The Chicago Bulls inserted rookie Patrick Williams — who did not start a game during his lone year at Florida State before he was drafted fourth overall last month — into their starting lineup for their season opener Wednesday. The 19-year old became the youngest player in franchise history to begin the season as a starter.

Williams’ play was one of the few bright spots in a 124-104 loss to Atlanta that otherwise was a debacle. He had 16 points on 5-for-11 shooting with four rebounds, one assist and one block in his NBA debut.

“I think the first regular-season game was just big for me just for experience,” Williams said after practice Thursday. “I would’ve loved to get the win, but obviously we’ve got some things to work on. Got some film to watch from that game and we’ve been watching the film to get better from that.”

Cracking the starting lineup in his first game is the latest accomplishment in his rapid rise the past few months and a nod to how smoothly he has transitioned to the NBA. There are still areas where Williams’ game must continue to grow, but throughout the preseason and the start of the regular season Wednesday, the rookie does not look out of place on an NBA floor.

“He’s extremely talented,” guard Zach LaVine said. “You see flashes where it’s like, man, this kid is going to be really good. He brings an aggression to the game. He’s extremely strong. He’s NBA-ready, body-wise, and it’s something that we need. He’s just going to keep getting better.”

The move also is a tactical decision by coach Billy Donovan that could pay off in a few ways.

First, the Bulls defense is a disaster. It became clear on opening night just how badly the Bulls are going to struggle defensively against the quicker, better shooting teams in the league and Williams is already, perhaps, their most capable one-on-one perimeter defender. Starting him over Otto Porter, who is a solid team defender, allows the Bulls to trade offense for defense, removing some of the redundancy of having another scorer in the starting lineup.

In Wednesday’s opener, Porter shot 5-of-10 for 14 points and five rebounds in 23 minutes, but the starters already had created a major deficit by the time he had a chance to affect the game.

“I’m here to do my job, whatever that entails; I’m going to go do it the best I can do,” Porter said Thursday. “I could have done a little bit more (Wednesday). I feel like I could’ve given us a defensive boost a little bit better, just communicating with defense.”

Putting Williams in the starting lineup has as much to do with his success as it makes sense for how Donovan wants to utilize Porter. With the Bulls bench limited while veterans Tomas Satoransky, Garrett Temple, Denzel Valentine and Thad Young are out to start the season, Porter becomes the veteran to lead the reserve unit and provide scoring off the bench.

It also gives Donovan a chance to control Porter’s minutes as the team eases him back into action after he has been hampered by injuries the past few seasons. Donovan wanted to avoid a scenario where Porter had to play more than 30 minutes a game early on and should the Bulls ever play a game with a final score closer than Wednesday, Porter seems likely to be part of the team’s closing lineup.

“From a coaching perspective, it’s a 48-minute game,” Donovan said before the game Wednesday. “And sometimes how you start is not how you finish based on what a lineup is doing and what another team is doing. … I get the interest in the starting piece of it, but at the same point, even with somebody like Otto, we want to obviously ramp him up in a way that is safe and healthy for him. He’s been available, he is healthy, he’s doing well, but he’s probably one of the most experienced guys on the team. And you don’t want to come out of the gates here with him absorbing 34, 35 minutes. That’s not the best thing for him.”