Brice Williams Scouting Report
Despite his high production, there's a niche role for Williams in the NBA. The Nebraska standout could develop into a household NBA name; here are 3K+ words on his role, potential, and trajectory.
Introduction
Williams’ game mostly stands out due to his high feel for the game. That’s the result of him being the son of a former pro hooper. His late father was a second-round pick by the Spurs and had a rich career overseas, winning an MVP award in Italy. Williams was taught the game well due to his high understanding of the fundamentals.
That helped him have an impactful career at Charlotte. As a junior, he scored over 13 points while shooting close to 40% from three-point range on high volume. That led to him receiving All-Conference USA honors. Hereafter he made the move to Nebraska, committing to Coach Hoiberg.
As a high-volume scorer, Williams shows many flashes of scaling his role down at the NBA level. His ability to make plays out of handoffs and screen, and come out of screens puts him in a wanted position due to his combination of size, physicality, and strength. He won’t be asked to be a primary ball handler, but he has enough tools to grow into a niche role that will keep him in the NBA for years. That’s the emphasis of this scouting report.
Physical Profile
At 6-foot-7, Williams is a plus-sized guard with a well-filled frame and strong upper body. He’s listed at 217 pounds and plays with toughness and physicality. That helps him to fully bank on his good handles when creating advantages. Williams has decent foot speed but makes the most out of it with good footwork, especially as a defender. He’s not a vertical athlete but shows good lateral quickness while having a good first step. The lack of plus length shouldn’t influence his profile much. There is no official measurement available, but my best estimate is that Williams gets measured out with a plus-three inch-wingspan.
His game is built to impact with his strength rather than relying on quickness and speed. Therefore, it’s much more feasible to succeed in the NBA, as he’ll adapt quickly. As a fifth-year senior, Williams makes his physicality felt in an already physical Big Ten conference. That should comfort NBA scouts that the physical tools are feasible for success despite Williams’ below-average overall athleticism. The extra compensating factor here is his good decision-making and footwork, allowing him to be comfortable with his craftiness.
Offense
Hand-offs
Williams’ strength and size allow him to play both as a screener while handing the ball off or to be the recipient of the handoff and attack the angle that the handoff creates. That’s the differentiator compared to most of his guard peers in this class. However, there are still some areas he has to clean up. He’s often forcing the play out of the handoff, as shown in the first play below. Instead of falling into the opponent’s ICE, Williams should have involved his teammates on the strong side. Regardless, it speaks to his will to get downhill.
One of his best habits is to keep his head down when attacking the lane. He’s finding ways to get two feet inside the paint by fully attacking the defender’s chest. That puts him on the charity stripe in bunches, where he’s converting over 90% of his seven attempts per game. As shown in the chart above, he’s also a way above-average finisher inside the paint. That’s a testimony to his physicality. The other side of the coin is that keeping his head down so much makes him more predictable for NBA defenders, who’ll commit to sending in help earlier in the process. Therefore, he has to stay creative and use his arms more to initiate contact.
The third play is an example. He’s in a tough angle at the elbow but finds a way to get his defender out of balance early before finding the right angle at the rim after getting two feet inside the paint. One of his strengths is to pivot his right foot with just enough room to balance and use his burst while decelerating through contact. For the NBA, he has to work on keeping his dribble alive before the finish; he’s often caught with the gather before the layup, as shown in the fourth play below. Regardless, the physicality keeps his advantage creation alive, with his aggressiveness being the differentiator to keep finding good angles when he’s inside the paint.
Passing
His advantage creation is the base to utilize Williams’ passing skills. His role at Nebraska forces him to be the team’s main scorer. That will downscale at the NBA level, putting more importance on his ball-moving and playmaking. The threat of his size and screening keeps NBA defenders on their heels, as he has two options to get his first step in the interior and force his way to the paint. Williams has 34 assists to 33 turnovers. That’s a good number. The turnovers as the team’s leading ball handler while attacking the rim in bunches increases the likeliness of turnovers. Therefore, it’s a good number resulting from his good handles and decision-making. However, he’s not making the pass as often as he should. A part of it is the main scorer-role, but Williams also has tunnel vision when he’s looking to score.
