The shock of the Jrue Holiday departure has change the whole view on the next couple of seasons for the Philadelphia 76ers franchise. What people have failed to realize is that the future of the team is bright with Michael Carter-Williams as the floor general.
He has the intangibles to become a better point guard than Jrue Holiday is. Yes indeed Jrue was the face of this franchise and will do wonders with the New Orleans Pelicans, but I cant fathom why fans would not be excited for MCW. He already possess some of the same ball skills that Holiday was just bringing into his game.
If you watched any of the NBA Summer League last week, you would see that MCW can get right to the basket because of his high motor and his huge size. Not many teams can say that their starting PG is 6’5 and still have the speed to get past defenders.
When watching him move up and down the court I saw a lot of likes and dislikes. For one, he averaged double digit turnovers early in the week. Now that will raise eyebrows because its near impossible to come out victorious when giving the defenders the ball basically every three plays. On the other hand, he also averaged double digit assists early on as well. At times Carter-Williams looked like a stellar top prospect that he is . Moving the ball and getting players involved with open looks and highlight rebounds and lay ups. On the contrary most of the time when handling the ball he looked just like another sloppy rookie. He is a good defender on the ball I noticed when he plays aggressive. He either blocked shots or deferred shots way from the basket with his long wingspan. Ball handlers will have to have quick thinking when taking Carter-Williams in the iso because unless you are bigger than him weight wise you will not truly be able to get the open shot your looking for.
Carter-Williams biggest flaw however is his lack of a true jump-shot. He is in no way shape or form the person you want with the ball in their hands with seconds less unless he is driving to the basket to get the foul. I cant tell you how many of his shots ricocheted off the front of the rim. In his debut with the Sixers he shot 8-23 from the field and 0-5 from beyond the arc. He did finish with 23 points and 8 assists which is pretty good for a debut. For every good game you have to have a bad one it seems in Summer League. In his next game against the Indiana Pacers he finished with 4-20 from the field and 1-3 from beyond the arc. Only finished with 11 points and 7 assists as the Sixers went on to lose by double digits in a score of 96-75. He how ever, did not manage to record a turnover in that game ,so one bright spot to note. Sadly poor shooting is something MCW will have to spend time on just as other players have such as Jrue Holiday, Rajon Rondo, and Derrick Rose just to name a few. If you look at some of the best point guards in the league they all have a respectable jump-shot. MCW has potential that still waits to be realized and its safe to say that for a while he will leave you either jumping out your seat or leave you shaking your head yelling expletives at your television.
Bottom line, is to be patient with Michael Carter-Williams he will come to terms with who he is as a player. I feel like a lot of the fan base wont give him his fair shot because of number 11. The fact of the matter is, MCW has a complete different skill set and deserves to be critiqued fairly but not judged in comparison to Holiday. I fear this overshadowing will cause us to lose him in the future before his game even manifest into what it has the potential to become.