<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">Louis Williams turns 20 this week. He played in just 30 games last season for the 76ers, averaging 4.8 minutes per game, as a rookie out of South Gwinnett High School just outside Atlanta. He probably won't play much more than that this season. Last season, the 76ers refused to send him to the NBA's Development League, saying that Williams would be better served practicing with the team and learning from players like Allen Iverson and backup point guard Kevin Ollie. This season, coach Maurice Cheeks said, the team might rethink that. "We're going to take a look at [the D-League] and see if it benefits anyone who's on our team," Cheeks said during a conference call for NBA coaches last week. "I think guys need to play. It doesn't hurt when they're out there playing, out there getting experience." Williams got very little of that last season with the Sixers. An NBA team can assign up to two players who are either in their first or second year in the NBA to a D-League affiliate. The player can be sent down three times. The problem is that there are as many as three NBA teams sharing a D-League affiliate, and it's hard for a D-League coach to implement a system that Cheeks wants to play when another NBA coach wants that coach to use his system for his player. The 76ers' D-League franchise this season is in Fort Worth, Texas. They share the affiliate with the Dallas Mavericks and Charlotte Bobcats. But that didn't stop 19 of the 30 NBA teams. Last season, those teams sent a total of 29 players to the D-League. The most prominent NBA player sent down was Portland's Martell Webster, who was a top-10 pick in the 2005 draft. Like Williams, who was taken in the second round (45th overall) of that draft, Webster came right out of high school. "I think sometimes our guys think that they're too good to play in that league," Blazers coach Nate McMillan said. "The main thing for players is to get time out on the floor, and the more basketball you can play, the more it will benefit you as a player, regardless of where you're playing. That would help them more than sitting on the bench, watching, observing, or just participating in practice." Williams is still the 76ers' best candidate for the D-League. They drafted two four-year college players in first-rounder Rodney Carney and second-rounder Bobby Jones this past June. </div> Link
If they send Williams to the D-League..then that might mean we're keeping Brunson. Might as well let Louis develop in the NBDL for a couple months instead of just letting him warm the bench.
i thought he was tearing up the summer league?? shouldnt that mean he's at least capable of getting some minutes off the bench?
