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Roster spots are scarce on the Spurs. If a player cannot even provide decent minutes against inferior-grade summer-league players, how on earth is he going to make the Spurs' team?
If Butler has been "so-so" then Williams is far beyond "sucks badly". Far far beyond that.
Butler has looked downright dominant for extended periods of time during SL. He has shown the ability to score down low, solid FT shooting, great vision and passing skills and a high BBIQ.
Williams has shown that he can run up and down the court (albeit, slowly) and pull off a very good Sue Storm impersonation. Saying that he simply "sucks badly" when Butler is so-so is giving Williams too much credit.
Roster spots are scarce on the Spurs. If a player cannot even provide decent minutes against inferior-grade summer-league players, how on earth is he going to make the Spurs' team?
The Spurs didn't draft a domestic player at the top of the second round just to cut him after a handful of summer league games.
If you read the analysis of him by Ludden and some comments from the coaching staff, it's clear that they're willing to give him a pass and focus on his positive attribute...defense.
He's also going to cost them next to nothing next year, is 20yrs old, has plenty of potential, and contrary to intial reports...he is a coachable, hard worker.
Some kids just start out slow and then get comfortable in a system.
I'm not saying this kid will be a superstar, and he could in fact turn out to be utter crap....
BUT, I'm giving him more than 3 weeks of summer league games to prove himself.
Bottom Line: He'll be a Spur for at least a year, so I'm gonna give him the benefit of the doubt and hope he's just a late bloomer.
Having some good low post move and some nice assist isn't enough to have a good summer league.
Butler wasn't in a good shape, his defense wasn't good and he was foul prone.
Butler has averaged 12/6 in Vegas, "so-so" fits well to his SL performance.
where did Butler finish at with regard to dunks?
iirc correctly at one point he as 0-7 wasn't he?
Props to CJ for his 4 assists and 0 TOs.
I get wary anytime I see the Spurs FO, coaching staff, or writers giving this kid props....
Makes me think they're legitimately looking at bringing him in when the ship out Beno....and I'm not too sure about that.
Eh, Beno and CJ provide the same skill-set: jack and crap. And CJ would cost less, so I'm OK with it.
Thats why I love having my security blanket around...Jacque Vaughn.
When the hits the fan he can at least salvage the backup PG spot.
Does anyone know more about that Admunson kid on the 6ers? Hes been a monster in the summer, was wondering what his situation looked like
Not sure, but with the Sixers being so thin at the PF spot, they'd be crazy not to sign him to a min-type deal.
If they're stupid enough to let him go, I'd say the Spurs should make a run at him.
Man, I missed the replay of the Spurs vs. Sixers on NBAtv (the game from the 13th). It was on today at noon.
That was the only game of RMR I wanted to watch.
DVR saves lives....Man, I missed the replay of the Spurs vs. Sixers on NBAtv (the game from the 13th). It was on today at noon.
That was the only game of RMR I wanted to watch.
Or improves them at least....
I would have DVR'ed the game but I didn't know it was going to be on at noon.
Just paused my DVR about three minutes in to do this post....
Marcus Williams looks much better than average on defense in the game thus far. He's blocked two of Thaddeus Young's shots already and is staying on his hip.
He also had nice form on one of his jumpers that he hit...but was unfortunately called off because of a traveling violation. He then proceeded to jack up a shot with the old ugly form....but at least there's ability to re-form it.
Anyways...I'm gonna go back to watching the game, but just wanted to say that Williams has excellent defensive potential and is already solid in that area from what I can tell.
I'm watching it myself right now (I'm in the middle of the second quarter). I counted 3 blocks by Williams in that first quarter....as well as a nice Sanikidze 3 ball. One thing that bugs me though is just how slow Williams' release is.
I thought I even saw a fourth....but yeah I don't even know what the stat-sheet said.
His release is painful though....like he has a hitch in the wrist-flick or something.
Got interrupted....but on to quarter #2
Stat sheet said 2 blocks.
We should synch up our players so that we can comment on the game together in this thread! Like a live game thread, but with replay and all!
PS: There is a nice play later where Williams bricks a shot and Sanikidze cleans up the glass with flair.Enjoy.
We should sign Louis Amundson
I don't see how people can compare Williams' performance to Butler/White. Butler actually played for the Knicks, and White has been in and around the league for 2 years, practicing with the Spurs, and he is 24. White and Butler are far more developed than Williams. Of course they are going to play better.
White has only been in the league one season and played in just a handful of actual NBA games. Butler has been in the league 3 seasons now, but hes only a couple years older than Williams. Sanikidze is only a few months older than Williams and has not played a single second of NBA time, is playing in his first summer league, and played sparingly for his team in Spain last season. All of these players looked much better than Marcus.
That being said, I think he makes the roster for at least a year. Watching this game today (with the vastly improved camera angles and coverage) it is apparent that while Williams is highly flawed offensively, his defense is noteworthy.
