Darrion Williams Scouting Report
A complete upperclassman wing will have NBA front offices intrigued. But what's Williams' NBA role? What will his future potential look like? Find out in this in-depth scouting report below.
After a fantastic freshman campaign at Nevada, Williams transferred up to the Big 12, joining Coach McCasland, who signed at Texas Tech. With over 7 points and rebounds per game, Williams stuffed the stat sheet with his efficiency from the floor while taking great care of the basketball. His two-plus stocks per game while having more than three assists per turnover are a testimony to his work ethic and understanding of the game.
Complementary wings who do multiple things on the floor are the way NBA rosters are shaped, making him a legitimate prospect for the 2025 NBA Draft. After showing a similar season in consistency, but this time in a power five conference, Williams is ready to take on a bigger role, where the outcome of the heavier usage will be a significant degree of his value to NBA teams.
This scouting report solely focuses on his role in the NBA.
Physical Profile
At 6’6”, Williams is a bulky wing with an excellent frame. His upper-body strength, combined with his broad shoulders form the base for the multi-positional characteristics of his game. At 225 pounds there’s still room to continue to fill his frame, if needed at the next level. Despite his heavy build, Williams has excellent hips and shows good mobility, adding to his defensive value.
He plays with toughness, especially on the glass. While putting up over seven rebounds per game in back-to-back years, the Las Vegas-born ranked in the top ten in defensive rebounding percentage in both years. Williams shows good verticality, despite a slower jump, which makes the timing of his jumps a crucial area to work on.
Offense
The foremost value in Williams’ offensive package for the NBA is his screening. With the NBA moving toward a trend of playing more four and five-out offenses, the value of multiple screeners on the floor is the way future rosters will be built. In Williams’ case, his broad shoulders and good foot placement lead to defenders having to fight through his screens, rather than just forcing them to make a decision.
In the first possession below, we see the ability of quick relocation work to Williams’ advantage. After the ball screen, he pops far enough away from the ball handler to leverage the defense’s will to stop dribble penetration by the guard. However, the outcome of the play is the main area of development to take to most out of his potential. Despite finding a good attempt at the rim, Williams’ lack of burst leads to him being unable to blow by defenders, thus having to settle for tougher finishes.
Despite being a 62.0% rim-finisher, Williams’ self-created looks, as this closeout attack via the pick-and-pop, usually lead to the same outcome. Therefore, in the four plays below, the focus has been on misses, rather than baskets made. In the second play, Williams pops to the corner on the weak side, not hesitating on the contested jumper off the catch. Despite the miss, that’s a positive in his draft profile. He shows willingness to take the shots he needs to take, where the lack of angles took away the extra pass.
In the third play, Williams shows his good footwork after popping to the elbow. While aggressively placing his pivot foot, he launches well for the dribble penetration, nearly converting the play for a potential and-one. With production becoming a vital box to check, Williams needs to convert self-created looks as these were the results of his screening lead to good looks at the rim.
At 45.8% three-point shooting, Williams shows consistency on the most crucial shot type of his NBA profile. With a sample size of over 3.5 attempts per game, it adds value to the percentage. However, this doesn’t automatically make him a reliable shooter. There are a few areas to work on to ensure that the jumper translates to a much quicker NBA game.
In the first play below, Williams has to be a tad quicker in setting his feet. While the form is consistent and has a decent release point in terms of height, setting his feet quicker forms the essential area of development. A positive is that Williams doesn’t bend his knees too much while showing a good habit of keeping the ball high on catches, which makes his strength advantage more functional.
The second possession shows an example of him being able to launch his shots off quickly. After getting the ball back via the side pass, Williams keeps the ball at his chest while slightly bending his knees to power off a quick corner three against good coverage. Considering a faster NBA game, that’s a value riser in Williams’ profile. Unnecessarily bringing the ball down to power back up is a common mistake shooters make. That not being the case for Williams is partially the reason for his excellent shooting numbers.
Being a willing shooter is a positive that gets more value when the decision-making improves. In the third play below, Williams launches the elbow three off the catch with the defender heavily contesting the shot. The better decision here was to attack the closeout and force the interior defender to rotate, leaving a wide-open play-finisher at the dunker’s spot. Concerning an NBA team’s offensive rating, simple execution as mentioned above is the way to ensure it stays at par, rather than allowing opponents to potentially bank on the miss with their transition offense.
Another value-riser in Williams’ profile is his passing. With 3.3 assists per game to only 1.6 turnovers in 66 games, the numbers indicate that he’s an effective playmaker. However, for the NBA, he’ll have to rely on his ability as a ball-mover and interior playmaker due to a lack of ball touches as a primary creator at the next level. And that’s where Williams’ true strengths are conducive to his passing.
His excellent physical tools allow him to bank on post-ups to find open cutters, as shown in the first play below. He has no issue in winning ground against bigger forwards while leveraging his upper body strength. As a ball-mover, Williams is a smart decision-maker. In the second play below, he leverages his great shooting numbers by selling the closeout defender the shot off the catch, opening room in the corner. Those are the details NBA decision-makers look for when evaluating connective passing.
