This one is hilarious... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mKHGJurEWQc&feature=related
Shelden Williams
- Thread starter Gary
- Start date
One of the knocks on him was coordination, which had improved vastly during his college years.
Worst case is he isn't any good, and the trade becomes a salary shedder. Johnson, Lue, and Wright expire this year, and Williams has one more year on his rookie deal after this season. After this season we have about 50 mil in salaries. This would allow us to sign Beno right? I think the trade has a lot to do with keeping Beno next season.
Worst case is he isn't any good, and the trade becomes a salary shedder. Johnson, Lue, and Wright expire this year, and Williams has one more year on his rookie deal after this season. After this season we have about 50 mil in salaries. This would allow us to sign Beno right? I think the trade has a lot to do with keeping Beno next season.
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Unless you think Beno is worth more than the MLE, you are correct. I doubt if he is worth that much though.
In any case, the Maloofs have less salary to pay out. So far, as far as placing a good team on the court goes, nothing has happened to improve the team. Until that happens, I'll withhold my excitement.
In any case, the Maloofs have less salary to pay out. So far, as far as placing a good team on the court goes, nothing has happened to improve the team. Until that happens, I'll withhold my excitement.
Shelden Williams is not the athletic, shot-blocking, and high-flying clone of Chris Webber in his heyday. If he is, we'd have no chance at getting him. And I still think we need an athletic PF to partner with Miller/Hawes/Moore.
SW is slow, can't jump, can't run, and he isn't a good finisher around the basket.
But you know what, he is also a potential double-double big man. He does the blue-collar stuff, you know those things that KT is supposed to do and SAR never wanted to do. SW does and he does it very well. He rebounds, he bangs his body around, he mops up, he gives hard foul, and he's very good at coming up with steals.
I see him as a 10-10 guy with near 2 steals a game when he finally figures it out. And I'll gladly take that potential in exchange for an over-the-hill no-defense PG.
Welcome aboard Shelden, and don't hurt KT too much in practice okay?
SW is slow, can't jump, can't run, and he isn't a good finisher around the basket.
But you know what, he is also a potential double-double big man. He does the blue-collar stuff, you know those things that KT is supposed to do and SAR never wanted to do. SW does and he does it very well. He rebounds, he bangs his body around, he mops up, he gives hard foul, and he's very good at coming up with steals.
I see him as a 10-10 guy with near 2 steals a game when he finally figures it out. And I'll gladly take that potential in exchange for an over-the-hill no-defense PG.
Welcome aboard Shelden, and don't hurt KT too much in practice okay?
Any young prospect we trade for is always worth a look. I've made comments about Geoff resurrecting or establishing careers out of forgotten and/or unheralded players, and while that can potentially ring true with Williams, I have already developed a lot of complaints about him:
His gameface alone probably suggests that he's a role player all the way. The question is whether he's an impact role player, a glue guy who can bring the intangibles, defense and rebounding to our team, or whether he's going to be another great college player-bad pros player sort of failure. I've likened him somewhat to Kurt Thomas, not in offensive game but in physique--pretty strong, somewhat undersized, not an intimidator but a solid post defender. He's obviously young, but to me he's not so much a young prospect as he is more of "an older" player--just rubs me off that way, considering he's had 4 years of experience at Duke and he has what I consider a limited ceiling.
There are already some concerns during his rookie year--namely his shotblocking. Great shotblocker at Duke, but at 6'9", despite his freak wingspan he's probably not going to be the intimidator he was at the college level. He's pretty robust and somewhat mechanical, stiff shoulders type, offensively and defensively. Can score around the basket and has a semi post game, which he will probably develop in due time; already an amazingly good free throw shooter (76% rookie year). Definitely not the jumping jack Justin Williams was, so probably won't be the shotblocker/rebounding machine Williams was either--but probably will still get a fair share of rebounds thanks to his smarts and overall toughness as opposed to athleticism. Another concern is his foul prone-ness, which may hinder him somewhat but shall probably be corrected eventually.
