Minnesota Sports Forum

He is our 2nd 2 way contract. Started 17 games on a 40 win team with the clippers. Pretty great value if you ask me

kekgeek1 wrote:He is our 2nd 2 way contract. Started 17 games on a 40 win team with the clippers. Pretty great value if you ask me

I'm very happy with this signing. CJ seems like a solid guy that can and did (last year) play minutes if you need someone. The upside isn't that high but you can sign someone with more upside with an actual NBA deal. I would have been ok if they signed him to an actual NBA deal and we got him with a 2-way spot? Not bad.

Edit:

I did a bit of research into CJ last week. From videos i watched he looked like he was a bit more refined than he was as a summer league player and what i saw from video of the d-league from previous seasons. Also every forum or comments that mentioned him Clippers fans seemed to have positive things to say. At lower levels he was a high volume 3 point shooter. His block steal numbers at those levels and his small sample size at the NBA level are pretty solid for a wing.

Where are all the Thibs-haters now? Despite having to compete with every team (other than the Clippers) that craved this guy on their rosters, Thibs was the one who got him. So much for the "nobody wants to play for Thibs" contingency...the Williams signing puts a fork in that tired narrative.

Sure, Williams only made 28% of his threes last year, but his 30% 3-point rate in 4 years at NC State shows he has the potential to improve on those numbers. And while he only averaged 5.5 PPG last year, his 6.1 PPG in college shows his enormous offensive upside.

If Thibs can convince a coveted free agent like Williams to play for him, there's no doubt in my mind that more free agents will follow him here. The future is bright.

longstrangetrip wrote:Where are all the Thibs-haters now? Despite having to compete with every team (other than the Clippers) that craved this guy on their rosters, Thibs was the one who got him. So much for the "nobody wants to play for Thibs" contingency...the Williams signing puts a fork in that tired narrative.

Sure, Williams only made 28% of his threes last year, but his 30% 3-point rate in 4 years at NC State shows he has the potential to improve on those numbers. And while he only averaged 5.5 PPG last year, his 6.1 PPG in college shows his enormous offensive upside.

If Thibs can convince a coveted free agent like Williams to play for him, there's no doubt in my mind that more free agents will follow him here. The future is bright.

When you're right, you're right.

longstrangetrip wrote:Where are all the Thibs-haters now? Despite having to compete with every team (other than the Clippers) that craved this guy on their rosters, Thibs was the one who got him. So much for the "nobody wants to play for Thibs" contingency...the Williams signing puts a fork in that tired narrative.

Sure, Williams only made 28% of his threes last year, but his 30% 3-point rate in 4 years at NC State shows he has the potential to improve on those numbers. And while he only averaged 5.5 PPG last year, his 6.1 PPG in college shows his enormous offensive upside.

If Thibs can convince a coveted free agent like Williams to play for him, there's no doubt in my mind that more free agents will follow him here. The future is bright.

You forgot to mention that thibs didnt have to overpay to get him.

longstrangetrip wrote:Where are all the Thibs-haters now? Despite having to compete with every team (other than the Clippers) that craved this guy on their rosters, Thibs was the one who got him. So much for the "nobody wants to play for Thibs" contingency...the Williams signing puts a fork in that tired narrative.

Sure, Williams only made 28% of his threes last year, but his 30% 3-point rate in 4 years at NC State shows he has the potential to improve on those numbers. And while he only averaged 5.5 PPG last year, his 6.1 PPG in college shows his enormous offensive upside.

If Thibs can convince a coveted free agent like Williams to play for him, there's no doubt in my mind that more free agents will follow him here. The future is bright.

Good thing we didn't waste our other 2-way on the G-League's leading rebounder, Amile Jefferson, instead. His tremendous hustle, nose for the ball and high basketball IQ are all problematic characteristics. And with Patton, we really don't need any more young bigs in the organization.

longstrangetrip wrote:Where are all the Thibs-haters now? Despite having to compete with every team (other than the Clippers) that craved this guy on their rosters, Thibs was the one who got him. So much for the "nobody wants to play for Thibs" contingency...the Williams signing puts a fork in that tired narrative.

Sure, Williams only made 28% of his threes last year, but his 30% 3-point rate in 4 years at NC State shows he has the potential to improve on those numbers. And while he only averaged 5.5 PPG last year, his 6.1 PPG in college shows his enormous offensive upside.

If Thibs can convince a coveted free agent like Williams to play for him, there's no doubt in my mind that more free agents will follow him here. The future is bright.

I really can't tell if this is sarcasm or not? I'm not a Thibs hater, I'm one of the few here who actually think he's done a good job overall. But a two way contract for a guy that will be lucky to see the floor doesn't move the needle one way or another for me. Even if he has the potential to play a bit this year.

Maybe a different way to look at CJ Williams is what happened last year. He was signed by the Clippers to a training camp deal and that turned into a 2-way deal after he apparently impressed enough to get that open spot. A lot of posters here has seen CJ play in Summer league. He doesn't blow anyone away but plays a solid game. I remembering commenting the Clippers were going with a low upside guy that might be able to help or at least not hurt them if he was any good. I thought they could have done better or at least gone with some guy with more upside. Well...a few weeks later he ended up being thrust into playing for an NBA team. He ended up appearing in 38 games including 17 starts for a team that probably overachieved going 42-40 which...is a winning record in a tough western conference.

Now we are looking at a guy in CJ most people are again looking at a Meh signing at best pretty similar to what was thought about him a year ago. The difference is he contributed to a team playing winning basketball last season. Isn't that what we are looking for in a guy at the end of the roster? Is what he did last year mean he will be worthwhile at all if called upon? Idk but maybe the chances are as high as 20% he can be a guy that comes in and is a placeholder type as a wing. That has value. None of the guys bandied about for these last spots are sure things to be positive or not horrible detractors if they have to play and that includes some of the vets. To get a guy like CJ who actually did something even moderately worthwhile as a wing last year (plenty solid g-league 3 point shooter) on a 2-way deal seems like a pretty solid move/gamble regardless of who made it.

monsterpile wrote:I remembering commenting the Clippers were going with a low upside guy that might be able to help or at least not hurt them if he was any good.

I think this is a good way to look at this. Our bench just needed to stay afloat while our starters rested. However, outside of tyus, the entire bench hurt us. I thinking adding guys like cj and tolliver will keep us in games with defense and toughness sime possible starting us a game here and there when they get hot. All 3 don't need the ball, so itll be much easier to stagger wiggs or butler with the second unit.

crazy-canuck wrote:

monsterpile wrote:I remembering commenting the Clippers were going with a low upside guy that might be able to help or at least not hurt them if he was any good.

I think this is a good way to look at this. Our bench just needed to stay afloat while our starters rested. However, outside of tyus, the entire bench hurt us. I thinking adding guys like cj and tolliver will keep us in games with defense and toughness sime possible starting us a game here and there when they get hot. All 3 don't need the ball, so itll be much easier to stagger wiggs or butler with the second unit.

If you look purely at the analytics side of things, you could put almost the entire blame on Crawford. On paper, he sabotaged pretty much every lineup he was a part of with his shitty defense and bad shot selection. To fair, he was also the only guy out there that could create offense. Bjelica, Jones, and Dieng all struggle in this regard so we were over-reliant on Crawford to make plays. I'm worried we are going to see the exact same thing play out with Derrick Rose this year.