Eventually, I would hope for Williams to become more of a Ryan Gomes, P.J. Tucker type player. The type of player that's very strong and has a great BBIQ but is athletically and physically limited. Great glue guy, locker room guy, that does a bunch of little things that make him better than he has a right to be.
But, if he doesn't develop a 37% or so three point shot, he won't even get to the Tucker/Gomes level of players. And I don't think he has a chance at being the same type of defender as Draymond. None. But if he gets to Tucker level defense, I will be very very happy.
Grant is an early 20's pick in a bad draft. I think a bit of realism in expectations should be warranted. Comparing him to a DPOY, 3 time All-Star, 3 time World Champ, 5 time All-Defense(3 1sts, 2 2nds) player that has off the chart passing skills for a big man is just unfair to Grant.
I wonder how much of that has to do with him being a junior coming out. It's almost like staying in school is treated as a detriment these days.
It isn't a detriment, you are just a more finished product. If Grant had performed the same and was a freshman he might have gone a little higher, but after 3 years it seemed pretty apparent that Grant wasn't a top 10 pick level talent. Hachimura was a top 10 pick as a junior in the same draft (Bridges was the draft before and Robinson was also in the lottery). I think that has also been borne out. Historically look at the recent lottery picks that have been juniors or seniors. 2017 - none (Justin Jackson at 15 was the highest). 2016 you had Dunn at 5 and Hield at 6. Dunn has been ok, though Hield has been very good. 2015, WCS went 6th. Bleh. 2014, Payton went 10th, McDermott went 11th. 2013, Oladipo went 2 (a great pick), McCollum went 10th (a great pick), Olynyk went 13th (a decent pick). So aside from Hield, you have to go all the way back to 2013 to find some real hits from upper classmen. 2012 had Thomas Robinson at 5, but Lillard went 6 (Sullinger was also in that draft and he certainly had talent, but was injured which is a large reason he fell in the draft). The guards tend to do better as well. I think Vucevic is the last upper classmen to really hit that was a big man (guys like Harrell, Olynyk, and the Morris twins are solid rotational players and generally outperformed their draft position, but I wouldn't call them hits in the vein of someone like Vucevic). Vucevic was the 16th pick in 2011. In other words, it has been awhile.
Topic: Grant Williams vs Draymond Green (Read 14749 times)