Terrence Williams to the Nets on Draft Day
June 29, 2009 – 8:00 am by Lance Zimmerman
Many people, me for one, thought Terrence Williams was the best athlete coming out of college. Sure Blake Griffin had the most basketball talent, but if you ever saw a Louisville game last year, Williams had amazing hops and showed that he could guard almost any 2 or 3 position in the NBA.
Unfortunately for Louisville, and me since I had the Cardinals as my team in my March Madness pool, Terrence turned in easily his worst performance of the year against Michigan State for a shot to get to the Final Four. Terrence was 1 for 7 from the field with 5 points and 6 rebounds. Most feel that Terrence considerably hurt his draft stock that day by not playing better on what was easily his biggest game of his college career.
The New Jersey Nets ended up selecting Terrence 11th overall on draft day, and earlier that day, shipped their biggest box office draw in Vince Carter off to the Orlando Magic for Courtney Lee, Rafer Alston, and Tony Battie. This basically opens up the shooting guard and small forward roles that Carter occupied. Terrence will be expected to play big minutes right away. His versatility on the court is very similar to Andre Iguodala.
Terrence Williams joined WFAN to talk about being selected by the New Jersey Nets and on if he knew how high they were on taking him.
On if he’s happy that New Jersey selected him:
“Oh yeah, most definitely. I’m happy with Mr. Frank and Mr. Thorn there. I’m happy with the whole trade that happened today. Courtney (Lee) to come there, Rafer (Alston) to come there, I’m most definitely happy.”
Terrence was asked about the Nets shipping off Vince Carter in a way to get Terrence more minutes:
“I think when that deal happened, I saw that they were going to put a lot of pressure on me to come in and play. I’ve been in a lot of pressure situations playing for Coach P (Rick Pitino) so I look forward to that.”
On if he knew how interested the Nets were in selecting him:
“I kind of heard they were. There was a couple of things I needed to work on and honestly I went to Charlotte right after there and I worked on those things and that’s why Charlotte was so high on me I believe. New Jersey they told me when I talked to them on the phone that they see a lot of potential in me and they know what I can do because the game film that they watched and what their scouts told them. At the end, everybody gets what they want.”
Terrence was asked if his final game in the NCAA Tournament hurt his chances on being selected higher:
“I think so, honestly. At the end of the day, I can’t get too hung up on that, what I did at Michigan State. I am human and I had a bad game. I wish I could replay it and relive it but you’ve got to move on. In New Jersey, that number 11, in the lottery to be taken, it means a lot to me so I’m not really worried about if I would have went higher if I would have won that game, I’m worried about the situation I’m in now.”
Listen to Terrence Williams on WFAN in New York with Steve Somers
Tags: Louisville Cardinals, NBA Draft, New Jersey Nets, Terrence Williams, Vince Carter
