MVN - Most Valuable Network

Where does Lou Williams stack up against this year’s draft?

Welcome back to Passion and Pride, my friends. This is a BIG week for us in that the NBA Draft is on Thursday. The Sixers have the 16th selection and a boat load of cap space this summer.

As I was watching YouTube videos of the top guards in this draft class, I couldn’t help but think to myself that fan favorite Lou Williams was right on par with these guys. The talent is there. Decide for yourself!

DERRICK ROSE & JERRYD BAYLESS

O.J. MAYO

ERIC GORDON JR.

Those are all high school videos. After one year of college, all four are looking to take the NBA by storm. Hold on a second…

LOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Williams made major improvements in his game this year and emerged as the sixth man by the end of the season. The highlight of the year for me was when he froze D-Wade and went left on him, came off the baseline and threw down a ferocious slam over Udonis Haslem. Of course, now we know that the Heat were tanking. There’s no way Wade reaches like that and doesn’t move his feet if the Heat are actually playing for something…

Lou Will showed signs late last year as Andre Miller’s backup, but really emerged in his third season. He averaged close to 12 points in 23 minutes a game. Come July 1st, he’ll be a restricted free agent.

Resigning the young gun is a priority, as he has the potential to be right there with Rose, Mayo, Gordon and Bayless (add in UCLA sophomore Russell Westbrook as well). In fact, Williams might even be better than all of them next year. If you consider that Lou came straight from high school as well, then take away a year and the half of a season where he didn’t get much burn until Iverson was traded, and Williams is one year ahead of this year’s class of the draft at point. In fact, Lou’s birthday of 10-27-86 is almost exactly one year before Mayo’s 11-5-87.

Another interesting tidbit about this year’s class is that the point guards, other than Derrick Rose, are mostly combos like Williams who play with the ball in their hands and generate their own offense. Viewing the YouTube videos of all four guys, there really doesn’t appear to be much of a difference between the pure point and the combo. That is to say, Rose can look for his own offense in the same manner as the other guys and the other guys can set up their teammates like Rose can (although the argument can be made that Gordon is strictly a shooting guard).

So, while we didn’t land a lottery pick this year, we do have lottery talent in the wings. Remember the name - Lou Williams. It’s almost a guarantee that we will match any offer for him. What isn’t guaranteed is how good these guards in the draft will be. Rose is as close as they come to a guarantee, but for the other guys, I’d take my chances with Lou.

BONUS: Rumors have been circulating that the Sixers are looking to leverage their cap space to move up in the draft. One scenario has them switching picks and power forwards with the Knicks. We’d get the sixth pick and Zach Randolph for the 16th pick and Reggie Evans. If you ask me, I say no thanks. With Lou Williams, the guards available at the pick would be redundant to me (and especially with Willie Green under contract). Getting back Zach Randolph would make it redundant to select a guy like Kevin Love. Somebody like Anthony Randolph might be on the radar with that pick, but how would he fit with Thaddeus Young? Z-Bo is a player I want no parts of. This video pretty much sums it up…

This entry was posted on Monday, June 23rd, 2008 at 4:24 pm and is filed under Lou Williams, Reggie Evans, Kevin Love, O.J. Mayo, Derrick Rose, Sixers, Udonis Haslem, Jerryd Bayless, Anthony Randolph, Russell Westbrook, Eric Gordon, USC Trojans, Memphis Tigers, Indiana Hoosiers, Zach Randolph, Thaddeus Young, Allen Iverson, Miami Heat, Philadelphia 76ers, Arizona Wildcats, Dwayne Wade, Youtube, Willie Green, Andre Miller, Passion and Pride, New York Knicks. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.