Is Derrick Williams falling into that bust category?

I suspect that by the end of the season this forum will have numerous "lets trade for Derrick Williams" ideas again. To me, his start so far seems like a typical bad start / a string of bad shooting games situation, as opposed to legitimate 'busting'. And there's a bit of "doesn't fit the system/personnel" mixed in.

These talks are based mostly on his shooting numbers, but if he was just making the shots he was making last year alongside Rubio, or in college, his numbers would look legit.

The guy is just missing bunnies, that happens, but he doesn't seem like a soft / mentally fragile type where some ridiculous misses could bust his confidence. If anything, he's too aggressive and reckless for his own good. When it comes to prospects, I'd rather bet on overly aggressive than soft.

I think he'll be a "bust" in the sense that he's not going to be the 2nd best player in his draft class. Just looking at the bigs in that draft -- Faried, Valanciunas, Kanter, Tristan Thompson, then Mirotic long term -- it would be tough for Williams to exceed all of those guys.
I think this will be an Emeka Okafor type of situation -- considered at #1 over Dwight Howard (Kyrie Irving), Dwight (Kyrie) ends up a superstar and Emeka's not even the #2 best player in his class. But still a very solid player.

 

Well that's a bust.

You take a guy that high in the draft to be a all-star at least.

It is Early though, people really should use the 3-4 year rule with young players always before closing the book on them.

 

Even if Williams starts hitting shots at a higher rate, his ceiling just isn't that high. He's not a good defender, nor an athletic freak, doesn't rebound at a high rate and stuck between two positions.
He can be a serviceable, even good player, but he's never going to be any special.

I didn't think he should have gone as high as he did on draft night and obviously I feel even more strongly about it now then I did back then.

 

Yep. Well, Emeka was a marginal All Star, he didn't deserve it any less than someone like David Lee. But there are legit definitions of a bust where he's still a bust.
However, the article and some posts throw names like Wes Johnson, Johnny Flynn and Thabeet around, which is an extreme definition of bust. And I think that's not just premature right now, but the signs point that Williams won't be in that category.

 

He doesn't suck in any of those areas though. There have been numerous all stars and marginal all stars with similar limitations.

My biggest issue with him right now (besides all the missed layups-dunks, which I think is temporary) is his passing and occasional ball hogging, I worry that Adelman might snap and relegate him to garbage minutes when Love comes back. Otherwise, I think he should recover from this bad start.

 

That's because Durant should have been #1 and Oden should have been there to complete the bust run, lol

 

Ricky Rubio and Kevin Love.


I have no idea about the answer, but I wonder how many teams could list more than 2 successes from 5 top 6 picks?

 

McHale picked Love, so it's not even two.

 

McHale picked Love and Pekovic.

Kahn picked Rubio, but he also took Flynn, Wes Johnson, Derrick Williams.

 

and when you add finding Pekovic in the 2nd round, they haven't been drafting very poorly.

It's a shame they didn't make of the other picks right, like Stephen Curry instead of Flynn, they'd be legit contenders and a Thunder-like success story. But Thunder-like drafting happens once in 20 years.

 

Thorpe and Abbot have an excellent conversation in the link below that revolves around player success in the NBA. They bring it back to a little something called Royal Jelly.

Parsons is a big piece of the conversation because of his draft position (low expectations) + team need + on court success.

I have a hard time believing that Derrick Williams will not find himself as a competitive 28 MPG player in this league for plenty of years. Maybe he isn't getting the Royal Jelly he needs in Minny, but with his physical tools and skill set, he'll be able to find it somewhere.

http://espn.go.com/blog/truehoop/post/_/id/36199/nba-today-david-thorpe

 

No - but the point is made well that the bloke doing the drafting isn't the same one!


OKC aside, I expect T-Wolves fans would be happy with 1, possibly 2, all-star talents being drafted within 5 years. I'd consider that 'good' drafting overall (ie, busts happen, and frequently!)

 

Its hard when you don't have a position. If you're gonna be a tweener,you better have some kind of special qualities and he really don't. So he needs to play along with another tweener. Mook morris is the same way except he wasn't drafted 2nd.

 

GTFO.

Oden was consensus #1. There was no argument at all. It wasn't a Irving vs Williams situation. Oden, during his healthy days, dominated NBA as much as any rookie big.

 

Trade Royce White for D Williams, Royce gets to be closer to his Doctor, and we get a prospect, that I agree isn't doing much, but is still doing more than Royce at the moment.

 

Royce and Patterson for Derrick Williams and filler, I'd do it.

 

KD wasn't a big, and he was universally considered the better player coming out of college.

Oden's allure was that he looked like the next best center, but its not like he was posting up monster numbers, most people realized he was basically a defensive dude who could develop a low post game. The Blazers had access to all his medical records, and it was reported he had several flags healthwise prior to the draft.

 

Oden was compared to Bill Russell...

That should say all that really needs to be said about what NBA scouts thought of him. Remember the whole year the Celtics tried to 'tank' pathetically to get him.

 

With Love back, there don't appear to be many minutes for Williams now. Cunningham has played really well and Adelman doesn't like playing Williams at the 3.

How soon before Williams gets traded for some random SG?

 

hopefully soon. Williams played one of the best games of his career, and then he was out of rotation the next game.
That has to hurt his confidence, I don't see how he could get developed like this.