I agree with the first 90% of your post, but am curious about your beef with Marcus Williams. His off-court judgment and work ethic were questionable, but his combination of scoring and passing ability were unsurpassed. He carried us to the Elite 8 in 2006.
I've ranted on this before, and I know I'm in the minority so you certainly don't have to see it my way, but here goes:
I have a hard time getting past the fact that Marcus was a part of two preseason No. 1 teams and did his best to f them both up off the court. We survived without him the first time when he couldn't bother showing up for classes as a freshman - I frankly wish we tried again the second time without him, because he had proven to me by up again that you can't count on him. It should have ripped his heart out to the core to not be there to win a ring in 2004, and he had a chance for a reprieve, and then he screwed up even worse. Those two f-ups probably cloud my judgment a little on the rest.
On the court, I thought that Marcus was way too aloof for a leadership role. Lazy. Hollywood. Didn't give a s***. That was a trait that showed up throughout his career - he didn't give a s*** that he let the team down in 2004, and he didn't give a s*** about getting his 12 percent body fat down to something respectable for the NBA (which is why he lasted 1/10 as long as our current head coach). He played like he thought the little things didn't matter and that we could just simply outscore teams and/or make some plays at the end, and everyone fell in line behind him. Perhaps had AJ been around, he could have filled some of that void (Ben could be aloof too, but had Taliek alongside him to rally the troops, be an energy guy, dive for loose balls, etc.). But the same team that showed some impressive toughness playing shorthanded with a deer-in-the-headlights Austrie and beating two top 10 teams anyway in Maui, gave up 80+ points in every postseason game (except the one we were down 10 to Albany in the second half).
Marcus was outstanding against Kentucky - probably his signature game with us, especially given what Rondo has gone on to do - but he was frankly hot garbage against Washington and George Mason, until it was hero time late and then he turned it on to try to bail us out of a hole we wouldn't have been in if he had played a full 40. To his credit, he had a big "and one" late in both games, and then had an impact in both OTs, helping his stat line. But I was cursing him up and down the whole way through the Washington game for lazy turnovers (high school crap like one-handed crosscourt passes that led to UW layups), not getting back on D, not guarding anyone, etc. We were dead in the water, but Rashad hits two huge threes in the last 30 seconds (with Marcus getting that and-one in between), so we get another life. He was 30 seconds from ending with a hollow 15-point, 5-assist, 7-turnover stat line. Then with a minute to go in regulation against George Mason, Marcus had five points on 2-8 shooting and we were in desperation mode - then he makes some plays. Too late.
But if I liked Marcus, I'd probably have long ago forgotten the first 39 minutes of UW and GM and would remember him for being clutch. I had established a dislike for him, and probably had a case of "confirmation bias" - looking for the things that proved my preconceived conclusions. Not having AJ those two years might have changed everything.
