Matt Williams: The Next Best NBA Shooter?

It wasn’t that long ago when Matt Williams received the green light to shoot. In fact, it was only just last season that UCF head coach Johnny Dawkins told Williams to shoot the ball as soon as he was open.

Based on how his senior season went, Williams took the advice of his head coach and did just that. But while Williams may have been given the green light to shoot, it may be surprising to hear where he was allowed to shoot from.

“If I was two steps above half court and no one was in front of me, he wanted me to shoot it,” Williams told Basketball Insiders. “If I came across half court and there was no one in front of me, he said, ‘If you can shoot it, shoot it.’”

Williams, 6-foot-5, established himself as one of the best shooters in the country last season at UCF. He averaged 15.1 points, 4.3 rebounds and 1.9 assists in 36 games while shooting 39.1 percent from beyond the arc for the Knights.

Williams set the single-season school and American Athletic Conference records for three-point field goals made with 126 and set a school record after knocking down 11 three-pointers against USF on January 17.

He leaves UCF as its all-time leader in three-point field goals with 274.

“Matt is one of the best shooters I’ve seen in person from college until now,” former UCF teammate Isaiah Sykes told Basketball Insiders. “I witnessed him put the work in and I’d put money on him against any shooter out there. He deserves all of the blessings coming to him.”

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Although he is known as a great shooter, those that have had played with him are still sometimes surprised to see him shoot as well as he has. Most will say that they feel like Williams is in range virtually as soon as he steps out onto the court.

“I’ve seen this guy before practice shoot two-to-three feet behind the NBA line and sink 15-20 in a row multiple times,” former UCF teammate Kasey Wilson told Basketball Insiders. “I’m telling you, his shot from anywhere on the court looks the same from 15-35 feet.”

Williams didn’t become the school’s all-time three-point leader by accident. In fact, shortly after Dawkins became the head coach at UCF last year, he told Williams he believed he was a great shooter and wanted him to shoot more. Dawkins and his coaching staff wanted to prepare Williams for the next level.

In practice, the coaching staff put down blue tape on the court to mark the NBA three-point line. Dawkins didn’t want Williams shooting from the college three-point line in practice and wanted him to only attempt his shots from the NBA three-point line. In fact, if he shot from the college line, Dawkins would only count the shot as two points.

Dawkins can be credited to some degree with helping transform Williams to one of the team’s best players last year. Williams nearly doubled his scoring output from his junior year to his senior year and his three-point shot attempts nearly doubled as well. He knocked down 55 total three-pointers during his junior year and more than doubled that number to 126 in his senior year. 

Dawkins established himself as one of the best players to ever play at Duke. He was the school’s all-time leading scorer for several years until J.J. Redick broke his record in 2006. He later joined the university as a member of Mike Krzyzewski’s coaching staff and coached Redick during his time at Duke.

He encouraged Williams to pattern his game after Redick and often showed him film of Redick at Duke. Since Dawkins coached Redick, he would often give Williams the same advice he gave to Redick and Williams credits those film sessions and advice as monumental in improving his game.

“He would always let me know that I can’t mess with your confidence and [tell me] that’s a bad shot,” Williams recalled. “He told me when they coached Redick at Duke, they never told him what was a bad shot or a tough shot or a quick shot because that would mess up his game. That really helped me a lot.”

Several of his former teammates remember that he was constantly in the gym working on his shot throughout the day. He would spend a lot of time at night in the gym and would often stay for long periods of time. It got to the point where he would have to be told to leave because he’d shoot for so long.

“They started putting a time limit on him,” former UCF teammate Tristan Spurlock told Basketball Insiders. “He would shoot for hours so they made him cut his shooting time down to an hour.”

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Now, that green light to shoot has transformed him into one of the best shooters in this year’s draft class. While players like Lauri Markkanen, Luke Kennard and Bryce Alford are mostly talked about as the top shooters in this year’s class, Williams believes he’s in the mix as well. His 126 three-point makes last season were second in the country.

“I feel like I’m at the top,” Williams said. “I was just kind of a little unknown going into the draft and things like that but I don’t feel like anybody can outshoot me. That’s god’s gift to me is my shooting ability; I try to work on it as much as I can. I don’t feel like anybody can outshoot me.”

As one of the best shooters in the country at UCF, that success carried over into the Summer League last month. With the Miami HEAT, Williams averaged 9.8 points and 2.6 rebounds in eight Summer League games while shooting 39 percent from three-point range. His 23 made three-pointers ranked third among all Summer League players.

An ankle injury kept him out of the first two Summer League games in Orlando and he feels like he could have done even more.

“I just feel like I could have done more because the ankle injury set it back awhile,” Williams said. “I couldn’t really practice and get a flow in so from my situation, I feel like I did pretty good.”

Williams signed a one-year deal with the HEAT on July 24 that is non-guaranteed for next season. The deal can be converted to a two-way contract if the two sides agree to do so. Starting this season, NBA teams can retain up to 17 players during the regular season with two of those players signed to two-way contracts. Players signed to two-way contracts can spend up to 45 days with the NBA club, with the rest of the time spent with the team’s G League affiliate.

For Williams, the opportunity to develop within the HEAT organization is what appealed to him most. The HEAT have a proven track record of developing players in the NBA and he already sees himself as a member of the HEAT culture. He looks at players like Tyler Johnson, James Johnson and Rodney McGruder as guys that were nearly in the same position as he is.

“The way those guys work, they all kind of came from out of nowhere,” Williams said. “I kind of feel like I fit the mold of the HEAT guys just with the mentality that they have – all hard work. I just feel like I fit right in.”

Based on how successful the HEAT have been in transforming relatively unknown guys into meaningful players, Williams could find himself next in line.