Possesses an NBA ready body, blessed with excellent upper body strength Moves extremely well without the ball in his hands, understanding how to free himself for shots Works well running off screens where he is a capable shooter Has three point range on his jumper Good finisher in transition Body strength enables him to convert difficult shots with ease as well as the ability to finish after contact Plays the game with poise and maturity rarely found on the college level Shows great patience, rarely does he play out of control or force the action Simply allows the game to come to him Leadership qualities and the mental toughness he brings each game sets the tone for his team Unselfish player who possesses solid court vision Does a great job of feeding the post Excellent basketball IQ, makes great decisions during games Uses the mid-range jumper with the best of them Despite the coverage if you give him enough daylight his quick release allows for more than enough time to shoot Underrated rebounder capable of making an impact on the glass Defensively he does an admirable job of staying in front of his man Shows good body control when he penetrates the lane Quality free throw shooter Extremely coachable player whose work ethic is among the best in the NCAA Fundamentally he is as sound as them come Despite his struggles in the Final Four last year, he has proven to be a very clutch player ...

NYKBocker wrote:

TheGame wrote:I now understand why Phil paid Williams $5 mill per. Williams made $6.3 million, so we actually got him to take a pay cut to sign. THis is probably why we had to give up the player option. If Phill wanted him, this is the deal he probably had to make to get him. My question is why did he want him. I would rather have Brandon Bass or Jordan Hill.

Phil aways had those athletic SFs that can slash and hit 3s. I think this is what Phil is envisioning for Williams

I see. Williams is the next Pippen. Or at least Odom. Impressive signing!!!

Rookie wrote:

EwingsGlass wrote:Just saying, they all have that characteristic.

Interesting all 3 players move well without the ball (we have a movement offense). Williams and Afflalo play well off of screens and Lopez is a screen setting machine. Sounds like Phil is building a team.

BINGO!!! When you have a motion and passing offense having players that excel without the ball is a huge plus. We've got to have movement and finishing at the basket as well as shot making. RoLo, DWill and Afflalo can significantly improve the team in those areas. I know there are a lot of doubts about DWill, but if you look at his strengths they would seem to fit a role in this kind of offense where players are expected to keep moving and teammates are looking for that movement to make passes.

Everyone is involved in this offense and I think it will help players to stay engaged in the action. Now DWill will have to step up and give WAY more effort on the boards and on D. There's no excuse of lack of effort, but I do understand how some players can lose their focus when they aren't really consistently involved. Maybe this style of ball can help him.

RonRon wrote:I seriously believe that Derrick Williams would have eventually considered the NYK's on a 2year VET MIN DEAL like Wesley Johnson did by signing with The Lakers for 2years for the vet min

Especially if we signed Greg Monroe and Lopez with majority of our cap space, then use Cole Aldrich to get the FULL MLE, using most of it on Wesley Johnson who both played for Twolves and were team mates together
With AB considering rejoining the NYK's, if we promised him we would give him a decent contract like 5m x 4years next year when the cap goes up

a rotation of Greg Monroe, Lopez, KP, AB, Cole Aldrich and VET MIN SIGNINGS would be better than what we have by far, if not resign Lou Amundson/Jason Smith for AB's role

Markji wrote:I like Derrick Williams for what he can bring and his potential. It's only $5 mil a year. Shump got $10 mil a year for 4 yrs. Williams has more potential than Shump. Sac didn't give him his qualifying offer because it was $8.7 mil, so they let him go. I think Derrick W needs to be motivated - he has the skills - but hasn't demonstated them consistantly.

Some commentators say he is soft; plays no defense; can't shoot; etc. But if you read our board, you might think the same of any one of our players. Williams is only 24 yrs old. It's time for him to mature and grow up. This is what he can offer us which is exactly what we lack inside. For $5 mil its a good signing.

sick highlights. Like I said this guy has a lot of bottled up talent. If you can cross Tim Thomas & Kenyon Martin this is who you would get. TT's ability to score and shoot the 3 with Kmart's heart & defense. Hopefully DW puts it all together here

nixluva wrote:

RonRon wrote:I seriously believe that Derrick Williams would have eventually considered the NYK's on a 2year VET MIN DEAL like Wesley Johnson did by signing with The Lakers for 2years for the vet min

Especially if we signed Greg Monroe and Lopez with majority of our cap space, then use Cole Aldrich to get the FULL MLE, using most of it on Wesley Johnson who both played for Twolves and were team mates together
With AB considering rejoining the NYK's, if we promised him we would give him a decent contract like 5m x 4years next year when the cap goes up

a rotation of Greg Monroe, Lopez, KP, AB, Cole Aldrich and VET MIN SIGNINGS would be better than what we have by far, if not resign Lou Amundson/Jason Smith for AB's role

Phil made a balanced use of his cap space IMO. Sure he could've gone a number of different ways but he had a plan and IMO executed it fairly well. RoLo at C, Afflalo at SG and DWill at SF/PF is addressing areas of need. Phil still has some cap to make some low cost moves.

