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There's no doubting that Derrick Williams' time in Minnesota has been a disappointment. He began 2012-13 as the team's starting power forward--only because Kevin Love missed the first nine games of the season with that broken hand.
Now, with the play of Dante Cunningham, Williams has seen very limited time off the bench. It's been nine games since Love returned and D-Will moved to the bench. Derrick has played in five of those games while receiving four 'did not play--coach's decisions'. In those five games, he's averaging just 12.8mpg. The biggest problem remains that he doesn't have an exact position in the NBA. Is he a small forward? Is he a power forward? Those are questions that will plague him throughout his entire NBA career. If Derrick was an exclusive small forward, he'd be seeing more playing time and have a big future with this team. Unfortunately he doesn't really have an NBA position--he plays power forward, but it's clear when you watch him that he doesn't do that too well. Derrick doesn't have the foot speed, perimeter defense or consistent outside shooting touch to be a reliable small forward. He also struggles finishing in 'traffic' and with post moves to be a reliable power forward. Watching him in the first nine games of the season, it's clear that his post defense HAS improved. He had some solid defensive games against the likes of Indiana's David West and Chicago's Carlos Boozer (among others). Derrick's name has surfaced in trade rumors, however Williams says he hasn't gone to David Kahn to ask for a trade. The most persistent rumor is a trade that involves Nikola Pekovic, J.J. Barea or Luke Ridnour and Derrick to the Lakers for Pau Gasol. Kahn shot those rumors down, however it's guaranteed that anytime the Wolves are in discussions with other teams for trades, Williams' name will be the focal point. With the depth at small forward (Kirilenko, Howard and Budinger--when he returns) and the depth at power forward (Love, Cunningham, Amundson; as well as AK) and as he continues to pile up DNP-CDs it's all but certain that Williams will be playing for a different squad by the trade deadline OR during the 2013 offseason. That's all for now, however expect to hear more on this for quite some time, until next time, thanks for reading HOWL and GO WOLVES!
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Cody AndersonA TWolves fan, bringing you the daily updates. News Archives
August 2017
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