Image via gostanford.com
July 16th, 2021
Outside of maybe Jonathan Kuminga, Ziaire Williams is the best prospects when it comes to high risk, high reward. Williams is a 6’8 185 Ib 19 year old who played just one season at Stanford before deciding to go pro. Before the College basketball season even started, Williams was projected to go potentially top-5 in this year’s draft, but with lots of inconsistencies, injuries, and missing games due to personal issues (non behavior-related), Williams' stock dropped a little.
Looking at Williams’ stats in his lone season at Stanford, they don’t impress much at all, especially his shooting stats. Even with the stats not jumping off the paper, Williams still is expected to be somewhere between a lottery pick to mid first round pick, that just shows how much potential he has.
Williams 2020-21’ stats: 10.7PPG 4.6RPG 2.2APG 43%eFG 29% 3PT 79.6%FT
Why should a team buy into Williams?
For one, which has already been stated, Williams has some of the most upside this draft has to offer. Williams hasn’t shown that he’s “great” at one particular thing but instead has shown that there’s potential in so many areas in his game, most notable are shooting, playmaking and defense. Again, Williams didn’t have solid shooting numbers at Stanford, but watching the film, you can tell that his shooting struggles could be easy fixes. The “best” thing about Williams shooting struggles was that he was never afraid to shoot it, every shot he took he looked like he was confident it was going to go on, that's a definite plus for a prospect with the kind of shooting potential Williams has. Another plus about his shooting is that he has some of the best mechanics for a jump shot. In PnR’s, Williams showed flashes of how dangerous he could be in that part of the game making the tough reads, and for a guy with his size, any team would love that. Even with him being a guy who wasn’t afraid to shoot it, he could dish it out when needed averaging 2.2 assist per game for Stanford. Standing at 6’8 with a wingspan around 6’11, Williams could be great defensively. Williams showed he could guard multiple positions and guard around the perimeter, and in today’s NBA where everything is almost switch everything with lots of soft switches, it’s a necessity as a Forward and be able to guard on the perimeter. Also, Williams has some sneaky athleticism as he showed at Stanford with a few ferocious dunks. Williams obviously has glaring weaknesses including his inconsistent shooting, handling the ball, inability to finish around the rim and his strength (only 185 IB). With those weaknesses though, on the right franchise, I think his weaknesses are things that can be worked on.
The biggest key for Williams is which team he lands on. Whichever team is willing to draft him, they have to be patient with him and his development while letting him get play-time as well. Williams getting PT early is crucial so he can go through the bad early and really see and understand what he needs to work on.
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