Elliot Williams

[Rastapopoulos]

We got to see Babbitt and Johnson in Summer League, but not Williams. What do we know about him?

He's supposed to have a ridiculous vertical (48?)
He's a small, skinny 2G who may have some PG skills (heard that one before)
He played little in his one season at Duke, but Coach K liked his defense
He was in the 2008 McDonald's game (as was Babbitt) whose MVP was Tyreke Evans
He's been working out with Greg Oden.

Anything else? Anyone actually seen him play? Is he bound for the D-League, or will he make Bayless/Rudy expendable (cue comments about how Rudy is already expendable)? Does anyone have high hopes for him, or was he an off-the-wall pick destined to see no PT and get traded?

 

[Paxil]

Anything else? Anyone actually seen him play?

Just saw videos of him dunking... and man can he jump.

 

[Nikolokolus]

I never watched him play for Memphis and although it's possible I saw him play for Duke 2 years ago I don't recall. Frankly, I don't think too many Blazers fans have much of an idea of what he can or can't do. At best I've heard people compare him to Russell Westbrook (The UCLA version, not the NBA version).

My guess is that he'll take a few turns with the Stampede, just like Armon and Babbitt will, and will probably rack up 60+ DNP-CDs.

 

[LittleAlex]

I never watched him play for Memphis and although it's possible I saw him play for Duke 2 years ago I don't recall. Frankly, I don't think too many Blazers fans have much of an idea of what he can or can't do. At best I've heard people compare him to Russell Westbrook (The UCLA version, not the NBA version).

My guess is that he'll take a few turns with the Stampede, just like Armon and Babbitt will, and will probably rack up 60+ DNP-CDs.

I hope this happens because if it doesn't that means Portland got fucked by the injury fairy again.

 

[The_Lillard_King]

Wasn't this suppose to be a deep draft? I was actually hoping for something more with the first round pick but it sounds like Williams is a project.

I don't get trading Webster for Babbit, drafting Williams then signing Matthews to a sizable contract. Maybe this is all a set up for a big trade . . . .it's going to suck if that big trade happens at trade deadline and the Blazers have to deal with this huge logjam for half a season. I also would hate to see Rudy traded for scraps when we can sweeten up the big trade with a player like Rudy.

Cho's got his work cut out for him. Confident he will put the necessary work . . . but can he get a deal done?

 

[Mediocre Man]

Williams can jump high

Williams is probably pretty smart because he attended Duke

Williams is supposed to be a very good defender

Williams supposedly has no jump shot


A scout friend gave me, what I think is the greatest analogy. If Jerryd Bayless is Jarrett Jack on steroids, then Elloitt Williams is Jerryd Bayless on steroids

 

[STOMP]

Wasn't this suppose to be a deep draft? I was actually hoping for something more with the first round pick but it sounds like Williams is a project.

I don't get trading Webster for Babbit, drafting Williams then signing Matthews to a sizable contract.

it makes a lot of sense to me. I've stated why a few times and others have said pretty much the same things so it's not like it's just me. One more time...

Martell had proven to be a volume shooter who only excelled with big minutes. The younger Batum had proven to be better at most everything, so MW wasn't going to get those minutes at SF and with no handle he wasn't getting run at the 2. Matthews had proven to excel in a reserve role and was thought more capable of backing up the 2 and 3 spots so he was offered the MLE. This also took away a solid young rotation player from a division rival. Babbitt was drafted for his potential/upside, not his ability to contribute this year. Williams reportedly hurt his knee working out for the Blazers prior to the draft and fell to them... he's another pick made on potential/upside

STOMP

 

[Nikolokolus]

Williams can jump high

Williams is probably pretty smart because he attended Duke

Williams is supposed to be a very good defender

Williams supposedly has no jump shot


A scout friend gave me, what I think is the greatest analogy. If Jerryd Bayless is Jarrett Jack on steroids, then Elloitt Williams is Jerryd Bayless on steroids

Wouldn't it have just been simpler to put Jerryd Bayless on steroids and call it a day?

 

[Mediocre Man]

Wouldn't it have just been simpler to put Jerryd Bayless on steroids and call it a day?

