I see a lot of mocks have us taking Jordan Williams and people here seem to like him. I go to Maryland and I've seen every game he's played in college. While I love the guy and I'd love to have a Terp on the Celtics, he definitely has some serious limitations. Here's my take on Jordan:
Strengths: He's a great rebounder; he has really good hands, boxes out well, and he just knows where to be. He also hustles and really crashes the boards hard. His touch around the basket is good, and his post moves, though far from refined, have come along nicely. He loves posting up on the left block, spinning baseline and then either going right up for the layup or doing an up and under for a reverse layup. He'll occasionally drop a nice jump hook or turnaround jumper, but those are rare. In terms of his build, he's not that tall(more on that in a second) but he has broad shoulders and could become a real beast with some time in the weight room. Jordan also is a hard worker; he went from an unheralded recruit to a freshman starter to a star in the ACC as a sophomore. If Maryland had a better team he would have gotten a lot more attention. If he fails, it definitely won't be for lack of effort or bad character; he really improved his game and body during his time in College Park, and no one has a bad work to say about him as a person.
Weaknesses: He's really limited as an athlete. He's not going to dunk on anyone's head or make plays above the rim, in fact the only dunks I've seen from him are on fast breaks. Defensively he's OK in terms of positioning, but he's not a good shot blocker at all because of his lack of athleticism and height. He's listed at 6'10" but I think he's more in the 6'8" to 6'9" range. Right now he also has a little excess body fat. However, he really slimmed down from his freshman year to his sophomore year, so I think that trend will continue into the pros which should help his athleticism. Offensively, he's pretty limited. Besides putbacks, fast break dunks, and the aforementioned baseline move, he really doesn't have much of an offensive repertoire. He has no range outside 5 feet and he's a HORRIBLE free throw shooter. Right now in the NBA he'd have a very hard time scoring since hes not athletic and he can't use his size to bully people like he did in college.
Overall I think Jordan would be a solid pick this late in the draft. At worst he'll be a good rebounder who's a liability outside of that one skill (like a Reggie Evans type). If he develops his post moves and/or mid-range jumper, he could be a pretty good player, like a poor man's Carlos Boozer or Paul Millsap. He has some work to do before he's a viable NBA rotation player, but the potential is there and I think he has the right attitude.
