Bigger Role Could Be Coming For Grizzlies Forward Ziaire Williams

The Memphis Grizzlies seems to be the NBA team widely regarded to say “We got next” after the Golden State Warriors’ era of dominance ends.

They’re led by All-Star point guard Ja Morant, have a highly competent field of role players and high caliber starters in Desmond Bane and Jaren Jackson Jr, and they’ve got surprisingly solid depth for a young team that found themselves at the top of the draft lottery just a few years ago.

However, going into the 2022-2023 season, they’re going to find production from lesser used sources, given that Jackson Jr underwent surgery on his foot and is out for 4-6 months. The 6’11 forward plays a huge role for Memphis, having developed into one of the league’s best defenders, and being one of the most aggressive three-point big man shooters the NBA has to offer.

Unleashing the youngster

Losing Jackson for a prolonged period of time, while also taking into account that he will need time to get back into the swing of things when he returns to the court, means the Grizzlies will have to ask more out of second-year man, and former Top 10 pick, Ziaire Williams.

Williams, who started 31 of 62 played games in his rookie season, was low on the offensive totem pole last season, averaging just 8.1 points in 21.7 minutes. His 6.8 nightly shot attempts wasn’t a strong indicator of a player who will necessarily have success with a higher offensive burden.

That said, Williams has something going for him. He’s specialized. 57.1% of his shots were three-pointers, allowing him to make further use of that shot as he steps into a larger role this season. While he hit just 31.4% on his triples, including just 32.5% from the corners, it’s crucial to remember that players tend to improve significantly as shooters, and that rookie season percentages aren’t indicative of future efficiency.

For Williams, he won’t need to dance with the ball and break guys down off the dribble. He simply needs to take open shots, but to a higher degree than he did last year. That’s obviously still a challenge, but one that should be more straightforward than having to add entire dimensions to his game.

At 6’8 and 220 pounds, Williams also has an intriguing frame who can, occasionally, get into the paint and make plays over the defense. He hit a remarkable 85.5% of his shot attempts within three feet of the basket, an area that took up roughly 18% of his offense. Granted, a lot of that was opportunistic, but that needn’t change this year when Morant is still on the court, handling the vast majority of the ball-handling duties anyway.

Improvement areas

Where Williams does need to show significant improvement is on the glass. He grabbed just 2.1 per game last season, which for a player his size simply wasn’t good enough. This isn’t to say we should expect him to come in and become the next Shawn Marion at the forward position, but he will need to throw his body around some more and come up with the ball. It’s quite simply a necessity.

Defensively, Williams carried himself well all things considered. Rookies will always have moments where they look out of sorts, and the real challenge is to minimize those moments and learn from them. To his credit, Williams did seem capable of cleaning things up as the year progressed, and he even had moments where it was easy to envision him becoming a proper switchable wing big.

Head coach Taylor Jenkins even tested Williams out on Stephen Curry on occasion last season, which is the ultimate stamp of approval for a head coach in believing in his young player moving forward. This year, Williams need to follow the same trajectory he was on at the end of last season, giving Jenkins even more reason to use him on elite opponents. And, with Jackson Jr out, Williams will need to be ready.

Finally, it would behoove the Grizzlies to give Williams just a few pick and roll touches here and there as the ball-handler, without expecting him to become the next Luka Dončić. It’s just a good way of giving him some more reps to learn angles, how to take care of the ball, and being able to read patterns. It’s simply a tool for development, as the Grizzlies are in need of him to get better in a bit of a hurry. The higher variety of plays he’s involved in, the better.

Unless noted otherwise, all stats via NBA.com, PBPStats, Cleaning the Glass or Basketball-Reference. All salary information via Spotrac. All odds via FanDuel Sportsbook.