Would you ruin other great stories by just typing the end? I think not

 

[Nikolokolus]

Would you ruin other great stories by just typing the end? I think not

I guess the real question then is, who is Eliot Williams on steroids, when do we draft him and has anybody ever actually posted a 60" vertical?

 

[maxiep]

Wouldn't it have just been simpler to put Jerryd Bayless on steroids and call it a day?

Elliot Williams also has human arms and not the T-Rex appendages Jerryd possesses. Besides, I'm fine with both of them on our roster.

 

[Nikolokolus]

Elliot Williams also has human arms and not the T-Rex appendages Jerryd possesses. Besides, I'm fine with both of them on our roster.

Actually I heard he's got a really long wingspan ... which of course makes me think of this.

Practices should be interesting this year.

EDIT: I guess Fay Wray is a "basketball?"

 

[PtldPlatypus]

Actually I heard he's got a really long wingspan ... which of course makes me think of this.

Practices should be interesting this year.

EDIT: I guess Fay Wray is a "basketball?"

You're calling Elliot Williams an ape? Racist.

 

[Nikolokolus]

You're calling Elliot Williams an ape? Racist.

No. I'm calling him a mythical creature, King Kong. (at worst I'm being speciesist.)

 

[shamelessblazer]

it makes a lot of sense to me. I've stated why a few times and others have said pretty much the same things so it's not like it's just me. One more time...

Martell had proven to be a volume shooter who only excelled with big minutes. The younger Batum had proven to be better at most everything, so MW wasn't going to get those minutes at SF and with no handle he wasn't getting run at the 2. Matthews had proven to excel in a reserve role and was thought more capable of backing up the 2 and 3 spots so he was offered the MLE. This also took away a solid young rotation player from a division rival. Babbitt was drafted for his potential/upside, not his ability to contribute this year. Williams reportedly hurt his knee working out for the Blazers prior to the draft and fell to them... he's another pick made on potential/upside

STOMP

I still think Webster could've gotten thirty minutes a night at 3 and been great with Batum getting 15 mpg at backup two (especially if Rudy is gone) taking advantage of his ballhandling ability. Plus Webster was getting a little burn at stretch 4 at times. I think we'll miss his size.

The real trade off is Webster for Babbit AND Matthews (with his contract), not sure it's worth the increased price but we will see. Would love to see Webster playing for Sloan.

 

[RR7]

No. I'm calling him a mythical creature, King Kong. (at worst I'm being speciesist.)

Or, a mythical creature like a unicorn.

Homophobe.

 

[Rastapopoulos]

Or, a mythical creature like a unicorn.
Homophobe.

Unicorns were gay? So THAT'S why they died out.

I think the relevant mythical creature is a short college shooting guard who learns to be a PG in the NBA.

 

[oldmangrouch]

I think the relevant mythical creature is a short college shooting guard who learns to be a PG in the NBA.

Bullseye. Since Johnson's college performance also marks him as a bit of a Tweener, it seems a strange duplication of skill sets.

 

[Reep]

I wonder if the success of Westbrook has anything to do with it?

 

[The_Lillard_King]

it makes a lot of sense to me. I've stated why a few times and others have said pretty much the same things so it's not like it's just me. One more time...

Martell had proven to be a volume shooter who only excelled with big minutes. The younger Batum had proven to be better at most everything, so MW wasn't going to get those minutes at SF and with no handle he wasn't getting run at the 2. Matthews had proven to excel in a reserve role and was thought more capable of backing up the 2 and 3 spots so he was offered the MLE. This also took away a solid young rotation player from a division rival. Babbitt was drafted for his potential/upside, not his ability to contribute this year. Williams reportedly hurt his knee working out for the Blazers prior to the draft and fell to them... he's another pick made on potential/upside

STOMP

Thanks for doing that one more time, although to let you know I read your opinion before and just disagree with it.

Williams makes no sense to me given that the Blazers star player plays that position, that the Blazers overpaid (by all accounts including the player) for Matthews whoose natural position is a SG and you alway have Bayless and Rudy who can play the SG position. In a deep draft to pick a SG with potential on a team loaded with SG doesn't make sense to me. We just see it different.

But I also wasn't big on Bayless who "slipped" down to the Blazers as well.

