Forget Shelden, give Soloman Jones a real chance!

[HAWKS1986]

LaMarcus Aldridge had a great day, but I would have like to see how Soloman Jones would have matched up against Aldridge.

Soloman Jones has potential, but I believe he deserves to get on the floor and show what he can do.

Soloman won't be an offensive force, but he can play better defense than Shelden and is more athletic and hustles more.

[HawksFan87]

I know one thing. When the season starts Wright and Shelden better not step foot on the floor. They both suck. And like you said Solomon has to be given a chance to prove something...

[DrReality]

It stands to reason that they would use Solomon, who is long and lean, against other players that are similar. However, given that Shelden was a higher draft pick . . .. playing him would be an admision that they screwed up? Don't see them giving Solo that chance but his energy sure is a lot more dynaimic.

[Zone034life]

If this regime will not play a player that may help this team because a player was drafted higher then they should all be fired. Its all about right now and right now solomon can block more shots and rebound better than shelden. Some may defend shelden but I say to you that this guy cannot help this team the way he is playing right now. If he starts to regain his confidence and practice hard then and only then should he be ahead of solomon on the depth chart. I'm tired of hearing some hawks fans talk about sheldens on the ball defense and rebounding prowess. If he is great or above average at either then I have yet to see it.

[Lascar78]

As lost as Shelden looks, he is a much better player than Solomon is today, and probably always will be. Shelden is a better rebounder (averaged over 40% more rebounds per minute than Solo last year), a better on-man defender, a better shooter (28% eFG% on jumpers for Solo last year), sets better screens, etc... . Add to that the fact that Solo is one of the league leaders in fouls per minute (nearly 9 fouls per48 last year - 36% higher than Shelden), and it will be very difficult for Solo to get burn. He is so thin and weak by NBA standards that he gets shoved around, and unless he gets a clean block, his only recourse is to foul.

I love watching Solo play because he is a fun looking guy, a typical fan favorite, the underdog you root for. But if you're being realistic, if we're going to be successful, Solo deserves very little PT. Preseason is different of course and I would understand giving him minutes to get him more experience, but not if we're really trying to win. The guy is 23 and is unlikely to ever put on the weight he needs to hold his own in the NBA. Until then he is a guy that gets some awesome blocks and dunks, but that's about it. We can hope that he will blossom into a stud, but it's highly unlikely.

[Zone034life]

You can bring up stats all day to support any view point. But some basketball fans such as myself go by what they see on floor more than a boxscore or stat. For instance, the Hawks were missing out on to many opportunities on the offensive end because of Shelden Williams. He does not rebound, hustle, block shots or play on ball defense well enough to make up for it. At least Solomon will block shots and hustle more than Shelden to make up for his short comings. This on ball defense you speak of with shelden, where and when have you seen it? Maybe me and other hawks fans are just missing the point with Shelden and you know something we don't. Shelden should be traded for a Jeff Foster, Diop or Johan Petro. His skills and production areas simply don't match what the Hawks need right now. If Shelden continues down this road then at some point woody will be forced to bench him. Solomon is apart of that depth we all speak of. Shelden is apart of the young players who has to step up or give way to the new found depth. This team does not need Shelden Williams more than they need a defensive center who can rebound well. We can loose the landlord and gain a player who better fits this teams needs. Until then Solomon is the next best thing we have to a shot blocker and energy player Shelden is not.

[atlien]

Zone, I agree with you that Shelden is untalented and a poor fit for this team. But I also agree that Solo isn't that viable of an alternative at this point; the dude is still pretty raw.

I do like the idea of trading Shelly tho. I posted this the other day:

"Shelden is SUPPOSED to be our most defensive center. Too bad he sucks at it (I tihnk Marvin actually had more blocks than him last season, and it's not like Shelly plays good positional D either).

Watch Shelly play and tell me any differently. I always wanna give the guy the benefit of the doubt, but then I watch him on the court and it's not hard to see that the guy just doesnt do what he needs to.

Now, Im hoping this changes and he gets better... I just dont have any confidence that it will; hence the trade for Foster."

