Michael Carter-Williams
Position: PG
Hgt: 6'6"
Wgt: 184
Age: 21
Projected Draft Number: #13 NBADraft.net/#13 Draftexpress.com
College: Syracuse
College Stats 2012-13: 35.2min 11.9pts (.393FG% .292TPt% .694FT%) 4.9reb 7.3ast 2.8stl 0.5blk 3.4TO
Baja's Review: MCW, as he is called by his teammates, is an interesting player that appears to have a lot of upside. He's also a player that comes with a lot of question marks as well. Can he develop enough offense to keep other teams honest, and just how good a defender is he? Syracuse playes in a zone 100% of the time. Thats not to say that a player doesn't get the opportunity from time to time to be isolated one on one. In those instances, Williams more than held his own. Its a small sample, but my impression is that he won't be a liability at worse, and could be a good defender at best. For those that put stock in the combine numbers as indicators, Williams turned in a 10:68 in the agility test, and a 3:22 in the sprint. For reference, Jimmer turned in a 10:42 in the agility test and a 3:21 in the sprint. You tell me! Anyway, for me, that part isn't an issue. However, his shooting is! He only shot 39.3% overall, which is down right terrible, and 29.2% from the three. He shot around 22% on pullups within the circle. All this would be easier to swallow if he had Tyreke Evans ability at getting to the basket and finishing, but he doesn't. Don't get me wrong, he's a very good ballhandler, and is capable of getting to the basket. But he's not a good finisher and misses point blank shots, or wild looking floaters far too often. On the good side, he's a gifted passer with great court vision. I'm sure his 6'5" height helps him see the floor over smaller players. He's capable of making the difficult pass in close quarters, and the long bounce pass, that will at times amaze you. He does turn the ball over more than he should, by trying to be too cute at times. He didn't help himself at the end of the season. In his last four games, games that were crucial, he had 3 assists against Cal, 1 assist against Indiana, 6 assists against Marquette, and in his final game against Michigan, he had 2 pts on 1 of 6 shooting, and 2 assists. Now 4 games does not a season make, but these were crunch time games, and scouts take notice how players play with everything on the line. I think Williams has the potential to be very good, and I think Williams has the potential to disappoint expectations. I think he's a bit of a gamble, but if it pays off, you could have yourself one hell of a player. Are you willing to gamble? Oh! One futher issue. Although Williams is a sophmore, he'll be 22 years old before playing his first NBA game.
Mass's Review: Unprecedented size for a point guard, MCW may be the best facilitator in the draft. His height and skill as a passer contribute to his excellent court vision. With that being said, he needs to work on ball security as turnovers are an issue. He has the ability, handle, and athleticism to break down his opponent 1 on 1, but he has major issues scoring off of the opportunities he creates for himself. The fact that he hasn't been able to consistently hit his jumper doesn't help, but I don't think he is a lost cause here. His form looks ok for the most part. Has the tools to be a very effective and annoying defender, but wasn't given the opportunity to play man-to-man defense in college. Would be a high risk / high reward pick, particularly at #7, but he would bring a skill set unlike anything on the current Kings roster.
Gilles's Review: Redshirt Sophomore. Is 6'6" with 6'7" wingspan. Elite athlete. Very good passing and court vision. High handle and have trouble with pressure. Shooting and scoring from everywhere on the floor seem to be an issue despite good shooting form. Has very small hands that might be a source of his troubles with handle and shooting. Spent all his career playing zone, so is used to gambling for steals, but has excellent mobility and shouldn't have problem staying in front of the people with a little work. Is looking like playmaking SG, but will have to really improve his shooting to be effective.
Capt's Review: Carter-Williams is a pure point who has great size but a ton of question marks on his game. One question mark is his defense, which is nearly impossible to gauge given that Syracuse played almost exclusively zone. He's got the size to be a solid defender on the perimeter (in fact with his height he might sometimes match up with the SG better than with the PG) but there's not much to go on. I will say that his transition defense was good and he made a spectacular defensive play here and there, so that's encouraging. Another question mark (black mark?) is his shot, which is downright terrible and will encourage defenses to double off of him. He did rack up a ridiculous number of assists this season, though the totals are somewhat inflated by the Syracuse team tendency to jack up perimeter shots off of swing passes - it's not like he was niftily finding cutters on each of his 7.3 assists per game. Overall I'm a bit wary of MCW - I'm not sure how great of a passer he is, I'm not sure how good of a defender he is, and I know he's a bad shooter. Because of that I see him as a high-risk, medium-reward player, which drops him down my draft board a decent bit.
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