Jay Williams Could Become A Raptor

After suffering through the selfish play of Mike James all season the Raptors could be in for a huge treat if Jay Williams signs with the team this summer. The former college player of the year for Duke was recently in Toronto to meet with management and according to reports both sides walked away from the meeting impressed.

Williams was the second overall pick by the Bulls in the 2003 Draft, but he was hurt on June 19th of 2004 when he lost control of his motorcycle, careened out of control and struck a telephone pole. He suffered major ligament and severe nerve damage to his left leg and fractured his pelvic pone. The damage was so severe to his left leg that doctors initially feared that his leg would have to be amputated.

Two years ago Williams told USA Today that, “when the accident happened … you know you’re hurt but you don’t know how bad. I was just yelling, ‘I want to play. I want to play. I threw it all away. I’m going to play again.’ When I got to the hospital I was saying, ‘I’m going to die. … I don’t want to die.’ I had a great doctor who held my hand and said, ‘You’re not going to die.’ Then I was out. That was the scariest moment. I didn’t know what happened. I didn’t know if that was because I was dead or just asleep.”

After doing some initial research into Williams the big question I had about is how can a player that almost lost his leg help the Raptors make the playoffs. It sounded like at best he would be a shell of his former self so I had huge doubts about what kind of contributions he could make to the Raptors.

The first piece of information that I came across was a a post on his blog on NBA.com. Way back on December 30th of 2005, Williams felt that he was “around 90% back to normal. The first time around in September when I tried to get back, I really wasn’t going on how I felt about myself, I was going based upon what everyone was saying. The problem was that I didn’t have the confidence in myself to thrive. I was playing really smart basketball, which was something I had to learn how to do anyway, but I really just wasn’t confident in myself to make a move and to be aggressive all the time. I was hesitant to try things and didn’t feel quick enough to guard guys. I had to come out to LA and work to get back this kind of aggression and fierceness I needed in order to play. Now I am running up and down the court. It’s great. These past two months, I have just been going on runs by myself to try and get myself in top shape. I have never been a guy who liked to run. But it’s funny, ever since I got hurt, once I was able to start running, I enjoyed going for runs because there was a big chance that I wouldn’t be able to run ever again. I think that is the biggest thing, being in game condition. Just being able to run up and down and not get tired, and develop a wind where you just feel great. My body feels really good. I just have to get out there and play now.”

After reading that I started to believe that his leg was now healthy but I still had serious doubts about whether he could perform at the same level as he did prior to his injury. Playing in the NBA he would be competing against the top players in the world. You need only look at players like Penny Hardaway who was slowed by knee problems to realize that losing half a step can end someone’s NBA career.

There wasn’t really much further information on Williams since then except for news that he decided to postpone making a comeback to the NBA until this summer. Williams once again broke into the news this week when word leaked that he had visited with the Raptors.

The Toronto Star reported on Friday that, “Toronto officials would only say Williams looked in good condition, and they couldn’t get a good read on his game shape because he only took part in drills without any scrimmage time. He and ex-NBAers William Avery and Jackson Vroman were in town for workouts with the Raptors, aside from sessions with some draft-eligible players.”

The boys over at Raptors HQ wrote about Williams recent workout with the Raps and felt that the “workout was apparently quite good and while he still does not appear to have the fluidity he once had, his conditioning was superb and he displayed many of the characteristics that made him such a highly regarded prospect coming out of Duke. It’s in fact amazing that Williams is even able to walk let alone play at this level after his horrendous motorcycle accident in 2003. As mentioned yesterday if he could even get back to 85 percent of where he was in terms of athletic ability, he would probably be a great fit for this club and would allow Bryan Colangelo to address other needs in the short term. The key for the Raptors though will be evaluating him in five-on-five situations to see how sharp his point guard instincts still are.”

While there’s no assurance that he has the same explosive first step as he did during his days at Duke, I feel that the Raptors have nothing to lose by inviting him to training camp to battle it out for a roster spot. He’s been training with some of the top trainers in the game for the past two years so while he may have lost some speed I believe that he would have an even better jump shot and understanding of the game than he had as a rookie where he averaged 9.5 points and 4.7 dimes per game.

There’s a chance that Williams won’t be able to play at a high level because of his injury but there’s no risk in letting him come into camp and battle for a spot.