Jazz interested in Lou Williams?
ESPN New York Knicks writer Ian Begley reported the following late Monday night: "Some members of the Utah Jazz front office have expressed interest recently in Lakers guard Lou Williams."
Williams makes some sense for the Jazz. First of all, the Jazz don't really have an efficient go-get-baskets kind of scorer beyond Gordon Hayward, and Williams is that. He's phenomenal at getting to the foul line, shoots well and isn't a bad playmaker, either. He's on a $7 million contract for this season and next, a super cheap deal in this cap environment. And he'd be able to take over minutes at backup point guard (a sore spot) and some shooting guard minutes, too.
Jazz head coach Quin Snyder likes him too. "I'm a Lou Williams fan, 'cause I was with him in Philly and in Atlanta," Snyder told reporters after the Jazz narrowly beat the Lakers in the second game of the regular season in October. Earlier, in that day's shootaround, Snyder called him "one of the best pure scorers in the league."
Still, there are questions. Zach Lowe pointed out the biggest one that teams have around the league: Can Williams be a good playoff player? In his previous playoff appearances, he's been drastically less effective as games tighten up and his foul-drawing is no longer effective. And he can't defend at all, which threatens to hurt the Jazz's go-to quality: being elite on defense.
And then, what would it take? Begley says the Lakers are looking for a first-round pick. The Jazz have two of those this season, likely to end up around No. 24 and No. 30. Is giving up one of them worth it for Williams?
And can the Jazz deal with a brand new front office? The Lakers named Magic Johnson president of basketball operations just hours ago. Does he want to trade Williams like the old front office did? Who knows.
This might be too inside baseball, but I think it's semi-interesting, so I'll go with it. As a reporter, my first question was: How did Ian Begley report this? Begley is an extremely solid reporter, but he nearly exclusively covers the Knicks for ESPNNewYork.com. I can't find another instance when he's reported on the Jazz alone like this. How did he have knowledge of the thinking of "some members of the Utah Jazz front office"? That's awfully specific. If the Jazz had made a call on Williams, and the Lakers leaked it, they would have agreed to call as a front office whole.
I have a couple of guesses. First of all, Jeff Hornacek is the Knicks coach. Maybe he still stays in contact with someone in the Jazz's front office who said they liked Williams? Another possibility: Wallace Prather is Lou Williams' agent. He's also the agent of Derrick Favors. Prather has probably talked with members of the Jazz's front office dozens of times over his career, and maybe, they've talked with Prather about the possibility of acquiring Lou Williams. Maybe Begley knows someone in Prather's camp.
