With the Pelicans season officially over, we begin our look back at each individual player’s season and recap what we learned and where they stand with the Pelicans moving forward.
Overview
Kenrich Williams’ second season with the Pelicans was truly a tale of two seasons, to steal an old adage. In the team’s first 37 games, Williams featured in 35 of them, started 18 of them and averaged 22.3 minutes per game. But between from January 8 until the end of the season, he played in just four games, each of those coming in the bubble.
Ultimately, a back injury proved to be the culprit for the lengthy setback for Williams, but his early-season role came largely during a time when the Pelicans were battling injury. Whether he would have held a role with a fully-healthy will be a question there will never be an answer but his season to provide various other answers.
What was learned?
For much of his time on the court, Williams provided the Pelicans something they often lacked in the form of perimeter defense. In the opening 37 games, the Pelicans held a defensive rating of 108.2 with Williams on the court, a mark that would have ranked in the middle of the league. With him off the court, that number jumped to 113.6, tied for the highest mark on the team and a rating that would have ranked 28th in the league in that span.
Williams’ impact, as noted above, rarely came across in the box score. He averaged 3.5 points and 4.8 rebounds on the season, neither an improvement on his rookie season. But take, for example, the fact that four of the seven most commonly-used lineups with Williams up to Jan. 8 had positive net ratings and three of those had a net rating above 18.0. The most common Williams-included lineup also featured Jrue Holiday, JJ Redick, Brandon Ingram and Jaxson Hayes, played a total of 90 minutes and had a net rating of 18.4.
It wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows for Williams this season, though. His three-point shooting cratered in his sophomore season. After shooting 33.3% on 3.4 attempts as a rookie, he shot just 25.8% from range on 2.5 attempts this season. Per Synergy, he was a 13th percentile spot-up shooter this season and hit just 24.3% of his catch-and-shoot opportunities.
Williams’ limited offensive game meant that when his shot didn’t fall, his productivity plummeted. Even before his injury, Williams’ minutes were quickly declining as he played just an average of 9.8 minutes in his final six games pre-shutdown.
It was a season where Williams was given an extended run and proved, in the right situation, he could contribute. It also was a season where he and the Pelicans learned he has a way to go before becoming a regular contributor on a playoff contender.
What does the future hold?
Williams is a restricted free agent this off-season. The Pelicans can extend a $1.9 million qualifying offer to him and it’s hard to see many teams offering much more than that.
Regardless of where he lands, Williams will have to improve his three-point shooting to see the floor. He has the archetype for 3&D player but lacks half of that equation right now. Given the Pelicans’ lack of wing depth currently on the roster, an offensive improvement in the off-season could lead to consistent minutes next season, but it’ll have to be a fairly big improvement on his shot.
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