It’s feasible that Williams will be asked to serve as a passer in transition at the next level. With a faster-paced NBA game, about 15 to 20% of plays come via transition. What immediately stood out was a lack of passing the ball ahead after collecting the rebound. This didn’t hurt him in the third play below, ending up in the good feed to the play-finisher. But generally, NBA decision-makers want to see grab-and-go cycles where the rebounder passes the ball ahead to better position himself and the team to bank on the transition opportunity.
Another positive in Williams’ profile is that he’s not afraid to make mistakes. His live-dribble turnovers are a result of execution, rather than not making the right reads. Williams has a good feel for creating angles to hit cutters, as shown in the fourth and fifth plays below.
However, at times he’s forcing the pass, rather than immediately adjusting if the pass isn’t the best decision. In the fourth play, we see him settle for the pass rather than fully attacking the rim with the shot clock winding down. The fifth play shows that Williams needs to work on his eye manipulation. The off-ball defender saw that bounce pass coming from miles away. That’s not an issue for the long term, as his playmaking reads are consistently at an NBA level.
For the long-term, Williams’ route to ensure a second NBA contract is to improve as a self-creating scorer. We touched on it in the earlier pick-and-pop section, but the lack of burst is going to put a mark on him as a predictable scorer. That makes it more likely he’ll have to rely on serving as a catch-and-shoot option or play-finisher inside the arc. There’s nothing wrong with that, outside of an NBA wing having the must to eventually serve as a self-creating scorer concerning a team’s offensive rating.
An area to hang his hat is on his midrange pull-up game. At 42.2% on 90 attempts, the majority of his attempts are self-created where Williams’ footwork is the decisive factor in creating scoring angles for himself. In the first play below, the pivot foot followed by the dribble-drive toward the weak side makes it much easier for Williams to find ways to attack the rim. Similar to the last possession below, he doesn’t hesitate to pull up when there’s an angle good enough. The willingness to shoot is a value-riser in his draft profile.
At the collegiate level, powering himself to the rim, as shown in the second and third play below, will remain his M.O. The ability to maintain his balance while battling for ground is what makes Williams such an efficient scorer in both seasons so far. The main reason is his footwork where he’s creating the best angle for himself to attack his defender by bumping in for the finish. His soft touch around the rim is another indicator of future improvement.
For NBA decision-makers, the ability to punish mismatches and able to play bully ball is a bonus when it comes to collapsing defenses. Banking on his physical tools makes it feasible for Williams to take the most out of his scoring potential in the long run.
Defense
Williams’ primary defensive value is to serve as a versatile pick-and-roll defender. He can guard both the roll man and ball handler while more often being schemed into drop coverage. For an NBA decision-maker, that’s where a wing’s potential two-way impact starts. In a switch-heavy NBA, the ability to have multiple pick-and-roll defenders potentially gives a team’s defensive rating enough comfort. To be more specific, if a team has an undersized guard or below-average defender on the perimeter, Williams’ presence gives his team more weapons to utilize in switches.
In the first play below, Williams forces the similar-sized opponent to beat him off the dribble, using his physical tools to his advantage. After getting one foot in the paint, the ability to not give up more ground while not biting on pump-fakes is the base of being an effective pick-and-roll defender. That is because NBA-caliber guards or scorers generally will get to the rim at will, thus making upper body strength and decision-making vital to respond to the scoring threat.
The second possession below shows Williams operating as a drop-coverage defender. Again, his decision-making stands out as he isn’t phased by the dribble penetration while remaining in the stance of forcing his opponent to beat him off the dribble. Similar to the first play, Williams’ hip mobility gives him an advantage in responding to spin moves and craft scorers throwing at him.
In the third play, Williams shows the ability to go over the screen and switch to the ball handler. Despite the make, that’s a good possession on his part as his defensive footwork kept the ball handler away from further penetrating the paint while having a clear path via the weak side with six seconds left on the clock. Keeping his opponent between 180 and 270 degrees ensured him to contest the shot well enough. The key attribute for Williams is forcing opponents to beat him off the dribble, as also shown in the fourth possession that ended up in a pull-up elbow three.
At 85 steals to 84 turnovers in two seasons, Williams’ impact on passing lanes while defending cutters is what will translate on any level. The key element for his success is composure and decision-making. He doesn’t gamble for steals, forasmuch as it often looks like. What immediately stood out is how natural Williams looks as an off-ball defender. His ability to not overcommit as a help defender makes it easier for him to make the best decisions on the defensive side of the ball.
In the first play below, the ball handler is forced to the side pass after a stagnated offense. Hereafter, Williams does well to close the passing lane while placing one foot outside the paint to stop dribble penetrating on the strong side, forcing another pass. This led to him having a well-calculated attempt to deflect the ball, eventually leading to a transition opportunity.