My thing is, I think Shelly would play a lot better on a more structured, traditional team. I'm talking about San Antonio and Utah especially, and Houston and Indiana to a lesser extent. In short, a team that is firmly half-court oriented and plays more rugged. He could definitely put up 10/10 there just because of his rebounding and fundamentals around the basket.

But he is not creative. He is not a playmaker. He's awkward and slow. Most definitely not what we need on an athletic, up-tempo (hopefully) team like ours. Shelden has never fit well, and, given the athletic personnel we have going forward, he never will fit well here. Also, he is kinda untalented.

[Hawkzzz21]

Yeah...I'm kinda dumbfounded on basketball coaches of late.

I live near Cherokee High School where we had one of the top players in the state last year in Chris Singleton. He was just a junior and has now transferred to Dunwoody or something like that (watch for him). Now also on our team last year we had a talented big man at 6' 9" and was only a sophmore. We had a strong senior core of players along with junior Chris Singleton, we were stacked. However, this very athletic kid at 6' 9" just sat on our bench. I figured he might not be that good and someone told me he was tearing up JV basketball. So I went to a JV (Junior Varsity) game where only freshmen and sophmores are allowed to play in case someone is not familar with the term. Tearing it up was an understatement! This kid was unreal, he blocked everything and dunked with the greatest of ease. I couldn't figure out why he didn't play with our varsity more.

I finally just assumed that it was a high school thing and there was some type of rule like they had in football where a player can only play so much per week. So I fully expected this kid to be on the varsity team when we entered the playoffs. He was there, but mainly just sat on the bench. He would get garbage minutes at the end of the game, but none when they counted. Cherokee got beat in the finals of their region and didn't use this athletic 6' 9" kid we had and nobody around here knows why.

It was kinda interesting to watch the Cherokee Warriors and the Hawks last year, because Solomon Jones was just like this 6' 9" kid that never got to play, but really looked awesome when they got the chance. Now just to add one more thing on that story, this 6' 9" sophmore that will be a junior this year at Cherokee High School, is named Shawn Kemp. That's right, it just so happends this is the RainMan's son and I'm sure for any of you that keep up with high school basketball in the metro Atlanta area, will hear about him this year (if he gets to play).

[Blunt91]

Where is the Shellhead that played in the Rocky Mountain Review this past summer? He was one of the best players to play in the summer league games. Yeah I know it was summer league but he stunk it up his 1styear at the rocky mountain review. Everyone had hopes that he would play better this year since it seemed he had improved his play by his performance in the summer league. It is clear still that he hasn't put in the work he needed to do in the offseason.

I didn't like the fact that he stated he trained with his fiance & brother this summer and just lifted weights. That was clearly not enough. He should have been working with a trainer to work on improving his quickness and jumping ability. I wonder could Southron or Gambit give us some info as to how Management feels about Shelden's lackluster play. What happened with the Breakfast with Bernie segment on the radio?

[Vafan]

Doesn't Shawn Kemp have like 14 kids

[Diesel]

I think it's just a matter of chemistry right now. The truth of the matter is that Shelden worked out better at the end of the year and in Summer league with different squads. Squads that really relied on his rebounding and scoring so they made plays for him to do those things. I think when you add JJ and Jsmoove in the mix, you have to be the type of player who can find your game (in Woody's system). That's not easy to do when you come from structure. That's part of the problem I have with Duke players... you can barely tell if it's the player or the system... however, with Shelden, I think he has a lot of skills in his skillset that we're not taking advantage of... That's more coaching. Until Shelden learns how to find himself in Woody's system, he will struggle.

[thesheedera]

I think it's just a matter of chemistry right now. The truth of the matter is that Marvin worked out better at the end of the year and in Summer league with different squads. Squads that really relied on his shooting and scoring so they made plays for him to do those things. I think when you add JJ and Jsmoove in the mix, you have to be the type of player who can find your game (in Woody's system). That's not easy to do when you come from structure. That's part of the problem I have with UNC players... you can barely tell if it's the player or the system... however, with Marvin, I think he has a lot of skills in his skillset that we're not taking advantage of... That's more coaching. Until Marvin learns how to find himself in Woody's system, he will struggle.

