Milwaukee Bucks: Thoughts on the retirement of Marvin Williams

Marvin Williams has announced he is retiring from the NBA and the Milwaukee Bucks, capping one of the stranger careers in league history in doing so.

After the Milwaukee Bucks were finally put out of their misery by the Miami Heat on Tuesday night, news broke that Marvin Williams would be retiring from the NBA. The 34-year-old deciding that the time was right to leave, and in doing so stepping away as one of the more forgettable second overall picks of all time.

I have developed a strange fascination with Williams over the years, mostly because of where he was drafted and his apparent ability to not do very much when on the court. He represents a link to an era of basketball that we all too quickly moved away from, and which was a lot of fun. One filled with more midrange jumpers, incompetent owners and front offices, and a lot of bad contracts being handed out.

Williams shouldn’t come to personify this period of time, and yet somehow he does. With the league in a completely different place now in terms of efficiency and how organizations are run, it is only right that he has bowed out. But could the case be made that he might have actually walked away too soon, having apparently found a good situation with the Bucks?

The curiosity with Williams goes right the way back to 2005 when he was taken second overall by the Atlanta Hawks. My fandom was in its infancy then, but through online message boards, and later NBA Live 2005, I had heard that this Williams guy was the real deal. Not that I entirely knew what that meant at that stage.

Williams went behind only Andrew Bogut, who was selected by the Bucks, ahead of Deron Williams (third to the Utah Jazz) and Chris Paul (fourth to the New Orleans Hornets). That does not look good, although initially, it didn’t seem like the clanger it later turned out to be.

At his best with the Hawks, Williams averaged 14.8 points as a 21-year-old. He was a part of a fun group that included Al Horford, Joe Johnson, Josh Smith and Jeff Teague. But even at that, Williams just kind of existed while part of that roster. After seven seasons with the Hawks, when all was said and done, he had started an incredible 379 of 487 games played for them.

Can you believe that? Never have so many games for what was typically a solid playoff outfit gone by without anything of real note happening. Williams was just there. Again I consider myself somebody who, if nothing else, has kept a casual eye on Williams throughout the course of his career. Yet after leaving the Hawks, he spent two seasons with the Jazz. Two seasons.

I don’t remember a single game. I didn’t even remember he played for them, and that is no joke. He was apparently traded straight up for Devin Harris. Perhaps that says more about me, but he played for them 139 times and started 101 games there too. He started, started, on teams that featured Rudy Gobert, Gordon Hayward and Enes Kanter. He averaged 8.1 points per game.

His next stop I certainly do remember, as Williams signed with the Charlotte Hornets. That is because he played for them 429 times, with 328 starts. Never have the guts of one thousand NBA games seemed to pass by so, passively? Without event? What is the best word to describe the tenure of Williams with these teams?

Marvin Williams was unmemorable but effective

Yet he must have been doing something right. He was active in all communities he was a part of, and to play that many games in the league means that you do have game. None of this is a knock on Williams the player, even if it looks that way. There just doesn’t seem to have ever been a career like it.

Williams retires with a career-high of 33 points, which is not bad at all. A lot of players never get close to that total. Except it came against a franchise that doesn’t exist anymore. The game in question one against the Seattle Supersonics back in 2008. A link to the past. Is this the most Williams statistic that there is?

Plenty of first and second overall picks have gone on to be multiple time All-Stars. Others have flamed out badly. Others still are established professionals who typically have a couple of moments because of their talent. Williams did none of those things. He just existed. Lived the dream, yes, and for that, he should be commended.

But in 2005 he was seen as a small forward who could score, which he did do to some degree (career average 10.2 points per game). Not good enough to be an elite wing scorer, but too small to be a traditional power forward back then as well. Stuck in-between positions, carving a role for himself in the shadows as the years went by.

Which brings us to this season. The league has trended so small that Williams could be seen as a legitimate stretch-four. That was what the Bucks had in mind when they brought him in for what they believed was going to be a deep postseason run. In the playoffs, he shot 43.5 percent from deep.

Williams was never going to be the difference between advancing and going home. But the great irony here is that he finally looked to have found a role for himself off the bench, as a cheap veteran option who could hit some shots. Something all contenders love to have. If not with the Bucks he would have found a home for next season, even if he had to wait until the trade deadline to find the right place.

Instead, Williams has decided that he’s had enough, and all credit to him. But after 1,072 games, as well as another 59 in the playoffs, who he was and what he could do were perhaps as well known and respected as ever. Which caps a strange and unexpected end to a strange and unexpected career in which Marvin Williams was there. He existed, and he made over $120 million doing it.