Posted by Mike in Point guard Marcus Williams of the New Jersey Nets was traded to the Golden State Warriors for a future first round pick. The trade will officially be announced later today. The first rounder lottery protected in 2011, in 2012 it is protected for picks 1-11, 1-10 in 2013. To make things more complicated, if the pick is protected through 2013, the Nets will get 2013 and 2015 first rounders.
Williams was New Jersey’s first round pick in 2006 and has had a bumpy road to start his NBA career. He has only averaged 16 minutes per game and has chipped in with 6.4 points and 3 assists a game. New Jersey made the playoffs in his rookie year, but failed to make it in his sophomore year. Williams hasn’t really been given a chance to show what he can do yet because of the lack of minutes and more talent in front of him. Jason Kidd ran the show in Williams’ first one and a half seasons, then for half of 2008 Devin Harris came in and ran the show. The Nets see Harris as their point guard of the future and esentially told Williams to take a hike.
He could be successful with Golden State and end up their starting point guard one day, although Monta Ellis will be there for now as he understands the system. Williams thrives in the running game and that’s exactly what the Warriors do, run-n-gun.
I expected Williams to be traded, after Dooling was acquired. I like this deal for both sides. New Jersey sheds a small salary and gets another draft pick to help them build for the future, while Golden State gets a young pass-first guard that is fit to play in an up-tempo system like theirs. I could see a lot of Williams-Ellis lineups. Who knows, maybe that becomes their starting backcourt.
Good call on this one, Chaps. I really thought Williams could stick around in New Jersey but I guess he’ll receive much more playing time in Golden State with no Baron Davis and the fact that Monta Ellis is best suited playing SG.
Williams is a good fit in the Warriors system. I remember when the Raptors wanted to be a running team, BC was trying to move into the draft to grab Williams. So I like this move a lot for Golden State.
I like this move too. I remember Marcus Williams was the binkie of a lot of Celtics fans in the 2006 draft and everybody but me and a few others preferred Rondo. I just saw Williams as just another system guy that can be a good player but only on certain teams. Boy am I glad we passed up on him though, he’s no Rondo.
I admit, I was one of those guys that thought Marcus Williams was the best point guard of the 2006 draft (at the time). Then again, I was never necessarily disappointed when we did indeed take Rondo instead. I thought “Hmm, interesting, but I trust Danny.”
With that said, I still think Marcus Williams can be a serviceable point guard in the NBA, especially in “Nellie Ball.”