki during his championship winning season in 1992. Elliott’s lone win this season (Texas) came in a race in which Hooters served as his primary paint scheme.
It was his first win using the Hooters paint scheme and the first for Hooters since that 1992 campaign. “Hooters has been a great partner of ours for a number of years now,” Elliott said. “And it’s been a dream to pay respect to Alan Kulwicki.
And do a ‘Polish victory lap’ in the Hooters colors. That’s something I’ve wanted to do for a long time and have just not had the opportunity to do that. Came close a few times. “As soon as the race was over, I was like, ‘Man, we finally got our opportunity to do it and pay respect to him and the partnership.’”