 

[STOMP]

I still think Webster could've gotten thirty minutes a night at 3 and been great with Batum getting 15 mpg at backup two (especially if Rudy is gone) taking advantage of his ballhandling ability. Plus Webster was getting a little burn at stretch 4 at times. I think we'll miss his size.

The real trade off is Webster for Babbit AND Matthews (with his contract), not sure it's worth the increased price but we will see.

Matthews signed at a rate about 2M more per year then Webster was at. Wes is slightly smaller then Martell, Batum is about the same size, and Cunningham is a little bigger. They've got their size bases covered as well as the skills. Good luck and all to Martell, but I don't think they'll be missing him much

STOMP

 

[maxiep]

I think guys like Bayless and Williams can fit on this team because of Roy. Roy likes to dominate the ball, which makes him a decent PG on offense, leaving Bayless and Williams as the de facto SGs. On defense, both Bayless and Williams should be able to guard PGs.

 

[Cake]

Thanks for doing that one more time, although to let you know I read your opinion before and just disagree with it.

Williams makes no sense to me given that the Blazers star player plays that position, that the Blazers overpaid (by all accounts including the player) for Matthews whoose natural position is a SG and you alway have Bayless and Rudy who can play the SG position. In a deep draft to pick a SG with potential on a team loaded with SG doesn't make sense to me. We just see it different.

But I also wasn't big on Bayless who "slipped" down to the Blazers as well.

A couple points:

How long are we going to be 'loaded' at shooting guard? Fernandez is all but gone and I think Bayless may be on his way out pretty soon as well, which makes it more sensible to go with a rotation of: Roy, Matthews and Williams (who won't see much playing time anyway) Also, we drafted Williams before we knew what player we would sign in free agency. A greater mistake would have been to NOT draft Elliot Williams with the assumption that we would sign Wesley matthews...then fail to sign Wesley matthews.

So what position should we have drafted? Our only real position of need is, in my opinion, point guard. Any PG we would have taken at that point in the draft would have been a reach. So taking best player available and letting him battle it out for playing time doesn't seem like a bad idea. After all, we had just drafted a SF when Nicolas Batum is, in my opinion, already our 2nd best player and could very well be our best player within 2 years. Center? Maybe...but the prospects in the mid-twenties are always big projects and probably wouldn't pan out.

You gotta draft somebody...Williams seemed about as good as anybody for us really.

 

[The_Lillard_King]

A couple points:

How long are we going to be 'loaded' at shooting guard? Fernandez is all but gone and I think Bayless may be on his way out pretty soon as well, which makes it more sensible to go with a rotation of: Roy, Matthews and Williams (who won't see much playing time anyway) Also, we drafted Williams before we knew what player we would sign in free agency. A greater mistake would have been to NOT draft Elliot Williams with the assumption that we would sign Wesley matthews...then fail to sign Wesley matthews.

So what position should we have drafted? Our only real position of need is, in my opinion, point guard. Any PG we would have taken at that point in the draft would have been a reach. So taking best player available and letting him battle it out for playing time doesn't seem like a bad idea. After all, we had just drafted a SF when Nicolas Batum is, in my opinion, already our 2nd best player and could very well be our best player within 2 years. Center? Maybe...but the prospects in the mid-twenties are always big projects and probably wouldn't pan out.

You gotta draft somebody...Williams seemed about as good as anybody for us really.

Good points, although i see a lack of post offense on this team and the big man situation on this team is a little uncertain (because of the injury concern) I didn't study the draft so maybe Williams was the best possible pick, but another shooting guard, really?

Again my real puzzlement is I kept hearing about this deep draft . . . I was expecting a player to compete for minutes right away. Who knows maybe Williams is that player, I really don't know much about him other than he plays SG . . . where we seem to be a bit overloaded.

 

[Masbee]

I really don't know much about him other than he plays SG . . . where we seem to be a bit overloaded.

But, I and others keep saying we are not "overloaded" at SG.

Garbage in = garbage out.

Not saying your posts are garbage, just that if you start out with some faulty or incorrect assumptions, you will find it pretty hard to come to a conclusion close to the bullseye.

The Blazers brass go into the offseason with these goals and scouting notes:

Roy is the star of the team and he needs the ball in his hand as much as possible to maximize his current skill set. As well, he whines when he plays off the ball too much.