Another area where Williams stands out is his ability to get through screens, as shown in the baseline out-of-bounds play in the second possession. Despite committing the foul, the physicality he plays with is the foremost reason for him playing around 2.5 personal fouls for two consecutive seasons. In an NBA environment with better athletes, he’ll likely be allowed to play more physically compared to college basketball.
An area of development to be a better off-ball defender is to limit his unnecessary jumps. In the third play, Williams’ presence under the basket alone should have been enough to deter, or at least limit, an easy scoring look against the scorer who had two feet in the paint. His jumping to contest bailed the opponent out who responded with a simple dump-off to the dunker-spot play-finisher.
While having the mobility to move his hips fluidly in the last possession below, Williams needs to work on automatically assuming the play-finisher will be there to score on dump-offs in his actions as the help-side defender. Williams not showing any threat to the play-finisher underneath the basket has been a bad look, especially considering giving up the entire area under the basket and the positioning on the turnaround was too close to the baseline.
Excellent defensive instincts form the base for Williams’ response to closeout attackers. Whether it’s as a help defender or the primary assignment, his ability to consistently make good decisions is what will be one of his NBA-ready attributes. In the first play below, he recognizes the incoming spin move, leading to a well-calculated gamble by rotating to the ball handler, who didn’t see it coming. The play ending up in a steal and transition opportunity is the type of impact on a team’s defensive rating NBA decision-makers look for.
In the second play, we see Williams in a mismatch against the opposing big men, who kept the ball high before the finish. Although it’s not a traditional perimeter closeout attack, Williams’ rotation as the weak-side helper led to him quickly getting back to contest the play-finisher. The foul was the correct call, but at times it is the best decision to make the big man earn his points from the charity stripe rather than allowing two points, igniting teams to repeat the same tactics.
In the third possession, the defense collapsed, leading to timely help from Williams, who then had to cover a lot of ground to stop the wide-open spot-up shooter in the corner. Despite the timely closeout, the intensity and not-so-well positioning simply asked for the pump-fake, taking Williams out of the defensive play. In the heat of the moment, it’s understandable why he deferred to such measures, but on an NBA floor with more reps in upcoming years, it’s imminent his decision-making will improve on plays as these. As of now, that’s the area of development for his junior campaign.
The reason for the confidence improvements will come, can be seen in the fourth play below. A similar hard closeout, but this time much better positioned, leading to Williams utilizing his ability to slide his feet while using his physicality to his advantage. His use of his chest when initiating contact leads to scorers getting out of balance, whereas in this particular play, it led to a clean opportunity by Williams to strip the ball for the transition opportunity.
Against spot-up shooters, Williams often positions himself too far in the paint due to his proactive attitude in cleaning up his team’s defense with extra rotations from his side. That trickles down to him having to work harder to close out against shooters; the unfair part of the business we all have to deal with. It’s feasible that in the NBA, he will do the same, as his ability to serve as an off-ball defender is one of his strengths because of how good Williams’ rotations are on defense.
In the first play below, the defense was in box-out mode and wasn't prepared for the kick-out pass after the blocked shot. His length and good closeout still impacted the shot despite being too late. That speaks to his dedication to the game and toughness, whereas some of his peers would have gambled on the miss while trying to ensure the rebound instead.
The second possession shows how well Williams closes out on shooters when he’s dialed in. His great hip mobility while not biting on collapsing to the ball handler. He kept his composure before finding his assignment again between the corner and the elbow.
An important detail here is that he places his pivot foot a bit further to ensure that he can stay between 180 and 270 degrees of his assignment before putting his hand in the shooter’s face. We see a similar execution in the third play below, where the composure and good track of the play without overcommitting help lead to the easy shot contest. That makes it feasible that Williams will have little issues translating to closing out on shooters on a better-spaced NBA floor compared to college.
NBA Draft Projection
For an NBA decision-maker, here are the above-mentioned areas summarized:
Strengths
Good screener who serves as a separation-creator by forcing the pick-and-roll defender to fight through his upper body strength. This opens opportunities to play as a pick-and-pop threat.
Great connective passer with a good feel for creating passing angles. This opens up long-term potential as a playmaker rather than serve as a ball-moving wing.
A versatile pick-and-roll defender who can guard both ball handler and roll man. He doesn’t have the burst of quickness to actively hedge or blitz ball handlers but shows consistency in screen navigation and drop coverage.
Areas of development
Lack of burst leads to tougher finishes in self-created plays via closeout attacks or pick-and-pop actions. This makes it easier for opposing teams to eliminate the threat of Williams’ screening resulting in scoring opportunities.
Needs more reps to limit unnecessary jumps while serving as the help-side defender trying to stop opponents with two feet in the paint. Despite having the mobility and physical tools to get stops, Williams often bails out opponents with his jumps leading to easy dump-off passes.
Based on the above-mentioned strengths and areas of development alongside the details in this scouting report, I project Darrion Williams to be a late first-round pick in the 2025 NBA Draft.
The NBA readiness and untapped potential left in his profile as the two leading factors to teams wanting to ensure keeping him on a rookie-scaled contract for four years.
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