Magic to sign C.J. Watson to an offer sheet.

[dc]

hes taller then watson, but im not sure how good of a defender cj is

GS fan here. Watson is not a good defender. He's slow laterally and doesn't do a good job of keeping his guy in front of him. But that matters less with Dwight Howard playing behind him.

But this is a good pickup regardless because he can shoot it and you can never have too many shooters around Dwight. I dunno how much the Magic signed him for, but I doubt the Warriors will match, regardless of the cost.

[DiplomaticMagic]

The 7 days has not started yet, just to clarify that. As it says it's probably gonna be later this weekend.

On another note

We sure like them Warriors players, don't we?

[FFBlitzace]

I like CJ more than Earl. I hope GS doesn't match.

[Super_Mario_3]

from the warriors board:

Very reliable jumpshot, both off the dribble and on the catch and shoot. Is very quick but struggles to finish inside, decent at driving and kicking it out to the open man. Won't create too many openings for teammates but can deliver the basic pass. Improved greatly on the pick and roll and was pretty adept at running it by season's end. On defense can be a pest but often gets overpowered due to his slight frame. Gets a fair share of steals playing the passing lanes. Not going to change too many shots once his man penetrates past midrange and you should expect that to happen---a lot. Good hustle on the open floor and will be the first man to the loose ball most of the time. Surprisingly good rebounder. Looked like a player that wouldn't even be worthy of a roster spot at first but improved enough to be at least an end of the bench guy. Doesn't turn the ball over a lot. Pretty quiet guy, not really a leader type, but he has a good worth ethic. Good attitude. Ultimately hindered by his lack of athleticism and size.

[BurningBridges]

Why can't the Magic get a point guard who plays defense and dishes out a reasonable amount of assists? CJ does not fit this need like Earl does.

[x-]

Please.

When was the last time you guys have watched Earl Watson? There's a reason he got waived; he sucks. I've watched about 30-55 games GS games last year and not only is CJ a better player than Earl Watson, but also a better fit.

[Neon1]

He is young, can shoot, and would be better than Johnson. Check, check, and check. If we are offering him more than a minimum contract we are choosing him over a wing like Barnes and Daniels. Interesting to see where O-tiz's mind is at. A PG makes a lot of sense.

Edit: After looking at Earls numbers in comparison, CJ looks much better. What are you guys smoking?

CJ weighs only 176 pounds and is short. That does not spell defense to me. His small stature might make him very injury prone. Another issue with CJ is that he does not average that many assists. CJ is a shoot first pass second worse version of Alston who does not average that many assists at all. We don't need another good shooter...we need a distributor...CJ averages 2.7 assists compared to Earl's almost 6 assists a game!

CJ Watson is 6' 1.75" so he's 6'2" (As was Alston) he's not "short". He IS slight of build and weighs somewhere in the mid 170's (as did Alston). But he IS a good and pesky defender (you guessed it, much like Alston).

The rest i will give you. He doesnt average many assists and IS shoot first. He is not a table setter, but does a decent good of pushing the tempo.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQFgIaxxyzw
http://www.draftexpress.com/profile/CJ-Watson-569/

[AdamTheGreek]

Pretty good signing depending on the price.

[Optimus_Steel]

To the people who said Earl Watson, are you crazy? $6.6 million for a backup PG? No. Why would we give up the TPE for this guy? Its not very smart. AJ is fine at backup. CJ Watson can play. He is not anything special but he can play. The guy is a terrific 3rd stringer. I think this is another good move by Otis.

[Neon1]

To the people who said Earl Watson, are you crazy? $6.6 million for a backup PG? No. Why would we give up the TPE for this guy? Its not very smart. AJ is fine at backup. CJ Watson can play. He is not anything special but he can play. The guy is a terrific 3rd stringer. I think this is another good move by Otis.

You MIGHT want to check the wiretap bro....just sayin.

[Optimus_Steel]

Just I just realized that afterwards, i had no idea he was waived sorry.

[Horcy]

I've seen him play, he is a very interesting player. He has an awsome outside shooting.
I wish he ends this season taking aj's backup pg spot.
Good news!! He could be a great fit and a big surprise.
Very good move Otis! again!

