Lakers: A Brief Comparison of Lou Williams and Nick Young

When the Lakers signed Lou Williams, much was made about the similarity between him and Nick Young. However, fans can already see distinct differences between them.

Both Williams and Young play the role of a sixth-man, provide a scoring punch off the bench and aren’t known for their defense. It appeared clear that the Lakers considered Williams to be an upgrade over Young, with their decision to sign the former coming with the latter still under contract for two years.

However, whether or not the Lakers were correct in their analysis has now come into question. Lou Williams has not played particularly well for the Lakers, scoring inefficiently and often hurting the rhythm of the offense with poor shot selection. These issues are partially due to the fact that Williams is playing out of position at the point-guard, but his size makes it extremely difficult to play him at the two against most teams.

Nick Young has historically struggled in similar ways, but has played surprisingly well to start the season. The thirty year old has shot the ball well, and has made much more of an effort to get to the rim. When looking at their stats, Young has clearly outplayed his rival offensively this season. Averaging 43 percent from both the field and the three-point line, Young has shot dramatically better than Williams, whose 32 percent field goal percentage and 22 percent from the arc are troublesome at best.

Young has also proven that he is far more capable of operating within a normal offense than Williams. This is largely due to his proficiency in spot-up situations, evidenced by his far superior three-point percentage. Williams, on the other hand, has demonstrated that he needs the ball in his hand in order to score. This makes his offensive production much more costly than Young’s.

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Another interesting facet of the comparison is the two players’ true shooting percentage. This statistic takes into account the type of shots the players takes, as well as factoring in the player’s free throw shooting. Because Lou Williams shoots 5.2 free throws per game compared to Young’s 1.5, it would typically be safe to assume that William’s true shooting percentage would be higher than Young’s.

However, in actuality the trend is completely different. Nick Young’s TS% is an impressive .614, especially in comparison to William’s .498. William’s TS% ranks tenth on the Lakers, while his usage rate ranks second among players with significant playing time (Robert Sacre ranks ahead of him but has played only garbage time this season). Only Kobe ranks higher in usage, and he ranks even lower than Williams in terms of TS%.

With the Lakers most used players their tenth and twelve most efficient, the Lakers offense is clearly not in the most capable hands. Getting more looks for more efficient players like Young and Clarkson could help the Lakers offense significantly.

However, the most shocking thing is that Young has also impacted the game on the defensive end at times this season. Whereas Lou Williams has consistently hurt the Lakers on the defensive end, Nick Young has improved on the side of the ball where he was typically weak.

Young is far from a stopper on the defensive end, but his length and size is a huge boon to a bench unit sorely in need of both. With Williams and either Clarkson or Russell in the back court, and Bass typically playing out of position at the five, Young and Nance are the only players with good size for their position.

Young’s size allows him to fit much more seamlessly into a squad than Williams, who requires a specific group of players to function well in an offense.

In terms of advanced stats, Nick Young is only marginally better than Williams, with a defensive plus minus that is .4 higher. However, the way they each fit into a defense and create match ups is where Young truly begins to separate himself.

Young’s size allows him to fit much more seamlessly into a squad than Williams, who requires a specific group of players to function well in an offense. Because of Williams size and game, he is best suited when he can play alongside a point-guard who can guard shooting-guards. Although the Lakers have two guards with the size and skills to accomplish this, Clarkson and Russell are both young and need time to develop on defense.

Though much has been made about the Lakers attempting to trade Nick Young, if he keeps up his performance the narrative may need to change. If Nick Young continues to be a superior offensive player than Lou Williams, while also being much easier to fit into a defense, Lou Williams may need to either lose minutes or be used as an asset in a potential trade.

Next: Five Ways for Lakers Fans to Navigate Through The Tough Season

What do you think about the Swaggy Lou pairing? Let us know in the comments below.