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Why Williams is focused on team success, not All-Rookie

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This is an NBA season unlike any other for all players -- but especially rookies.

No finish to their final college season. No summer league. A shortened training camp. Regular-season games roughly a month after getting drafted.

But the league still will honor first-year players with All-Rookie teams. And Sunday night is another game featuring two high-profile first-years in No. 1 overall pick Anthony Edwards for the Minnesota Timberwolves and No. 4 overall pick Patrick Williams for the Bulls.

Guess who isn’t concerned with making one of the two All-Rookie teams? Yep, the stoic, team-first Williams.

“I don’t really play basketball for the accolades and things like that. I just play because I love to play it,” Williams said Sunday via Zoom following the Bulls’ morning shootaround. “I’ve always been that way. It wouldn’t even really matter to me.”

Edwards, who is averaging 17.9 points with plenty of highlight-reel plays, is a virtual lock. Injured or not, so is Charlotte Hornets point guard LaMelo Ball, who is averaging 15.9 points and 6.1 assists while also filling up highlight shows.

Williams' game is less flashy. He’s averaging just 9.7 points and 4.7 rebounds, but his presence carries impact beyond numbers. He typically guards the opponent’s best player -- without complaint -- and will start his 51st game as a 19-year-old Sunday against the Timberwolves.

Asked if possessing a more workmanlike game could affect his chances to make an All-Rookie team, Williams punted again.

“I don’t know what they’re saying about us rookies or anything like that. I’m just trying to help my team win in any way I can. However that looks to the eye, I’m not really sure,” he said. “I’m just focused on our locker room and making sure the guys in our locker room are happy with me. That’s the input I’m looking for -- our coaches, teammates instead of the media.”

Throughout his media sessions all season, Williams has downplayed all individual attention. He lit up Sunday morning talking about Edwards’ poster dunk on Raptors forward Yuta Watanabe.

But it took a fourth, and direct, question -- "Do you think you’re having a good rookie season?" -- for Williams to finally drop his guard a bit.

“Ummm,” he paused, “I think I have. Coming in when I was drafted, I just wanted to get better every day. I think I have done that.

"Just being able to grow, get experience and just learn from guys like Zach (LaVine) and the rest of the guys on the team, Thad (Young), the vets on the team, but also young guys. Learned from Coby (White). Learned from Troy (Brown Jr.). Learned from a different team and different situation but also learned from him. As long as I'm learning, as long as I'm getting better every day I feel like that's a good season from me.

It’s easy to see why the Bulls’ coaching staff and management is so high on Williams, who possesses a solid demeanor on which to build a strong career -- whether he makes an All-Rookie team or not.

“I think from Day One my teammates and coaches have been telling me to stay confident and be aggressive. I think I’ve made strides in that area. I still have a long way to go,” Williams said. “But I kind of look at it as building a foundation for the player and person I want to be 5, 10, hopefully 15 years from now if I’m still playing in the NBA. The trials and tribulations and ups and downs of your first season, I kind of look at it like growing pains and just make sure my foundation is strong.”

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