[magicmamma]

He's the same size as Rafer, 8 years younger, and a way better shooter. Sounds like a great prospect.

[MagicFan32]

Earl Watson sucks, this Watson can play! hope they don't match, maybe we send them a pick to not match?

[dsg2021]

Wow, after looking at him and his stats, he's a real gem in the rough. I really like him and I actually think the Warriors may match..
Going to the negative first, his stats suggest he's a poor distributer. Like I mean, Nelson is a score first PG, but he is still dishing 5.4 APG. This dude is at 2.7 APG.. I think some of it might be GSW way of life, but we'll see as his career progresses. This might suggest Magic might play him as a combo guard or they believe his style is just score first PG, I agree with the latter. I don't know about his defense enough either, he's only 6-2 but Magic and us fans haven't really been looking at big guards either, but he's quick and young. That can always improve if its poor or average right now.
Going to the positive, he's young at 25. He has just two years of NBA experience, but he improved in every single category from his 1st yr to his 2nd yr, this last season. Just a glance at that Youtube vid provided shows his quickness and slashing game. But he likes to slash alot to shoot closer in. And that's actually great, because he's a deadly shooter. He came into the league shooting 42 fg% and 34 3p%, but he upped it last season to a highly impressive 45 fg% and 40 3p%. So he has that beautiful long range 3pnt shot Magic highly covet. And his stats/career suggest it wasnt a 2nd yr outlier, it should stay hold or improve. He also grabbed 2.5 boards per game and 1.2 steals per game in his 24 minutes per game average, so the steal rate is nice and might allude to a decent defense too actually. His other great positive is FT shooting at 79% his 1st season, 87% this last season. Not only that, but because he likes to slash to score, he got sent to the line 2.5 times per game which is nice and slightly higher than normal, and this is a big plus. In essential, hes a accurate, scoring PG who's still quite young. That's a real gem in the rough right there IMO. I did not see this coming at all, but I really hope they can grab him from GSW. Overall, I really like everything Im reading about him. I really love PG styles to stay similar between start-backup, its great to keep the team playing on a same system always and you always know what to expect from the PGs offense as they are similar. This is a slasher PG who might get to the line slightly more than Nelson statistically, but is such a good shooter that it's a big part of his game too and he has the range of anywhere to expand that role further like Nelson does so. I was always frustrated how Rafer Alston was almost a whole package of what you want in a PG, but I really did not care to retain him so much b/c his shooting is so absolutely horrid, and it was going to be such a big change for shooting from a starter PG Nelson to the backup PG Alston. IMO, Id still love the dude. God forbid Nelson goes down again, Id be throwin the TPE his way again, but Im being honest.
Here is Hollinger's take on C.J. Watson and alot of this I took along with stats and what I've seen from him to describe above, altho note this is last updated roughly a year ago:
2007-08 season: Called up from the D-League after a very strong half-season, Watson also played reasonably well in 32 games with Golden State. He shot fairly well in both stops, hitting 40 percent on 3s at the NBDL's Rio Grande Valley and 34.6 percent for the Warriors, a tough feat considering how sporadic his minutes were once he joined the Warriors. (His PER for 07-08 was 11.10)

Scouting report: Though he's a 6-2 point guard, Watson is more of a slashing scorer in the Bobby Jackson mold than a pure point guard. His assist ratios were quite low at both Golden State and Rio Grande Valley (side note: Isn't the Rio Grande like a thousand miles long? Is a "Nile Valley" franchise far behind? Can we be a little more specific here, D-League people?), and he had an extremely high rate of free throws in the D-League. He's a good foul shooter too, so if he can get to the stripe in the pros he'll stick around for a while.

