The Bratwurst – Milwaukee Bucks Blog

After toiling for 4 years in a utility role with the Brewers for a league minimum salary ($418,000 in 2006), Bill Hall busted out into one of the Brewers’ most important players in 2006. 35 home runs and 85 RBI, plus career highs in on base percentage and slugging percentage seemed to portend an even bigger 2007 season for him, since he would finally be a full-time starter as center field was turned over to him. Hall was signed to a 4 year, $24 million contract and finally had the security and paycheck that his production indicated he deserved.

But looking back, it really comes as no surprise that Hall fell on his face last season in the first year of his contract.

Hall seems like a very conscientious guy, and after some early defensive struggles at his new position it seemed obvious that he was trying to make up for it at the plate. An error in the field led to three huge home run swings in the next at bat, and one could almost see him dragging the pressure of trying to live up to his contract to the plate with him. Hall has always struck out too much, but it became a real problem early in the year. Eventually the lack of production and a sprained ankle cost him his starting job, and his numbers never recovered. He finished the season with only 14 HR’s, 63 RBI, a .254 batting average and an on-base percentage that plummeted to .315.

Is the same thing happening to Mo Williams? Is he changing his game now that he’s gotten paid?

I know it’s only three games, but Mo has been, in a word, brutal thus far. He was a non-factor against Orlando, botched the end of the Charlotte game and sat for the 4th quarter of the Chicago game. He has shot 42%, is getting assists at half his normal rate, has committed more fouls and has somehow not taken a single free throw yet. In my preliminary IPM measure, Mo has started 2007-08 a full 30% worse than he played last season.

I started thinking of the Williams/Hall parallel at the end of the Charlotte game, when Mo twice looked for his own shot at inappropriate times. Like Hall, Williams is also a conscientious guy. He’s definitely not mailing it in, it’s more like he feels some pressure to live up to his big deal. The Charlotte fiasco looked just like: “I’m getting paid like The Man now, time to live up to it.”

However, of course that is the worst possible way for Mo to be thinking. I don’t have to tell Mo or anyone else that basketball is not a game that can be played well if someone is forcing the action. He simply has to slow down and take advantage of his opportunities as they come along — and most importantly, he has to start driving to the hoop more. Draw some fouls. Draw defenders and dish away from them.

This is a challenge for Coach Krystkowiak — can he get Mo’s head back into the game? It’s easy to explain away the poor shooting as a slow start in only a couple of games. But the poor execution and inability to draw fouls? That’s not playing badly — that’s playing incorrectly.

This isn’t a matter of “true point guard vs. shoot-first point guard” (which I think is a pointless discussion anyway) but a matter of playing the right way vs. playing with a $9 million gorilla on your back. Hopefully the Bill Hall parallels fade away, and we don’t see the team needing Charlie Bell to run the show in the 4th quarter all season.