The Hawks are built off athletes, first and foremost, with Marvin Williams, Childress, Josh Smith and Horford leading the fray, so to me it's somewhat clear they'd want to shift the non-high-tempo Williams out. He probably won't address our need for shotblocker/intimidator despite his billing out of college, because of height limitations, but he should provide another source of solid defense, hopefully a younger Kurt Thomas at best.
His gameface alone probably suggests that he's a role player all the way. The question is whether he's an impact role player, a glue guy who can bring the intangibles, defense and rebounding to our team, or whether he's going to be another great college player-bad pros player sort of failure. I've likened him somewhat to Kurt Thomas, not in offensive game but in physique--pretty strong, somewhat undersized, not an intimidator but a solid post defender. He's obviously young, but to me he's not so much a young prospect as he is more of "an older" player--just rubs me off that way, considering he's had 4 years of experience at Duke and he has what I consider a limited ceiling.
There are already some concerns during his rookie year--namely his shotblocking. Great shotblocker at Duke, but at 6'9", despite his freak wingspan he's probably not going to be the intimidator he was at the college level. He's pretty robust and somewhat mechanical, stiff shoulders type, offensively and defensively. Can score around the basket and has a semi post game, which he will probably develop in due time; already an amazingly good free throw shooter (76% rookie year). Definitely not the jumping jack Justin Williams was, so probably won't be the shotblocker/rebounding machine Williams was either--but probably will still get a fair share of rebounds thanks to his smarts and overall toughness as opposed to athleticism. Another concern is his foul prone-ness, which may hinder him somewhat but shall probably be corrected eventually.
The Hawks are built off athletes, first and foremost, with Marvin Williams, Childress, Josh Smith and Horford leading the fray, so to me it's somewhat clear they'd want to shift the non-high-tempo Williams out. He probably won't address our need for shotblocker/intimidator despite his billing out of college, because of height limitations, but he should provide another source of solid defense, hopefully a younger Kurt Thomas at best.
That's what I've been reading on Hawks fan sites, too...
I for one am not excited about trading Bibby since he was my favorite player. However, I am a fan of the team first and I knew he was going to be traded it just was a matter of when. As far as Sheldon Williams goes some people especially Hawks fans mention that he is slow and not athletic. However, we as Kings fans were saying the same as B-52 last year. I want to see what Reggie does to motivate Sheldon to see what potential he can get out of him. If Reggie can get Brad to dunk 2-3 times each game, I am excited to see what Reggie can do with a young player such as Sheldon.
He's not a rook -- we'll see how he develops but if you watch the NBA you've had a chance to get some read on his game so far. He either does or not. Its the right style of move -- young lottery big, enders. But whether Shelden is good enough to make it a good move or not is considerably up in question.
The height issue is only an inch, and personally I would rather a guy like Williams who is 6'9 raising his arms in defense than a 6'10 guy with 3" shorter reach.[/quote]lol, you talk about reach based on wingspan but didn't bother to look at his actual length that was measured at Orlando PDC. He is ridiculously short in this regard! His reach is around 8'8". And he has poor hands so you can welcome your next Kenny Thomas. Now Kenny is truly expendable.
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Petrie IS brilliant.....this is so subversive, yet shrewd....she will cleary hold out for a trade here in May now since Sacramento is much more liveable and affords much more media opportunities than LA....y'all be nice to Sheldon and don't screw this carefully crafted strategy up, we have a dynasty to build on the other side of ARCO....
lol, you talk about reach based on wingspan but didn't bother to look at his actual length that was measured at Orlando PDC. He is ridiculously short in this regard! His reach is around 8'8". And he has poor hands so you can welcome your next Kenny Thomas. Now Kenny is truly expendable.[/quote]
8'8??? Also he doesn't have poor hands, and from what I watched at Duke he has actually pretty decent hands now..
I am on a wait and see type plan here.. I think he will surprise us Kings fans.
[/quote]8'8??? Also he doesn't have poor hands, and from what I watched at Duke he has actually pretty decent hands now..
I am on a wait and see type plan here.. I think he will surprise us Kings fans.
