After a stellar sophomore season at Arizona and some of the best individual performances in the NCAA Tournament, Derrick Williams is considered to be a near-lock to be one of the top two picks in the 2011 draft, with only Duke’s Kyrie Irving projected to go ahead of him.
Williams, for his part, thinks he should be the #1 pick, and has been openly campaigning to be taken first. Here’s the report, courtesy of the Washington Post’s Michael Lee:Strong words from a very talented player who clearly has a lot of belief in his abilities. However, Kansas forward Markieff Morris, who is currently projected to be a late-lottery pick, has some doubts about Williams:
But Kansas forward Markieff Morris wasn’t completely sold on Williams, who had 27 points and seven rebounds in a loss to Kansas last season. “I didn’t think he was as good as advertised,” Morris said. “He got the benefit of the calls from the ref and we had to guard him different. He definitely had a good game against us, because we couldn’t guard him how we wanted to guard him, and that’s what happened.”
So when he hears that Williams is a lock to go in the top two, Morris said, “It’s still surprises me. What he did to Duke, he wouldn’t do that to me or my brother [Marcus]. I’m dead serious. He wouldn’t. At all. He’s good. But if we was to work out, I would go at him and I would be able to stop him more than people would expect, you know what I mean.”
There’s no way Morris will actually be drafted ahead of Williams, but he seems to be trying to earn some points with general managers by showing that he won’t back down from anybody, even a projected top-2 pick in the draft. We’ll see if that works out for him on draft day; either way, it could be interesting to watch what happens the first time Williams and Morris’ NBA teams meet.