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Cody Williams Hype and Appreciation Thread

Still not worried about Cody even a little bit. He plays solid defense every night and better than most. He looks more decisive on offense, plays team ball and has good court awareness which is more than I can say for some in higher stead with the fan base.
 
Liked how he has looked in preseason. Has been much more active, plays decent defense and I think he will get better as he builds confidence. Looks stronger but could probably put on more weight to help with being more physical. Let us see how this transfers to the regular season.
 
I hope he has a year of wild and significant progress.

Watching him play I feel the same way I felt watching Trey Burke play. I find it deeply unenjoyable.
To me there are too many moments where I feel sort of awkward about what he just did... and not enough of those moments where I feel impressed by him.

But this is a hype and appreciation thread, so I will end this with a positive note by saying he sure looks better than he did last year.
 
Cody helps the tank, but I see no future with the Jazz or even in the NBA beyond this season. I used to think it was a lack of heart, but no it is a lack of talent. Poor performances for a second year player are not uncommon, but he doesn't look like he even belongs on the court, rarely looks like he understands what is even going on in plays, and has terrible reaction time to what is happening. He is just simply bad at basketball. I hope he doesn't waste a roster spot for us next season.
 
Cody helps the tank, but I see no future with the Jazz or even in the NBA beyond this season. I used to think it was a lack of heart, but no it is a lack of talent. Poor performances for a second year player are not uncommon, but he doesn't look like he even belongs on the court, rarely looks like he understands what is even going on in plays, and has terrible reaction time to what is happening. He is just simply bad at basketball. I hope he doesn't waste a roster spot for us next season.

He's one of our better defenders. On the offensive side, he's rarely involved. He knows he's not going to take shot attempts away from the other guys, and he touches the ball maybe once every 5 or 6 offensive possessions. What he did offensively in college that made him an intriguing prospect isn't translating to the NBA. Teams just aren't going to ask him to play on the ball and initiate. So offensively, he's a misfit until he reinvents himself as a shooter off the catch. And whether he can do that still remains to be seen.
 
He's one of our better defenders. On the offensive side, he's rarely involved. He knows he's not going to take shot attempts away from the other guys, and he touches the ball maybe once every 5 or 6 offensive possessions. What he did offensively in college that made him an intriguing prospect isn't translating to the NBA. Teams just aren't going to ask him to play on the ball and initiate. So offensively, he's a misfit until he reinvents himself as a shooter off the catch. And whether he can do that still remains to be seen.

I mean "better" is not saying a whole lot here, but the issue with Cody is that while his one-on-one defense is *fine,* he doesn't generate any turnovers or get rebounds or protect the rim.

Cody has 8 rebounds, 3 steals, and 2 blocks... For the entire season.

Obviously he has not played a lot, but his rookie year and in college, he was horrible at rebounding, creating turnovers, and protecting the rim as well. He's going to have his 4th year option declined.
 
I mean "better" is not saying a whole lot here, but the issue with Cody is that while his one-on-one defense is *fine,* he doesn't generate any turnovers or get rebounds or protect the rim.

Cody has 8 rebounds, 3 steals, and 2 blocks... For the entire season.

Obviously he has not played a lot, but his rookie year and in college, he was horrible at rebounding, creating turnovers, and protecting the rim as well. He's going to have his 4th year option declined.
There is a guy in the GLeague that is not starting, was not drafted that outplayed Cody head to head in an NCAA tournament game. I don't think Cody has Kevin Knox II or Marjohn Beauchamp skills.
 
Cody helps the tank, but I see no future with the Jazz or even in the NBA beyond this season. I used to think it was a lack of heart, but no it is a lack of talent. Poor performances for a second year player are not uncommon, but he doesn't look like he even belongs on the court, rarely looks like he understands what is even going on in plays, and has terrible reaction time to what is happening. He is just simply bad at basketball. I hope he doesn't waste a roster spot for us next season.

I agree with the premise that Cody is bad, but the reasons you give are not correct, in my opinion. Cody is smart and is generally in the right place at the right time. It's like the one thing he is good at and the reason he is getting playing time right now. Also, his reaction time is fine, specifically he's good at moving his feet and staying in front of defenders which requires good reaction time. I would say in general he makes the right play most of the time, i.e. shoot/pass/drive.

Cody's problem is that he's not very skilled and he has 0 aggression/confidence. The hope was that the aggression/confidence would improve with added strength, but it hasn't. To me this is the number one reason to be down on Cody right now and the reason he should spend some time in the G-League to see if that can be improved.
 
Cody helps the tank, but I see no future with the Jazz or even in the NBA beyond this season. I used to think it was a lack of heart, but no it is a lack of talent. Poor performances for a second year player are not uncommon, but he doesn't look like he even belongs on the court, rarely looks like he understands what is even going on in plays, and has terrible reaction time to what is happening. He is just simply bad at basketball. I hope he doesn't waste a roster spot for us next season.

It's both. He has a very low talent level and also has a very low motor. I wouldn't necessarily say his BBIQ is that terrible though, he's just not able to compete at this level.

Anyways, he should get 20+ minutes a game for the rest of the year.
 
