NCAA Basketball: Important to be patient with five-star prospect Mikey Williams

Williams has shown signs of being a plus decision-maker

After watching quite a bit of film on Williams, I have to admit that he doesn’t always make great decisions when the ball is in his hands. Right now, he has a tendency to make the plays that he is comfortable making as opposed to the plays that will benefit his team the most. The 6’3” San Diego, California native is often tasked with operating in pick-and-roll situations, and he generally elects to make premature decisions before observing how his opponents are defending him.

Williams is a pretty good three-point shooter who does a good job of staying vertical as he is in the process of rising up for each triple, but that doesn’t mean that he should be content with taking that shot before looking to see if it is the best option available.

Why? Well, because film watching is an enormous part of the pregame preparation process, and if players on a certain team catch on to the fact that you are fine with launching one questionable three after another, they will make it a priority to fight over every single screen, meet you with a high hand, and force you to shoot over the top of them repeatedly.

However, Williams is known for netting countless three-pointers over defenders who give him little to no room to breathe, which explains why he has enjoyed several 20+ point performances in high school. However, things can get ugly for Williams from an efficiency standpoint when those tough threes aren’t falling like he wants them to.

I am a firm believer in the idea that a player shouldn’t put more pressure on himself than he needs to, so even though Williams has proven that he can hit multiple contested treys on his way to a 30- or 40-point scoring outing, he is better off simplifying the game of basketball and not hoping that a majority of his questionable long-range bombs go through the net. Moving forward, he should focus more on taking his time as he tightly comes off of his teammates’ screens (making it tougher for his defenders to get through them) and looking to see how defenses are playing him.

For instance, if one of his defenders manages to stay on his hip after swiftly stepping around the screener, Williams could attempt to pick up his speed, bolt toward the basket, and try to force an off-ball defender to slide over and provide massive help (which would give Williams an opportunity to find an open teammate). The good news is, Williams has shown that he is capable of making the correct ball-screen reads, but his lack of consistency in this area is what’s hindering him from being a high-level decision-maker.

In one of the games that I observed, Williams wisely waited for a double team to arrive after a ball screen and managed to hit his teammate/the screener in stride (which resulted in a foul at the rim). Yes, there was nothing flashy about that play, but it got the job done and enabled his athletic teammate to get a running start toward the rim, which put the defender underneath the basket at a major disadvantage.

Want an example of a smart ball screen three-point attempt by Williams? Well, in a different game Williams noticed that his original defender got hung up on a high ball screen, which forced the opposing team’s big man to take over his responsibilities. Instead of pressing all the way up and taking away the three, the big man decided to retreat and play Williams for the drive. As soon as Williams saw this, he instinctively elevated and fired an uncontested triple that hit nothing but the net.

Although making clever ball screen reads on a regular basis isn’t Williams’ strength right now, it is encouraging to see that the 17-year-old guard knows how to put himself and his teammates in the best position to be successful offensively. Quite frankly, that is why it is so easy for me to be patient with Williams and his decision-making. He clearly understands how to make the right ball screen reads and has shown that he is willing to do it occasionally, so there is no reason for me or anyone else to try and unfairly speed up his development process.