Bah! Bad guys see Hulk and choose an alternate route, Mark has had a similar effect in the lane. And my guy is sporting the Crash look on top of that? He’s Smash. He might be Jr. Smash right now but he’s the guy that will fulfil that name before it’s all said and done.
about that wall…
While not especially catchy, I’d love if we could start calling him Dhalsim and he’d do this dance every time he made a rejection into the stands.
He’s the Condor, Eric Collins said so. So it is written in Hornets Law.
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Marky mark and the funky dunks?
Last few games have really shown where mark needs to improve. He’s a little too aggressive going for blocks/challenges, which leads to easy offensive rebounds for the other team. He has the length to just stay on his feet and challenge enough that way, but then be able to slide over and box out.
The second change points surrendered to the Nets made that game very different. They had 22 offensive rebounds.
He also has a habit of allowing his man to slide into the paint. It’s hard to defend in the post when you’re already backed up 5-7 feet from the rim.
In listening to podcasts and online chatter over the past couple weeks, I’ve heard quite a bit of criticism for mark Williams toughness and defense.
While I think there’s some merit to this, I think that the concerns are wildly overblown. I say that because the hornets on ball pressure is a total fucking joke, continuously beat off the dribble, perimeter defenders can’t keep anyone in front of them, and very little boxing out to be found.
And unfortunately that leaves mark to try to clean up the mess, and having to do that continually puts him in bad positions.
So count me in as less concerned.
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I agree. The defense is a complete mess. A real scheme with a real perimeter defense would definitely allow you to actually see defensive issues with any interior big.
I think Mark’s biggest weakness, other than experience, is strength and explosiveness. As he gets stronger he’ll be more explosive. I’m not worried, he can’t guard everybody all over the floor.
It’s all about strength. I remember him coming in last year looking painfully thin, thinking he needed at least 3 years strength training to unleash his full potential.
When he plays regular centers, he can be dominant. But the moment a burly guy makes contact with force, it negates his length.
As long as his back doesn’t crumple upon itself, he’ll become more beastly in the next couple years.
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Yes, and. I also see some technique issues. He often picks up his man too far back into the paint. Part of that can be attributed to strength and getting pushed around a little, but some of that is just where he chooses to engage. He is 7’0 240. Which is relatively lean but not super thin, but considering his height he’s a bit thin. For context, Embiid has 40 pounds on Mark.
Based on marks combine metrics, and what he’s listed at now-I’m not seeing any weight gain.
I’d like to think Ewing is helping him but my gut is feeling he’s on the payroll as a FOM. If so they need to cut his ass loose and invest in a for real big man coach.
On a finesse to toughness scale, his on court play tips slightly to the finesse side of things, IMHO.
How much of that is because he can’t yet sink his hips, get lower and box out for D boards well, vs. his mental toughness … I don’t know.
I tend to think of O boards as length and ability based, and D boards as strength and want based. He will certainly improve his strength and get better at boxing out, just no idea how much he, ultimately, ‘wants it’.
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Starting to get bad vibes over Mark Williams and his injury… like it’s going to be 2 months he’s missed and Clifford said last week that he “isn’t close to returning”. Is this something that possibly could linger and make him not part of 3M going forward?
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I keep thinking what’s the rush vs the risk.
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Well depending on if he is ABLE to return from his broken back suffered at the hands of Lex Luger’s torture rack apparently… him being on the court developing would be nice but then again this staff and organization… probably better if he was in a padded room till something changes I suppose.
If I’m in his management chain, I’m in his ear saying take your time, this FO and staff isn’t here in 4 months, whatever you might develop with them isn’t necessarily value add, and even comraderie with teammates might be worth those that aren’t here by July 1. If you are not 100% ready, hold tight.
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Definitely this!
Back injuries can be tricky to rehab and be linked to all sorts of other issues … lack of mobility at the hip, tight/weak muscles, pelvic alignment, and so on. With his age and the franchise’s situation, much better to thoroughly rehab. If it’s disc related, take as much time as needed. Utterly pointless to potentially limit a career over relatively pointless games.
I agree but that’s part of my concern… just how serious is the back injury? Could this be a career altering thing?
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With how forthcoming the Hornets have been with injury information, it could be anything. A general rule of thumb though, if you’re 7ft tall and have a back injury it’s always a concern. It’s tidy the injury, rehab it and ensure he develops a rock solid, balanced core with strong, functional hips and glutes. The latter two should be THE focus this off season and beyond.
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- Does anyone have any sort of information about what the actual f*ck is happening with Mark Williams? People don’t miss two months with NO timetable to return with a simple “back contusion”. Can the Hornets get fined for being so ambiguously misleading with no updates on player injuries? If something else is going on, I don’t think you can just withhold information. There’s a Charlotte Observer article from Jan 1st saying “he’s improving, but still with no timetable”. I can’t imagine a semi relevant NBA team handling an injury like this-where no one knows what’s going on. Maybe I’m wrong, and other teams do handle injuries like this. I know the Hornets have been historically vague (Cody Martin), which is not new information to me, but this is weird.
TLDR: I’m not that worried about Mark Williams defense or rebounding.
- I may be on an island with this opinion. Or maybe not. I’m not that worried about Mark as a defender. I know there have been concerns about his rebounding as well, which has my attention somewhat-but I’m still not particularly worried about this either. All of our perimeter defenders are HORRIBLE. Absolute turnstiles who cannot play individual defense, team defense, or able to competently switch or rotate. Melo, Terry, the aging Hayward who has noticeably lost a step-all bad defenders. And as mentioned in other threads, it sometimes hurts watching the “defensive stylings of Miles Bridges”. PJ can be an okay defender, but IMO, he looks competent when compared to the surrounding cast.
Anyways, this perimeter defense continuously results in blow by drives. And open threes. Constantly. I just think this puts Mark in a bad spot, as he cannot be expected to clean up everything. Also, if he’s constantly having to alter shots via the blow by drives-this leaves him out of position for the rebound as well. That’s my two cents, and I need to go watch some earlier games this year when Mark was healthy. Add some better perimeter defenders to reduce the amount of blow by drives-and I think it would change the concerns on Mark Williams.