The NBA is a league defined by its superstars and very rarely do team’s benches get credit for the hard work they put in, even for championship-esce teams.
The Sixth Man of the Year award is always an overlooked award compared to the likes of the Most Improved Player, Rookie of the Year and Most Valuable Player awards simply because the player that ends up winning Sixth Man of the Year was not in their team’s starting-five and they were not an All-Star.
He has never been an All-Star in his now 17-year NBA career, but Lou Williams has won the league’s Sixth Man of the Year award three different times and he may end up retiring as the greatest bench player in NBA history.
Williams, 35, is nearing the end-of-the-line is what has been a very interesting career, one that has seen him in six different team’s jerseys – the Philadelphia 76ers, Atlanta Hawks, Los Angeles Lakers, Toronto Raptors, Houston Rockets and Los Angeles Clippers.
During his time with the Clippers from the start of the 2017-18 season to the middle of the 2020-21 season when he was traded, Lou Williams was an electric scorer off-the-bench, as he averaged 19.1 points, 5.1 assists and shot 42.6% from the floor in 261 regular season games, only 31 of which he started in.
Winning back-to-back Sixth Man of the Year awards with the Clippers in 2018 and 2019, Williams really proved his worth as someone who could dominate for them in their second-unit.
Now being a free agent and with the Clippers still having an open roster spot ahead of training camp, could these two sides still have a little bit of mutual interest in one another?
Recently signing veteran John Wall in the offseason and still having Reggie Jackson in their backcourt, Los Angeles may not view Lou Williams as someone that can contribute on an everyday basis anymore, but rolling the dice on him, especially as the 15th man on their roster, is not a bad idea whatsoever.
The Clippers currently have 14 players with guaranteed contracts for the 2022-23 season and outside of Terance Mann, Brandon Boston Jr. and Amir Coffey, this team has a lot of mileage on their legs.
Jason Preston did not play at all last season after being drafted in the second-round of the 2021 NBA Draft, so he likely will not hold that big of a role this upcoming season and both John Wall and Reggie Jackson are the only two facilitators in the backcourt.
Sure, the Clippers will mainly run their offense through their stars in Kawhi Leonard and Paul George, but having that third experienced guard on their bench in Lou Williams could end up solving a lot of problems for this team, especially since it is hard to imagine that Wall and others will be able to play a full 82-game schedule given their injury history.
Playing in 56 games for the Hawks a season ago, Williams averaged just 6.3 points per game, but he shot 39.1% from the floor, 36.3% from three-point range and he only averaged about 14.3 minutes per game, the least amount of minutes he has seen over the course of a season since the the 2006-07 season, which was his second season in the league. Not to mention, Williams recorded an assist-to-turnover ratio of 2.44 to 1, a fairly respectable ratio given his miniscule playing time.
At the end of the day, the Clippers have an open roster spot, they have a recent history with Lou Williams being a part of their roster and he is a valuable veteran to have on the bench, so there truly is no downside to Los Angeles going out and signing him ahead of the start of the 2022-23 season.
It will be interesting to see if the Clippers or another team in the league make a move for Williams in the coming weeks.