Fully agree. He really is a very good, defensive centre. Plenty of room to grow, esp boxing out and extending his shot, but he was a very good pick. My worry with him was guarding in space, when he gets switched onto Guards. He’s WAY, WAY better at that than I thought he would be. Not just a drop coverage centre. Seems like a really good personality, too.
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I’m calling it:
Mark Williams makes first team All defensive before his career is over.
(Maybe it’ll be a year that Wemby is injured)
But, speaking of Wemby, Williams will be one of the few players with the tools to bother Wemby(assuming Wemby is as good as advertised).
Edit:
It’s crazy to the we could have a potential “big 3” all under the age of 22 right now. A reason to watch, for sure.
Mark Williams is a big reason why I think we could win 20 extra games this season. He’s what we had been missing for so long. Here’s hoping he stays healthy.
And Clifford plays him
Clifford will have to start him right? I don’t see why he wouldn’t. We don’t have any old centers at this point….
Plot twist… we bring back Mason. Haha
He resigned with lac. Maybe we could do a sign and trade with PJ for plumlee.
Thank goodness…. We won’t be tempted to bring him back.
That would be the most Hornets thing to do though.
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I think the most Horncats thing we could do is go out, spend the full MLE on someone like Dewayne Deadmon and play him. Then after 10 dud games, he has one 8 block game and he plays ahead of both Nick and Mark and we send Williams to Greensboro because Cliff can’t find him enough minutes until a late season injury. That’s the most Horncat thing we could do scary enough. Hopefully the sale keeps anyone from going full Maxiel though.
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You stop it right now. Don’t give them any ideas.
For the folks watching the games,
what is your take on Mark’s lower shot blocking and rebounding numbers so far? Smarter, shot altering defense where he isn’t risking the foul? Or… something less flattering?
On the positive side, dude is averaging OVER 2 overall points per field goal attempt this year. Yes, he shoots a lot near the hoop, but anyway you slice it, that is insanely good.
I believe it is much more a product of the hornets miserable three points defense. Teams know if they move the ball even twice they will get a wide open 3
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Mark set the Hornets record, which is still ongoing, for consecutive made field goals at 18.
Makes sense that he only got 18 minutes last night. Thor played more than Mark.
I know the obvious response is early foul trouble, but if you’re not going to play him later on in the game anyway, then why worry about foul trouble. He was the only rotational player with a positive +/- yesterday. Was 100% from the field but only took 5 shots.
I know its not the old days of feeding the post over and over, but the NBA’s leading field goal % shooter should be getting way more touches, being more involved in pick and rolls, figuring out how to get him to his best spots. Maybe allow him to shoot his pretty jumper that was showcased pre-draft, even 3 point range. Clifford is the only coach who doesn’t allow his centers to shoot past 20 feet under any circumstances, for basically his entire career.
Could that potentially help loosen up interior defense against us? Would force the bigs out of the paint to guard our center? Maybe even improve our own 3 point shooting to where teams have to chase everyone on the perimeter. What is this, modern basketball or something?
I don’t want to hear about this 5-out nonsense Cliff keeps using as an excuse, when our small ball lineup allows the same wide open 3’s as when Mark’s on the floor. And if it was such an issue, why was he the only one with a positive +/-? Cliff and Larry were both bonding over the love of non scoring role players yesterday, maybe Cliff wanted to show LB his whole collection.
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Cliff is not a good head coach period.
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MJ would’ve been better off calling Stephen Silas and giving him another shot vs. Cliff. Or maybe Ron Nored, or any hungry young assistant. I wonder if Steve Nash would actually be a good coach if he didn’t have me-first superstars breathing down his neck all the time.
We’ve gotta work on nicknames for mark Williams. I know Eric Collins calls him “the condor”, but I think we can cook up something better. This is stupid, but just to get us started:
Marky Mark and the Dunky Bunch
He’s Smash, end of story
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Smash is it . As Crash lives on
StratosFear
The Slim Creeper
The Hampton Roads Hammer
M-Will
The Fly Swatter
The High Swatter
Dunkstruction
I will try to come up with some more just as terrible as these…
Hulk smashes things, which would be a great nickname, except he’s nowhere near big enough.
Because of his reach, I was thinking of the super stretchy heroes. I know Plastic Man was already used, but it’s been long enough, and new kids don’t know Stacey Augmon. A new generation can take the title.
Mr. Fantastic is the other stretchy guy, but 5 syllables does not work for a nickname.
Inspector gadget also too long, like his Go Go Gadget arms.
What about The Wall, like from Game of Thrones? I hadn’t finished the series, so I’m sure the wall held up well, right?
Or maybe Your Highness, cause he’s… high. Not high like Malik Monk, but he reaches high…and stuff.