Portland Trail Blazers star Deni Avdija recently reiterated how shocked he was that he didn't end a Chicago Bull on draft night in 2020 on the Young Man & The Three Podcast.
The Chicago Bulls and their fans are in a better mood as of today, seeing as the organization can officially say that they will have two first round picks in what is projected to be an elite 2026 draft class.
But--as per usual for Bulls Nation--that optimism about the Bulls general outlook likely dwindled at least a bit if you saw the recent words of Portland Trail Blazers star Deni Avdija, who recently sounded off on how shocked he was that he wasn't drafted by the Bulls in 2020, the year they infamously took Patrick Williams No. 4 overall.
On a recent episode of The Young Man & The Three Podcast, Avdija stated that "the whole world thought Chicago's gonna take me at four."
Avdija, who either is extremely honest or not worried about hurting anyone's feelings, discussed how the Bulls selection of Williams was shocking because "nobody really knew his name." He went on to say that the Bulls selection of Williams threw the entire draft order into a frenzy, with players being available later than many front offices were imagining.
Nobody really thought about him going four, like, nobody really knew his name.
Avdija's statement rings only somewhat true, although his general point still stands. Williams was definitely a known commodity coming into the 2020 NBA Draft. Williams was a physically impressive prospect who, while not producing at an elite level, did enough to win the ACC 6th Man of the Year as a true freshman at Florida State.
Impressive individual workouts helped raise Williams' stock, and there was chatter that perhaps the Detroit Pistons would be interested in Williams with the No. 7 overall pick. Of course, we never got to see what Williams' true floor in the draft order looked like, as Chicago took Williams after what was a pretty established top three at the time in Anthony Edwards, LaMelo Ball and James Wiseman.
It always easy to say what the right pick would've been in hindsight, but even the most gentle Bulls critics were skeptical of taking Williams that high in the 2020 NBA Draft at the time. Williams had a solid rookie season of 9 PPG, 4 RPG and 39% shooting from 3-point range. The problem is that Williams has not seen his averages or his game change or improve dramatically since he first came into the league.
The 2025-26 season saw Williams average 7 PPG, 3 RPG, and shoot 34% from the 3-point line, the lowest percentage of his career from deep. Meanwhile, Deni Avdija is coming off of a season in which he averaged 24 PPG, 6.9 RPG, and despite shooting 31% from 3-point range, is aggressive enough to have performances like his 41-point outing to take down the Phoenix Suns in the 7 vs 8 Play-In game.
There is, of course, no way of knowing if Avdija would've developed into the same type of player that he is now in Chicago, but it certainly stings a bit for Bulls fans to hear the Portland star reiterate just how shocking it was that the Bulls passed on him in 2020.