Latavious Williams, D-Leaguer & NBA Draft Prospect, Loves Rebounding

Latavious Williams, the first NBA Draft prospect to go straight from high school to the D-League, participated in a pre-draft workout for the Toronto Raptors today along with Gani Lawal, Samardo Samuels, Devin Ebanks, Ben Uzoh and Michael Roll.

Fortunately, since the Toronto media is awesome, we have extensive coverage of how it went - even though the workout was closed to the media.

The Score's Holly Mackenzie might be the only person in the world that shares Ridiculous Upside's love for young, deserving talent flying under the radar (actually Holly loves everything, but work with me here).  That, more than likely, is why she took the time to transcribe everything Williams said today in his post-workout media availability as well as what Raptors' Director of Pro Personnel Jim Kelly had to say about our favorite prospect.

The money quote from Williams was alluded to in my headline:

"You just gotta go and attack the boards. Easy points. Easy points," Williams said. "Too many guys don't look for the block out, you just creep on in there and get it, get a put back and defensive glass, just go and hit that, too. Rebounding is easy. I love it."

In my re-watching of Williams' entire D-League season, I did notice his knack for rebounding was primarily because he was able to use his athleticism due to opposing players not boxing him out.  I'm not sure Williams will love to rebound as much when NBA guys figure out how to put a body on him, however.

As far as Kelly's thoughts, I think his answer when asked if Williams is talented enough is pretty interesting:

"He's getting there. He's got a good base of skills there. At the beginning of the year he was kind of an inside guy. You saw in the workouts today that he was shooting the ball out at the three-point line. He's not proficient out there, but he's expanding his game. He's putting it on the floor a little bit better."

Hoops Addict's Ryan McNeill has the audio from the scrum as well.