Brooklyn Nets grades: Alan Williams still stuck in between

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Alan Williams spent much of the 2018-19 season with the Brooklyn Nets playing at their G League affiliate on Long Island and faces a career crossroads.

Alan Williams spent all but nine days of the 2018-19 season on the roster of the Brooklyn Nets, but spent most of his time with the team — on a two-way contract — toiling for the Long Island Nets in the G League.

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Williams initially joined the Nets on Sept. 24, signing a two-way contract after spending two full seasons and part of a third with the Phoenix Suns before he was waived on the second day of the new league year last July.

On Jan. 2, he was waived at his own request, as Williams had reportedly nearly completed a deal to return to China, where he played for most of his first professional season in 2015-16.

When that deal fell through, Williams came back to the Nets and re-signed a two-way deal on Jan. 11.

He didn’t get a chance to show much in the preseason, as he was sidelined by an ankle injury that also kept him inactive for the first three games of the regular season.

Here is Williams’ status breakdown for the 77 games he was on the roster this season.

Games played: 5
Games started: 0
DNP-Coach’s Decision: 5
Inactive-injury: 3 (right ankle sprain, Oct. 17-20)
Inactive-healthy scratch: 6
G League Assignment: 58

As he has been throughout much of his time in the NBA, Williams was extremely productive in his short stints, triggering a small-sample-size alarm with his per-36 minutes averages of 24.9 points and 26.3 rebounds for Brooklyn.

This was Williams’ fourth NBA season and his age 26 year — he turned 26 on Jan. 28 — so he’s not the epitome of a raw, young project anymore.

Williams might have been a star playing in the NBA of the 1990s, where at 6-foot-8 and 265 pounds, he would have been plunked under the basket at both ends of the floor to bang bodies, score and rebound at will.

In the pace-and-space era of the early 21st century, that archetype going the way of the dodo bird — if not extinct, then certainly well down that path already.

Let’s take a look at Williams’ contributions this season.