Alright, let’s talk about digging into the Lou Williams draft. It wasn’t something I just randomly looked up yesterday, you know? This goes back a bit, tied to this whole phase I went through trying to find the biggest draft steals in NBA history.
I remember I was arguing with my cousin, who was convinced that all the good players had to be lottery picks. I was like, no way, man, there are gems found later. So, I decided to actually prove it. I wasn’t just gonna spout names; I wanted to really dig in.
My Deep Dive Process
So, I started going through draft classes year by year. This was before all the fancy stats sites were as slick as they are now. I was literally pulling up old draft boards, looking at player stats, career paths, the whole nine yards. It took ages.
- I first listed out players known for outperforming their draft spot.
- Then, I cross-referenced them with their draft year.
- I specifically started focusing on second-round picks or late first-rounders who made a real impact.
That’s when I really zeroed in on the 2005 draft. I remember scrolling down the list, past the big names drafted early. And then, bam, I hit the second round.
Finding Lou Will
I saw his name: Lou Williams. Pick number 45. Forty-fifth! Straight out of high school, too, which was becoming rare around then. I knew him as a scorer, of course, the guy who came off the bench and just got buckets.
Seeing him picked so late really hammered home my point for that argument with my cousin. Here was a dude who ended up winning Sixth Man of the Year multiple times, a walking bucket, and he was taken way down in the second round. It wasn’t just about finding his name on a list; it was about seeing the context, the guys picked before him, and realizing what a steal the 76ers got.
So yeah, that’s how I got into the weeds with the Lou Williams draft. It started with trying to win an argument and ended up being a pretty cool discovery about how talent evaluation isn’t always perfect, and teams can find real value way later than you’d expect. Just involved a lot of clicking, reading old summaries, and comparing stats back then.
