His hustle and quickness on D is all well and good. But if he can't make our opponents pay for dropping off him and clogging up the lane, it severely limits his utility. Hopefully he can find his jumpshot, but if not, we saw last year how things work out when we play guards who can't shoot.
Would certainly like for him to shoot at a better clip, but there are a few things that are different from last season.
First, he’s an actual experienced PG. Other than Skyy (and he wasn’t experienced) the others we ran out there were not point guards. So they had no idea how to run an offense effectively — especially under duress at the P6 level. So if their shot wasn’t falling, they just couldn’t get the team going. I think that is less likely to be the case with Williams.
Second, it seems far more likely that he will actually run the plays called and the offense. Multiple reports say that wasn’t the case last year. I think the impact of this not happening last year is largely overlooked. Just one way this could help is to shorten those pesky scoring droughts. It is at times like that when running a particular play could result in an easy bucket and get things back on track. Instead, plays weren’t being run and the result was hero ball or bad shots at the end of shot clock.
Third, don’t underestimate the impact of good D and hustle. How often have we seen those things ignite the offense? And poor D by Epps and Clark last year had a much greater impact than just on that side of the ball. It’s those lapses that saw them sent to the bench (and get an earful from BU). And when their shot wasn’t falling, they had nothing to give themselves a spark and get back on track. Guy like Harris or Frazier before him can use that D to ignite his own play and the team’s play.
Williams ain’t no RayJ and I’d like the pick up more if he wasn’t coming off the injury, but he isn’t chopped liver. And if he can get/stay healthy, I think he can be a big improvement over Skyy and Epps play last year.