I see a little of him in EW (toughness, style, and role on the team).
But I'm still not a fan of Eric's inefficient game. This year like
every year he's shooting in the low 40% or 30%, and doesn't have the 3pt
bomber excuse that Toine had.
Perception vs reality is an amazing thing.
He's shooting a respectable 44% BTW. Better than Pierce, Jiri, and a number
of others. And part of the reason for that is that EWill does something few
others on the Cs do and actually few people in the league do as well (based
upon fouls drawn per minutes played) - actively seek out the contact and
draw fouls. With some of the resultant banging affecting which shots go in,
but if you get the foul you still score. While drawing fouls has further
ripple effect benefits, unlike the disruptive and rebound resistant 3 pt
bombing that hardly excuses Walker.
I'll buy that his offensive game was inefficient the past few years when he
rarely saw the ball except as a 3rd or 4th option for a last second outside
shot -that's not his game- and never got fed the ball more than once or
twice when he had someone he was eating up in the post and should have been
encouraged to continuing doing so. But thinking that hasn't changed is the
same as someone a while back on the list who apparently hadn't noticed that
Blount has acquired an offensive game. Not claiming either is more than the
role players they are (although I suspect EWill is one of the primary team
leaders), but there's no reason to make them out to be less than they are
either.