How good was Jason Williams in his prime?

[EveryManALion]

I started watching basketball in 2007 so I never got to see him on the Kings or 2006 heat. How good was he in his prime? What is he known as, just a glorified passer? Some of those elbow passes were nice but how productive was it to have him in game?

[Dr. Cheesesteak]

he was exciting as hell. The passing and dribbling were just... Not a great on-ball defender, but could play passing lanes decently (lots of picked passes leading to fast breaks). He ran Adelman's O pretty well, getting the ball where it was supposed to go, but he also took a lot of risks and turned the ball over at times. But some of those risks led to amazing plays, as well.

His greatest flaw, if memory serves me right, was he did a lot of pull up 3s on fast breaks or before the offense got set. Though I was younger back then, I didn't fully analyze his game.

[KNOW1EDGE]

He was famous for his handles and his passes(and his skin color)

But he also had a great mid-range jumper, and could shoot the 3, run a team and set his teammates up.

He was wreck less though, lots of turnovers, lots of bad shots. Prob drove his coaches crazy. A good teammate as far as I could see though.

I absolutely LOVED him when he played for the Kings, he kinda fell off the map with the Griz, but was still a good player, just didn't get the coverage anymore.

[andremiller07]

Not as good as Bibby, above average PG but no where near elite.

[bdreason]

Hard to rank his prime. When he was younger, he made spectacular passes and plays, but that also resulted in TO's and inefficiency. As he got older, he changed his game to improve efficiency, which reduced the number of highlights, but also made him a more stable option at PG. He was never a good shooter, but that also improved as he aged. His best season was probably in Memphis actually, when he started to find a balance between being aggressive and efficient.

[ShaqAttack3234]

As others have noted, he made some ridiculous plays. Particularly his ball-handling and he'd make some passes no other players would even try. He was also really quick with the ball back then.

Unfortunately, his negatives often outweighed the spectacular plays. For every highlight, there would be a turnover and some stupid pull up 27 footer he'd take with 20 seconds on the clock. His shot selection perfectly explains why he shot 37% his first 2 years and just 29% on 3s his second year. He also didn't play any defense back then other than gamble for steals.

The definition of an all or nothing player. It was when the Kings traded Williams for Bibby that they went from pretenders to contenders. But he was fun as hell to watch and when he was there, the Kings weren't known as much for their half court offense and passing as they were for being one of the most wild run and gun teams the last 15 years.

[HelterSkelter]

This makes me feel old.

[Dragonyeuw]

He was spectacular but reckless and turnover prone. His game was modeled in the 'and-1' style that you 'generally see from many black streetballers, hence the nickname 'White Chocolate'.

[chocolatethunder]

Not as good as Bibby, above average PG but no where near elite.

This.

For every amazing highlight he would have at least one amazing highlight gone terribly wrong and several bad shots or boneheaded plays. He had great range but terrible shot selection. He was exciting for sure but that was about it. Not a good defender but gambled in the passing lanes much like AI (except not as good at that). He had retarded handles for sure. In reality he was just a little above average with a lot of flash. If he could have controlled himself he had the tools to be an all star but the problem is he had the brains of the dumbest street baller.

[JimmyMcAdocious]

I would take every PG in this thread over Jason Williams. Bibby, Dre Miller, Mighty Mouse, Iverson...

What has Jason Williams been remembered for? Playing football with Randy Moss, elbow pass, weed, being a racist, and getting carried to a championship in the late stages of his career He was flashy, congrats. So was Rafer Alston.

[ihatetimthomas]

Had incredible natural talent. His court vision was amazing and his ball handling and passing were very fun to watch. However, he was always sort of out of control when playing. He could never harness the flashiness until he went past his physical prime. I'd say in Sac town he was at his most exciting prime. But in Memphis Hubie really tried to mold him into a real pg.

[Kblaze8855]

When Hubie got him to calm down a bit in Memphis I thought he was better than Bibby had been there.

[hateraid]

He had more cultural impact than anything else. What Lin is for asians, Jason Williams was for streetballers.

One thing that people didn't mention was he had some crazy range. And when he got hot he could light it up like the NCAA version of Jimmer.

I agree with kblaze, when he went to Memphis he was a decent PG. Too bad his reputation exceeded him that turning form an exciting PG to a quality PG gave people the memory of him being not good. He was one of a kind though.

[ihatetimthomas]

He had more cultural impact than anything else. What Lin is for asians, Jason Williams was for streetballers.

I see where you are going with this, but to compare street ballers to the asian race is a bad comparison. Impacting street ballers and impacting the entire asian demographic are not comparable. 2 completely different groups.

[CeltsGarlic]

I see where you are going with this, but to compare street ballers to the asian race is a bad comparison. Impacting street ballers and impacting the entire asian demographic are not comparable. 2 completely different groups.

ohhhmyygod...who cares? that was a great example.