2019 NBA Draft: 6 Reasons for Atlanta Hawks to Draft Grant Williams at #10 Overall

Age

Grant Williams is one of the most decorated college players in this draft class not named Zion Williamson. The all-encompassing mastery of Zion’s freshman season at Duke led to him sweeping nearly every major award at season’s end.

However, Williams is a two-time SEC Player of the Year – winning back-to-back awards in his sophomore and junior seasons at age 19 and 20, respectively.

Let that sink in. Grant Williams will not turn 21 years old until November, which puts his incredible production at the college level in perspective. Perhaps even more notable is Williams proven improvement year-over-year in his three college seasons at Tennessee.

Per Sports Reference, Williams increased his raw scoring numbers, rebounding numbers and assist numbers in each of his three collegiate seasons. Beyond that, when his role grew from a volume standpoint between his freshman and sophomore years, his efficiency dipped a bit before it lifted to stratospheric heights in 2018-19.

Beyond that, Williams played nearly 32 minutes a game in his junior year – up from just over 25 in his freshman year.

Though this might sound hyperbolic (and it is), Williams produced an SEC Player of the Year campaign in his sophomore year at age 19, which was – bear with me – the same age that Luka Doncic was when he won EuroLeague MVP. Now sure, those two are not equitable because Luka was playing professionally against “capital-m” men and Grant was feasting on players that were smaller and weaker than him, but still, the SEC is one of the major conferences in college basketball – not some mid-major backwater.

Then he came back and dominated the conference to an even greater degree the following season? Sounds like a top prospect to me.