Lipoli390 wrote: ↑Fri Jul 07, 2023 11:15 pm
I think we should keep that 15th roster spot open for someone who becomes available later in the season or to elevate one of our 2-way contract players to make room for adding a new 2-way contract player from our Summer League or G-League roster. After watching tonight’s Summer League game against the Pelicans, I’d like the Wolves to consider giving their third 2-way deal to Brandon Williams.
I agree with keeping that 15th roster spot open for now. Regarding Brandon Williams - he flashed in game one of the Summer, but let's see how he does the rest of the games. I think after the summer season is over we can better evaluate some of these guys.
Understand that Brandon Williams isn’t just what he flashed in one Summer League game yesterday. He’s played two G-League seasons now and averaged 20 points, 6 assists, 4 rebounds and 1 steal in both of them. He’s hit 46% of his FG attempts and 36% of his threes in both seasons on significant shooting volume. He’s the equivalent of a college Junior but with success at the professional level in the G-League. He also played 21 NBA games with Portland two seasons ago. His stats weren’t impressive then, but when you watch his highlight videos from that season you can see that he’s an NBA caliber player. And that was two years ago when he was a rookie with only one year of college behind him.
Therefore, unlike many of those we see in Summer League, the good things we see from Brandon Williams are more in the nature of confirmation than early anecdotal evidence of his potential.
KG4Ever wrote: ↑Fri Jul 07, 2023 5:51 pm
If we don't keep Wendell Moore, there is another available roster spot. In that case, I'd look for a young point guard prospect to develop. A couple that come to mind are Mac McLung (24 yo) and Kennedy Chandler (20 yo). I'm sure there may be others.
Moore has a guaranteed contract.
Edit: I think you are right. I guess the October deadline is for the following season. Can we cut him and replace him with a minimum salaried player or are we stuck with him for another year?
Not without going over the luxury tax if they want to also fill the 15th roster spot because they only have a little over 2 million under the tax. If you want a guard they have an open roster spot they can just sign one of the guys you want.
Does anyone have any idea what the measurements are for Brandon Williams? He looks a little bigger than 6’2”. It’s possible he grew since he was in Arizona. What about wingspan?
Lipoli390 wrote: ↑Fri Jul 07, 2023 11:15 pm
I think we should keep that 15th roster spot open for someone who becomes available later in the season or to elevate one of our 2-way contract players to make room for adding a new 2-way contract player from our Summer League or G-League roster. After watching tonight’s Summer League game against the Pelicans, I’d like the Wolves to consider giving their third 2-way deal to Brandon Williams.
I agree with keeping that 15th roster spot open for now. Regarding Brandon Williams - he flashed in game one of the Summer, but let's see how he does the rest of the games. I think after the summer season is over we can better evaluate some of these guys.
Understand that Brandon Williams isn’t just what he flashed in one Summer League game yesterday. He’s played two G-League seasons now and averaged 20 points, 6 assists, 4 rebounds and 1 steal in both of them. He’s hit 46% of his FG attempts and 36% of his threes in both seasons on significant shooting volume. He’s the equivalent of a college Junior but with success at the professional level in the G-League. He also played 21 NBA games with Portland two seasons ago. His stats weren’t impressive then, but when you watch his highlight videos from that season you can see that he’s an NBA caliber player. And that was two years ago when he was a rookie with only one year of college behind him.
Therefore, unlike many of those we see in Summer League, the good things we see from Brandon Williams are more in the nature of confirmation than early anecdotal evidence of his potential.
I get all that....and it all sounds very impressive until you start looking at what other guys do in the G-League. Here's one example:
Brandon Williams averaged 19.8 points, 4.0 rebounds and 5.9 assists last year in G-League.
Wendell Moore Jr averaged 19.4 points, 4.3 rebounds and 5.1 assists last year in G-League.
I see that Williams was more efficient (17.4 PER vs. 12.9 PER for Moore Jr.). But that was also Williams second year in G-League and Moore Jr. obviously is a rookie. Wendell Moore Jr. is also 2 years younger than Williams. So, I don't see William's G-League stats as impressive as you do. I think it's also telling that he didn't get any NBA minutes last year.
That stated, guys can improve and as I originally wrote - let's see how he looks in the rest of these summer games. Maybe he can earn himself a 2 way if he can maintain his game 1 production. But right now, I would put him in the same pool as about 100 other undrafted and G-League guys floating around out there looking for a contract. Let's see what TC comes up with...
I like what I saw of Brandon but I'm not sure how big a test the Summer League Pelicans were and I'd look to see consistently good play from Brandon. Like Carlos, I'd take a wait and see view with Brandon and see what our options are and how best to use the two ways as there will be plenty of worthwhile guys to consider and we have Garza and Clark who hold two, with potentially Matt Ryan as a third (though I would be fine with giving Ryan's spot to another guy who impresses, maybe Brandon but maybe someone else). Would an Exhibit 10 contract make more sense to use a this time?
