Hey guys. Hawksfan here from the Hawksquawk board. Wanted to clarify what you are getting in Marvin. Why we like the deal, what you'll like and not like about Marvin.
Marvin is very passive offensively but I'm not sure this is totally his fault. Joe Johnson spent a lot of time dribbling the basketball taking way too long to get into our offensive sets. This led to lots of passes to Josh Smith, Marvin Williams for panic 3 pointers. Marvin was the 4th or 5th offensive option based on Joe, Josh and previously Jamal's egos. Mike Woodson beat Marvin into the proverbial ground with "know your role". Offensively, Marvin has had games before we he has dominated driving to the basket and takes slower wings off the dribble. His handles are inconsistent though and he is a passive finisher. He gets blocked at the rim way more than he should. Marvin is very good without the ball in his hand and is a willing rebounder but was consistently fighting for rebounds with Pachulia, Smith, Horford. Also, in Woodson's system....wings release on shots. This sent JJ, Marvin, Smith away from rebounds often. You can see in his first year away from Woodson, Smith's rebounds were up considerably. I expect the same from Williams with you. Just don't expect Marvin to call for his own shot or to be a sniper without encouragement. He is passive (especially if he misses his first shot or two). Some of Williams best games ironically were when he played the 2 with Joe Johnson out. An example of which you can
see here. In this 2010-2011 game vs Boston he scored 26 playing the SG all game. He is versatile.
Defensively - Marvin is a quality defender and can play the 3 or 4 just fine. In Atlanta with both Smith and Horford there was little need to play the 4 but when he did, he was just fine. He has played and frustrated Kobe, Lebron and Wade straight up. He struggles against stronger players on the inside as once again he is passive. But he moves his feet well against bigger 3's and 4's on the perimeter. Marvin suprises himself occasionally by rising up to block shots and get rebounds but will disappear the next day. Marvin is a much better 1 on 1 defender than team defender. Horford and Smith were left out to dry often by Bibby, Teague, JJ, Williams the last couple of years which is why we switched so much. It was easier to switch than force these guys to fight through screens, communicate, etc.
Marvin the player/person - Marvin is a very good teammate, liked by the other guys. Average BBIQ. He is not one to "work on his game" in the off-season. He has spent most of 4 seasons with a bad back and had surgery in the offseason before last year to correct problems. He played on the mend some last year. He is a little injury prone and you will never see someone fall down more. From the duck butt to the tripping in traffic to the falling at the first sign of contact at the basket, Marvin is on his back more than a Brazillian hooker.
Overall - Marvin did many of the same things Horford/Smith did for us just a little worse and therefore was redundant. He was not used to his potential here, poorly coached, poorly motivated. Some of this is Marvin's fault, much of it falls on Mike Woodson.
Good luck with Duck Butt, he will help you. This was a win-win trade. Thanks for Harris. He fills a need. We will be most likely moving Harris (or Teague) along with Horford and either Pachulia or one of the expirings we picked up plus one of our firsts this coming year for Howard/Hedo. We are right now the only team with the assets and desire to take on Hedo's bad contract along with Dwight. This will pick up steam once the other 2 deals are finalized by the league. Morrow and Smith are good friends with Dwight and we have sources saying Smith and Dwight's attitudes about Atlanta have changed dramatically.
Good luck this upcoming year.
