Philadelphia 76ers: Bring Lou Williams home to Philly

With the NBA trade deadline quickly approaching, should the Philadelphia 76ers bring back one of their native sons, Lou Williams?

The year was 2006, and the Allen Iverson show had run its course in Philly. After appearing in only 15 games for the struggling Sixers, the future Hall of Fame point guard was to shipped out to Denver for a pair of future first round picks and the contracts of Andre Miller and Joe Smith.

While this was a tough pill to swallow for Sixers fans across the nation, the team had already found an in-house replacement for The Answer with another diminutive combo guard in the 2005 NBA draft, where they selected guard Louis Williams out of South Gwinnett High School 45th overall.

Williams was named Georgia’s “Mr. Basketball” during both his junior and senior years of high school and looked like a potential fit in Maurice Cheeks offense, but unfortunately for the rookie, he didn’t have a chance to show it in his first season in Philly. Buried behind guards like Iverson, Kevin Ollie, John Salmons and Willie Green, the 19-year-old rookie only averaged 1.9 points, while appearing in only 30 games for the disappointing 38-44 Sixers.

But oh how things have changed.

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At this point, it’s no secret what Williams, the former McDonald’s All American and Naismith Player of the Year award winner has been putting up amazing numbers with the Los Angeles Clippers, his fifth team in seven games, but it’s clear that he isn’t long for La La Land. While many teams are vying for the 12-year veteran’s services, to me, it seems only right for Sweet Lou to finish out his productive career where it all began, here in the City of Brotherly Love.

Although born in Tennessee, Williams looks like he could have grown up on 60th & Callowhill in West Philly. It was in here in Philly that Lou Will or Sweet Lou, as he’s known throughout the world, grew into a professional. By his seventh, and final season as a Sixer (2011-2012), Williams averaged 15 points per game. But Williams brings so much more to the table than just a sweet outside shot, he also embodies an almost infectious swag that’s practically infectious.

True story. While out in Philadelphia on Christmas Eve, some young man, down on his luck perhaps, saw Lou Will in the streets and thought that it would be a good idea to rob the young millionaire. Williams handled the situation with the same plumb he displayed while carving up the defending champion Golden State Warriors for 50 points earlier that month. By the end of the attempted robbery, Lou Will and his would-be assailant sat down for a bite to eat, paid for by Williams himself!

Man, Lou Will’s as cool as the other side of the pillow.

In addition to basketball, Williams recently dropped his debut project T.A.T.N.W. (The Album That Never Was), a 13-track album in September of 2017 on Tidal. He’s respected both nationally and internationally but it’is handled by Williams in his patented live-in-the-moment demeanor. He’s never too high and never too low. In 2009, Jay Z released a song on his classic album Blueprint 3 titled “Reminder“, in which he rapped that “men lie, women lie, numbers don’t”. So you hear people throwing names around about which veteran to add to this young, but crazily talented Sixers team and all we have to do is look at the numbers.

According to ESPN’s Real Plus-Minus, Williams is the best offensive shooting guard in the entire NBA, averaging an astonishing 23.5 points per game in 32.4 minutes a night while hitting a respectable 39 percent of his three-point shots, all career highs for the 12-year veteran.

And while he’s hardly a force on the defensive end, the 6-foot-1 shooting guard still retains a positive overall real plus-minus, something that only 23 shooting guards in the entire league can boast, none of which are members of the 76ers.

Of the Sixers shooting guard, the only player who even comes close to Williams production from the wing in 2017-2018 is 11th year Duke sharpshooter J.J. Redick, a player the 76ers signed to a one-year. $23 million deal over the summer. Much like Williams, Redick isn’t a particularly impressive defender, but on a team with prolific inside scorers like Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons, spacing is the key to the offense purring like a kitten, and boy can Redick shoot the three.

When you consider that Simmons’ is often afraid to even attempt a jump shot, let alone a three-point shot, Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot has both a negative offensive and defensive plus-minus score, and Jerryd Bayless is currently the 23rd worst player in the entire league, the 76ers could seriously use another offensive weapon of William’s caliber to help open up the inside lanes.

On a team with such a unique blend of talent, that’s still establishing its identity, the solid game and the tough swag of Lou Will would almost guarantee that the process progresses collectively on their way to the team’s first playoff appearance of the Brown era. There are so many different ways the 76ers can apply pressure to their opponents on a nightly basis, but the idea of adding a second proven scorer to lead Brett Brown‘s second unit may just be too good to pass up. With Lou Will on the court, the team could close out games in a more confident, relaxed manner, with two professional shooters to pair with the versatility of Robert Covington, Embiid, and Simmons, and maybe pull out a few more of those close games.

While adding Williams seems like a no-brainer, there’s always the question of just what the Clippers will want for their diminutive shooter.

With the Clippers effectively eliminated from the 2018 Playoffs following their recent trade of All-Star forward Blake Griffin, it makes very little sense for the team to retain Williams for the remainder of his one year deal, especially if he won’t resign, but it seems equally unlikely that the team will let the should be All-Star walk for free. While the team will surely ask for a first-round pick, it seems unlikely that any team currently in the playoff hunt would be willing to give up more than a heavily protected first round pick for the honor of procuring the former second-round pick. Though the 76ers certainly aren’t strapped for draft selections, with 17 selections over the next four drafts, the team should flip more than a pair of second-round picks for the rights to Williams and hope that he’s willing to sign a new deal after the season.

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If the Sixers are serious about developing Markelle Fultz develop into a legitimate NBA starting guard, the team should seriously consider bringing in a true professional like Williams to teach him the position, and what it really means to be Philly tough, both on and off the court. Though it’s been a while, this is where Lou Williams started out and it’s only fitting that he finishes out his career in a meaningful way as a Philadelphia 76ers.