Los Angeles Clippers guard Lou Williams is a three-time Sixth Man of the Year award, so you would unlikely think of the veteran as a bad teammate.
Williams, 33, while speaking with ESPN's Ros Gold-Onwude on Friday, shrugged off a rumor that he and his Clippers teammates were coping with a chemistry issue.
Gold-Onwude: “Are you guys staying in contact during this time
Williams: It's interesting because our group, we've always communicated everyday, regardless — that's just how this group is built.
Despite all the chemistry [criticism], people were talking. We kinda enjoyed it, we enjoyed that people had us pegged wrong — “Who's going to shoot the ball at the end of the game? They barely talk to each other” yada yada yada yada yada … we would listen to that stuff and we would laugh.
Williams joined the Clippers in the offseason prior to the 2017-18 NBA season, winning the Sixth Man of the Year award in the last two seasons. During that time he led L.A. in scoring primarily coming off the bench in two years that saw Blake Griffin traded to the Detroit Pistons for, among other assets, Tobias Harris, and Harris dealt to the Philadelphia 76ers mid-season the following year. Throughout his tenure with the Clippers, Williams has been a stabilizing veteran force off the pine, especially before the joint arrival of All-Stars Kawhi Leonard and Paul George.
In January of this year, a report surfaced in The Athletic that the Clippers had internal drama brewing due to perceived preferential treatment the two stars possess, with Williams, among other players, scrutinizing and rejecting the rumor.