Miller, the best point guard the team has had in ages, also needs the ball in his hands to maximize his skill set.

No other perimeter player comes within a Grand Canyon gap of those two in offensive power. The team will get those two as many touches as they can. That means there are limited opportunites for the remaining perimeter players who want/need/beg for offensive touches.

Martell (IMO) asked the team to carve out a major and consistent role for him or trade him.

Rudy has begged the team to trade him for some time.

The options for trading a bunch of our players as part of a consolidation trade dwindled.

The are other ways to consolidate besides trading a bunch of ok guys for one good guy. You can also trade guys that don't fit for guys that fit better and for guys who are earlier in their development cycle or picks.

The team will have ended up trading two perimeter players (Martell and Rudy) who needed minutes and shots, for one player who can contribute without taking a lot of shots (Matthews) and youth to develop (Babbitt, Williams and the pick we will get for Rudy).

The rookies will not play except in injury situations.

These will be the heavy rotation perimeter players:

Miller, Roy, Batum, Bayless, Matthews.

Cunningham will get a little burn at 3 and be the primary injury backup if Batum gets hurt. Who else will play? and who else should play? Where is there a backlog? Where is the problem?

 

[The_Lillard_King]

Cunningham will get a little burn at 3 and be the primary injury backup if Batum gets hurt. Who else will play? and who else should play? Where is there a backlog? Where is the problem?

OK, I see the the logjam at the SG position. I see this because I see Roy being most effective as a shooting guard and should spend the bulk of the mins there (i understand other disagree, but that is what I think.) With Roy getting the bulk of the minutes at the SG position and Matthews getting the remaining time (again his natural position) that leaves little to no time for Williams or Bayless at that postion (thier natural position).

You break it up more by players and minutes, I'm breaking it up more in terms of position (because I'm tired of situations of trying to make Bayless a PG so he gets more minutes or our best player playing out of position).

This team, IMO, has tons of good smalls with many of them being natural SGs, that is the problem I see. I'm more concerned with LA, Camby, Oden and Pendy as the big men and was hoping to get a quality post guy or even a potential post player vs. another SG. If Williams is a project, fine. I would rather have a project at any other position than SG, but a project at any position won't get a lot of minutes . . . so if Williams is a project, that does reduce the logjam (that I see at SG). But that is how all this started, I was hoping for more than a project in this draft . . . but maybe that is unrealistic for #22 pick.

 

[Masbee]

OK, I see the the logjam at the SG position. I see this because I see Roy being most effective as a shooting guard and should spend the bulk of the mins there (i understand other disagree, but that is what I think.)

You are overthinking positions. I tried to explain in the post previous.

Of course the team would love to have well defined perfection, but it rarely works out that way.

They have two guys that will have the ball in their hands most of the time - Roy and Miller. Call em points, SG's, lead guards, whatever.

That is that. Everything else builds off that. Neither Roy or Miller are much on the defensive end. So the rest of the guys primary role will be to take care of the perimeter defense. If they fail, Johnson, Williams and Cunningham will be chomping at the bit to prove they can play NBA defense.

So, as I see it, Bayless and Matthews and Batum - all of them, are capable of defending many ones, depending on the matchups. I think Matthews would be fine checking his buddy Deron Williams and guys like Chauncey Billups or Baron Davis. We already have seen Bayless mostly play the 1 on defense. And Batum is one of those versatile players that can capably defend a lot of different guys.

As for defending Small Forwards, after Batum, you will see a lot of "small ball" as that is a long-time favorite of Nate. Both Roy and Matthews can play the small-ball 3. When the team needs to go big, we have Cunningham for that. Sure, it would be great to have Martell to call off the bench to defend 3's, but I don't think that was an option. He didn't want to be a specialty defender off the bench.

So, forget position. Most of the time, and all of the time when it matters, Miller or Roy has the ball in the half-court set. The other guys play off that and they are pretty interchangeable. The guys who WERE'NT as versatile are gone: Travis, Webster and Rudy were more limited.

 

[KingSpeed]

He's currently my avatar.

 

[BGrantFan]

Garbage in = garbage out.

Not saying your posts are garbage, just that

No disrespect intended, but...

Classic

 

[BGrantFan]

Does he rock the goggles like his cousin Elliot Perry used to back in the day?