2008-09 outlook: Watson re-signed with Golden State and stands to benefit from the injury to Monta Ellis, as he and Marcus Williams are the only healthy point guards on the Warriors' roster. Don Nelson's style doesn't really demand him to be a distributor, so he's a good fit here, and based on how well he played last season he has a good shot to gain a foothold in the league and stick around for half a decade or so. (His PER was 14.27 this past season)

GSW's Situation- Why they might/might not Match:
GSW has Monta Ellis, Acie Law, Speedy Claxton, and newly drafted Stephen Curry for the PG spots. That's alot of players for PG, but Curry and Ellis are combo guards. Marcus Williams is a PG who expired this summer for GSW, he did not get much PT in GSW at all, but in his 1st 2 seasons at NJN, he seemed OK statistically. I don't know where he is going this summer.
That still means Ellis is the starting PG tho, b/c that's how GSW wants it. They dont need pass first PGs, not their style.
Acie Law and Speedy Claxton were acquired recently from ATL, and both serve as expiring contracts. It can be assumed Claxton is to be little used, he is 31, 5-11 in height, and has been statistically free-falling the last 2 seasons due to injuries.
Acie Law is still young, and has only played 2 seasons and less minutes per game than C.J. Watson did, but the stats and looks seem to show Law is a step below of Watson at the moment. I don't know if GSW will use him, but its very possible.
Stephen Curry is just drafted, has not shot the ball well in summer league (teams rarely care about SL play tho), but everything else - his PG skills, creating, overall playing has been very solid and he was the 7th overall pick afterall. I don't know what position he'll play, and this could be key to whether GSW might keep C.J. Watson or not, but I think Curry is to play PG behind Ellis, or atleast get plenty of time behind Ellis there and at the backup 2 spot.
Im under the assumption the starting lineup is Ellis - Maggete - Azubuike - Jackson - Biedrins as they hold most of their respective spots' minutes.
The depth chart for PG would seem to be Ellis - Watson - Curry - Law depending on which of the three young backup PGs GSW wants to play more, itd might be more along thier thoughts of a Ellis - Curry - Watson depth. And even if the 1st depth chart seems right for GSW, Law and Curry should be capable enough to handle that backup spot instead. That I can't say for sure tho.
On a franchise money side for total salary, GSW is in fairly good financial shape with 13 players on roster alrdy and only just barely over the cap level (Not the Lux tax level, still 13mil below). Altho PG depth is alittle heavy for a typical team if they match Watson. And if its to a long term contract, GSW will not like it. With Claxtons expiring deal and the rejection of 1 or 2 Team Optioned contracts, GSW can get 5-8mil below cap level too.

[Horcy]

Earl Watson sucks!!! GO CJ!!! I'm really happy to sign him, I hope GS doesn't match the offer.

He destroyed Deron Williams scoring 38 points against the Jazz last season.

Improbable assassin: C.J. Watson, a former D-League point guard, who blasted Deron Williams and friends to the tune of 38 points and nine assists

Watson finished the game with 38 points, 9 assists, 7 rebounds, shot 10-16 from the field, 2-4 from beyond the arc, and hit all 16 free throws. With his 30 point game Watson became the seventh player for the Warriors to score at least 30 points in a game.

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/154682-cj-watson-outplays-deron-williams-warriors-beat-jazz

I really like his game Now! Become our backup PG!

[NickAnderson]

They have alot of pgs so good chance they might not match..

[AGENTSTEVO]

Wow, great choice of a backup. I had thought about him earlier but I thought he would re-sign with Golden State. Welcome to Orlando, CJ. Now we need to somehow sign Marquis Daniels.

[BurningBridges]

Earl Watson sucks!!! GO CJ!!! I'm really happy to sign him, I hope GS doesn't match the offer.

He destroyed Deron Williams scoring 38 points against the Jazz last season.

Improbable assassin: C.J. Watson, a former D-League point guard, who blasted Deron Williams and friends to the tune of 38 points and nine assists

Watson finished the game with 38 points, 9 assists, 7 rebounds, shot 10-16 from the field, 2-4 from beyond the arc, and hit all 16 free throws. With his 30 point game Watson became the seventh player for the Warriors to score at least 30 points in a game.

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/154682-cj-watson-outplays-deron-williams-warriors-beat-jazz

I really like his game Now! Become our backup PG!

Okay, I am sold. Otis, go get Watson!

[BurningBridges]

Wow, great choice of a backup. I had thought about him earlier but I thought he would re-sign with Golden State. Welcome to Orlando, CJ. Now we need to somehow sign Marquis Daniels.

F@#k Daniels! He said that it would mean a lot to play for his home team but knew he was going to sign with the Celtics. I don't want a double-talker on my team and a 20% 3 point shooter.

Otis, after Barnes I say!