RealGM

The Always-Reliable Lou Williams

Lakers guard Lou Williams, now 30 years old, is having the best season of his career, averaging 18.9 points per game with an effective field goal percentage of 52. Williams has scored the fifth-most points per possession in the pick-and-roll so far this season (of players with a minimum of 100 pick-and-roll possessions, per Synergy). This isn’t a blip on the radar: In each of the past two seasons, he’s ranked in the top five, and over the last eight seasons he’s ranked in the top 15 seven times.

Few players have been that consistent. There are the familiar superstars like Chris Paul, Curry, and James Harden, and then there’s Lou, an oft-overlooked sixth man. Williams’s consistency is remarkable, especially considering how it has translated across each of the four teams he’s played for. It all started in Philadelphia, where he told me it was “huge” for his career to be able to learn from Andre Miller. “Just watching the way Andre attacked the pick-and-roll, how he took his time picking defenses apart,” said Williams. “He was big in my development.”

Kevin O'Connor | TheRinger.com

Worth reading the entire article with gifs of his staple plays.

If a team "gave him" the ball and built around Lou Williams like Croce and Larry Brown did for Iverson, I'm convinced he'd be a top five or ten scorer in the league.

If I were Budenholzer, I'd be bugging the hell out of Mitch for a Schroeder/Williams swap. Williams would turn a team like Atlanta into a top two team in the East, IMO.

Top 15 seven out of the last eight seasons in points per possession off pick-and-rolls...that's a ridiculous body of work. It's virtually impossible to stop a guy who can make good quick decisions off p&r's while being extremely adept at drawing fouls. Even with small ball taking over, the p&r is still an effective means of exploiting opposing defenses. Take notes D Lo.

The Regime wrote:Top 15 seven out of the last eight seasons in points per possession off pick-and-rolls...that's a ridiculous body of work. It's virtually impossible to stop a guy who can make good quick decisions off p&r's while being extremely adept at drawing fouls. Even with small ball taking over, the p&r is still an effective means of exploiting opposing defenses. Take notes D Lo.

This is the reason why "combo" guards are valuable since they can score and pass in those PnR situations. It's what's given a lift go guys like Monta Ellis, Jason Terry, and the like.

i swear to god he is one of the most underrated players of the league.

Lakers neee to trade him

Good player
Doesn't fit the timeline with the lakers

At least a half dozen teams could use him

ALL HAIL wrote:If a team "gave him" the ball and built around Lou Williams like Croce and Larry Brown did for Iverson, I'm convinced he'd be a top five or ten scorer in the league.

If I were Budenholzer, I'd be bugging the hell out of Mitch for a Schroeder/Williams swap. Williams would turn a team like Atlanta into a top two team in the East, IMO.

this is ridiculous.

Hawks had Lou and they have no desire to keep him.

"My Boy Lou" I know that's the only reason you posted this.

I'd be trading Clarkson b4 Lou Or Young - but that's only cause I'm tired of JC's no passing atm. Just hope he starts passing - but that's another topic for another thread.

Lou Will already played there with most of the core they made the team good in previous years. Wasn't a top 2 seed and I swear you have some of the weirdest hottakes on realgm I've ever seen. Some of this is borderline trolling.

Evan Turner could be the starting PG on a great team
Trading what at the time was #7 (Randle) for Taj Gibson
This one

I believe I am missing a few.

ALL HAIL wrote:If a team "gave him" the ball and built around Lou Williams like Croce and Larry Brown did for Iverson, I'm convinced he'd be a top five or ten scorer in the league.

If I were Budenholzer, I'd be bugging the hell out of Mitch for a Schroeder/Williams swap. Williams would turn a team like Atlanta into a top two team in the East, IMO.

Jody Smokz wrote:Lou Will already played there with most of the core they made the team good in previous years. Wasn't a top 2 seed and I swear you have some of the weirdest hottakes on realgm I've ever seen. Some of this is borderline trolling.

Evan Turner could be the starting PG on a great team
Trading what at the time was #7 (Randle) for Taj Gibson
This one

I believe I am missing a few.

ALL HAIL wrote:If a team "gave him" the ball and built around Lou Williams like Croce and Larry Brown did for Iverson, I'm convinced he'd be a top five or ten scorer in the league.

If I were Budenholzer, I'd be bugging the hell out of Mitch for a Schroeder/Williams swap. Williams would turn a team like Atlanta into a top two team in the East, IMO.

I'm quite aware that Williams​ played in Atlanta for a couple of years.

In his first year, before Schroeder was drafted, he blew out his knee.

In his second year, Schroeder was drafted, and Williams was relegated to a role defensively, as a SG, that was detrimental to the team, especially when paired with Korver on the opposite wing.

Atlanta gladly replaced Williams with Thabo Sefalosha that offseason.

Lou Williams, like my previous post outlines, would be an Iverson-like go-to scorer if a team was built around him like it was for Iverson.

Williams needs, like Iverson, to play with either a tall, defensive point guard, or he needs to play point guard in a very very similar role that Tony Parker has played over the years in San Antonio -- as a stone cold scoring PG.