In the first play, Williams takes a few seconds too long before calling the screen in. Regardless, he’s quick to use the screen and pick up his dribble as soon as the defense hedges while hitting the roller at the right passing angle. The second possession is another good read. Williams uses the dropoff to spread the interior out, seeing the driving lane on the strong side. He pivots his right foot far out, selling the defense the dribble penetration before using the wraparound bounce pass to feed the post scorer with enough room to operate within the low post.
Williams’ great feel for the game is shown in the third play below. He spaces the floor out after attacking the interior. The defense responds by crowding the paint, allowing Williams for one more dribble to force multiple defenders to rotate. That opened up the shooter above the break. In the fourth play, Williams’ body language and footwork sell the defense he’s driving toward the baseline after the handoff. He’s using his feet as the deceiving factor, freeing up the roll man with the timely bounce pass. For the NBA, his quick decision-making is the added value to his profile. Even when the game's speed increases, as shown in the fifth possession, Williams stays aggressive while his feet sell the defense the idea of the transition pull-up. Attacking the glass is his M.O., and this serves him well to be a plus playmaker at the NBA level.
Catch-and-shoot
Williams’ three-point shooting is feasible to translate to the NBA level. Despite him being a 40% shooter over the span of his career, the numbers shouldn’t matter much, as the process itself makes too much sense. Williams is excellent at setting up his feet before the catch. The area NBA scouts will focus on is pivoting in a way that keeps the triple threat alive. The first play is an example. He’s shooting off the catch, but his left foot keeps the strong side dribble penetration alive, whereafter he can finish the play or keep the ball moving. Williams’ jumper is fluid while he’s not fully bending his knees. That puts less pressure and keeps him more durable. He’s strong and understands he doesn’t need to power up much before the shot. That’s a positive, as Williams has the ball at the level of his chest instead of lowering it to his waist.
In the second possession, Williams’ footwork put him in a position to go from east to west and attack the weak side driving lane. However, he settled for the jumper while not fully balancing his body, which wasn’t positioned at 180 degrees. Despite his aggressiveness as a slasher and downhill driver, Williams should be more cautious not to settle for threes and attack the closeout more. He’s also smart in using his body to sell his off-ball screening. In the third play below, he’s roaming in the interior as the play freezes on the strong side elbow. He’s demanding the entry pass, positioning his body to make the extra pass. His fluid hips allow him to seamlessly spin and pull up for the jumper. The strength level helps him as he’s very fluid in keeping the ball high for the shot without making it too obvious he’s pulling up for the three at the elbow. His active cutting and relocation will only serve him better once he’s in the NBA, as he’s good at using his feet to sell downhill drives to find shooting angles. It’s one thing to be a threat to get downhill, but it gets much more value when he’s using his advantages to find better angles to shoot.
Pick-and-roll
Williams’ role can be scaled up by allowing him to have more ball touches to create out of the pick-and-roll. He doesn’t have the lateral quickness or burst to blow by defenders without screens. And that’s perfectly fine. His strength, craft, and handles are the separators among his peers, and therefore, teams will allow him to be a creator for himself and others once he grows in his role. His ability to get two feet inside the paint and either pass or finish the play makes him a respected scorer at the collegiate level. In the NBA, he’ll have to continue to show his creativity. In the first play below, he gets by two defenders before throwing in the drop step before the layup.
However, there are two areas of development that NBA decision-makers have to make a part of their developmental plan. Once he’s coming off the ball screen, the shot selection isn’t optimal. In the second play below, he overdribbles the ball, making it obvious to the defense he’s going for his bucket after the ball screen. That allowed them to put more personnel on him as he couldn’t keep his eyes off the basket. In the third play, he’s immediately attacking the rim with the wide-open driving lane, but instead of finishing the layup, he picks up the dribble after getting by his man in the mid-post to use the floater instead. Despite the high efficiency at the rim, Williams still leaves points on the board because he’s not always taking the right shots.
