Meet Darrion Williams

Here comes that reckoning you've heard about. Will Wade had put together a strong first roster over the past couple of months, and now he has the centerpiece. Darrion Williams, arguably the best player in the entire transfer portal, is coming to Raleigh.

The timeline of events to get here is hard to wrap your brain around, as has been the norm in the infancy of Wade's tenure. We had heard for weeks that PJ Haggerty was done. The case was closed. Then, disprovable rumors started to surface about other teams getting involved, which was almost certainly an agent's attempt to drive up the price tag. That does beg the question of how done the deal really was, especially in the eyes of the Haggerty camp. Very shortly after that, NC State landed Williams as the big fish right out from under Bill Self's nose. Haggerty is now yesterday's news, although I'm done making any kind of definitive statements about what this staff will or won't do.

Williams is the man now, and he is an outstanding basketball player who was first-team all-conference a year ago and averaged 21 PPG in the NCAA Tournament. He's a scorer. He's a facilitator. He's a true offensive hub. When comparing him to Haggerty as an offensive centerpiece, both would be absolute home runs, but Williams brings a positionless nature that can really open the bottom layer of Will Wade's toolbox. The role versatility he offers is one of the best things about his game. People will call him a forward or a “4,” but labels like that are antiquated in general, and that’s especially true with a guy like this whose real position is "guy who does things." Let's get into his profile as a player and what kind of impact he can make in Raleigh.

On the ball, Darrion Williams is excellent, but he isn't outrageously explosive or athletic. In that sense, he’s quite different from PJ Haggerty, who was a small guard that boasted teleportation abilities. Williams isn't going to blow by a drop big off a screen, but he's a load at 6'6ish 225. He can play big and physical in the paint or in the high post, short corner, or elbow area, creating space in backdowns and using his excellent footwork to create angles he can finish from. Williams is also a fantastic finisher who seems to not even notice contact at the rim. He can finish in a variety of ways and has the touch the score over guys. Below, we've got him attacking a switch in an inverted pick-and-pop, something Texas Tech did a lot with him.

Utah calls for a late switch and Williams attacks the smaller defender, uses his body to create space, and scores over him with a jump hook.

Williams backs down the guard toward the middle of the floor, gets him to overplay the outside shoulder, and uses a spin to get by him and score.

Texas Tech used the inverted ball screen to generate a lot of switches. It can be a difficult action to defend with traditional ball screen defenses. This was always advantage Red Raiders because smaller guards couldn't deal with Williams. Below is a great example.

Tech gets the switch off the inverted angle screen. Williams bullies the smaller guard both with the ball and when he repositions.

The inverted ball screen was a fun element of Tech's offense. You'll likely see similar stuff with Williams and guys like Paul McNeil for NC State. It's one of the many ways Williams will be an offensive trigger for State. As a ball screen operator, he is really excellent, offering a legit three-level scoring package and a high-level ability to distribute the ball. You can run him through so much as an initiator and feel comfortable.

Tech runs a 5-out shake pick and roll with Darrion Williams and Federiko Federiko, who's a true rim runner. The strength of Williams makes him hard to control defensively. The Utah defender here tries to blow up this screen, but Williams runs him into it and creates the advantage, engages the drop coverage, and throws a beautiful lob.

Drake hedges the ball screen here. Drake did not do this the whole game, and I think it caught Williams off balance a bit, but any time you hedge the screen, you have to tag. Williams recognizes it immediately and rips the ball to the corner where the tag has come off. He's a smart player and the game is very slow for him.

As a primary creator, Williams gives you the versatility to make defenses wrong. If you put two on the ball and rotate, he'll find the shooters. If you play drop coverage, a rim runner like Paul Mbiya as the screener in a 5-out set could create real problems with Williams engaging the drop big and making a read. Williams is also a very capable shooter. His numbers were slightly down with a volume boost from a year ago, but he shot 34% from 3 and a modest but respectable 40% from the mid-range. He shot 45% from three as a sophomore. He'll punish you if you give him space. Finally and perhaps most importantly, he's a nightmare for smaller guards that have to switch. That's where the inverted actions can come in.

Williams can also give you offense off the ball. You could easily run some flex offense with him as the focal point. He's good as the screener in pick and roll also. The bag deepens so much with a player like this. Texas Tech used him off the ball a lot in ball screen actions, usually pick and pop. He's a real threat there, and if defenses recovered well, the Red Raiders just flowed into another action with him on the ball. Williams also has some obvious juice as a short roller. I did not see a lot of this on the tape that I watched, but it's definitely there. He's dangerous catching the ball around the foul line and either reading rotation and kicking the ball or attacking the rim.

Williams short rolls against Drake's hedge. Out of this look, Williams is a healthy option to attack the basket, which he does, or move the ball against a defense in rotation.

All of this versatility is the reason why Williams was number one for State. His commitment combined with the way Wade has recruited bigs makes me think you'll see a lot of 4-out spacing and a lot of ball screen and DHO actions involving Williams. The star transfer expands the DHO menu too as a threat to keep the ball as the handoff in, say, a Miami action. Basketball offense is all about being able to make a defense wrong. The more ways the defense can be right, the easier it is pin offenses down on what they suck at. Darrion Williams makes it very hard to be right. He gives an offense so many counters.

Defensively, Wade has been focused on adding length and athleticism, traits that showed up in almost every addition. Williams isn't elite in either area, but he's way too good of a player to get caught up with stuff like that. This is a "take the talent, make it fit" player. He's not a bad defender, but he's not the rangy help defender that a Terrance Arceneaux is. Williams is also a plus rebounder, particularly on the defensive glass.

You can't really overstate the size of what just happened here. Will Wade, having not yet coached a game, just beat Bill Self for an all-league player and All-American candidate. These guys are not playing. Williams is the kind of player that sends a statement to the country, not just to the ACC, and he's also the kind of player that takes this roster from solid upside to one of the best rosters in the ACC.

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