Almost A Laker… Williams Trade Rescinded!

Hornets fill in their Center position by getting Nurkic from PHO...

Hornets receive:

• Jusuf Nurkić
• 2026 first-round pick

Suns receive:

• Cody Martin
• Vasilije Micić
• 2026 second-round pick

 

we can absolutely beat not only Denver, but anybody.

Luka completely changes our ceiling and raises our floor...and now we got a lob threat young 23-year old center that can get better?

Lakers are primed to make a real run now....

 

Suns got Fat Rubio

 

With Wemby in the league and Luka on the team Mark with his hops, size and length may turn out better for us realistically than either of those guys as he gets better and better I’m assuming. If this team and roster and LA history doesn’t motivate him nothing would. Just don’t think it will be a problem in the least.

 

This Hornets guy on Locked On Lakers was very unflattering re: Mark Williams as a player.

 

I have some very unflattering comments for the Hornets organization.

There's a reason guys look a lot better after leaving that team.

 

He's 23... damn. Im 45 and look younger, just saying

 

He has the Mutombo genes

 

re: the haberstroh stuff. first, haberstroh HATES the lakers, always attend to such things. oconnor is also not a fan (believe he's a boston guy).

that said, i have some issues with the narrative emerging that williams is a bad defender because big guys are putting up numbers against charlotte.

first, let's start with stats. the narrative is that mark williams was a GREAT defender his rookie year, then got hurt, then became dumb, slow, and lazy and a bad defender. well, the numbers...do not support this AT ALL. the main individual defensive stat i prefer is DBPM--individual DRTG sucks(e.g., it thinks AD and wemby are meh). you may prefer another, and i'm glad to discuss it. but i use that a lot because it's served me well in terms of matching the eye test (and showing me things my eye has missed on occasion).

anyway, williams's DBPM this year (1.0) is higher this year than in his supposedly better rookie year. it's a level higher than walker kessler (.6, whom everyone claims is an outstanding defender still, despite a regression over time) and near with AD (1.3), rudy gobert (1.3), nick claxton (1.3), jarret allen (1.1), and daniel gafford (1.2, whom haberstroh specifically compares favorably to williams). for reference, robert williams (consistently near 3) and wemby (same) kill everyone in this stat, and dereck lively (2.4) and chet holmgren (2.2) are also great here.

for further reference, vuc is generally near zero, valanciunas is negative, ayton is typically negative, nurkic typically below 1.

all this is to say that the numbers i trust suggest williams is pretty good on defense and better than anyone we could have reasonably obtained except maybe robert williams. both players have injury concerns, but robert's are definitely longer and more concerning, imo. and mark has shown a LOT more potential (and production) on offense.

haberstroh trots the % defense at the rim stuff, but i don't love that stat as it ignores context. i'd have to see some other numbers. for example, how many attempts are there? some guys are intimidating and people don't test them, so when they DO test them, it means they know they have an advantage. that could inflate that stat. the other thing that can inflate that stat could be the team defensive scheme and the individual quality of perimeter defenders. the reason i prefer DBPM is that at least tries to account for that in terms of the simple "is your team doing better defensively when you're on the floor" concept?

tl;dr: i think williams will be fine defensively. not great, but probably good. and better than anyone we could have gotten with what we had to offer.

the guy we traded was a -2 on defense (and still negative on offense). he's a rookie and will improve, but for whatever reason, we struggled on both ends (OBPM was negative for dalton, too) when he played.

anyway, go cry it out, tom. i did enjoy watching him squirm at the end when KOC was like: "so you're saying it was a bad trade for the lakers, right? right, tom? say it, coward!" and he couldn't. because he knows it wasn't. and he's sad.

 

Get ready for more negative takes on Williams. And while they're at it - soon we'll start to hear how the Luka trade that was terrible for Dallas is actually an overpay by LA. Whether they're mad, scared, or a mix of the two, the rest of the league is struggling to cope.

 

i mean, the zone is already flooded with luka's fat and a defensive liability. tears are coming.

 

He has the tools to become a monster defensively with his speed, athleticism and insane length. If only he was under Thompson in Georgetown lol

 

Well c’mon be honest now …. Lakers getting Luka is not on the level of Lacob landing Butler. Or why else would he be beating his chest with the “light years better than everyone else” bragging?