He won't start out being a key part of the rotation, but as he said, he will get his opportunities. With this bench . . . there are minutes that to be earned.
Ain't that the truth. I think the first to have his minutes taken away on the 2nd unit would be Wright, if he continues to struggle.
The kid is a baller. I know summer league is against inferior talent, but I really liked the skill he has. CJ and dame are cut from the same cloth.
Summer League is still full of NBA players who have been on rosters for years. Lots of rookies struggle in summer league. Its a big step up from college. So its great to see CJ play so well when he took a leap up in the competition. Now we get to see how his game translates after another step up in competition.
To CJs defense, we had shit for the summer league. It would be equal to dame playing with the players that get zero minutes
I can actually see him take mo's and Killard's minutes. In fact, I think Mo will be a 20 minute guy, while CJ is around 15.
This kid hopefully is that 20 pt 6 man off the bench, maybe not this season but he'll be groomed to take Mo's spot. We need another double digit scorer off the bench! He's coming in fresh and hungry!! Wes likes him and that says a lot. CJ has a beautiful shot, a really, really high basketball IQ and the ability to create his own shot in traffic...welcome back young rookie!
There's nothing like a pink, hello kitty backpack to toughen up a guy standing in line in Detroit to order coffee for the vets, that takes some grit man. Credit to CJ!
watching summer league repeats seems to show an outstanding ability to "get cj in summer league showed an outstanding handle, an ability to drive into the defense and make some shots but he seemed to lack the ability to make others around him better. it was after his performance in vegas that NO decided to sign mo Williams. Stott's interviews hinted at this lack of point guard/distribution skills during his interviews during summer league. the need for a vet "1" was exposed and addressed following. despite mo Williams' deficiancies, he brings skills as dammion's back up that weren't apparent in cj's summer league repatoire.
I love CJ's reaction when he's asked a silly question. He has that smile like, "I know you are are just doing your job, but that is a dumb question."
I think the kid is going to be good. He was amazing in his first two games, and then the other teams figured out that we didn't have any other real weapons. Plus there wasn't an actual point guard on the team.
If CJ is a reasonably good SG in this league even as a rookie, you have to figure he's going to take a ton of Mo's minutes. Williams has been ok for us, but he's not exactly a lockdown defender or really that outstanding of a distributor. If CJ is as good as we all hope, Stotts could easily adjust his second unit rotation to have CJ bring the ball up the court and have Batum run the offense. Batum is really a better facilitator than Williams, but we can't fully exploit him in that role in the second unit because that's a key strength of Mo, and Mo is our best small off the bench. Mo does some good things, but with a PER of 11.3 it's not like he's cemented his role. Besides, CJ is 22 and Williams is 31. If two guys are showing interchangeable net production, in the NBA the much younger guy always gets the nod. We own CJ for cheap for many years, and Mo can leave at the end of this one.
To be clear, I didn't say "better PG skills", just better ball-handling skills. Some of his moves looked to be "jukier" and more in control than Dame's dribble-drives. Of course, it's a highlight video against inferior talent. I'm just excited by the possibility of having another guard who can get from the 3-point line to the basket.
