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Cody Williams Hype and Appreciation Thread

I reaöized the other day that I dont think Ive ever seen a single clip where Cody looks sharp, decisive or aggressive. All the game tape, workour vids... its always the same. He just is flegmatic.

I think I'm ready to let go.
 
seattlejazzfan said:
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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In all seriousness this is a good point. While this has been contested, I do indeed think that minutes are good for development. Cody doesn’t have to get more minutes than Brice/Walt/TH and I don’t think he should. But I’d also say there are other players on this team that don’t need to be playing as many minutes as they do. Brice and Walt in particular would be in much higher priority for me than they are for Hardy.

It’s kinda sad that the only respectable way to give Cody minutes is in the name of tanking. If he’s actually getting minutes because we want to invest in him more than other prospects because we think he’s better, that’s just a failure in evaluation. The FO did pick up his option, so it looks like we do believe in him to some extent. Maybe they just don’t want to admit failure so soon.

I don’t want to keep piling on, but he truly is a horrible prospect. He’s like a B level on ball defender but is still a negative defender because he’s horrible at the other aspects of defense. He’s F tier in so many facets of the game. The only intrigue he has is that he was once a top 10 pick, and he was only a top 10 pick because his brother was good.
 
seattlejazzfan said:
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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Yep, and like seriously why weren't Hendricks getting min?
 
I think the Jazz are playing Cody because he actually rotates defensively, slows down the ball handler, cuts off drives in the paint and makes good closeouts. Like I've said, defensively Cody has been fine. Meanwhile, Brice and Walt have been soft defensively. They get blown by, and their contests are often late or ineffective. If you're going to play guys at the 5 like Love and even Nurkic, who are limited paint defenders, then you need to try to stave off penetration. Right now, Cody is one of the few guys we have who can do that.

Cody's problem is on offense. Since Ainge took over the team, the Jazz have moved on from guys who can't shoot--e.g., Bolmaro, Vanderbilt, THT, Agbaji, etc. (They might even have given up on Nickeil for that reason.) Cody looks like he's falling in this category. That puts him on a clock.

Guys like Nickeil and Vanderbilt tend to stick around the league, but you'll notice that they're now both on their 4th team.
 
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Cody is not a good defensive player. “Fine” means he’s an average/above average defender but there are more aspects to defense than that. He provides zero off ball help, zero defensive playmaking, zero rebounding, and he fouls a lot.

He’s 1 percentile in defensive EPM. That probably underrates him, but in reality he’s probably like a 25th percentile defender when you consider overall defensive impact.
 
seattlejazzfan said:
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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I agree, especially when playing a team like OKC, but I do want williams to help the tank since the tank needs lots of help.
Bailey will still get minutes and he has plenty of minutes coming to him in his future.
Next season he will probably be playing like 35 minutes per game or something.
It's ok to hold him back a little bit in his rookie year if that equals a couple more losses which could be huge for the jazz future
 
To me, it seems, at least in part, a mental/confidence issue with Cody. Not sure how much that contributes to his struggles. I’d play him the rest of the season before deciding what to do with him. And like our other young guys, he’s good for the tank.
 
I reject the idea that Cody is a good tank commander. Yes, he is really bad, but it is almost impossible to really negatively effect the game when you don't touch the ball and when you are one of your team's best defenders. There is really no good reason for Cody to be playing with the Jazz right now, he needs to go to the Stars and this time he needs to play so well that he graduates from the Gleague before he is allowed to get more Jazz time.
 
underdog said:
To me, it seems, at least in part, a mental/confidence issue with Cody. Not sure how much that contributes to his struggles. I’d play him the rest of the season before deciding what to do with him. And like our other young guys, he’s good for the tank.
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He's a guy who builds rhythm and confidence through the course of a game. If he doesn't touch the ball and gets one shot attempt in 6 minutes of game time, he never builds that rhythm and confidence. But that said, he's not good enough at what he does to earn those touches right now.
 
Playing 4v5
SoberasHotRod said:
I reject the idea that Cody is a good tank commander. Yes, he is really bad, but it is almost impossible to really negatively effect the game when you don't touch the ball and when you are one of your team's best defenders. There is really no good reason for Cody to be playing with the Jazz right now, he needs to go to the Stars and this time he needs to play so well that he graduates from the Gleague before he is allowed to get more Jazz time.
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Playing 4v5 absolutely drives the tank. I don’t know how you can simultaneously not be good enough for the league but also not be helping the tank by playing minutes.
 
As far as sending him to the GLeague, I’m feeling Déjà vu from last year. I don’t think the GLeague did much for him last and don’t think it will make the difference for him this year either. I think GLeague has more practices, so maybe that will help his skill development. After watching those games last year, I have a hard time believing the games themselves are a super valuable experience.

I don’t buy the “low confidence” stuff because there’s this implication that he could perform if only he was more confident. It’s a chicken or egg question, and in this case I think it’s his poor ability that leads to low confidence not the other way around.

IMO, what Cody needs to focus on is playing harder. It doesn’t matter if that’s the NBA or GLeague, he simply cannot be a low motor player. I don’t know how much you can really change motor, but he needs a big shift in order to be an NBA level player.
 
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