NixLuva, you have complete optimism of any roster that Phil Jackson assembles
Signing Affalo limited our ability to sign 2 impact players, while overpaying for both ROLO and Derrick Williams

ROLO is not a bad player but he is a role player that is overpaid, signing him for a starting salary of 10-12m at best is fair while we could use the cap space to sign another legit POST player instead of Affalo/Derrick Williams

I like Derrick Williams but not at that price, he has had a poor couple years in limited role, who is worth the vet min to about 2.5m at best that we should have a team option on, at best 3m is even overpaying for his production, especially with a PLAYER OPTION...

Affalo is a undersized SF who is approaching 30 and is another role player that was not worth signing FIRST before will filled other needs
There are many players that are unable to adjust to the league/NBA game as they physically decline and Affalo didn't exactly do anything to prove he was worth that contract after he was traded to Portland in which he got the starting job with Matthews injury and just sucked

We need IMPACT players and the ability to upgrade our roster this year and the next 2 upcoming seasons
However, with these signings we made, it limits our ability to spend the next 2 seasons, especially with Lopez, who should have got a 3year deal or at the very least a team option with parital guarantee at a slightly lower price, like Asik signed

We did not sign any YOUNG VALUE players that could be part of our roster moving forward on good deals as they can continue to improve like Ajincia, Ed Davis, Aminu, Biyombo, Lavoy Allen which all signed cost friendly deals elsewhere and has very movable contracts, rather than signing Derrick Williams with TEAM OPTION at that price is absurd *making it hard to get trade value for him or keep him if he does do well*
If he doesn't play well, he will opt in, and limit our ability to spend next year, it isn't money well spent, I would much rather have someone like Wesley Johnson over him along with Koufus/Biyombo
Rather than Affalo, we would be in better position with Aminu, especially with Aminu/Wesley Johnson, a developing Thanasis with them, with multiple defenders that could defend 2-3 positions, possibly 4
Players that will be part of our roster moving forward as we learn to execute this the system and do not have to worry about contracts moving forward
It isn't money well spent, end of story...

We can not even draw interest from Jeremy Lin with this roster assembled, do not talk about TOP TIER agents in our near future, when Lin just had his WORST career year, that is how horrible our roster is
Phil Jackson made the worst possible moves that limits our ability to sign talents with limited draft picks already

Bonn1997 wrote:

yellowboy90 wrote:

Bonn1997 wrote:

s3231 wrote:Not crazy about this one...really liked Robin and Affalo deals but just don't get the $$$ on this one.

Seems like a player friendly deal for a player that frankly, hasn't earned it.

Don't mind taking a shot on him just don't get why he needs to cost that much but I guess I shouldn't be that surprised with how this FA has been going..

Phil must see something there so I hope he is right.

Given the advanced stats, I'm not crazy about the Afflalo signing either though I do like Lopez.
13 mil in cap space (Afflalo and Williams) is a huge amount to use up on guys with universally bad metrics.

I agree but does Afflalo have bad metrics or just avg metrics or does his avg metrics become bad at $8m?

Career-wise his metrics are only a little below average. But in 2 of the past 3 years, his metrics have been really bad and he's entering an age (the 30s) where metrics usually go downhill.

These guys signed for 1-2yrs relax.

Now giving Lopez 4yrs at $4mil is beyond retarded. But he is a high IQ efficient smart player and may still improve offensively in this system

TheGame wrote:I now understand why Phil paid Williams $5 mill per. Williams made $6.3 million, so we actually got him to take a pay cut to sign. THis is probably why we had to give up the player option. If Phill wanted him, this is the deal he probably had to make to get him. My question is why did he want him. I would rather have Brandon Bass or Jordan Hill.

Exactly this is why Shump got $10 he was do to make around $8-9.

Expecting DW to sign for the minimum is one of the dumbest things ive ever heard on this forum. He's signed for 2yrs at $5mil per not $10mil per relax. And like crush said its not like you wouldn't be able to move him if his game went south after a nice stretch

s3231 wrote:Totally forgot that Williams played for Rambis in Minneosta....guess he knows the triangle.

Anyone remember how he did? His stats looked ok when he got minutes....guessing Phil must have gotten good feedback from Rambis.

Thats right. Thats a huge positive. He will look better in it now that he finally has some good players around him