Finley Apparently a Celtic

jeb65 wrote:Shelden needs more minutes. I like his energy and hustle. Dont understand why his minutes dropped. But Rasheed is a seriously skilled guy so I get your point on that Kleen.

jeb,

I like his energy and hustle too. I LOVE his offensive rebounding efforts (one of my personal appeals is for players that contest for offensive rebounds. That's one reason why I loved Leon Powe). I have to believe there's a reason why he hasn't played much. Trying to re-integrate Davis after his long injury? I don't know.

More likely, because he blows assignments. Sam noticed that Shelden sometimes didn't defensively rotate quickly. That will sit you down, in Doc and Thib's books.

bob

My Dad has been a Celtics far his whole life. He really likes Doc and knows a ton about the game. When I asked him recently why Sheldon hasn't been playing - he said "he must not be delivering in practice"

Might be an oversimplification - but maybe there is some truth to that. Could explain why people like Bill Walker or JR Giddens didn't get much run. Maybe they just continue to blow assignments, screw up defensive rotations, not cover the other guy, take no charges etc etc.

Kleen

Prabably somethin as simple as that after all our pontificating.

Finley gonna be there tonight?

I saw sunday somewhere but I might be wrong.

I believe Finley will be joining them for Saturday practice and will be available for the Sunday game.

Sam

Sam wrote:I believe Finley will be joining them for Saturday practice and will be available for the Sunday game.

Sam

I saw the part about the practice on Saturday, maybe in one of my Pre-game Chatter posts in the Game On! threads.

If you are right that the play calls for Wallace to toss up another brick, then its not his fault, as you point out. In that case it is the fault of both Rivers who is possibly not telling our PGs to make sure that he plays on the block more-or our PGs for not listening. In any event, he should definitely NOT be taking nearly as many 3's. As for his inability to get in front of guys driving to the hoop, if Davis and Scalabrine can do it, so can Wallace. I think he just doesn't want to take the charge. When was the last time anyone saw Wallace on the floor after an offensive foul? Frankly, I can't recall any at all.
And two inches is not much difference in height when you consider that Williams is much better at keeping his man out farther from the basket than Wallace. He is much more physical. And his numbers per 36 minutes played are very good. No, he is not the reason the team got off to a great start, but he CERTAINLY deserves some of Rasheed Wallace's minutes.

Pumpsie Green wrote:If you are right that the play calls for Wallace to toss up another brick, then its not his fault, as you point out. In that case it is the fault of both Rivers who is possibly not telling our PGs to make sure that he plays on the block more-or our PGs for not listening. In any event, he should definitely NOT be taking nearly as many 3's. As for his inability to get in front of guys driving to the hoop, if Davis and Scalabrine can do it, so can Wallace. I think he just doesn't want to take the charge. When was the last time anyone saw Wallace on the floor after an offensive foul? Frankly, I can't recall any at all.
And two inches is not much difference in height when you consider that Williams is much better at keeping his man out farther from the basket than Wallace. He is much more physical. And his numbers per 36 minutes played are very good. No, he is not the reason the team got off to a great start, but he CERTAINLY deserves some of Rasheed Wallace's minutes.

pumpsie,

Shelden doesn't play the same men Sheed does. Would 6'9" Shelden Williams do as well keeping Dwight Howard or Marcin Gortat off the low blocks? Could he stay in front of Odom? I sure doubt that, and he doesn't have the length to be able to play off him and still recover to get a hand in his face. Who knows because he wouldn't be guarding them except on a mismatch. That's the point. If Shelden is playing center, it's either because Doc's going small (and that has its advantages and disadvantages) or the other team successfully got a defensive switch.

Shelden's numbers per 36 minutes is very good. However, since he's only played 463 minutes this season total, I think we need to take his production/36 minutes with a grain of salt. After all, he hasn't played too many "36 minute blocks" that we can have confidence the numbers are reliable. Rasheed, on the other hand, has played 1337 minutes total, 3x as many as Shelden and has 511 fga versus 124 for Shelden. My point is a lot of people can come out of the gate strong (or weak!) and will look good (or bad!) when you project their numbers out, but over time against many different teams and players they might adjust significantly. Shelden's numbers look good based upon limited playing time, where he's playing in specific matchup situations. You're not seeing him against starters or even fresh backup centers like Rasheed is playing against. You're seeing Shelden playing against the other team's 9th or 10th man who will be a PF, not a C.

This is not taking away from Shelden and his efforts. I'm just saying that Shelden-for-Sheed is not a natural replacement. They are not the same piece.

bob

Bob,

I thought Rasheed played shooting guard not center?

112288

112288 wrote:Bob,

I thought Rasheed played shooting guard not center?

112288

112288,

One could understand your confusion, given how much time he spends outside on offense. :-) The point I was trying to make to pumpsie is that there's the other side of the ball to consider too.

Sheed is 3-6 from 3 his last few games. If he continues to shoot 50% on his next 20 fga (I know, asking any player to shoot 50% from 3 is asking a lot, but he's doing it now), then his 3pt fg% will be 30.5%. That's starting to get acceptable AND he'll be hot heading into the playoffs and that's really ALL that matters.

bob

Bob,

Even more meaningful to me is the fact that, in his most recent three games, Sheed has shot more from inside than from three-point land. To be exact, 63% of his shot attempts have been from inside the three-point line. IF he can keep it to around one-third of this shots from the arc, and IF he can keep hitting his (more selective) threes at upwards of 40%, I'll be satisfied.

Of course, even if he hit threes at a 40% clip on a reduced number of attempts per game for the rest of the season, I guess his season-long percentage would still be in the low 30s. And a lot of basketball neophytes know no better than to look at season-long percentages because they're easier to access than recent percentages. Yet any knowledgeable fan knows it's the recent trends that count most.

Sam

Sheed should use the 3 as an option, not as a "go to".

If he is out on the perimeter and happens to go for it then I say go for it, but dont "look" for it.

Sam wrote:Bob,

Even more meaningful to me is the fact that, in his most recent three games, Sheed has shot more from inside than from three-point land. To be exact, 63% of his shot attempts have been from inside the three-point line. IF he can keep it to around one-third of this shots from the arc, and IF he can keep hitting his (more selective) threes at upwards of 40%, I'll be satisfied.

Of course, even if he hit threes at a 40% clip on a reduced number of attempts per game for the rest of the season, I guess his season-long percentage would still be in the low 30s. And a lot of basketball neophytes know no better than to look at season-long percentages because they're easier to access than recent percentages. Yet any knowledgeable fan knows it's the recent trends that count most.

Sam

Sam,

Exactly. "What have you done for me lately?". Well, if we're in the playoffs and he's hitting 40+% from 3, I won't care in the least what he did during the regular season.

bob

I wonder if Stackhouse has anything left in the tank?

jeb65 wrote:I wonder if Stackhouse has anything left in the tank?

jeb,

Stackhouse is averaging 21 mpg and 8.4 ppg for the Bucks in the 22 games he's been with them this year. His assist-to-turnover ratio is 1:1 (not that great for a guard, even a SG). He is shooting 40% from 3, though. If we can get 40% from 3 from Finley in even 1/2 those minutes, that'd be great.

bob

bobheck

Bucks are playing very well. Did not know Stackhouse was playin for them.