BK is making the critics look foolish!!!

[Peoriabird]

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I've seen every game except the Seattle game. He's not doing anything on the court except grab a few rebounds and get in foul trouble. If being simply average on defense and beyond horrible on offense is "making an impact" then yes, he's a poor man's Alan Henderson. Totally worth the #5 pick in the draft.

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There are 3-4 clowns on this board and one hasn't posted in a while.

[Popeye]

Okay, you say that Shelden is a average defender. I know he only plays about 20 min a game, but he doesn't let anyone get HOT and take over the game.

First game in his career he went up against C-Webb:

Webber had 8 points on 4-16 shooting and 2 TO. WOW, so average

Second game it was Fry:

Fry had 4 points on 2-8 shooting and 4 TO.

Third game it was Howard or Battie(didn't watch that game)

Howard had 11 and Battie had 7 points.

4th game Drew Gooden

Gooden had 21 points but he was only 6-17 from field.

5th game Chris Bosh

Bosh had 19 points on 7-16 shooting, but he was 1-8 at one point in the first half when Shelden was playing. Bosh got most of his points in second half.

6th game Wilcox

He had 12 points

SO Shelden has done his job, when he starts he takes his man out of the game.

Just look at the numbers from last year when Howard, Bosh, Wilcox had monster games against us.

[Sothron]

So Shellhead was guarding those guys exclusively man on man for 48 minutes? C'mon now. Let's don't start cooking up numbers to try and make something more than what it is. Shellhead is right now an average defensive player, which I might add is somewhat generous on my part since he gets no blocks or steals. He can body up on some guys. Meh. We could have drafted someone in the second round and told them to body up on someone.

I expect more out of that from a #5 pick in the draft.

[Dejay]

Poor man's Alan Henderson and Sheldon Williams should never be uttered in the same sentence. While I was no fan of the pick myself, I pray to God that he's better than that stiff.

[gsuteke]

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I've seen every game except the Seattle game. He's not doing anything on the court except grab a few rebounds and get in foul trouble. If being simply average on defense and beyond horrible on offense is "making an impact" then yes, he's a poor man's Alan Henderson. Totally worth the #5 pick in the draft.

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There are 3-4 clowns on this board and one hasn't posted in a while.

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congratulations

[Sothron]

You are right. If Shellhead gets a new contract and then discovers he has no "heart" for the game then he's the next Hendu. I'll never forget my reaction to that when Jaywalker finally got Hendu to admit to him in an interview that Hendu was literally only still playing in the NBA for the money. Heartless piece of trash.

[Popeye]

This is last year, first game:

Troy Murphy in only 24 min 8-8 from field and had 19 points.

2nd game

Wilcox 14 points of the bench on 7-8

3rd

Zach Randolph 21 points on 7-14

Brand 24 points on 9-14

Gasol 20 points on 6-12

Duncan 23 on 11-14

Jerm Oneal 30 points on 12-21

Bosh 23 points on 9-14

Fry 16 points on 7-16

DWight Howard 24points 16 reb on 9-11 from field.

That's just the first few games of last year and notice the field goal percentage last year and this year???

[Popeye]

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So Shellhead was guarding those guys exclusively man on man for 48 minutes? C'mon now. Let's don't start cooking up numbers to try and make something more than what it is. Shellhead is right now an average defensive player, which I might add is somewhat generous on my part since he gets no blocks or steals. He can body up on some guys. Meh. We could have drafted someone in the second round and told them to body up on someone.

I expect more out of that from a #5 pick in the draft.

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But nobody had a big game and nobody had a great first quarter. Why is that??? As i said Shelden takes his man out of the game and they can't get in flow for the rest of the game.

[Sothron]

And the growing game of Zaza and the addition of Lo Down doesn't explain some of that difference? Or losing Harrington who is a poor low post defender?

[Popeye]

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And the growing game of Zaza and the addition of Lo Down doesn't explain some of that difference? Or losing Harrington who is a poor low post defender?

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haha, but if we have gotten Roy or Foye to defend Bosh, Howard, Brand and rest of these guys it wouldn't improve our biggest need which is LOW POST DEFENSE.

