Additionally, maybe Lance Thomas will re-sign for a bargain. I think of the two, the coaching staff like Lance more as he's more consistent with what he does and more capable on defense.

I mean, on our roster right now, what player has the kind of athleticism that can change the flow of a game? Who can actually break down the defense off the dribble, off the break or in the half court game? Grant and D Will?

That is sad, and part of the reason we only won 32 games.

Knixkik wrote:

franco12 wrote:If we can get a different coach & system like Mark Jackson, D Will could be a lot more productive. I hope we can keep him, love to lock him up long term at good money.

I mean, on our roster right now, what player has the kind of athleticism that can change the flow of a game? Who can actually break down the defense off the dribble, off the break or in the half court game? Grant and D Will?

That is sad, and part of the reason we only won 32 games.

Agreed. Getting more athletic is a must, so to start with we must resign the one player (other than Grant) who is an elite athlete and can get to the basket at will. This summer we need to increase that number of players on our roster for sure.

yeah I feel like the system and the coaching staff stunted his growth, at the same time, they did help him to increase his defensive intensity, and rebounding. The sporadic minutes, and the pace the knicks played with was not good for him at all, he looks primarily lost, especially in the triangle.

Do we want to go through another player at his position taking 2 yrs to learn?

knicks1248 wrote:

Knixkik wrote:

franco12 wrote:If we can get a different coach & system like Mark Jackson, D Will could be a lot more productive. I hope we can keep him, love to lock him up long term at good money.

I mean, on our roster right now, what player has the kind of athleticism that can change the flow of a game? Who can actually break down the defense off the dribble, off the break or in the half court game? Grant and D Will?

That is sad, and part of the reason we only won 32 games.

Agreed. Getting more athletic is a must, so to start with we must resign the one player (other than Grant) who is an elite athlete and can get to the basket at will. This summer we need to increase that number of players on our roster for sure.

yeah I feel like the system and the coaching staff stunted his growth, at the same time, they did help him to increase his defensive intensity, and rebounding. The sporadic minutes, and the pace the knicks played with was not good for him at all, he looks primarily lost, especially in the triangle.

Do we want to go through another player at his position taking 2 yrs to learn?

I don't understand how you quantify the 2 statements in bold.

First, has DWill been better than previous years? If he has, how much better? Still wrapping myself around WS/48 but that number exploded this year, he had been around .070 for career and was .120 this year. PER is up, and in fact his advanced stats across the board are all up http://www.basketball-reference.com/players/w/willide02.html. His pre and post all star shooting number are excellent stepping stones. 26 games post allstar, 49% overall and 44% from 3pt. http://espn.go.com/nba/player/splits/_/id/6480/derrick-williams

DWill has a reputation as being a slow learner, still a young guy. His minutes yo-yo'ed early on - November specifically - but settled down after that.

I don't like his intensity, court awareness and defense (he is probably the biggest culprit of bad swtiches, right up there with Melo), they are lacking big time and I didn't see improvement in those areas this year.

nyknickzingis wrote:I'd definitely try to bring him back at the same annual pay he had this season ($5M) for 4 years. It gives him a good chunk of guaranteed money. It's not a big cap hit. I wouldn't go more than that, because we have Porzingis, Melo and Lopez. We also have Hernangomez coming over next year, O'Quinn can play some 4. We need a backup wing to Melo more than we need a backup PF to Porzingis because Melo can slide over to 4 and O'Quinn is capable to play the 4. I like D-Will a lot, but the price has to be right. He's a 7th or 8th man type of guy in the rotation. Nothing more is proven at this point. If Afflalo opts out and D-Will as well, it leaves the Knicks will almost 30$M to upgrade their backcourt. Front court should not be a priority. It should be the backcourt.

Additionally, maybe Lance Thomas will re-sign for a bargain. I think of the two, the coaching staff like Lance more as he's more consistent with what he does and more capable on defense.

Over 30 minutes with 1 rebound the other day, and we all know that his D and boxing out skills are inconsistent, to say the least. He is not a player who usually does the little things which help a team.

I've been happy with him, and even surprised, but if both he and Thomas are healthy, I would give Thomas the bigger contract.

If he starts talking about $8M/yr, Phil should just walk away.

The emergence of Early as a viable rotational player would have been nice, and not only would it have helped the team, but it would give the Knicks leverage when dealing with Williams, but Early has not shown us much so far, and he's definitely not a guy you plan around in any way at this point.

I'd like to have him back but at the same salary and role. He's valuable as a scorer off the bench and spot starting. I believe we need to keep some continuity with the roster. Derrick williams was a positive player for us

nyknickzingis wrote:I'd definitely try to bring him back at the same annual pay he had this season ($5M) for 4 years. It gives him a good chunk of guaranteed money. It's not a big cap hit. I wouldn't go more than that, because we have Porzingis, Melo and Lopez. We also have Hernangomez coming over next year, O'Quinn can play some 4. We need a backup wing to Melo more than we need a backup PF to Porzingis because Melo can slide over to 4 and O'Quinn is capable to play the 4. I like D-Will a lot, but the price has to be right. He's a 7th or 8th man type of guy in the rotation. Nothing more is proven at this point. If Afflalo opts out and D-Will as well, it leaves the Knicks will almost 30$M to upgrade their backcourt. Front court should not be a priority. It should be the backcourt.

