Between now and the June 28 NBA Draft, SUPERSONICS.COM will break down one of the top 15 prospects in the draft per day, getting audio analysis from Sonics Director of Basketball Operations Dave Pendergraft and commentary from Sonics play-by-play broadcaster David Locke and SUPERSONICS.COM's Kevin Pelton. Today, UConn guard Marcus Williams.
Pendergraft's take:
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Locke's take: Nine assists a game is an absurd number. That is what Marcus Williams averaged last season with UConn.
Let me talk UConn for a moment. Rudy Gay is supposed to be a top-three pick, Hilton Armstrong and Marcus Williams are top 15 and Josh Boone is going to go in the first round as well. Yet they didn’t make the Final Four. Something is wrong with that. More alarmingly, they rarely played with great passion.
To me, the team lacked a leader or had selfish players. Does that fall on the point guard? Does it change your opinion if the point guard showed up to a bunch of draft workouts over weight?
Williams was busted in the off-season selling stolen laptops at a pawn shop. One NBA personnel person said to me what I wanted to know when I interviewed him is when did it dawn on him that this was so obvious I am going to get caught. It is a great question.
Turnovers are a large concern. He averaged nearly four a game and had seven in the game against Washington.
To his credit he stepped up big late in the season. He went over 20 points in three of four Tournament games and he notched eight or more assists in 12 of the final 13 games.
But really it comes back to if you want your on-court decision maker not knowing he was going to get caught selling multiple laptops at a pawn shop.
Pelton's take: Williams is an incredible passer. Nobody questions that. Williams averaged 8.6 assists per game as a junior, and his career average of 7.3 assists is the best in UConn history. His assist-to-turnover ratio of 2.33 is off the charts for an NCAA player and would be quite impressive even in the NBA, where they are generally higher.
Where you stand on Williams may depend on how much you believe the NBA is truly changing. Is quickness now the critical skill for a point guard? Must they be able to penetrate. If so, Williams' game may not translate as well as it would have a couple of years ago. Though he's gotten himself in better shape, Williams is still not a great athlete and can't keep up with waterbug types like Earl Watson. If you believe that this shift is a temporary thing, Williams could end up becoming a Mark Jackson-type presence at the point.
Williams' stats as a junior are pretty good, but they look even better when you consider that he did not play against UConn's easier non-conference opponents because of a suspension. HoopsAnalyst.com broke down just how much this hurts Williams.
