Well, this turned out to be prescient. (I drew it last Thursday.)
My non-pictorial thoughts—for the record:
If I’m Chris Grant and I get the opportunity to add Derrick Williams via the 4/8 for 2 trade, I do it.
I couple that sentiment with the belief that ultimately, Derrick Williams is not a 3 and thus he and J.J. would be in direct competition for a role that only one of them could fill. (J.J.’s never been an invigorating bench player, and we wouldn’t be drafting DW at 2 to mimic Paul Millsap.) While I’m not sure that Derrick is the more talented prospect—which is both a defense of J.J. and a minor indictment of DW, who, turns out, is not quite the athlete he’s purported to be—DW strikes me as the more reliable one. In the end, I think reliability trumps even talent, and it’s not like Derrick Williams is a slouch of a talent.
Also for the record: I legitimately love our occasionally wayward J.J., could see him having a 20 and 10 season next year, and if this deal fails to materialize I take back every word of what I just wrote.
Happy Sunday everyone :)
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(One more note: this week’s picture was colored by my friend Nico Colaleo, who is a super-talented cartoonist with a website worth checking out if you’re at all interested in that sort of thing.)
Tags: Drawings from the Notebook of Chris Grant, J.J. Hickson
A few things I would like to note about Williams’ athleticism …His “agility” and “modified agility” test results were both 5th best out of 29 players at the combine that were 6′ 7″ or taller. Only one player in each test that was faster than him was a wing (Klay Thompson in lane agility and Jimmy Butler in modified). These tests are meant to gauge lateral quickness and Williams was faster than possible lottery small forwards like Chris Singleton and Kawhi Leonard.
Also if you sum “standing reach” with “max vertical jump” from the combine, Williams ranked 8th out of 53 players. I’ll define this as the ability to dunk over other players. The only likely lottery pick to beat Williams in this measurement was Tristan Thompson.
All that said, these combine tests are definitely an imperfect way to evaluate players. Williams is strong, extremely long, and relatively quick. Whoever drafts Williams needs to let him try to be a small forward.
Well said Kevin. I was going to add that this should be combined with the fact that he’s a heavy right now. Since he’s “average” with a body fat over 10%, that’s actually kind of impressive. Also, 19 bench presses tied for the most at the combine. With a 7’1″ wingspan. That is actually an incredible number.
Williams can’t play “D”.
They say that, but most rookies have trouble.
Williams could guard Nowitzki as well as anyone can.
He could probably do OK on Luol Deng.
He can’t guard Lebron; no one can.
He can’t guard Durant; Westbrook can stop him, but no one else can.
He will need help, but so do most players.
Varajao doesn’t blcok shots; he blocks lanes. He’s the best in the NBA at that.
Hickson made massive improvement last year on defense.
Give Pressey and Byron 40 games to work with him, and he’ll be good against
some small forwards, and adequate against the rest.
But he will rebound far better than average, score well, and shoot well.
Or so I hope.
Point taken re: the agility tests, and I certainly wasn’t trying to imply that he’s not a good athlete…but I guess I kind of did in toying with the idea that J.J. might be a better one.
I actually really like Derrick. I think he’d be a perfect fit next to Kyrie and would be thrilled if we somehow ended up with that second pick to grab him.
I think my biggest concerns with DW as a 3—and this is relative to his being a foundation piece for the team—would be his ability to keep up with the LeBrons of the world (granted, few) defensively, and his ability to create off the dribble from the perimeter. I’ll admit to not having watched a ton of college basketball this year, but from what I did see, DW’s perimeter work seems to involve either taking a few dribbles straight to the rim, or just pulling up. Neither of which is troublesome to see in a motion offense—in fact, might actually help—but I do get the impression that he’s not the type of guy who’ll have the ball in his hands as we run pick and rolls. I’m thinking, be it via jumper or dunk, he’s strictly a finisher.
Again, probably not a problem with Kyrie on the team…and my listing it as a worry is probably evidence of an impossible standard I’ve now crafted for prospective 3’s, but to me, that’s the difference between a second offensive option and a third. You can give the ball to the second offensive option with 10 seconds left in a game and have him create something positive.
All of that said, Derrick and Kyrie would be an AMAZING haul, and we clearly have a role for both of them. I’m just being irrationally analytical by both jumping about 8 steps ahead and analyzing where each of these guys sits on a championship Cavs team while assuming we can pull off the Detroit trade :)
I can definitely see the Williams-Hickson similarities. I think the key to Derrick being an effective 3 is losing a bunch of that fat, something that is probably easier for a player coming off injury (Irving) than someone who has been playing all year. If he can drop about 10 lbs, I think that would go a long way towards insuring he is fit enough to play the 3.
I sincerely hope this is not a pipe dream, but I get the feeling more and more that it will be.