I agree with keeping that 15th roster spot open for now. Regarding Brandon Williams - he flashed in game one of the Summer, but let's see how he does the rest of the games. I think after the summer season is over we can better evaluate some of these guys.
Understand that Brandon Williams isn’t just what he flashed in one Summer League game yesterday. He’s played two G-League seasons now and averaged 20 points, 6 assists, 4 rebounds and 1 steal in both of them. He’s hit 46% of his FG attempts and 36% of his threes in both seasons on significant shooting volume. He’s the equivalent of a college Junior but with success at the professional level in the G-League. He also played 21 NBA games with Portland two seasons ago. His stats weren’t impressive then, but when you watch his highlight videos from that season you can see that he’s an NBA caliber player. And that was two years ago when he was a rookie with only one year of college behind him.
Therefore, unlike many of those we see in Summer League, the good things we see from Brandon Williams are more in the nature of confirmation than early anecdotal evidence of his potential.
I get all that....and it all sounds very impressive until you start looking at what other guys do in the G-League. Here's one example:
Brandon Williams averaged 19.8 points, 4.0 rebounds and 5.9 assists last year in G-League.
Wendell Moore Jr averaged 19.4 points, 4.3 rebounds and 5.1 assists last year in G-League.
I see that Williams was more efficient (17.4 PER vs. 12.9 PER for Moore Jr.). But that was also Williams second year in G-League and Moore Jr. obviously is a rookie. Wendell Moore Jr. is also 2 years younger than Williams. So, I don't see William's G-League stats as impressive as you do. I think it's also telling that he didn't get any NBA minutes last year.
That stated, guys can improve and as I originally wrote - let's see how he looks in the rest of these summer games. Maybe he can earn himself a 2 way if he can maintain his game 1 production. But right now, I would put him in the same pool as about 100 other undrafted and G-League guys floating around out there looking for a contract. Let's see what TC comes up with...
I just watched Williams in a g-league game against Scoot, Miller etc and the ignite. He looked really good. His quickness and exposition were basically too much and guys were fouling him. He made several nice passes. Miller came off the bench and looked meh until later in the game when he rolled up another double double although most of the 4th quarter when he played was basically garbage time. Scoot after a hot start didn’t look good either and got a T for complaining about calls a follow up to the previous game when he got ejected. He had foul trouble much of the game and so gave little resistance on a number of possessions. Cissenko looked bad in this game. They kept talked in about Scoot Miller and Cissenko as first round picks. 33rd isn’t that far off but the Spurs took him a few picks later. Just thought that was interesting.
I wanted to watch the next game but I couldn’t find it on YouTube. Williams looks like he didn’t play well shot poorly had zero assists and 4 turnovers. Miller went bonkers with 33 points missing like 2 shots. Scoot had 15 assists. So yeah tall of two games.
Looking back at last year in the summer league he played for Portland and he shot very poorly from 3. His positive was he took 37 FTs in 5 games and shot over 80%. He does seem to have an ability to draw fouls.
So yeah let’s see what he does in a few more games. Imagine what Nowell would do in the G-league. That guy could probably score 20ppg very easily at that level…oh yeah he did that a couple seasons ago and was very efficient. I like Williams tho I could see him being a better backup guard than Nowell as a guy that’s more of an actual PG while also giving the team a guy that can score in transition and get into the paint.
I agree with keeping that 15th roster spot open for now. Regarding Brandon Williams - he flashed in game one of the Summer, but let's see how he does the rest of the games. I think after the summer season is over we can better evaluate some of these guys.
Understand that Brandon Williams isn’t just what he flashed in one Summer League game yesterday. He’s played two G-League seasons now and averaged 20 points, 6 assists, 4 rebounds and 1 steal in both of them. He’s hit 46% of his FG attempts and 36% of his threes in both seasons on significant shooting volume. He’s the equivalent of a college Junior but with success at the professional level in the G-League. He also played 21 NBA games with Portland two seasons ago. His stats weren’t impressive then, but when you watch his highlight videos from that season you can see that he’s an NBA caliber player. And that was two years ago when he was a rookie with only one year of college behind him.
Therefore, unlike many of those we see in Summer League, the good things we see from Brandon Williams are more in the nature of confirmation than early anecdotal evidence of his potential.
I get all that....and it all sounds very impressive until you start looking at what other guys do in the G-League. Here's one example:
Brandon Williams averaged 19.8 points, 4.0 rebounds and 5.9 assists last year in G-League.
Wendell Moore Jr averaged 19.4 points, 4.3 rebounds and 5.1 assists last year in G-League.