I agree with the premise that Cody is bad, but the reasons you give are not correct, in my opinion. Cody is smart and is generally in the right place at the right time. It's like the one thing he is good at and the reason he is getting playing time right now. Also, his reaction time is fine, specifically he's good at moving his feet and staying in front of defenders which requires good reaction time. I would say in general he makes the right play most of the time, i.e. shoot/pass/drive.

Cody's problem is that he's not very skilled and he has 0 aggression/confidence. The hope was that the aggression/confidence would improve with added strength, but it hasn't. To me this is the number one reason to be down on Cody right now and the reason he should spend some time in the G-League to see if that can be improved.

He's an afterthought on offense. He knows it. Everyone knows it. If Cody is given the opportunity to try to score or give the ball back to someone like Lauri, Keyonte, Brice, Svi, or literally anyone else, he'll give the ball up. Unless it's a wide-open 3PA that he has to take, or unless he has an open path to the rim, he's probably not even going to try.

Right now, he doesn't know how to score in what would be his appropriate NBA role. He has to dig himself out. But the Jazz picked up his option, so they must think there's a chance he'll do it.

In retrospect, you should think of Cody as a rookie this season, since he wasn't ready for the NBA last year at all. And probably, his talent level for the role he's likely to be given is more like that of a late 1st round or 2nd-round pick.
 
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I mean it's clear by now he simply doesn't have NBA talent. That's OK – almost nobody on earth does. I'm not mad at him for his lack of talent and I don't blame him for signing an NBA contract. Anyone would have done it.

However, I just can't stomach the fact that he never battles on the court. No fire, no pride, no heart, no desire to make himself useful in some way. Just ****ing dive at the ball. At least sacrifice your body if you can't do anything else. You're being paid an ungodly amount of money for wearing a jersey.

There are thousands of guys outside the league clawing at the slightest opportunity to get in who would do anything asked of them. For the league minimum.
 
It's both. He has a very low talent level and also has a very low motor. I wouldn't necessarily say his BBIQ is that terrible though, he's just not able to compete at this level.

Anyways, he should get 20+ minutes a game for the rest of the year.
My issue with your last sentence is those minutes are valuable minutes Bailey, Sensabaugh, and/or Clayton could be getting.

So while it’s funny to think him playing a bunch of minutes makes him an elite tank commander, on a night like last night, when Bailey is playing well, instead of getting 20 minutes, he could play 30+. Or Clayton could have been getting rotation minutes these last 4 or 5 games instead of 0.

It was pretty frustrating last night when Bailey started the third quarter playing extremely well and like clockwork, at the 6:47 mark, out he came, and in came Williams. Instead of letting him keep playing, building confidence, he gets pulled right after hitting a tough mid range jumper on SGA. All so Cody Williams can get minutes he doesn’t deserve. Against a team that will beat the jazz regardless.
 
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It's kind of shocking how bad he is offensively. At this point since the goal should be to lose we need to be force feeding him at least 20 minutes a game so that we lose more and we still give him the slightest chance to turn this around. I don't really have any hope in him at this point but I don't want to burn a top 10 pick without giving him as long of a leash as possible since we shouldn't be trying to win.
 
My issue with your last sentence is those minutes are valuable minutes Bailey, Sensabaugh, and/or Clayton could be getting.

So while it’s funny to think him playing a bunch of minutes makes him an elite tank commander, on a night like last night, when Bailey is playing well, instead of getting 20 minutes, he could play 30+. Or Clayton could have been getting rotation minutes these last 4 or 5 games instead of 0.
There are plenty of minutes to go around if we stop messing around with Svi, Love and keep Nurk around 20 minutes.
 
It's kind of shocking how bad he is offensively. At this point since the goal should be to lose we need to be force feeding him at least 20 minutes a game so that we lose more and we still give him the slightest chance to turn this around. I don't really have any hope in him at this point but I don't want to burn a top 10 pick without giving him as long of a leash as possible since we shouldn't be trying to win.
The thing people are missing is that there is no danger of beating OKC. Or LAL. Or Houston. He doesn’t need to play one minute in those games and the tank will soldier on. Develop guys who want and deserve to be on the court.
 
There are plenty of minutes to go around if we stop messing around with Svi, Love and keep Nurk around 20 minutes.
I agree, but Hardy IS going to play those guys. It’s a pipe dream to think otherwise. Just isn’t reality. And frankly they deserve to be out there. I’d be fine if they never played a minute, but I understand why they do play.

Last night (and the last few games) it was Cody who subbed in for Bailey when he should have remained in the game.

While it isn’t realistic to think he’d sit Nurk, Svi, Love, etc, Hardy has shown he will sit young players. Clayton, Sensabaugh, Williams and Hendricks have all had stretches when they didn’t play.
 
Cody’s shooting splits this season: 32/11/33. His PER is 2. No typos.

Cy said in another thread not even people who didn’t like him as a prospect thought he’d be THIS bad. I can confirm that is true. I don’t know if there has ever been an NBA player who has been this bad. It is true I didn’t see him in the conversation for worst player in NBA history.

If it’s tanking we want Jazz will tank just fine with Sensabaugh getting those minutes at that wing spot. Williams doesn’t deserve to be on an NBA court.
 
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