[Dejay]

Not quite. First, he'll have to play like garbage for the first few seasons, then have the lightbulb pop on during the tail end of his contract year. Of course, he'll need help from the front office and voila; a contract extention which kills your cap space and limits your team's ability to bring in more talent.

BTW, something in my gut told me that about Henderson; I was one of the few voices on the AJC's old forum who hated the fact that Babs passed up Michael Finley to draft him and later crying for them to let him go after he hit free agency because he had little talent and no heart. The only reason he had the stats at IU was because Bob Knight would insert a foot in his hindparts if he didn't put out; with Lenny in charge and Babs running the show, what were the odds of that happening?

[Sothron]

He (Hendu) got that fat contract because he totally outplayed and out*hustled* Laettner and actually earned a starting role in the NBA. I agree with you, I was one of the few people that wondered how he could have been so mediocre until his contract year was up THEN played great and wanted a huge contract.

I did not want them to keep him. He is my most hated Hawk, even over that insane nut JR Rider who at least has mental issues to excuse some of his craziness. Hendu just has no heart and only plays to make $$$. The fact he ate up our cap space and became an albatross contract for Y E A R S easily puts him as #1 on my Hawk hate list.

If you guys think I'm tough on Shellhead or BK you weren't around the older forums I was on when discussing Henderson. There's not enough words to adequately describe the degree of hate, loathing and revulsion I feel for that man. Shellhead would have to do the exact same thing to bring out that level of bile.

[GoDawgs21]

Wait a second Sothy, so now it was a good move to get rid of Al. I remember you saying BK got fleeced. Kinda hard to get fleeced when you actually get something for a FA, and your owners dont want to take on lengthy contracts.

So I guess in your limited basketball eyes Shelden is what you say generously average. Funny he is the NBA cover boy on ESPN, and the artical is all about how his defense and Lo's is what is making the difference this year. Guess you know better. You mention stats. Did you not see he is leading all rookies in rebounding that has played more then one game. Oh my! No you cant look at that might mean he was the best big man available that can contribute right away. (God forbid we want to win right now, after all the bitching you do about planing for the future)

So I clearly know your not all about stats after your Childress will leave to start for half the NBA teams rant. So how about the little things Shelden does. How about he is leading our team in charges. So you say he fouls a lot, how many are blocks taht will turn into charges once he gets some cred from the refs? No those charges dont matter, uh. Only got Howard off the court early with 2 fouls so he couldnt get in rythem. It is the little things that dont show up in the stat sheet that matter.

Its the calling out to teamates where they need to be on defense. Yeh I see a second round project player doing that. Its the boxing his man out so someone else can get the lose board.

This quote is for you, its from the chat today: David Thorpe: I'm a big believer that great role players are almost as hard to find as superstars.

You have to have that guy that is willing to take the charges and play unselfish, that isnt worried bout the stats.

Oh yeh click here and look at the pick and caption and tell me he is generously average.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/index

[TexasPete]

BK did a poor job trading AL. Getting a mid to late 1st for a guy who scores like that is ridiculous. If BK had been more shrewd he could have cooked up something that would have been a great benefit to the team. He and/or the Spirit chose to only deal with a couple of teams. There were more who were told AL wouldn't be going there...

It is totally possible to be glad AL is gone and still think BK got fleeced. Whats so hard to understand about that?

[GoDawgs21]

I just want to know what conspiracy theorist thinks we really turned down a better deal. How much can you get for a guy when the other team knows he is a FA your not bringing back. Do you really think Troy Murphy would fit in here? Yeh fantasy players are nice, but he doesnt play day is injury proned and would kill the cap to resign players like chill and smith.

You have no idea what we were offered. There is no reason to think that BK turned down better deals just to lauhg and say oh well. You can say he was sought after, but he was a sought after FA. Then when teams found out that it was to be a sign and trade so he could help us out, maybe they didnt want to give anything up. How much did him chaning agents hurt? Most teams might not have wanted to wait the 60 days extra to negotiate. I just cant wait until this April or March when everyone is saying this guy might drop to 15 to us, or that guy because this draft is so deep. We take a PG that we can groom to take over for Speedy in several years. Then that fleecing wont look so bad will it, get playing time for your future and a pick in a deep draft you were out of. Sounds ok to me.