I see that Williams was more efficient (17.4 PER vs. 12.9 PER for Moore Jr.). But that was also Williams second year in G-League and Moore Jr. obviously is a rookie. Wendell Moore Jr. is also 2 years younger than Williams. So, I don't see William's G-League stats as impressive as you do. I think it's also telling that he didn't get any NBA minutes last year.
That stated, guys can improve and as I originally wrote - let's see how he looks in the rest of these summer games. Maybe he can earn himself a 2 way if he can maintain his game 1 production. But right now, I would put him in the same pool as about 100 other undrafted and G-League guys floating around out there looking for a contract. Let's see what TC comes up with...
Moore played three years of college ball before his one year in the G-League. So Brandon’s substantially better PER isn’t diminished at all based on his experience compared to Moore. I’ll add that two years of the G-League stats we’ve seen from Brandon is a plus, not a minus in evaluating whether he’s ready for and worth a 2-way NBA contract. What more can we expect from a PG prospect than two consecutive seasons of 20 points, 6+ assists, 4 rebounds, 46% FG shooting and 36% three-point shooting.
I’m not predicting Brandon will make it in the NBA much less become a starter or all-star. But we’re talking about a 2-way contract for a young player with upside who fills a skill-set need and a future positional need. I don’t know how much more we’ll learn about Brandon watching him in a few more Summer League games given what we already know from 2 full G-League seasons.
Ty Ty Washington was traded again (actually rerouted) to OKC as filler in a salary clearing move. OKC has 19 players signed, so they will have to pare down their roster and since OKC is pretty stocked at guard with Shai, Giddey, first round pick Cason Wallace, Micic (who they brought over from Europe on a three year/24 M deal), Tre Mann, Oladipo, Isaiah Joe, and therefore there is a decent chance Washington gets waived. If Ty Ty is cut, I'd add him to the young point guards who we should consider adding as a two way or 15th roster spot, or try to get him on our G League. I was hoping we'd draft Ty Ty or Kennedy Chandler with the Moore pick and now both are available. I probably prefer Chandler as he seems to have a decent BBIQ and plays hard on both sides of the ball, he's just undersized at 5"11.5 (though listed as 6"1, he does have a 6"5.25 wingspan which is ok and a 40 plus vertical which helps compensate for his height) and needs to be more consistent with his outside shooting (38% in college and 20% in G League and even worse in NBA but very light volume).
KG4Ever wrote: ↑Sat Jul 08, 2023 7:22 pm
Ty Ty Washington was traded again (actually rerouted) to OKC as filler in a salary clearing move. OKC has 19 players signed, so they will have to pare down their roster and since OKC is pretty stocked at guard with Shai, Giddey, first round pick Cason Wallace, Micic (who they brought over from Europe on a three year/24 M deal), Tre Mann, Oladipo, Isaiah Joe, and therefore there is a decent chance Washington gets waived. If Ty Ty is cut, I'd add him to the young point guards who we should consider adding as a two way or 15th roster spot, or try to get him on our G League. I was hoping we'd draft Ty Ty or Kennedy Chandler with the Moore pick and now both are available. I probably prefer Chandler as he seems to have a decent BBIQ and plays hard on both sides of the ball, he's just undersized at 5"11.5 (though listed as 6"1, he does have a 6"5.25 wingspan which is ok and a 40 plus vertical which helps compensate for his height) and needs to be more consistent with his outside shooting (38% in college and 20% in G League and even worse in NBA but very light volume).
Ultimately I liked Washington more than Chandler at draft time. This is interesting. There could be a few players that might be worth taking a look at if OKC moves on. That’s why it makes sense to maybe wait on that roster spot until some things shake out.
Kennedy Chandler had a very nice game tonight: He scored 17 points on efficient shooting, 7 assists, 4 rebounds, two steals, one block, one three (1 of 2) and got to the line 11 times (made 8 of 11). He was also +29 for game and now +47 in three games and in 7 G League games he averaged a +11.7 per game which is impressive. He's shot well in summer league so far, which has been his biggest question mark-shooting over 40% now from three. He shot 38% from threes in his one year of college. He's still 20. Someone on another Wolves board brought up his name as someone to sign and I agree. I'd at least give him a two way (the one Ryan didn't accept) so that we have his rights. I know he's short, but he's as tall as JMAC at 6 foot, but has a two inch longer wingspan than JMAC and has a plus 40 vertical, plus he has catquick reflexes and racks up steals (2.2 in college and 1.7 in G League play) and could be a young Pat Bev in the way he is disruptive on defense, but a better passer. We need to develop a young point guard and he was rated at one time the top point guard in his class and was a top ten high school player. I'd throw the minimum at him or at least offer a two way deal. Nets fans are hoping they sign him to at least a two way deal, so I kind of hope we beat them to the punch.
