My former boy Lou Williams. I once thought he was the point guard of the future. Oh how times have changed.
Coming into the season, the freshly signed ink on Lou-Will's new contract was still drying. At the time of his five year, 25 million dollar extension I thought, "Wow, three or four years down the road this is going to look like one of the best contracts in the NBA." Less than 365 days later, I regress.
If Lou was a legitimate starting point guard on a championship contender -- which I thought he was -- his contract would have been a bargain, but he's not. So, what is Lou's role on a championship team? Does he fit on a championship team at all? Yes and no.
Deep down, I still believe Lou can be a contributer. No, he's not the point guard of the future, but he can provide instant offense off the bench. Think Vinnie "The Microwave" Johnson.
Lou is still only 22 years old. The talent is there. The problem with Lou are the constant mental lapses -- the missed defensive assignments, the jump passes and the ill-advised shots. The good news is, there's still hope. He needs to take all he's learned from Allen Iverson, Andre Miller, Kevin Ollie and Mo Cheeks and mold his game from bits and pieces of theirs. Of all the players on the roster, I think Lou's success depends most on the new head coach.
My unknown infatuation with Louis Williams will always lead me to believe he'll live up to his potential some day. That said, I'm not against trading him this off-season. If Stefanski aka "The SHOT" has to sacrifice Lou to rid the team of Sammy D or Bill Green, I'm down. Same goes for acquiring a shooter.
In my opinion, Lou was by far the biggest disappointment of the 2008-2009 season.
Best games: I struggled to remember Lou-Will's "best games".
@Orlando -- 18 points, 7-11 shooting, 3-3 from three.
Lou, along with Donny-Ice were the main ingredients in the Sixers huge game one comeback against the Magic. It wasn't just Lou's scoring -- he was running, he was finding Donny-Ice, he was playing defense. If only, he could bottle this type of performance and do it consistently...
@Washington -- 26 points, 10-17 shooting, 4-8 from three, 4 assists, 0 turnovers.
Lou had a stretch during this game where he looked like Kobe Bryant. He literally made my jaw drop during a stretch in the first half. During that stretch, Lou dropped 16 straight Sixer points, which included a contested-Shane Battier-hand-in-your-face-type-defense-fadeaway three. Unfortunately, I cannot find the YouTube clip of it, so you're just going to have to take my word for it.
Grade: D
I expected so much more from Lou Williams this season. Did I have unrealistic expectations? Or was Lou that disappointing?