Marvin Williams entered the NBA as the second overall pick in the 2005 NBA Draft out of North Carolina and while he carved a nice spot as a role player, he never seemed to meet expectations as a superstar.

But Williams has evolved along with the NBA as a stretch-4 and is having a late career resurgence.

“Marvin Williams, in this league right now, he’s the prototypical four man that you want,” Clifford said. “Because he creates space with his range shooting. He plays mistake free on offense. And on the other end, he’s so versatile defensively. He can battle all the bigger post up fours and he can guard all the other stretch fours. Then he guards the threes. Everybody thinks the league is four out, one in, and there are all these stretch fours. There are not a lot of stretch fours who can do what he can do.”

Kemba Walker admits he was worried when Nicolas Batum and Marvin Williams became free agents that the Charlotte Hornets would be unable to keep them.

“I was nervous as hell,” Walker said. “I didn’t want to lose those guys. I knew we couldn’t pay everyone. I wish we could have gotten a lot of the guys back, but unfortunately, the way this business works is it can’t happen all the time. Nic and Marv were high priority … I got a chance to go out to Dallas and be a part of Nic’s meeting. Me and MKG flew out. It was super cool. We got a chance to sit in the room and say a few words.”

While the Hornets re-signed Batum and Williams, they were unable to keep Jeremy Lin, Courtney Lee and Al Jefferson.

“Me, Nic, MKG (Michael Kidd-Gilchrist) and Marv and Cody now, we’re all kind of locked in for about the same amount of time,” Walker said. “We are getting the opportunity to grow with each other. It’s a great start. We all love playing with each other. We know how to play with each other very well. We all know each other’s spots and how each other plays and things like that. As far as more pieces, I think we’re good right now. We’re going to grow. The best thing about it is how hard we all work. We work extremely hard. The guys around us, they see that. Hopefully over the years, whoever comes here to our team, they see how hard we work, and they follow.”

The Charlotte Hornets have started the 16-17 season in impressive fashion, continuing their success of last season by re-signing Nicolas Batum and Marvin Williams.

“Some of the best franchises around the league, whether it’s San Antonio or OKC or Golden State, there’s always a semblance of continuity,” General Manager Rich Cho said Sunday. “That’s really important when you’re trying to build. We put a lot of emphasis on player development and our coaching staff does a great job of that. It’s just an extension of that philosophy, as far as trying to keep your young guys.”

The Hornets like to put most of their available resources back into their own players.

“That used to be one of (Stan Van Gundy’s) biggest points. It’s so easy, when you watch a guy, you say he doesn’t do this or that, and then you let guys go, and you end up with a guy who’s similar in ability to them and it takes a year for them to get up to speed, or somebody less,” Steve Clifford said. “When you find guys that you feel are really good players, and you think they’re a fit with your other guys, you’re crazy (to let them go)…

“It’s just how as an organization how you view players. One of the advantages of having Michael (Jordan) as an owner is, when you sit and talk to him, he just has a way of looking at players. He constantly talks about what they can become.”

Host Danny Leroux (@DannyLeroux) and Dan Feldman of NBC’s Pro Basketball Talk and the Locked On Pistons Podcast (@DanFeldmanNBA) break down the NBA’s rookie scale extension and option deadline.

They review just-announced extensions for Steven Adams, Victor Oladipo, Rudy Gobert, Cody Zeller and Gorgui Dieng along with previously agreed-to deals for Giannis Antetokounmpo, CJ McCollum and Dennis Schroder.

After that, they discuss some of the significant option decisions including RJ Hunter and James Young for the Celtics, Adreian Payne for the Timberwolves and Nik Stauskas with the 76ers. 

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