New York Knicks: How the hole grew deeper through the Isiah Thomas era

Frank Williams, another wasted draft pick

Let’s look at what Chris Broussard had to say about Frank Williams, the player Layden and the Knicks drafted with the 25th pick the acquired in the McDyess trade:

"…Frank Williams is an undisputed talent who averaged 16.2 points, 4.4 assists and 2.0 steals as a junior last season."

If there’s one thing basketball fans know about the draft, it’s that a high percentage of the time, a player’s numbers in college are a long way from a guarantee or even a semi-reliable indicator of what they may accomplish in the NBA.

If a really good player in high school can be characterized as a big fish in a small pond, then, with the exception of only the very best talents, going into college is like becoming just another fish in the ocean. Coming out of college and entering the NBA, is like a big fish diving into an aquarium to swim with sharks.

Of course, there are exceptions to every rule, but overall the game is just so much bigger, faster and tougher at the NBA level and not everyone who gets there can keep up. Often coming out of college, especially for so many of those that enter the draft after only a year or two, it becomes a game of boys trying to compete against men and often not succeeding.

Frank Williams would be an example of this. Williams would go on to play two of his three total seasons in the NBA with the Knicks. In those two seasons, he averaged only 3.2 points in the whopping 11.4 minutes he played.

Ouch.

This pick would be another one of many instances where the Knicks leadership showed a near-complete inability to accurately gauge talent at any level of basketball.

But Williams was the 25th pick. It’s not the end of the world when a 25th pick doesn’t work out, right? It happens. So, let’s talk about Antonio McDyess.