NBA Mock Draft: DeAndre Ayton joins the Hawks

Williams has picked it up during the first two games of conference competition for the Aggies after a frustrating start to the year on the offensive end.

It’s a positive sign for the sophomore, who returned for his second season at Texas A&M despite lottery consideration in last year’s draft. He hasn’t even been a starter all year for the Aggies, who with Tyler Davis and Tonny Trocha-Morales can play the rotations more than most teams with elite, inconsistent talent.

However, Billy Kennedy’s team is better when Williams is on the court, especially defensively. In fact, Aggies’ opponents score a mere 81 points per 100 possessions when Williams plays — that’s the kind of impact he is capable of for one of the better defenses in the country. In his second season, Williams is averaging 2.6 blocks per game along with 1.1 steals, creating a statistical profile that nearly cements his lottery status in June’s draft.

And in the last two games, including a 12-point, 11-rebound outing against Florida on Tuesday night, Williams has shown what teams saw last summer. Though undersized as a center, Williams could play a Clint Capela-type role for some team, in which he controls the game as a defender and keeps things simple on offense.

That role is available on more teams each year as the league shoots more threes, meaning Williams could be even more valuable at the next level as a center.