Second-year wing Ziaire Williams might be the key for the Grizzlies to become a better mid-range shooting team, writes Damichael Cole of The Memphis Commercial Appeal.
Memphis led the league in points in the paint last season, but seldomly made mid-range jumpers, ranking just 26th in the league during the regular season and last in the playoffs, per Cole. The 6’8″ Williams, meanwhile, is a talented pull-up shooter, with the ability to create his shot in multiple ways, Cole notes.
“I was blessed to have that mid-range, man,” Williams said during Summer League. “We’ve been working on that shot since I was 5 or 6 years old. It’s definitely there for sure, especially with my height and my length. I get that shot off a lot.”
On a very limited volume, Williams shot 48% on mid-rangers as a rookie in 2021/22, which ranked in the 87th percentile of all players, according to DunksAndThrees.com.
Here’s more from the Western Conference:
- Duane Rankin of The Arizona Republic considers several possible free agent targets for the Suns‘ final roster spot, including Carmelo Anthony, Jarrett Culver, Facundo Campazzo, and Ben McLemore, among others.
- Did the offseason moves the Kings made make them a playoff team? Jason Anderson of The Sacramento Bee explores that topic, noting that shooting was a priority and the Kings addressed that need by adding Malik Monk (free agent), Kevin Huerter (trade with Atlanta) and Keegan Murray (No. 4 overall pick). Ultimately, Anderson thinks Sacramento should definitely improve its win total from last season after going 30-52, but landing one of the final spots in the play-in tournament might be a more realistic outcome than breaking the long playoff drought.
- A source tells Marc J. Spears of Andscape (Twitter link) that the Trail Blazers have parted ways with assistant coach Edniesha Curry. Portland confirmed the news (Twitter link via Spears), though the reasoning behind the move was vague. Curry, a former WNBA player, was a first-year assistant in ’21/22.
Zaire had a great summer leauge in my opinion. His confidence in his game grew right before my very eyes. He is clearly going to be the primary ball handler for Memphis and its new offense.
He is also one my “get loud” players and needs to start letting people know in a more demonstrative way.
In the the running for Most Improved.
While, I believe the Kings are a much improved team over last year, there are still questions to be answered. Such as can Holmes play behind Sabonis, or is he still going to have his feelings hurt over Not starting; is there a legitimate SF Back Up, behind Barnes; is Fox going to start putting up the same numbers he did before Haliburton was drafted. Can they gel into a solid unit; And last but not least, will they Start playing some D*** Defense !!
1st Goal – Reach a winning record (This Year)
2nd Goal – Playoffs (Next Year)
3rd Goal – Compete for the Championship (After the 2nd Year)
Like your post mate. I think Holmes will bounce back, a lot of his problem wasn’t just being demoted, he was having injury issues and legal drama affecting him too. The bench SF issue…I think if Monk starts, then Huerter can get alot of minutes at SG and backup SF. Moneke or Baze can bring the D, in a small amount of minutes there also if they see the court. And I believe Brown can really help turn the D around, I feel they need at 2 more quality defenders but they should be better. As much as I like HB, I was hoping he would be moved for a really solid defensive SF who would be the new starter. All in all, I think we could get 42 wins, if everything lines up right!