http://probballreport.com/raptors-lou-williams-impresses-coach-casey-with-defense/ His Toronto coach liked his D.
excellent deal. Good age, good price, microwave offense off the bench and can play both guard spots and fills a need.
Not hating on Young, but he's a better dump when you consider his contract lasting 2 years longer than Sacre and Kelly, and we drafted two sfs in Brown and Nance.
Picking up a 1 year ago 7'2" 290 lb All Star defensive beast, that has offensive game either hand, with decent J and can shoot free throws, qualifies as "average"? You can make distinction semantically for "free agency" but aren't we talking "off season" moves here? Who cares whether FA or trade. I sure don't. All of a sudden we look like we are going to be back to kicking the Clippers' sorry a**es. Shot at playoffs. Scoreboard.
It would be better for it to be long term. If Lou gets good, we can trade him. He can be a good cash filler for something.
It's hard to say what the team will play like now that players are coming back from injuries. Clarkson hasn't really shown any lack of confidence, but in the past we had issues where no one would be able to get a shot off at the end of a quarter to beat the buzzer. Lou Williams can do this. From what I can find, not too many players are all that efficient with the end of the quarter buzzer beaters, but Lou is willing and he's able to create his own shot and at least get one towards the rim. I think I remember a C Bags game a few years ago when Kobe was injured and we didn't even get a shot off since everyone was clueless. Within the last 10 seconds of a quarter over the last season; 98 attempts for Lou last season, 58 of them are 3 pointers. 17% on 3 balls and 24.5% overall. Seems terrible, but even LeBron was worse. 23.1% overall and 8.7% on 3 balls, lol. Westbrook was worse too. 22.4% overall, 13.8% on 3 balls. Curry was great on 3 balls at 37.5%, but overall even he was severly lacking at 31.3% overall. Oh and to illustrate how willing Lou is...he had 98 attempts, Curry had 48, James had 52 and Westbrook had 58.
Lou is a fantastic addition to this team. His veiled tweets earlier about not being able to wait for the "big names" to sign make more sense now. Great, great addition. Mitch might suck at attracting stars, but he nails it on these role players. Russell/Williams Clarkson/Brown Kobe/Young That's not too bad. That's actually really really good. Williams and Young don't exactly mesh, but offense will certainly be no problem with this team. Defense... well... it could be worse probably? Still Lou is perfect as our bench leader and he allows us to give Russell a chance to start but also take him out when we need to. Suddenly our team is chock full of shot creators. Kobe, Clarkson, Russell, Randle, Young, and Williams are all capable of getting themselves a look. Hibbs might be able to also. I'm liking this team more and more.
He WAS an all star "defensive beast". The game is faster now and he is not the player he was. Hes a good add, not great. This team as constructed today has NO shot at the playoffs unless other teams get injured.....This FA/Summer is bad because of the FO taking the same exact flawed approach 3 years in a row. It could have been MUCH better, even without the big names like aldridge.
I think this signing does signify that Kobe is our starting small forward. Not much reason to sign him otherwise. We don't need two combo guards (Clarkson and Williams) as backups with Jabari Brown also on the roster at backup sg. So we are Russell/Williams/Clarkson Clarkson/Williams/J. Brown Kobe/Swaggy/A. Brown Randle/Black/Nance Hibbert/Black/Upshaw I think we may be done fellas. And I'm OK with it.
Not true at all. This team does have a shot at the playoffs. Dallas took a step back losing Monta and Chandler for DJ. Portland lost half their team including their best player. OKC will fill one of those playoff voids, but the other one is completely up for grabs between Dallas, Utah, and Lakers.
Operation Salvage 2015 offseason continues. This was an awesome addition. I watched him with the Raptors last season. He's a better Nick Young is how I'd put it. Less flash, more controlled, sweet jumper and at times their best player on the floor.
I don't disagree that the small ball thing isn't gonna be a definitive and lasting trend. But I think you can agree that this offseason could have been MUCH better. Am I saying it was bad? No. I give it a c+ or a b- Pushing hard to fill out the roster earlier on with above average guys would have been much better than waiting around for the big fish. 'IF kobe stays healthy, IF we have some luck, IF the rookies play well, IF hibbert plays like he used to" Than I agree, we have a decent shot at the playoffs...Thats a lot of ifs. All teams have the "if" factor, but not to this degree. "IF" the stars all align I think we can sneak in. Lets hope they do.
You're making 2 seasons ago sound like 6. The game's faster because not a whole lot of good big men. Don't you think if Bogut hadn't forgotten how to score he would not have been benched. They started him all year when he was able to go, didn't they. The small ball thing is not a lasting sea change in the league, plus we can certainly go small with Black at center who can run the floor and has some skills and can still swat. If we are getting worked by some team. Let's see how we're looking come start of the season. I'm not the only guy here thinks we have a shot, if lucky with health. I'm also not writing off Kobe just yet. Clippers and Portland got worse. OKC better. But "average" off season moves I can't agree with when we finalize the 15 man roster compared to what we had on it last year. It's all good.
Great addition. We have some great versatility in our backcourt, nearly everyone is capable of playing more than one position. We can roll with a lot of different lineups. He gives us a great offensive punch off the bench and can help makeup some offense when Kobe's out. Anytime you can get a 6th man of the year on a good contract, you do it. If Swaggy stays, that's a dangerous duo off the pine offensively. But we'll need either Roy or Upshaw in the game with them, because defense will be brutal.
