Minnesota Sports Forum

I am on the other side of the fence on this one. I have heard about his immaturity as well, and a good friend of mine has mutual friends with him and his "posse" and I can tell you basketball is a job and thats it. Improvement last year, I watched a lot and I didnt see much. I seen a guy who played without Love and whos numbers were pretty similar to the year before. All this talk about his improvement is just guys wearing there pre season rose colored glasses. I would love to see him improve this year but I can tell you it isnt likely. As for the guys who said he improved last year I would like to know what? Not at all impressed by Williams and think you guys will be let down.

crazysauce wrote:I am on the other side of the fence on this one. I have heard about his immaturity as well, and a good friend of mine has mutual friends with him and his "posse" and I can tell you basketball is a job and thats it. Improvement last year, I watched a lot and I didnt see much. I seen a guy who played without Love and whos numbers were pretty similar to the year before. All this talk about his improvement is just guys wearing there pre season rose colored glasses. I would love to see him improve this year but I can tell you it isnt likely. As for the guys who said he improved last year I would like to know what? Not at all impressed by Williams and think you guys will be let down.

I completely disagree. He had great improvement last year. His defense was solid, his decision making was much better, and he finished around the basket better. Stats disagree with the last point, but he had to attempt to put in so many shitty J.J. lobs. Barea should never throw up an alley-oop pass. He most definitely improved.

Jakapoo wrote:

crazysauce wrote:I am on the other side of the fence on this one. I have heard about his immaturity as well, and a good friend of mine has mutual friends with him and his "posse" and I can tell you basketball is a job and thats it. Improvement last year, I watched a lot and I didnt see much. I seen a guy who played without Love and whos numbers were pretty similar to the year before. All this talk about his improvement is just guys wearing there pre season rose colored glasses. I would love to see him improve this year but I can tell you it isnt likely. As for the guys who said he improved last year I would like to know what? Not at all impressed by Williams and think you guys will be let down.

I completely disagree. He had great improvement last year. His defense was solid, his decision making was much better, and he finished around the basket better. Stats disagree with the last point, but he had to attempt to put in so many shitty J.J. lobs. Barea should never throw up an alley-oop pass. He most definitely improved.

Your inside info is interesting but I also agree with Jak on this one. While the stats which are a bad sign of what Williams is now and what he might be he did improve in the ways Jak described. Williams rookie year Prince schooled him in the post. Last year Williams man post defense was very solid at the very least and while he still needs work on team defense that improved as well. His offense needs alot of help, but he made quicker decisions and his jumpshot did improve especially his 3 pointer. My expectations long term if he stays with the Wolves is I think his upside is a good starter maybe catches fire and has 1 all-star year, but I am not expecting superstar status out of him or anything.

Hard to throw lobs to guys who camp out at the three point line the entire game. Williams shot 53% at the rim two years ago and 54% at the rim last year. Those numbers are not good! I wouldnt say thats improvement. On top of that he took 52% of his shots inside two years ago, this last year that 45%. That means he settled for his impressive jumpshot which did actually improve last year. Get this, he shot about 29% outside the paint his rookie season while shooting 33% last year. Blaming Barea for his abilities to throw alley oops is not the reason Williams is terrible.

Kevin -- I like your provocative post that started this thread.

I think some responses have been unduly harsh or dismissive. Your comments about Derrick's twitter posts can't be viewed in a vacuum. They need to be considered in the broader context of what we know and have heard about Derrick. As Crazy pointed out, we're talking about a player who has grossly underachieved relative to his consensus potential coming out of college and has improved only marginally in his two NBA seasons. Further, Crazy's inside information is consistent with what I've heard from very good sources.

Some appear to have misconstrued our comments as suggesting that Derrick's a bad guy. That's not how I read your post. In fact everything I've heard is that Derrick is a terrific person. I'm told he's very coachable and that he doesn't miss or come late to practice. But I've also heard that he doesn't seem to be devoted to the game like the top players in the League and that he seems to like the NBA life-style more than he likes the NBA game. No wonder Beasley became Derrick's best friend on the team. What Crazy and I have heard about Derrick is consistent with the immaturity you noticed in Derrick's tweets.

I'm told that Derrick started to win over Adelman towards the end of last season. But he still has a lot to prove and the jury is way out on whether Derrick has changed to the point where he's prepared to devote himself to the game to the degree needed to reach his considerable potential.

To be completely fair, I think he has handled the harsh responses in an usually good manner. Something you don't often see on a message board. I hope that you aren't discouraged from posting more due to some of the responses. Kind of a interesting take on a not touched on topic imo. And like I said before if everyone agreed, the boards wouldn't be much fun at all.

I'm near DWill's age and I can tell you for a fact that tweets are not reflective of a person's attitude off the internet. Some people are really happy, for example, but only tweet about things that get in them in a burst of anger. He tweets lyrics and shoes..what's the big deal. Do you guys tweet about your jobs?

I might if I was in the NBA and winning at life lol

Ricky Rubio tweeted about his vacation in Puerto Rico and a couple of commercials this off-season. Why no concern that he isn't improving his game?? Ricky's doing all these off the court activities. Why aren't you worried about him?

I just think it's topic that's really silly. "Silly" being the nice way of putting it.

Me? Well personally I never said I had any concern about either of them due to tweeting. It is fine for you to think the topic is silly as well. Different people form their opinions on people in different ways. This much has not and will not ever change.