To me the things to like about Williams are very similar to Jaden McD. He can create his own shiot, but you don't really want him to. He's not a liability on offense but not really a plus.
The Official We Must Draft Cody Williams Thread!
- Thread starter Tom Pitt
- Start date
I think he's so long and so young that the fact he can do some ball handling and seems to have some touch, you just hope that he continues to improve into something more. You can't plan on that though, and if all he turns in to is a very long defender who doesn't hurt your offense, then that is still a good player.
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5yjpOIGFAk
This game shows Williams' length and mobility on the perimeter as a defender, prior to his injuries this year. This is what I'd expect his mobility to look like. There are some good defensive reps here, both out on guards and on forwards in the post. His defensive awareness looks okay, not stellar, but he makes rotations and gets out to contest shooters. He gets a couple deflections (e.g., 0:33). Smaller, quicker guards can get ahead of him and force him to trail, which isn't great. Williams will need to get in a better stance and do a better job of staying in front.
The other flashes you'll see here show Wiliams' ability to pass over the top of defenders. For example, he has a nice sequence out of screen/roll at 0:49, hitting his cutter in rhythm. Cody's length lets him see and deliver passes over the top, which is always appealing for setting up bigs.
Offensively, this doesn't have a whole lot of makes, but there's a nice cut to the baseline for an and-1 at 1:23, he relocates and hits a 3 starting at 1:38, he has a nice drive and left-hand finish over a wing-sized defender at 1:57. He has another drive that he short-arms a couple sequences later. He's able to finish above the rim at this stage if he has some space (see the run-out at 3:09). You can see he knows how to use his length to put pressure on the rim and make defenders react to him. He has hard drive and kick-out at 3:16 where defenders collapse on him and leave a shooter.
In the 2nd half of this game, Washington starts to put bigger defenders on Williams and really body him. Cody gets a bit rattled, but he's able to kick out to open shooters and make a few finishes. He gets a step-back 3 to fall at the very end.
You can see he's able to process the game and put some nice play sequences together. At the same time, he's still physically pretty underdeveloped. He should be able to add strength to his frame and become more impactful as a result.
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Tbh, I think naming a player who had a good game in a playoff game is as dumb as the brother argument haha. Like what if Pascal had a bad game, is Cody Williams a bad prospect? Why does Cody = Siakam anyways? Doesn't make sense to me.
I want to like Williams, but when the arguments for him are this odd....it's hard for be to buy in.
I want to like Williams, but when the arguments for him are this odd....it's hard for be to buy in.
Maybe as scoring prospects....Jaden was at least a stocks + rebounds guy which reflected his far superior athletic ability. The thing is, basically none of the offensive appeal with Jaden translated. If you read the scouting reports on him predraft people were in awe of the scoring potential and that was his case as a prospect. What happened in reality is that none of the offensive stuff happened....I would argue he is an offensive liability but certainly not a plus. He's a successful NBA player because of his on ball perimeter defense, didn't see many people saying that predraft. Is Cody Williams a sneaky all NBA level defender? I doubt it.
These are more offensive highlights that you'll see in his highlight mix.
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jvsYUaj6CUo
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r2_4Aqli1Hk
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jvsYUaj6CUo
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r2_4Aqli1Hk
I made a reference to Pascal's playoff game to show how the NBA game really favors long wings who can get downhill. Siakam didn't shoot well from the perimeter, he missed half his FTs, and he still scored an efficient 36 pts because he was able to drive to the rim. The Jazz don't have a long wing who can self-create and get downhill.
But on the other hand a guy like Franz just had a miserable time being effective. In either case, I think it's stupid to make a judgement on Cody because of how they played. Of course every team wants players that are good and talented....it doesn't mean anything for Cody if good players play good or bad. What matters for Cody is if he's as good as those guys to begin with and that's the part I'm struggling with.
I think Cody's scoring is somewhat promising, but I think he's much more in the TJ Warren vein where in the best case scenario he can get some buckets....but he sucks at everything else. One of the reasons why I'm a big stocks/peripheral numbers guys is because that has shown big time carryover to other parts of their game. For example, getting steals is more than an indicator of getting steals at the next level. Is there a player that exists that was this poor at everything else who actually went on to be the type of wing you're describing? Derozan, I guess....but I think we can all agree that Cody is not like Derozan.
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With Jaden it seemed like their were maturity or off the court things or people questioned if he liked basketball or tried hard… it was a weird vibe with how the narrative formed around him and it didn’t seem true at all.
Thing is, if people saw him as a defense first, second, third player....they would have for sure loved his craziness. I just don't think people viewed him that way and instead were thinking about him as boom/bust on the basis of him hitting mid range jumpers.
