Uno or dos? Ein or zwei? One or two?
With a little under a week left before the NBA Draft, those are basically the options for Jay Williams.
Barring a last-minute trade or evidence of a sizable weakness in his game, anything less than being drafted by the Chicago Bulls at the No. 2 pick would be a surprise for the New Jersey native.
Williams' position is so certain that he has begun making tentative post-draft plans. He has already met a number of Bulls and is trying to figure out how he can add to the trophy collection.
"I can't guarantee that we are going to do the things Michael Jordan did," Williams said at a press conference after a two-day visit with the Bulls last week. "I can guarantee that I'm going to work my hardest, try my hardest and that I'm never going to quit."
His agent Bill Duffy agrees that if Williams falls out of the top three, it would be a draft day shocker.
"It would be difficult for Chicago to pass up on him," he said. "Golden State would be delighted to have him, but there are still trade possibilities."
The most likely option that Duffy is referring to would be a deal giving a team other than the Houston Rockets the draft's first pick. Currently, the Rockets have one of the game's better floor generals, former Maryland star Steve Francis; for Houston to pick Williams, a point guard, would
Usually the No. 1 pick is someone who will make an immediate difference on the team and unless Houston wants to play with a pair of ones and no big man, they will probably take the 7-foot-5 Chinese center, Yao Ming.
Observers say Ming, unlike Williams, is very much a question mark.
"The thing about [Ming] is that no one knows this guy," said Sports Illustrated college basketball analyst Seth Davis. "Williams you know, and he may be the best college point guard in 20 years. He's better than Mike Bibby... but Ming is a younger, healthier Gheorghe Muresan."
Ultimately, the biggest question for the Rockets--the question that could shape the rest of the draft--lies in determining the relationship between Williams and Ming. As the Rockets have use for only one point guard, they can either trade the No. 1 pick, trade Francis or draft Ming.
Although it is unlikely Francis will leave Houston anytime soon, Williams' chance of being the top pick would vault tremendously in either one of the trade scenarios. Currently, the Rockets favor Ming, who would be the first foreigner selected at the top slot.
Barring that elusive trade, nearly every mock draft posted by the most popular online sports sites--ESPN.com, CNNSI.com, TSN.com and others--has Chicago selecting Williams.
"He's going to go No. 2 or somebody will move to No. 1 to get him," Davis said, adding that he thought history would eventually look at Williams as a better choice than Ming.
Williams' status in the draft has changed little since choosing to leave at the end of his junior season, a move he announced nearly a year before.
Scouts drooled over Williams' abilities, even at the end of the 2001 season, and forecasted that he would be picked at the No. 1 slot--in last year's draft.
Experts point to Williams' play-making skills, one-on-one moves, and that, as Davis said, "the pick and roll was invented for him," as his strengths. Long before next week's draft and even before the dynamics of the draft became clear, experts predicted Williams will make an instant impact on the NBA.
"After other people are exposed to him I think they will also find he is great," Duffy said after Williams' first workout. "He's an excellent talent as a point guard and a great human being."
That is not to say, however, that Williams does not have his flaws. At Duke, he was often chastised for being a sub-par defender and a streaky shooter. Some critics even question his fitness level and ability to play an 82-game, NBA-length season.
"They're just quibbling if they're looking at problems," Davis said. "He's going to be better in the pros because it's easier to score in the pros."
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