This is the same situation in Chicago. Curry was one of the most sought after FA, the Bulls got 2 picks back from the Knicks. If that pick turns out to be Noah or Oden this year that was a pretty damn good trade, no?

[Sothron]

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BK did a poor job trading AL. Getting a mid to late 1st for a guy who scores like that is ridiculous. If BK had been more shrewd he could have cooked up something that would have been a great benefit to the team. He and/or the Spirit chose to only deal with a couple of teams. There were more who were told AL wouldn't be going there...

It is totally possible to be glad AL is gone and still think BK got fleeced. Whats so hard to understand about that?

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Thank you. When GoDawgs actually watches the games I can respond further. If fouling other players is a mark of greatness, wow, I don't know how to respond to that.

[GoDawgs21]

You yourself said you didnt watch the Seattle game, I have been at every home game and trust me seen all the away games. Did you even see the Orlando game since it wasnt on tv. I was there up in my palace of 310. I do watch, and read carefully, I said taking charges is key. Right now like all rookies he doesnt get all the calls, but refs notice which guys get in position more then not, and over time he will get the benefit of the doubt on 50/50 calls like Battier does. I am al lfor a guy getting a foul if he is keeping them from making a layup.

Perfect example of how a foul was good. This shows how little you know about basketball. With about 1:30 remaining in the Cleveland game Marshall is going down for a layup. Shelden basically tackles him and he doesnt even get us arms up to try an and1. marshall goes on to miss both free throws. Without that play does JJ's three all of a sudden not matter if Marshall makes the layup and they are up 5.

THAT IS A FOUL I STAND UP AND CHEER. last year it looked like a layup line in there. If the first time down the court you have someone putting the wood on someone, they are less likely to do it again. If that causes one less drive and one more jumper attempt, it too is good foul.

What I spoke of before is him getting called for blocking fouls while trying to take a charge. Thats called heart and hustle, and hell yeh I'm ok with that.

[Sothron]

Charles Oakley is one of my favorite players of all time. You might need to google him since I'm sure you never heard of him. Ty Corbin, another google search for you, is another of my all time favorites. I absolutely love the hustle and heart guys. Shellhead has a long ways to go before I put him in that category.

So the #5th pick in the draft only needs to take charges and average what is it? 5? rebounds a game to prove his worth on the court. I'm just in awe of that level of play.

Lo Down is doing more on the defensive side of the ball than Shellhead and we got him for essentially a veteran minumum contract. I think its possible to find that level of hard work without wasting top five picks on it. Could be just me though.

[thesheedera]

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Well, Shelden is probably never going to be a big time stat stuffer with the exception of rebounds.

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I disagree with this. I don't think he'll ever average more than 20 ppg in a year, but I completely expect him to be above 15 ppg when he's in his prime.

He'll get at least half that many on fould shots, putbacks, or grabbing loose balls in traffic and dropping them in. He doesn't need the offense run through him to produce as a scorer. He did it for 4 years against the best competition and without any help, as K refused to develop any other big man while he was there until McRoberts came along. And he did it while K ran his offense exclusively through JJ Redick, ignoring some very potent and talented players that were also on the squad.

Shelden is not a great offensive player, but I'll be completely shocked if he doesn't become a 15 and 10 NBA guy after he's had about 3 years to establish himself. And if he's still a Hawk, that would be a great thing to have in addition to his defense, toughness, smarts, and team play.

I hope you all understand how hard that is to write for someone who has vehemently rooted against this kid for the last 4 years,

[GoDawgs21]

He has played 6 NBA games. I guess Tyrus Thomas will be just a 2 and 3 guy his career. I bet Detriot wishes it got 8/5 from its number 2 pick 3 years ago. ??? 8/5 strong defense from a rookie is solid. Revist this later in the year. We didn't need scoring we were over 100 per game last year. We needed defense. We needed defense right now we didnt need another project. So how hard is it to understand why if you need defense you draft a two time defense player of the year and an all-american. You have your biggest need interior d. Now please tell me whcih player in the draft had a better resume. If a bank is looking for someone to handle thier money market accounts, do they higher someone with just teller experience because they are the best teller. No they higher the best account manager. Its not hard to uinderstand.