#14, Latavious Williams – Considering – Kansas State (HIGH), Baylor, Miss. St., Xavier
Positives
– The best part of Latavious Williams’ game is clearly his athleticsm for his position and for his overall size on the offensive end. Williams is about 6’7″ 200 lbs. but he plays above the rim as much as Dwight Howard. Williams is very aggressive around the basket when he has the ball and will challenge anyone when he is going up for a highlight reel play, usually a dunk. Williams impressed many scouts at the Houston Kingwood Classic in April, where he had twice as many dunks as anyone at the tournament. Williams’ aggressivness near the hoop needs to be coupled with an improved frame to become the dominate player that his potential has in store for him. Williams is only 200 lbs. as I mentioned so another 15-20 lbs. definitely would not hurt. He reminds many people of Tyrus Thomas because most of his baskets come off dunks and layups.
– The other positive in Williams’ game is his DEFENSIVE athleticsm. What I mean by that is he uses the same athletic ability on defense as he does on offense. The only difference is instead of dunking over people and jumping through the roof he is preventing people from dunking and jumping through the roof by making spectacular defensive plays by blocking the ball and reeling in rebound after rebound after rebound. Williams definitely has the body and skill set to become a 20-10 guy with a couple years of seasoning in college (Most likely at K-State).
Negative
– The glaring weakness in Latavious Williams’ game is his offensive skill set. Williams is the best in the nation at getting the ball and jamming it in the bucket but when he starts playing against better competition he will need to develop another way of scoring. Currently Williams does not have a reliable jump shot or even a go-to post move that a Daniel Orton or a DeMarcus Cousins has. Williams has the potential to be great, but he needs to find his style and find his moves and use them.
Comparison
I already touched on it earlier, the player that Latavious Williams plays most like is Chicago Bulls power forward Tyrus Thomas. Besides both having crazy first names both players are bouncy wing players who can drop down to power forward when need be. Both players have similar size (6’7″ 200 lbs.) and both players are above average shot blockers. The thing that both players need to improve on, though, is their offensive skill set. Thomas has made it to the league without any sign of a go-to move in the post, but to succeed in the league you need one. Garnett has the turnaround fade away, Duncan has the jumper off the glass, and even Stoudemire has the mid range jumper to keep teams off balance. Until then neither player will be truly great.
UKmadness 