NEWSLETTER
With the NBA Draft set for Wednesday night and free agency beginning later this weekend, the Chicago Bulls did some housekeeping.
According to Jake Fischer of Yahoo Sports, the team has extended a qualifying offer to Patrick Williams. The move officially makes him a restricted free agent ahead of June 30. The deadline to extend the offer to Williams was this Saturday.
Patrick Williams Extended Qualifying Offer
To be clear, this shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone. If the Bulls hadn’t extended him this offer, the 22-year-old would have become an unrestricted free agent. In other words, Williams would have complete control of his own destiny instead of the Bulls having the ability to match any offer sheet that comes from another team. So we’re talking about pretty standard protocol here.
Nevertheless, it’s an important move that had to be made, and the number on that qualifying offer isn’t anything to ignore. The deal is one year worth roughly $13.0 million. Wiliams could choose to accept that deal if he doesn’t like any of the offers that are coming his way. He would then be able to hit unrestricted free agency NEXT offseason and have a complete say in his future.
Do I anticipate this happening? No, especially since there are a handful of cap space teams who I believe would run the price up and convince Williams to sign. But it’s possible that the AAV being offered isn’t that much higher than the qualifying offer, which could always lead the youngster to bet on himself.
Chicago has until June 30 at 5:00 p.m. CT to reach a deal with Patrick Williams before other parties can get involved. If they can’t, however, Williams can start signing opponent offer sheets as soon as July 1.
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