Lou Williams is quietly having his breakout season at 23 years old. Unfortunately it's going unnoticed because the Sixers are terrible, Lou Williams is old news, everyone's goo-goo for Jrue-Jrue, and Eddie Jordan has caused more controversy than the Snooki-punch.
No, Lou Williams isn't the greatest defender, and he's not a true point guard. He's a combo-guard who can score in bunches and occasionally take over a game.
To put his breakout season in perspective I ran a player comparison (my new favorite thing to do) on Basketball Reference comparing Lou to players with similar styles -- all of whom are widely considered good players. I chose one veteran (Barbosa), one rookie (Curry) and one young veteran (Brooks) to get a variety.
Tale of the tape:
Aaron Brooks, 6', 165 lbs, 25 years old
Leandro Barbosa, 6'3'', 176 lbs, 24 years old
(Barbosa is 27, but I used his 2006-2007 season to compare because it was by far his best year, and he was around the same age of the other guys.)
Stephen Curry, 6'3'', 185 lbs, 21 years old
Louis Williams, 6'2'', 175 lbs, 23 years old
Breakdown:
YR
AGE
PER
TS%
eFG%
ORB%
DRB%
TRB%
AST%
STL%
BLK%
TOV%
USG%
ORtg
DRtg
OWS
DWS
WS
Barbosa
09-10
24
18.4
.595
.562
1.0
8.1
4.8
18.7
1.8
0.4
10.7
23.4
115
108
6.1
2.1
8.2
Brooks
06-07
25
15.8
.544
.502
2.0
6.3
4.1
24.4
1.3
0.3
13.9
25.6
107
110
2.5
1.2
3.8
Curry
09-10
21
14.4
.559
.525
1.4
11.8
6.5
22.2
2.6
0.5
17.5
19.8
104
110
1.3
1.3
2.6
Williams
09-10
23
18.6
.570
.515
1.5
9.7
5.5
21.8
2.4
0.7
11.2
21.3
116
109
2.8
0.9
3.7
Note: Win Shares are very debatable because they depend on how many games you play and how good your team is.
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Lou's rank (out of 4) in all the categories:
| PER | TS% | eFG% | ORB% | DRB% | TRB% | AST% | STL% | BLK% | TOV% | USG% | ORtg | DRtg | OWS | DWS | WS | |
| LOU | 1 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 2 | -- | 1 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 3 |
Composite Rankings
- Barbosa - 31
- Williams - 32
- Curry - 40
- Brooks - 46