Additionally, maybe Lance Thomas will re-sign for a bargain. I think of the two, the coaching staff like Lance more as he's more consistent with what he does and more capable on defense.

martin wrote:

knicks1248 wrote:

Knixkik wrote:

franco12 wrote:If we can get a different coach & system like Mark Jackson, D Will could be a lot more productive. I hope we can keep him, love to lock him up long term at good money.

I mean, on our roster right now, what player has the kind of athleticism that can change the flow of a game? Who can actually break down the defense off the dribble, off the break or in the half court game? Grant and D Will?

That is sad, and part of the reason we only won 32 games.

Agreed. Getting more athletic is a must, so to start with we must resign the one player (other than Grant) who is an elite athlete and can get to the basket at will. This summer we need to increase that number of players on our roster for sure.

yeah I feel like the system and the coaching staff stunted his growth, at the same time, they did help him to increase his defensive intensity, and rebounding. The sporadic minutes, and the pace the knicks played with was not good for him at all, he looks primarily lost, especially in the triangle.

Do we want to go through another player at his position taking 2 yrs to learn?

I don't understand how you quantify the 2 statements in bold.

First, has DWill been better than previous years? If he has, how much better? Still wrapping myself around WS/48 but that number exploded this year, he had been around .070 for career and was .120 this year. PER is up, and in fact his advanced stats across the board are all up http://www.basketball-reference.com/players/w/willide02.html. His pre and post all star shooting number are excellent stepping stones. 26 games post allstar, 49% overall and 44% from 3pt. http://espn.go.com/nba/player/splits/_/id/6480/derrick-williams

DWill has a reputation as being a slow learner, still a young guy. His minutes yo-yo'ed early on - November specifically - but settled down after that.

I don't like his intensity, court awareness and defense (he is probably the biggest culprit of bad swtiches, right up there with Melo), they are lacking big time and I didn't see improvement in those areas this year.

Excellent post. Pretty much what I was going to point out. Before the season I remember many bashing DWILL and having no faith that he could improve. I was optimistic his strengths could fit this style of play. He still has a long way to go defensively but he can still get better. Dude is still young and showed he can get better.

The thing I was most interested in was how a more structured role would impact DWILL. I felt the clearer role would help him to be more efficient. He had a lot to learn and unlike in Sacramento the Knicks had him play all over the floor and do different things than camp out behind the 3pt line and wait. He was always going to be an athletic player who can get easy buckets, but he actually learned how to get more points in the flow of the offense. I actually think he can get even better if he were to stay.

nixluva wrote:

martin wrote:

knicks1248 wrote:

Knixkik wrote:

franco12 wrote:If we can get a different coach & system like Mark Jackson, D Will could be a lot more productive. I hope we can keep him, love to lock him up long term at good money.

I mean, on our roster right now, what player has the kind of athleticism that can change the flow of a game? Who can actually break down the defense off the dribble, off the break or in the half court game? Grant and D Will?

That is sad, and part of the reason we only won 32 games.

Agreed. Getting more athletic is a must, so to start with we must resign the one player (other than Grant) who is an elite athlete and can get to the basket at will. This summer we need to increase that number of players on our roster for sure.

yeah I feel like the system and the coaching staff stunted his growth, at the same time, they did help him to increase his defensive intensity, and rebounding. The sporadic minutes, and the pace the knicks played with was not good for him at all, he looks primarily lost, especially in the triangle.

Do we want to go through another player at his position taking 2 yrs to learn?

I don't understand how you quantify the 2 statements in bold.

First, has DWill been better than previous years? If he has, how much better? Still wrapping myself around WS/48 but that number exploded this year, he had been around .070 for career and was .120 this year. PER is up, and in fact his advanced stats across the board are all up http://www.basketball-reference.com/players/w/willide02.html. His pre and post all star shooting number are excellent stepping stones. 26 games post allstar, 49% overall and 44% from 3pt. http://espn.go.com/nba/player/splits/_/id/6480/derrick-williams

DWill has a reputation as being a slow learner, still a young guy. His minutes yo-yo'ed early on - November specifically - but settled down after that.

I don't like his intensity, court awareness and defense (he is probably the biggest culprit of bad swtiches, right up there with Melo), they are lacking big time and I didn't see improvement in those areas this year.

Excellent post. Pretty much what I was going to point out. Before the season I remember many bashing DWILL and having no faith that he could improve. I was optimistic his strengths could fit this style of play. He still has a long way to go defensively but he can still get better. Dude is still young and showed he can get better.

The thing I was most interested in was how a more structured role would impact DWILL. I felt the clearer role would help him to be more efficient. He had a lot to learn and unlike in Sacramento the Knicks had him play all over the floor and do different things than camp out behind the 3pt line and wait. He was always going to be an athletic player who can get easy buckets, but he actually learned how to get more points in the flow of the offense. I actually think he can get even better if he were to stay.

I agree. I see a lot of posts of the things that he isn't. Of course he's not a great defender and doesn't always work hard. If he was, he would be a starting forward someplace else. We got him for cheap and i think he fits a very specific role on this team that we badly need. We need a guy off the bench that can get to the free throw line a lot and score quick baskets and he does that. He's not a good defender and won't ever be relied on for a starting 2-way player, but as a scorer off the bench who mixes things up with his athletic ability, he's perfect for this team.