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Welcome to our Lakers Season Preview Series! For the next several weeks, we’ll be writing columns every weekday breaking down the biggest questions we have about every player the Lakers added this offseason. Today, we look at Ziaire Williams.
A perfect storm of departing contracts afforded the Los Angeles Lakers an opportunity to officially move forward with a revamped team built around superstar Luka Dončić this summer.
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Head coach JJ Redick and company had a specific identity in mind when crafting the new-look Lakers: defense, youth and athleticism. A young wing they took a flyer on who projects as a prototype that the franchise (and its fanbase) has desired for a while, Ziaire Williams, fits that mold perfectly.
The 25-year-old wing has spent the better part of his five-year career on middling teams and without a creator as talented as Dončić or Austin Reaves, who possess the ability to enhance the skills of the people around them. Despite the malaise one might play with on a team like the Brooklyn Nets, Williams produced some great tape and the stats back it up.
Defensively, the lanky 6-foot-9 Williams is the exact type of wing stopper you’d want to see next to Los Angeles’ star backcourt. He ranked in the 91st percentile in defensive matchup difficulty, 87th in perimeter isolation defense, 97th in passing lane defense and 96th in deflections per 75 possessions last season, all according to BBall Index.
He’s a consummate disruptor both on and off the ball and causes the exact type of chaos a defense needs to win; it’s just a matter of him doing it while on a team with serious aspirations.
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Williams’ shortcomings offensively may just be a result of the lack of creation he’s shared the floor with. Not to mention, while in Brooklyn, he was often tasked with creating offense on his own, which detracted from his ideal role off the ball. The forward has a chance to really flash his skills as an off-ball spacer playing off of the natural gravity Dončić and Reaves create.
Williams shot 34.3% from beyond the arc last season, which ranked just in the middle of the league, and 33.9% on…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/ziaire-williams-set-breakout-season-172936141.html
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Publish date : 2026-09-14 17:29:00
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