Return to Sender: The Mark Williams Thread

[amcoolio]

I am high on big Mark, teams are going to regret passing on him for the "current meta" of ball handling wings (despite me wanting Eason and Sochan )

[JMAC3]

We traded 13 for a future pick and 4 seconds. Took Mark at 15. Only prospects I really care we passed on:

Eason, Griffin, Agbaji, Duren everyone else I was pretty meh on especially after looking how draft shook out.

So putting myself in Mitch place on maybe what he was thinking...

Eason: Low IQ rumored, did not want to add that to team struggling with problems with maturity.
Agbaji: Already 22 years old and history is bad for seniors in lottery.
Duren: Favored Williams and adding two centers didn't make sense.
Griffin: Injury Concerns

Wouldn't shock me if he wanted Jalen Williams all along and that is why OKC was so aggressive to move up for combo of Dieng and Williams.

[HornetJail]

We traded 13 for a future pick and 4 seconds. Took Mark at 15. Only prospects I really care we passed on:

Eason, Griffin, Agbaji, Duren everyone else I was pretty meh on especially after looking how draft shook out.

So putting myself in Mitch place on maybe what he was thinking...

Eason: Low IQ rumored, did not want to add that to team struggling with problems with maturity.
Agbaji: Already 22 years old and history is bad for seniors in lottery.
Duren: Favored Williams and adding two centers didn't make sense.
Griffin: Injury Concerns

Wouldn't shock me if he wanted Jalen Williams all along and that is why OKC was so aggressive to move up for combo of Dieng and Williams.

that is probably the only logical argument I can see for that trade beyond just wanting to salary dump the pick to free up cap for an eventual max contract for Miles...

both Williamses are standing reach gods- Jalen Williams standing reach is absolutely INSANE for a wing player, basically made him the same size as Cody Zeller

[LofJ]

Rim protection

[HornetJail]

Richards changed his jersey to #4?

[Bassman]

Rim protection

LOVE THAT BLOCK MARK!! Just watch my friends….

he is, THE ONE!

[GiggitySmalls]

He is the one. He checks every box.

[Chapelchilla]

The one and only good thing that’s happened for the Hornets this awful off season is that I think we finally have the oh so elusive dominant defensive center we have been lacking since Alonzo. May take a couple of years but I think he Will be legit.

[JMAC3]

Rim protection

It is pretty crazy how much higher he is than 6-10 JT Thor in this picture.

[Braggins]

Ive heard mixed reviews of his defensive awareness/instincts and apparently his defensive on/off numbers at Duke weren't good. Even saw someone say he looked less mobile than Walker Kessler.

This kind of worries me and there might be some growing pains in his first couple years even if he pans out. This is all secondhand stuff that I'm hearing, so I take it with a grain of salt, and hes a smart kid with clearly has tons of defensive potential combined with a great work ethic, so I'm not saying I don't like the pick. I was pretty open he was one of my top targets, but I'm not necessarily 100% confident hes the final solution to the center problem yet. Very curious to see how he develops.

[Diop]

i posted a video in one of these threads where he gets destroyed by smaller players in the pick n roll. that's going to be the big adjustment as offences will hunt him down

[BeesWax]

Ive heard mixed reviews of his defensive awareness/instincts and apparently his defensive on/off numbers at Duke weren't good. Even saw someone say he looked less mobile than Walker Kessler.

This kind of worries me and there might be some growing pains in his first couple years even if he pans out. This is all secondhand stuff that I'm hearing, so I take it with a grain of salt, and hes a smart kid with clearly has tons of defensive potential combined with a great work ethic, so I'm not saying I don't like the pick. I was pretty open he was one of my top targets, but I'm not necessarily 100% confident hes the final solution to the center problem yet. Very curious to see how he develops.

He struggled when they tried to get him to switch. It was a big reason Duke lost the second game to UNC. They put him in a pick with Davis and he got lit up. He is going to have to work to not get played off the floor like that. I would not say he is less mobile than Kessler. He appears to be more athletic but just didn’t react well and slide.

[Braggins]

Dean Demakis described him as having the Obi Toppin athletic profile, where hes a good run and jump athlete but terrible moving laterally.

[Liver_Pooty]

Duke hasn't exactly been the ideal place at developing centers either unfortunately

[LofJ]

We don't need Mark to be a do it all defensive big man. The only guys that can do that are outliers like Embiid, Giannis, and Bam. Everyone else platoons that spot and has different players that have different strengths and weaknesses. We have PJ for small ball, Kai for when we need a bigger guy that can switch onto smaller players, and Mark as our physical rim protector.

I love those 3 guys as our frontcourt rotation going forward. The best I've felt about our frontcourt in a long time.

[yosemiteben]

Read on Twitter

[Braggins]

He might be a better offensive player than defensive player for a while because hes going to be such an insane lob target for LaMelo. Hopefully the defensive concerns are overblown because he has all the tools to be a fantastic defensive anchor.

[fatlever]

He's not gonna be Hornets version of Roy hibbert, right?

Just making sure...

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[fatlever]

Following footsteps of Kai, Mark to the swarm

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[amcoolio]

Unlike Kai, Mark is already good on defense, in the limited minutes he's played

I think the plan is to get Nick and Mark reps early in the season, then offload Plumlee before the deadline and have Nick start and Mark be the backup