Thanks for this, Stephen. I saw the same things from D Dot, and I had been waiting to see him out there after watching some of his college tape. It's good to know that we might have a drive and kick/decent drive and finish guy, and someone who tries hard out there going forward this season, especially if guys will keep being held out with "protocol absences" and injury.
@Stephen - What are your thoughts on Lauri? Are you waiting until the contract situation players out by Monday? I'm curious how you've viewed him this preseason. From a casual fan's perspective he would seem to fall more towards the WCJ end of the performance spectrum than the Coby or PW end from this post...
He's been very bad in the preseason. No other way to spin it. I do like that Donovan has let him try some new things, and he's had two nice plays as a pick-and-roll ballhandler, which he rarely got to do last year.
Bottom line, Lauri needs to shoot the ball better. All of his value comes from the threat of his shooting. He needs to attack closeouts, and he can't do that if defenders don't fear his shot and close out hard on him.
There's a lot of variance in 3-point shooting, but we have enough data now to show that he's probably an average shooter. Unless that somehow miraculously changes, I don't think he will be as valuable as we had hoped after his promising rookie year. I was really hyping up the Lauri bandwagon during that rookie year, and it's looking like I was wrong.
Steph, what do you think of Williams jump shot form? Does it look strange to you? I'm not expecting Ray Allen here, but the few he's taken look, not unorthodox but definitely different. I'm not sure if it's his release or his form that kinda rubs me the wrong way. And I'm talking specifically about his jumper. His floaters and inside scoring seem solid.
Thanks for this, Stephen. I saw the same things from D Dot, and I had been waiting to see him out there after watching some of his college tape. It's good to know that we might have a drive and kick/decent drive and finish guy, and someone who tries hard out there going forward this season, especially if guys will keep being held out with "protocol absences" and injury.
@Stephen - What are your thoughts on Lauri? Are you waiting until the contract situation players out by Monday? I'm curious how you've viewed him this preseason. From a casual fan's perspective he would seem to fall more towards the WCJ end of the performance spectrum than the Coby or PW end from this post...
He's been very bad in the preseason. No other way to spin it. I do like that Donovan has let him try some new things, and he's had two nice plays as a pick-and-roll ballhandler, which he rarely got to do last year.
Bottom line, Lauri needs to shoot the ball better. All of his value comes from the threat of his shooting. He needs to attack closeouts, and he can't do that if defenders don't fear his shot and close out hard on him.
There's a lot of variance in 3-point shooting, but we have enough data now to show that he's probably an average shooter. Unless that somehow miraculously changes, I don't think he will be as valuable as we had hoped after his promising rookie year. I was really hyping up the Lauri bandwagon during that rookie year, and it's looking like I was wrong.
Steph, what do you think of Williams jump shot form? Does it look strange to you? I'm not expecting Ray Allen here, but the few he's taken look, not unorthodox but definitely different. I'm not sure if it's his release or his form that kinda rubs me the wrong way. And I'm talking specifically about his jumper. His floaters and inside scoring seem solid.
To me, he seems to release at the apex of his jump, which is old school. Most guys release on their way up these days.
I'm not an expert in shot mechanics though. I try not to comment too much on things that I don't have authority on.