Genuine questions: (a) what's his contract status? Is he a UFA? (b) is he fully healthy? (c) is there any chance he'll play in Summer League? (d) is he gone for sure to clear up cap space? Any official word?
a) we'll renounce any rights making him a UFA b) I'm not sure there is such a thing for people who've had his injuries c) yes, he's hoping to and I think the blazers are open to this. d) I wouldn't pay him more than vet. min. and I don't think any team would either. We'll make all of our moves and if he's still available and he showed he's healthy, we'll give him a shot. That's what I think, anyway.
I still have nothing more than my gut to say that he could be a steal for the vet min or whatever he qualifies for. Maybe Im more hopeful than anything but I think it will finally come together for him. And this would then help with having more assets to move in trades.
And what "form" is that? A well below average basketball player? He's essentially the combination of the worst aspects of Oden and the best aspects of Barton.
I hope he sticks around, but its hard to justify playing time to develop him knowing its a crapshoot weather he stays healthy or not.
Well I think the talent is there so there would really need to be some clear expectations that if you dont work then you go to the end of the bench and a contract that reflects that.
He was VERY good when he played. If he's healthy enough to maybe be able to play in summer league we should definitely give him another chance.
We'll have to agree to disagree on this - I never saw anything from him that I didn't see Von Wafer do better.
Williams is/was an elite athlete who had a respectable but not great shot with decent handles/court vision who's supposedly one of the hardest workers you can find and wasn't he known for being a very good defender in college. As a 15th player your expecting nothing for I'd give him a 2 year three million contract (1 this year two next year) with a team option for next year. The potential for a good bench player was there but injuries may have cost him his career so a small contract that at worst is salary filler in a trade doesn't seem out of line. Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk 2
I am of the belief that for this team to take the next step we are going to have to take some risks. Some of those will be high risk/high reward and some will be low risk/high reward. I see no reason why E-Will cant be that.
Look, I've got nothing against the guy. If at the end of summer we still need to put one more body on the roster, and we can give him $800K, then sure - why not? But there's nothing particularly special about him. He's the Jeff Pendergraph of SGs.
Just a gut feeling, but I think - barring receiving a ridiculous offer from another team (after we decline his option) Williams is 100% back, even if we have to spend a little more than the vet. min. to keep him. I think this front office knows it needs to manufacture assets and that they know what they (potentially) have in him. Williams traveled with the team on just about (if not) every road trip. That doesn't typically happen with young, end-of-the-bench guys out w/ season-ending injuries. We could have easily waived him once he got hurt and used that roster spot for an able body, but instead we hung onto him and kept him close to the team. I think Olshey & Co. wanted him to learn and develop as much as he could mentally, hoping that would translate once he recovered physically.
Jeff Pendergraph?? Really?! There's no doubt we disagree. If he's fully healthy he's our best SG in my opinion. if we know he's never gonna be fully healthy we shouldn't keep him but only if that's the case. How is he comparable to Jeff Pendergraph is beyond me.
I know the sample size is very small, only 24 games. So, perhaps you never actually saw him play. If you did, you'd recognize the kid certainly has talent. At 22, he had a PER = 18.8 and averaged 21.3 PTS/36. Again, the sample size is small, but your Von Wafer and Jeff Pendergraph comparisons are ridiculous. Wafer has a career PER = 11.8, with a career high of 14.7 and a career high PTS/36 of 17.9. Pendergraph has a career PER = 13.3 with a career high of 14.5. His career high PTS/36 is 14.1. And, both of those guys, at various times, have been decent bench players. Hell, either one of them would have made our bench better last season. As bad as our bench was last season, Elliot Williams, if reasonably healthy would be an upgrade. We get 15 roster spots. With his talent and upside, what harm would it do to offer him a cheap 2-year contract with the second year a team option? Worst case, he doesn't play (three of those 15 spots are inactive anyway). Best case, he could provide some sorely needed offense off the bench. Seems like a low risk with a chance to pay off and improve our bench. If not, don't pick up the team option for the second year. BNM
Blazers bit players, selected late in the draft, with relatively limited skills who are (or were) horribly overrated by a pocket of Blazers fans.
Well first off, I already stated that if we need another player on the roster I see no harm in retaining him. But everything that can be done, should be done well before we start thinking about what sort of contract to offer him. Regarding the "advanced" stats - they simply don't work for players with limited playing time, let alone a player with essentially ZERO playing time. Heck, I'm not even interested in PER arguments for regular rotation guys! And trying to extrapolate per36m numbers with such a limited data set is going to give you useless results. Wafer would never average 18ppg, Pendergraph would never average 14ppg, and Williams would never average 21ppg (not unless he's dramatically better post-injury than pre-injury). Yes, Williams OR Wafer would have helped us last season - but that's not saying much. Maybe we'd be the 9th worst team instead of the 10th worst? And for the record - no I didn't see all 24 games he played in. But I probably saw 5-7. I think the Von Wafer comparison is quite apt given what I saw from him. Maybe he played tremendously better in those other 20ish games, but I doubt it. Also, it should be noted that pure athleticism doesn't impress me nearly as much as solid fundamentals.
