Marcus E. Williams

Marcus Williams (the Spurs/Arizona one) - 23 games, 41.5 mpg, 29.8 ppg, 8.3 rpg, 5.7 apg, 2.5 spg, 0.4 bpg, 3.7 TOpg, 45% FG, 44% 3PT, 84% FT

[Mike] James's scoring numbers, had they been good enough to qualify, would have ranked him seventh in the CBA. His replacement Williams has bested that by placing fourth, as well as tied for second in assists. Williams plays a lot of point guard on the incredibly young Cyclone team, and has been making the transition to that position for the last couple of years. The production outlined above, the best we've seen so far in this post, shows the kind of NBA calibre talent Williams has. He'd probably be there already had he not turned down the Indiana Pacers for no obvious reason.

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Lamizana was released towards the very end of the season for what the team believed to be an excessively nonchalant attitude, but not before Lamizana put up some of the best all-around numbers in the nation. He also once cracked the triple double mark, putting up 23 points, 13 rebounds and 10 blocks in a February 18th loss to Liaoning. As far as I could be arsed to look, the only other person who got one this season was Marcus E. Williams, who put up 4 consecutive triple doubles in the last four games of the season. Lamizana led the league in blocks by a huge distance; his 3.6 per game mark was almost double that of the guy in second place, Marcus Haislip.

San Antonio like to fill out their roster, and in recent years have shown intelligent use of the D-League as a means of stashing fringe young players that they can't keep due to roster constraints. Draft picks Marcus E. Williams and Malik Hairston have been the main beneficiaries of this manipulation; however, both have gone now. Williams is unsigned and seemingly no longer in the team's plans, while Hairston was waived earlier in the summer to go and join Italian powerhouse Montepaschi Siena (who subsequently released him due to injury, but who then brought him back again.)

Marcus E. Williams - Strangely, Williams turned down a 10 day contract from the Pacers at the end of last season. He is good enough to be in the NBA, which is why he has been on more than once occasion, and he has been putting in work to turn into a point guard over the last few years. But he isn't a full time one. Williams can handle the ball, drive, rebound, shoot a bit and play adequate defense, yet he had an opportunity and didn't take it. He'll be lucky to get another.

Marcus E. Williams Williams should be in the NBA, and would be, had he not turned down a 10 day contract from the Indiana Pacers. He has been developing his game since leaving Arizona, becoming more of a tall point forward in the Kasib Powell mold. And like Powell, Williams is a fringe NBA talent. The Spurs probably don't even have the room to continue their illicit tryst with him now, either.

- Marcus E. Williams

Arizona forward Marcus E. Williams has mostly spent his career bouncing between the Spurs and their self-owned D-League affiliate, the Austin Toros. The Spurs drafted Williams high in the second round in 2007, and waived him out of training camp; however, this did not mean they were done with him. They brought him back for about a week around about Christmas time just to get him a few extra dollars - admittedly, they needed some wing depth at the time too - and they were closely monitoring Williams's development in the D-League. It was at this time that Williams began his transition into a full time point guard, and he did so to pretty good effect, averaging 19.2 points, 6.9 rebounds and 3.1 assists in his first professional season.

Even though the Spurs were trying to effectively keep Williams stashed in their organisation, the L.A. Clippers interfered when they called up Williams for the last three weeks of the 2007-08 season. Williams played only 34 minutes for the Clippers; nevertheless, they extended a qualifying offer to him anyway, only to later retract it. Into the breach stepped the Bobcats, who signed Williams for 2008-09 preseason - however, they too let him go, and Williams was free to return to the Toros. In 45 games down there in the 2008-09 season, Williams's new point guard play took another step forward as he averaged 23.0 points, 7.0 rebounds, 5.3 assists, 1.7 steals and 0.6 blocks per game. The turnover numbers were high at 4.0 per game, but the 6'7 Williams was arguably the best player in the D-League that season.

Once again, Williams got called up to the NBA for the last two weeks of the season; this time, it was with the Spurs. They signed him for the last week of the year, in doing so paying him more than an entire season in the D-League had done, and also signed him through the 2009-10 season with a $25,000 guarantee. Williams lost out on a roster spot this past October to Malik Hairston (whom the Spurs have treated in a very similar way to Williams, as documented elsewhere), yet the $25,000 parachute payment reminded Williams of who loved him.

Rather than spending a third year in the D-League, Williams went to China and starred, averaging 26.1 points, 8.2 rebounds, 4.0 assists and 2.1 steals per game for the Zhejiang Wanma Cyclone, while also shooting 47% from three point range. Upon the completion of the CBA season, Williams returned to the Toros for the completion of their season, averaging 24.3/5.4/4.8 over their last 8 games. It was at this time that the Indiana Pacers decided to break their D-League cherry, and offered Williams a 10 day contract. Amazingly, Williams turned it down.

I wonder why.......

- Marcus E. Williams: 34.0mpg, 25.5ppg, 8.1rpg, 4.0apg, 2.1fpg, 2.0spg, 0.5bpg, 48% FG, 48% 3PT, 85% FT

The Cyclones are almost completely reliant on their two imports; their only other significant contributor is 19 year old 6'9 big man Ding Jinhui, who, in addition to being the two time UK Snooker Champion, also averages 12.7 points and 6.3 rebounds. No one else contributes much, save for some decent jumpshooting.

Yet there's nothing wrong with depending on those two, for they appear to be more than equal to it. Those numbers are huge. Williams, a man with NBA talent who should really be in it right now, is putting up huge numbers across the board; his points per game are 11th in the league, his assists 13th, his rebounds extremely high for a wing player, his three point shooting dialled in. Brown too is a nightly double double candidate, with 16 of them in 26 games, and with a 24 rebound game to his name. Zhejiang might only be in 8th place, but without these two, they'd be last. Very last.