Yeah, 8'8" vertical reach is about what you expect to find in GF type. 8'6.6" is the average of all guys who showed up at predraft camp with Williams. To compare a couple of other shortish PFs, Justin's was 9'1", and Carlos Boozer's was 9'.25". I gather that the problem is that SW has a long neck and/or tall head, so for a guy his height his shoulders are pretty far down there, and he ends up with 4 or 5 less inches of reach than the competition.
http://www.draftexpress.com/article...Weights,-Wingspans-and-Standing-Reaches-1348/
http://www.draftexpress.com/article...Weights,-Wingspans-and-Standing-Reaches-1348/
Remember Kevin's first year? If I hadn't seen him play in the pre-season of his rookie year (and been completely impressed) i wouldn't have had a clue of his potential. Even then as much as I believed in him i didn't see that he would be this hot this young! So I welcome Williams and hope he'll surprise us like Kevin did!!
Welcome, Shelden. You've had a tough time, but to be fair, you've had some top talent ahead of you in the depth charts in Atlanta (M. Williams, Smith, Horford, Zaza etc) and you shouldn't have that problem here. Play hard, and coach Theus will reward you. We don't expect a miracle, it'll take time for you to develop. We just want you to be a good player who plays hard, so that when we're hopefully on the rise with a young team in a few years, you're there to contribute positively. Good luck!
In April 2007, Shelden was "Rookie of the month"
The only time the coach gave him playing time was due to an injury to the starter and Shelden filled in very well and was rookie of the month!
http://www.nba.com/hawks/news/Shelden_Williams_Rookie_Release_041907.html
The only time the coach gave him playing time was due to an injury to the starter and Shelden filled in very well and was rookie of the month!
http://www.nba.com/hawks/news/Shelden_Williams_Rookie_Release_041907.html
Here's what the prognosticators were saying about Sheldon. Pretty much tells us what we already knew, but there's a few things there that were very encouraging:
http://www.draftexpress.com/profile/Shelden-Williams-18/
http://www.nbadraft.net/profiles/sheldenwilliams.asp
edit: not bad comparisons from both...Antonio Davis, Emeka Okafor, and a worst case scenario of Brian Grant. Although not sure how they get that because he's not incredibly athletic like Grant or Okafor...but Antonio Davis wouldnt be too bad, he was a rock for many years in Indiana, not flashy, just got the job done...I'd take that.
http://www.draftexpress.com/profile/Shelden-Williams-18/
http://www.nbadraft.net/profiles/sheldenwilliams.asp
edit: not bad comparisons from both...Antonio Davis, Emeka Okafor, and a worst case scenario of Brian Grant. Although not sure how they get that because he's not incredibly athletic like Grant or Okafor...but Antonio Davis wouldnt be too bad, he was a rock for many years in Indiana, not flashy, just got the job done...I'd take that.
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I don't think Shelden's going to be a bust, but he probably isn't going to be our savior either--he'll probably have to find his place as a glue guy a la Kurt Thomas. I guess expectations are all relative though--he was the 5th overall pick, had an excellent four years of college, played for one of the best college teams in America, etc. Dukie's just haven't had a great track record recently--Trajan Langdon, our very own Dahntay Jones, JJ Redick, and Williams all haven't really made their marks in the NBA. Shelden's limitations stem from his lack of mobility and/or height combination, and there is a justifiable fear that having to move position down from college (from C to PF) what were considered his major strengths (rebounding, shotblocking) would be somewhat neutralized. Again, I think he's smart enough to get around those limitations (he already has shown signs of a shooting touch--76% from the line rookie year--and rebounding ability--5.5 a game in 18 mins last year) and eventually endear us fans to him, but he's probably a role player all the way. May have his moments, may pee us off at times, but overall he's probably replaceable, even if he fares well.
I don't think he's a great player or anything. But I think he has a chance at being a decent contributor.
I had a post a few weeks back about Moore, and how he contributes on average if the Kings win or lose, and win/loss Moore's stats were pretty much identical. All other players on the team were much better in winning than in losing.
I was thinking to myself if Williams could provide us with 5-7ppg in putbacks alone it will help out team as that is one of the Kings weaknesses. If Williams gives us 13/10/1 and Moore does what he does but off the bench than I can't see how this team wouldn't improve. Even in the short term.
Let's see what happens though. Hope we got a diamond in the rough.
