Houston Rockets: Troy Williams standing out in 2017 NBA Summer League

As the Houston Rockets continue to evaluate young prospects during Summer League, Troy Williams is standing out as a potential rotation player.

When it comes to NBA Summer League, most teams are focused on finding diamonds in the rough. Those diamonds are NBA-level, rotational players playing at an entire other level compared to their Summer League counterparts.

Finding even one such player (besides the hyped up and well-known draft picks) would be considered a huge success for a team, so the Houston Rockets are surely feeling good about Troy Williams.

Now, Williams played 30 games and 557 minutes in the NBA (including six with Houston) last season in his rookie campaign, where he averaged 6.2 points and 2.3 rebounds per game.

However, the Rockets were not confident enough in his ability to contribute to an NBA rotation on a consistent basis to re-sign him. Therefore, they let him play in this year’s Summer League to prove himself once more.

And that’s exactly what Williams has done so far in two Summer League games. Williams is averaging 25.0 points, 3.0 rebounds, and 2.0 steals per game while shooting 51.7 percent from the field. Williams has also shot 7-for-15 from beyond the arc in the two games, something you know pleases Mike D’Antoni and the Rockets.

Williams might not have playmaking ability (he has a combined two assists in the first two games), but that’s not what his role would be with the Rockets. Williams’ role would be to play good defense (which he has been known to do in the past), and spot up for open shots, preferably beyond the arc.

So far in Summer League, Williams has shown the ability to do just that:

Williams has displayed natural scoring abilities, even if those abilities won’t be used in the same exact manner with the Rockets due to the presence of Chris Paul and James Harden.

It remains to be seen if Williams can replicate his shooting from Summer League in actual NBA games, since he shot just 29 percent on three-pointers in 30 games last season. However, it is an encouraging sign to see Williams hit threes at an above-average rate while also showing other scoring capabilities.

With the Rockets trading Sam Dekker away in the Chris Paul trade, there is a spot in the rotation up for grabs, even with the Rockets adding P.J. Tucker during free agency.

If Williams can become an average (~35 percent) three-point shooter while continuing to provide solid defense, he will surely get a look as an end-of-the-rotation player for Houston this upcoming season (provided they re-sign him, which Daryl Morey has said is a goal of his).

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The Rockets won’t expect much from Williams, as they have a team full of established veterans and two star players that will handle all of the ball-handling and playmaking duties. However, Williams has impressed enough during Summer League that he deserves a shot in the rotation for the upcoming season.