My analysis:
Viktor Sanikidze: 15 pts (4-11 FG, 2-6 3pt, 5-6 FT), 6 RBD, 2 STL, 1 TO
This is the one game that he played significant minutes in and it is also his best of the SL. Viktor was the best player on the floor in the 3rd quarter when he scored 10 points, stole the ball for a fast break and grabbed several rebounds...and he didn't even play the whole quarter, logging only about 8 minutes to do all that. Most of Viktor's points came in ways that he could realistically translate over into the NBA. Viktor got out in transition and was open with good frequency (surely he would have had a handful of extra points if Watson didn't always have blinders on). He shot a fair amount of three pointers tonight preferring entirely to spot up when he fired away. His form looks different than it did earlier in the summer league (to me at least). Its almost like the coaching staff has critiqued his form as his release seems significantly quicker now. Viktor spent a lot of time making cuts to try and get open and was not especially prone to standing around as some players can be on offense. He was obviously more into the defense and rebounding and contributing where he could. He always seemed interested on defense and did well even when guarding players like Thaddeus Young. Viktor continued to crash the boards fairly well but spent a lot of time out on the perimeter thereby limiting his ability to pull in boards. Frankly, his 6 rebounds figure is just plain wrong. I counted at least 8 boards on the night...not that it really matters. Sanikidze spent a lot of time guarding Vanderbilt's Derrick Byars who took only 3 shots and scored a meager 2 points. To be fair, Byars didn't seem to have his head in the right place tonight, but Viktor's length obviously bugged him. Sanikidze played the passing lanes very well tonight which led to several near steals. Unfortunately, several of his near steals ended up being foolish fouls that could have been prevented. But the effort is clearly there. Sanikidze was credited with 2 steals for the game. One of them was the result of Marcus Williams stripping the ball and Viktor simply collecting it up off the floor. But the second steal started a 1 on 1 fast break that ended up sending him to the line for 2 FTs. His anticipation coupled with his long arms could really hinder players from making good passes down the line. Viktor's slashing game is really underdeveloped. It is hard to judge his handle since he doesn't like to put it on the floor extensively. However, he did take the ball coast to coast near the end of the game...resulting in a blown layup however. All and all, this was a wonderful showing by Sanikidze. The skills that he brought to the floor tonight all seem to be ones that he could legitimately translate to the NBA and his stats are not simply the result of him "beating up" on younger players.
Marcus Williams: 13 pts (4-14 FG, 5-5 FT), 8 RBD, 4 AST, 2 BLK, 5 TOs
Marcus started the game and looked very tense. His first two touches resulted in traveling calls as he tried to slash to the basket without putting the ball on the floor. But Marcus calmed down and began to look more comfortable by the 2nd quarter. In fact, in the 3rd when Viktor was playing so well a lot of it was facilitated by Marcus Williams' crisp plays. The two seemed to really play well together that whole quarter as they seemed to be aware of each other's position on the floor. The first thing though, that grabbed you about Marcus' performance was the sheer number of blocked shots he was getting. I counted 3 blocks in the first quarter, but PHAT TONY believes he saw 4. Williams would go on to block another shot later in the game. The stat sheet saying that he only got 2 is just plain incorrect. While blocks are always nice, these plays were almost exclusively against Thaddeus Young, the 12th pick from this years draft, only adding to the allure of his repeated defense ability. Williams was able to frustrate him much of the night with his length and kept up with him pretty well. Now, by no means did Marcus shut Mr. Young down as he still managed to record 19 points. But without Williams' presence it clearly would have been more. Offensively, Marcus still has a lot of work to do, but his confidence started to show up later in the game. Marcus touched the ball much more frequently on offense and was able to help manipulate the game to a point (as indicated by his 4 assists). But while increased confidence was able to fix some aspects of his offense it clearly had no effect on his fugly shot. Its just plain gross. Moving on... Marcus was able to crash the boards pretty well and yank down some good rebounds. While several of those weren't exactly ones he had to work very hard for, several of them required him to get into the pack and pull them away from somebody. All and all, good game for Marcus. His shooting was pretty pathetic, but otherwise I saw very good things from him here.
CJ Watson: 18 pts (6-11 FG, 1-1 3pt, 5-6 FT), 2 RBD, 3 AST, 3 TO
Still not interested.
Last edited by Darkwaters; 07-18-2007 at 09:14 PM.
Dude, he's 21 years old,born in 86. The only guy on the sixers roster who's younger than him is Thaddeus Young... I'm pretty sure everybody else got through 4 years of college, or entered the league 2+ years ago.
Player YOB
Louis Amundson 1982
Edin Bavcic 1984
Christian Burns 1985
Derrick Byars 1984
Rodney Carney 1984
John Cox 1981
Herbert Hill 1984
Bobby Jones 1984
Rashad Jones-Jennings 1984
Gerry McNamara 1983
Shavlik Randolph 1983
Dustin Salisbery 1984
Jason Smith 1986
Louis Williams 1986
Thaddeus Young 1988
PS. As you may have guessed from the DOB's, there's a reason why Amundson appears so much more physically capable and focused than the 22 year olds he's playing against...
Ok, subs ute the word "younger" for "inferior" and then the concept is more accurately portrayed. The point is that if Viktor walked into the YMCA and started schooling guys I really wouldn't be impressed. The same goes (to a much lesser degree) with Summer League. But my point is that the skills he shown look like they would translate against superior talent.
How did White look?
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