3 Stratospheric Plays From SkyWalker Tonight
[Only registered and activated users can see links. ]
Bill Walker's athleticism was on full display tonight. Below is a video of his block on Spendon Whores, but his put back dunk and one rebound in particular were just ridunkulous.
The guy can board like Landry. I've been saying it and saying it and he's been showing it when given the chance.
He also has some D.
I'll add the other vids as they become available.
Bill Walker can play D when he feels like playing D, much like Melo it's never a question of if he's able to but whether or not he's willing to commit himself to doing so. In the past few games Bill Walker has made a great case to be a part of the postseason rotation he is playing with fire & desire like Clyde would say. Hopefully he gets rewarded for it & we don't have to watch Jared Jeffries playing 20+ a night in the playoffs.
The only person I want cut from the rotation come playoff time is Jeffries.. He should only be used to use up fouls on opposing bigs between him, Turiaf and Sheldon.
Guys I'm kinda not understanding the point of all this AR vs Jefferies stuff. AR and Jefferies weren't even on the team at the same time!
I think they knew all along they would have to give up AR in a deadline deal if they wanted to keep any of Chandler/Gallo/Fields. Hence he didn't get much PT because we knew he wasn't in future plans. I also think that MDA/Walsh assumed Mozgov was so unproven no one would really care about him in the trade which was why he saw more consistent minutes than AR.
Yeah we could have got more out of AR and maybe got more value for him but comparing what he can do vs Jefferies isn't really saying anything.
Also Jefferies can guard multiple positions which as we all know is a big plus for MDA. I don't think AR can really D up anything except SF/PF.
The point of the AR vs Jeffries debate is why is Jeffries receiving so much PT while AR got pretty much next to none while he was here. AR is a much more talented player that Jeffries is
But JJ at 6'10 can actually provide some D against big men down low. Brown is smaller than Shawne/Shelden. Smaller than Turiaf.
Other than JJ we only really have Amare/Turiaf/Shelden who can truly provide any interior presence. But yeah I think in the playoffs JJ should only play to keep people fresh and pick up fouls. Other than that get Shelden/Turiaf as many minutes at C/PF as possible.
Because Stat was playing 40+ minutes per game because we needed him to in order to win games, and we played Chandler and Gallo at the two forward spots regularly. There wasn't many SF/PF minutes available now we have a lot less forwards on the team so JJ gets minutes.
I keep hearing this stuff about how Jeffries can guard multiple positions. I can't disagree more, I think he's good at 1 thing only & that's drawing charges in the lane. On the ball he's a crappy defender especially against quicker players who can take guys off the dribble. He's a horrible post defender as well against bigger physical players that like to bang down low, he's not nearly strong enough to hold position to keep from being backed down into the paint, & not nearly a good enough rebounder to prevent other guys from grabbing offensive boards. He does a bad job guarding the PnR also, he already allowed 2 guys to kill us this year in the closing seconds of games, 1 a game winning shot from Baron Davis where Jeffries failed to get over the screen & contest, & the other in a recent game vs. the Magic where he allowed Gilbert Arenas to launch a game tying 3 point shot in the closing seconds & didn't even get a hand up to contest when the only possible thing that could have hurt us in that situation was allowing a 3 pointer. If I remember correctly he was also slow to rotate on help defense in that game vs. the Pacers when Danny Granger hit the game winner. Jeffries & his vaunted defensive skill is just not an accurate description of his NBA skillset, the fact is he is just quite simply a horrible basketball player in every sense of the word, I quite honestly don't even know how he's been able to stay in the NBA for so long w/the game he has. There are guys playing in the D Leagues that I would rather have on this roster.
Well his height at least allows him to get a hand up and contest 7 footers. And he has successfully guarded PG's plenty of times for the Knicks.
I agree he is a bad player. Above average defensively but so horrible offensively that he is close to useless. Still if Turiaf/Shelden need to rest then I'd rather have him than some 6'8 guy trying to guard a 7 footer.
I love Walker. Enough of this on and off playing him. I see him potentially being very good.
i hate to say it but walker deserves a starting spot... fields game has been off maybe a couple days off the starting rotation and things will click for him again. Or maybe even coming off the bench will be better for him, give him minutes without melo and stat on the court and maybe he will produce more.
Hate overcomes all
I realise that Jeffries isn't the most exciting player to watch on the court but the man is useful. He played 13 minutes yesterday, grabbed 4 rebounds (all offensive), had 4 points, took a charge, he always comes out for the screen to contribute to the team's offensive movement, as well as supporting players that are hit by a screen defensively. If I'm to be honest, if we are to compare his defence on a quality player like Brand, to that of Stoudamire on an average player like Hansbrough, Jeffries performed extremely well. Did I mention he had no turnovers? Derrick Brown on the other hand was disappointing. His offensive hustle was good to watch but defensively he was just lost. This is not unexpected considering he really hasn't had any time on the court, and he should get more chances over the next 4 games. I'm not sure this will sound right, but I'd also like to see Balkman get some minutes. Try him out on the perimeter for defence. He's also better offensively than Jeffries, and Brown.
Excellent post TakMan. JJ is not a talented offensive player, not at all, he's not the greatest defensive player in the world either... But he does all the little things to help a team win; as Tak pointed out. He'll put his body on the line & take a charge, he'll play out of position as a natural SF & perimeter defender & attempt to bang down low against opposing C's (no matter how silly they make him look), he's always setting offensive picks & screens & most importantly? He brings hustle, energy, effort & defensive intensity to a team that really needs sparks @ times. JJ played excellent against Brand during the 2nd half with the help of others. Brand had a monster 1st half. Rebounding at will & scoring in bunches. Brand was pretty much shut down the entire 2nd half. JJ isn't fun to watch, but he's no D-Leaguer.
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote