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Passion and Pride does a sort of video comparison of Louis Williams against the 2008 draft prospects. The part that I find the most intriguing is that Williams is playing against people who are already in the NBA in his video, where as the draft prospects are shown against high school and college players. Of course, Williams has been in the NBA for 3 years already (I know! Who knew?) and who knows what Derrick Rose and OJ Mayo are going to be playing like after 3 years in the league.
But, let’s look for a moment at Williams’ numbers before and after the All-Star break.
| Situation | G | Min | FGPct | 3Pct | FTPct | Reb | Ast | TO | Stl | Blk | PPG |
| Pre All-Star | 51 | 22:30 | 41.0 | 37.1 | 77.2 | 1.9 | 3.3 | 1.6 | 1.0 | 0.2 | 10.8 |
| Post All-Star | 29 | 24:36 | 44.6 | 33.9 | 80.2 | 2.5 | 3.0 | 1.5 | 1.0 | 0.2 | 12.7 |
Let’s also keep in mind that Andre Miller - the 76ers starting PG - played 36 minutes per game in all 82 games for Philly last year. That means Williams was getting some time as the backup SG. At 6-2, that can be a red flag for fantasy owners, but when your team is young and fast and running all the time like the 76ers, you can get away with having a smaller lineup out there.
In his last 10 games, Williams had a -3.5 on the Player Rater, which - for a whole season - would have put him at somewhere between 140 and 146 with guys like James Jones, Jordan Farmar, Larry Hughes, Ben Wallace, Drew Gooden, Maurice Evans, and Jermaine O’Neal. In a 12×13 league, there’s 156 players drafted, so being in the 140s means a late 12th or 13th round pick.
I’m not pointing out Williams as if to say he’ll be better than Derrick Rose or OJ Mayo in 08-09, but rather to simply say that he has gone from Off The Radar to On. He is above the league average in Scoring, Assists, and Steals, and is listed on Yahoo as a G, which means he would fit very well into a small ball lineup.
I’m going to make a pre-draft prediction (and feel pretty safe since the Sixers are unlikely to take another PG with Miller and Williams already slotted) of: 11.5 points, 0.8 threes, 3.2 assists, 2 rebounds, 1.0 steals, 0.2 blocks, 1.7 turnovers, with 45% FG and 80% FT. As I mentioned above, that’ll probably place him in the 140s, and you probably won’t want to go higher than that in order to leave room for the Upside Potential that makes him a Sleeper pick.