However, many flashes of his composure make it feasible that he’ll improve at the next level. In the fourth play below, he’s baiting the defense to try and get the and-one. Despite the defender dodging him, he’s still turning it to an advantage by scoring on a runner instead. Composed, creative scorers can demand more ball touches in the NBA.
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Defense
Catch-and-drive
In the NBA, Williams’ size and strength will force him to rotate to other positions. That makes it imminent he’ll have to close back out to the perimeter, thus putting more emphasis on his defensive footwork and his last step. Those must be above average to compensate for the lack of lateral quickness and burst. Despite his experience, that’s still an area for Williams to work on. He’s often rushing his closeouts, making it difficult to pivot his foot at the last step to keep his balance. We see an example in the first play below. He recognizes his rotation fast and well after the kick-out pass, but he gets burned after closing out too far. The key here is his positioning, which should be inside the arc at all times, forcing the ball handler to decide to either dribble, pass, or shoot. In this first play, he’s bailing the offense out by easily getting burned, with his closeout being too far.
In the second possession below, Williams has to clean up for a teammate going over the screen with the area above the break having no coverage. Again, his rotations are fast, but he bites on the pump fake. With the shooter’s feet already set, Williams should have used his length after placing his last step. In that way, his presence could have unbalanced the shooter rather than trying to block the shot. Especially since he left the corner shooter, opening up the extra pass to the side.
The timely and consistent rotations are testimonies to his great feel for the game. That’s the advantage of being the son of a former professional basketball player. In the third possession below, Williams’ rotation is much better, as he’s keeping his man at 180 degrees. That puts all control in his hands as he’s quick to use his physicality to unbalance the scorer at the rim. After the miss, he’s yet again to close out quickly. His decision-making is at a pro level. In the fourth play, he’s comfortable at allowing a bit more space on the perimeter, daring his opponent to make a play off the dribble. The drop in coverage resulted in him having full control over the interior, as his team was keen on allowing the opponents to shoot with more freedom; in the NBA, that translates to Williams’ shot at defending stretch forwards who find mismatches. The physicality might not fully be there to guard out of his position at the next level, but his footwork, decision-making, and taking on the contact show his toughness and fearless style of play.
Catch-and-shoot
When defending against spot-up shooters, we see a similar process of Williams’ closeouts and positioning. He’s not backing away from contact, and at 6-foot-7 with a strong upper body, that puts him in a position to defend against multiple positions in the Big Ten. In the first play below, he’s rotating to the play-finisher in the low post while throwing in his body to force his opponent to seal off him instead of having a clear path to dunk the play home. The kickout pass came at the moment where Williams pivoted well, allowing him to elevate his burst to fully contest the shot. His defensive effort and read resulted in not allowing an easy two while forcing a heavily contested three. In today’s era of analytics, that’s the type of value that makes it more feasible for Williams to help a team improve its defensive rating with him on the floor.
However, he has to work on lessening the ball-watching at times. In the second possession, Williams’ eyes are on the ball handler at the elbow, losing his man for a slight second, which led to him not closing out at 180 degrees. Despite using his arms well, the lack of true length didn’t help him to compensate for it. In the third play below, there’s an area of development Williams needs to work on. After rotating well to the corner, he’s not boxing out or showing aggressiveness to get the rebound. His rebounding number decreased by 30% compared to last season. For a 6-foot-7 guard, he has to use his size to his advantage and add extra rebounds for his team. The best way is to box out hard after every play, especially with Williams seeing his opponent moving back on defense. We see a similar example in the last play, after the shot is released, he’s watching the ball instead of moving toward the rim to box out and collect the basketball and ignite a possible transition play.