Williams hopes "thin ice" doesn’t break
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It's warm outside, but Shawne Williams has to stay cool.
Cool enough, in fact, to preserve the thin ice that keeps his Pacers career afloat.
"I just hope the thin ice don't break," Williams said Thursday after the first practice of the Pacers' summer minicamp in Conseco Fieldhouse. "I'm going to do everything in my power to keep it thin, try to thicken it up a little bit and hope it don't break."
He knows the recipe.
"Just stay out of trouble," Williams said, "do what I get paid to do, be a professional ballplayer, come in, do my job, go home and stay out of trouble."
Entering his third NBA season, the player drafted No. 17 overall from Memphis in 2006 still has much to prove. He's shown flashes of explosive talent but more often has been burdened by the inconsistency of youth – on and off the floor.
It was enough to lead team President Larry Bird to single out Williams during a press briefing in advance of the NBA Draft.
"He's on thin ice," Bird said. "I've had enough, really. If we can look and do something, get something back, we'll probably do it. But he's on very thin ice here."
Williams averaged 6.7 points in 65 appearances last season, averaging nearly 10 points a game through mid-December before. He was twice discipline by the team for off-court legal scrapes, missing a total of six games.
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Williams said he had no problem with Bird's tough approach. In fact, he agreed.
"I can't get mad," Williams said. "He's got a job to do and I've got a job to do. I ain't losing respect for Larry. He's just doing his job. He's right."
Assistant coach Lester Conner, who is supervising the minicamp practices, said he expects Williams to be one of the best players on the floor when the Pacers head to Orlando next week for summer-league play.
"We need to see growth," Conner said. "We need to see also that he deserves to be on the floor and get minutes. Shawne has been here for a few years now and he's been in our system, he's played in the summer league before.
"We need to see growth, him understanding what we're trying to do and we need him to raise his game to another level. Even though they don't have an MVP down there in Orlando, he needs to be flirting with that (level)."
Williams knows what's on the line. His place on the roster, and possibly in the NBA, could be determined in no small part by what he shows the staff in the next two weeks.
"I feel like it's a make-or-break year," Williams said. "I've got to go out and do my job, just play, stay healthy and stay out of trouble and everything should fall in place."
Above all, he can't afford to slip on that thin ice.