[Diesel]

It's no doubt that Marvin Doen't really co-exist with JJ that well. Because Marvin is NOT aggressive. Let's hope this new found aggression HOLD up into the regular season.

11-02-07.. we will see all!

[thesheedera]

I just thought it was funny that you'll make those excuses for Shelden, when almost the same exact paragraph could have been written about Marvin, and you would have trashed it.

[mrhonline]

Solomon Jones picks up fouls FAR TOO EASILY to be of use to Woodson for more than spot minutes.

For all of Shelden's faults, he at least manages to stay on the court.

[TexasPete]

Exactly, Sheedera. And FWIW, 11/2/07 is not some magical day that will seal Marvin's fate one way or the other. It's called a "season" and it's 82 games. It's a long process, not a one time event. You can't get too high or low on any player for one game. I want to see how it plays out over time.

Diesel is quietly hoping Marvin sucks in game 1 so his garbage will be vindicated. Marvin looking decent, even in preseason, isn't in his plans.

LMAO, he can somehow support Shelden "The Stiff" Williams but not Marvin. In his view, it's all Woody's fault that Shelden sucks, so he has his EXCUSE MACHINE cranked up to high. Nevermind that Shelden has trouble even getting a shot off inside. Or, that he looks totally lost. Or, that he looks like a free agent pick-up.

How is Woody's system killing Shelden? Why don't you elaborate a little Diesel? The botton line is you can't come up with anything. Your agenda knows know bounds.

[exodus]

Quote:

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It's no doubt that Marvin Doen't really co-exist with JJ that well.

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Where do you get that from? Is it the fact that Marvin is averaging "only" 19 ppg shooting 50% in preseason?

Or maybe it's the fact that JJ had a win percentage of 53% when paired with Marvin last season. That is the highest win percentage that JJ had with anyone on the team based on the player pair stats that you seem to like.

JJ's win percentage when paired with Shelden was 38%, pretty low when you consider that JJ was on fire the first month of last season when Shelden was playing and Marvin wasn't.

As usual your opinions fly in the face of the evidence.

[TexasPete]

The problem with Diesel's agenda is that it often flies in direct conflict with the evidence. He just pulls stuff out of his backside to the point where you just say, huh?

The random comments like Marvin and JJ don't coexist is so looney that it's hard to even respond. When a guy has an agenda that off the wall against a player he isn't really a Hawks fan. I don't think Shelden is worth a nickel but if he started to play well I would come around and be happy as a Hawk fan. If Marvin becomes a solid and upper tier player, which he can, Diesel will still never admit it.

I have to say that his Marvin obsession is pretty weird.

[Iman]

So far Shelden has definitely sucked. However, Marvin haters could even blame us having Shelden on Marvin. If we had taken CP3 or Deron, the next year BK probably would have been all over Rudy Gay. Otherwise, there really wasn't much to draft during Shelden's draft. Roy had a known foot problem that now appears will require the bone to be shaved. We already had a Foye like player in Salim. It could still be argued that Shelden was a better pick than Marvin or even Chillz. At least we apparently won't have to worry much about Shelden putting us much further over the spending cap when we have to resign him..lol.

[atlien]

Quote:

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That's not easy to do when you come from structure. That's part of the problem I have with Duke players... you can barely tell if it's the player or the system... however, with Shelden, I think he has a lot of skills in his skillset that we're not taking advantage of...

---

I agree with you that Shelden, like a lot of other Duke players, does a lot better in a structured system. I disagree that he has some "great" skillset lying in waist. Diesel, be honest with yourself, Shelden does not look good out there. At least Marvin shows talent (even if he doesnt always put it all together). Shelden just hasnt done that yet.

But I do think he would do better in a more structured system like Duke. Id def trade him to Indy (where he'd thrive better) for Foster (who could provide more of what we need, that Shelly just cant).