Essentially, because of the presence of Teague and Schroeder, Williams was pushed out of his hometown team in Atlanta.

Ironically though, he was the type of alpha go-to scorer the Hawks needed all along.

Teague and Schroeder are both better traditional PGs than Williams, they may even be better overall players, but, for Atlanta, Lou Williams is the "type" of pure scoring lead guard they've always needed.

This has absolutely nothing do with the Lakers, obviously, but, again, if you swap out Schroeder for Williams today, without the presence of two other point guards in whom they're invested, the Hawks would be much, much improved with Williams at PG than Schroeder.

Is that take hot enough? Funny, I don't even remember a thing you've ever shared.

Lou Williams is a good role player and an even better off the bench guy but if you think he'd help a team as the starting PG surrounded by nothing but defenders while he scorers all game I question any level of basketball intelligence you have. No team for one is going to invest in Lou as their top scoring option if they have any thoughts of contending.

He's also been on serious hot streak and we know how those work. He's playing well but saying he'd have the current Hawks as the #2 seed for a simple swap out with Schroeder is troll talk man. You're also ignoring how terrible on defense he is.

Lou is mostly thriving b/c Luke has simplified the offense for him and most of the best play has come from a full lineup swap. That means the bench and the starting unit isn't mixed. The bench plays 1 way and the starters a different way. When those lineups have mixed we've seen issues.

Lou isn't going to be able to run a team like the Hawks that way. He's going to have to make better and smarter reads w/I an offense and get others involved not simply make a read in early offense and go.

I don't know who can watch what Prime Lou is doing this year and say a team couldn't build around him in a weaker conference. The team would obviously need some great bigs, but he could definitely hold down his own as a lead-scoring guard.

He's been incredible. He's averaging 18.9 ppg in 25.1 mpg! That's 27.1/3.5/4.7/2.0 per 36. TS% .600

And for only $7M a year for the next two years. We're getting a ton of value right now. I can't tell if that means we're likely to trade him or less.

time to sell high?

Why trade Lou? He's been basically perfect for us.

I mean if someone gave us an offer that blew us away, sure... But until Clarkson or Nance become a reliable scoring option off the bench, we need LouWill.

i wasn't ever a big believer in playoffs this year, it was a nice start, but the defensive vulnerabilities are back

it'd be a move to try to improve our chances of a top 3 pick, of which is still very achievable

I don't subscribe to Lou being a player to build an offense around even in a weak conference. The guy is 30 and isn't a center piece to build around nor is he a good enough offensive player to do so. That doesn't mean I think he isn't a good offensive player; he is. He's a sorta starter quality guy who if you pair with a bigger guard, that would absolutely work. But being realistic, there are a number of guys in the league who can score 20 and dish the ball. But these guys we call them "point" guards because...well...they can actually run an offense through them more effectively. It's the reason why Lou gets the "combo" guard label attached to him; he's a scoring guard who can pass versus a point guard who can score. The latter will always be more valuable. So as of now, Lou is right where he needs to be as a 6th man or starter on a team that doesn't have guard depth. I don't think it's a good idea to trade him though. Contract value for his production is great.

crazyeights wrote:I don't know who can watch what Prime Lou is doing this year and say a team couldn't build around him in a weaker conference. The team would obviously need some great bigs, but he could definitely hold down his own as a lead-scoring guard.

He's been incredible. He's averaging 18.9 ppg in 25.1 mpg! That's 27.1/3.5/4.7/2.0 per 36. TS% .600

And for only $7M a year for the next two years. We're getting a ton of value right now.I can't tell if that means we're likely to trade him or less.

It'll be hard to justify trading Williams and keeping Clarkson.

They've always been package deals to me. They both need to be traded.

Picks are cool, but they need a PG/SG defender and a SF defender in the worst possible way; it's long overdue.

Clarkson can fill the 6th man role for years to come

Lou is the 6th man of he year right now, and could certainly help a playoff team or a team looking to push.

Would like to have that package bring back a:
High level prospect
Draft picks
Dead salary and dropping mozgov or deng

Do the Lakers really need to get younger?

There's not a time since he's been coach that I've agreed with him more than when Walton expoused the reasoning behind letting Anthony Brown go -- the jist of it being that the team already has enough guys to nurture and pour into, enough​ guys here already that need full attention.

Those comments go hand in hand with his original comments after taking the job -- he kept saying we need vets.

Draft picks are cool, but I'd, at the very least, also want a deserving candidate to fill one of the two defensive role player positions this team needs (at SF and in the backcourt).

Making this team more balanced, getting defenders, benefits everyone.

You don't think Russell would defend, at least, a little harder if he started next to Tony Allen or Marcus Smart?

As good as Lou Williams is playing, they never needed him in the first place.

You already had Russell...

And that has never, ever been an adequate pairing for Russell's development.

Lou's age is right. Russell needs Lou's age. But, after age, what Russell most needs is to play with an unselfish defender.

Until they see him with an unselfish defender, they won't really know the full extent of what they've got in him.