The Los Angeles Lakers have a brand new roster, with almost no major rotation players left from the team that got to the second round last season. This team is built entirely around the strengths of Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves, and one of the players best suited to help those two is Ziaire Williams.
Williams, 24, is a 6’9″ wing defender with good length and athleticism. He is not a great offensive contributor, but has improved each year of his career up to this point from the field and from three. Williams was also born in Lancaster and went to high school at Sierra Canyon, making him an L.A. player through and through. It was the team fit — as well as the city — that made joining the Lakers a no-brainer this summer, via Benjamin Royer of the Southern California News Group:
“I just thought it was a great opportunity,” Williams said of why he chose to sign with the Lakers after averaging a career-high 10.2 points per game for the Brooklyn Nets last season. “Being that big wing, versatile player that they needed, I just thought it was a great opportunity for me to be a Laker. Even if the same team was in New Orleans or Milwaukee, wherever – just the opportunity that was here and the team that they had, I just thought it was the best fit. And then just being back home in L.A. is the cherry on top. Being able to play in front of my family and my friends, and I’m super excited.”
Williams continued: “It’s all full circle.”
It’s unclear at this point if Williams is going to be a starter or a reserve — he has started in 73 of his last 170 games — but he is going to be an impact piece for the Lakers regardless. He managed a positive defensive box plus-minus despite being on a tanking Brooklyn Nets team that had the league’s 25th-ranked defense.
That is exactly the kind of player the Lakers need around Doncic and Reaves, and it seems that both sides were excited to get a deal done when the opportunity presented itself this summer.
Ziaire Williams explains how JJ Redick wants to use him
While, again, it has not been made clear if Williams will start or come off the bench, he does have an idea of what he’ll be asked to do. He explained that head coach JJ Redick wants him to be a main point-of-attack defender that can shoot, cut and help in transition offensively.
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