Simmons Article On Sheed

[StartOrien]

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=simmons/100407&sportCat=nba

This has to be his worst article to date. I don't want to get into a Sheed argument here, everyone's thoughts on Rasheed are more than covered here.

But how can you publish an article, written almost exclusively in bullet points, and call someone else out for being lazy and being overpaid?

Not to mention it seems silly for him to call someone else "bandwagon" when he hasn't said an optimistic thing about the state of Boston sports since his half-assed Celtics won the championship article.

[Who]

Yeah, I'm not sure where I stand on this one.

I'm undecided on whether Doc should continue playing Wallace or permanently glue him to the bench.

[The Walker Wiggle]

I thought Simmons was more or less spot on. (And either way it's a must read for Simmons court side reporting.)

The numbers alone are fairly [dang]ing.

When Boston's three best perimeter players (Rondo, Pierce and Ray Allen) play with Garnett and Perkins, that unit is plus-280 for the season (plus-12.0 per 48 minutes). Swap Wallace for Garnett and it dips to minus-4 (minus-1.1 per 48 minutes). Swap Wallace for Perkins and it dips to minus-19 (-5.0 per 48 minutes).

According to Basketball Prospectus' Kevin Pelton, Sheed in 2009-10 is tied with Toni Kukoc in 2005-06 for the third-lowest offensive rebound percentage ever among regular players 6-11 or taller (0.30).

And yet Simmons also finds praise of a sort for Wallace.

Sheed's basketball IQ remains his most confounding quality. He makes one beautiful pass per game. He sees angles that other big men don't see. When motivated, he can swallow up any low-post move. He loves guarding Pau Gasol and Dwight Howard. He can shut them down two or three times in a row, by himself, without help. And after he proves this to himself, he relaxes and gives up an easy basket. Whatever. He stopped them the other times.

[Chris]

I am just amazed anyone has that much to say about Wallace.  At this point, he is a thoroughly uninteresting topic IMO.  He is what he is.  Yet Sports Guy wrote nearly 4000 words on him.  Wow.

[Fafnir]

Yeah, I'm not sure where I stand on this one.

I'm undecided on whether Doc should continue playing Wallace or permanently glue him to the bench.

I think he needs to be demoted to our 4th big man.

[Drucci]

Well written and some funny stuff all along. I was surprised to see some positive things about Sheed in that article.

But bashing Sheed and making him the scapegoat for the team's poor behaviour and lack of intensity is ridiculous ; you would think Simmons would know better than that.

This paragraph destroyed the rest of his arguments in my opinion :

Sheed's Celtics are 25-24 since Christmas. The 2008 world champs killed themselves every night. A depleted 2008-09 Celtics team exhibited remarkable pride and heart. Now they're bored and sluggish? Now they're searching for ways to get fired up? Now they're blowing home games left and right? Now they're on pace to break the unofficial record for "most players-only meetings and clear-the-air dinners" by a contender in one season? A team led by three future Hall of Famers who ALWAYS tried in the past? It doesn't add up.

Sheed may not have infected the Celtics as Character X did, but he did compromise the one thing that made them special: intensity. They care only when it suits them. The seven words that defined Sheed's career. Both the team and Sheed think they have an on/off switch that can be flicked at any time. Not true. They are in denial. "Lost" has the Smoke Monster; the Celtics have the Smoke and Mirrors Monster. And it's the entire team.

"Sheed's Celtics"? Really? And the guy has infected the entire team, and 3 future Hall of Famers just because it "doesn't add up" and you have to find a scapegoat/culprit? Come on...

[fairweatherfan]

Not to mention it seems silly for him to call someone else "bandwagon" when he hasn't said an optimistic thing about the state of Boston sports since his half-assed Celtics won the championship article.

I'm not a fan of this either, but isn't this the opposite of "bandwagon"?

And I don't disagree with anything in this article (except I don't think Sheed ever got suspended for Ts thanks to a couple being rescinded).  Sheed is phenomenally talented physically and mentally, but he flat-out refuses to consistently use his talents efficiently.  It's not fair to pin everything on Sheed, but he exemplifies everything that's wrong with this year's team relative to the last two.

[The Walker Wiggle]

Also, I'd either forgotten about or overlooked that while in Portland, he:

"wore a "**** WHAT YA HEARD" T-shirt to his introductory news conference." (Sort of hilarious.)

"was suspended two different times for whipping towels at a teammate and a referee." (Not.)

[Chris]

But bashing Sheed and making him the scapegoat for the team's poor behaviour and lack of intensity is ridiculous ; you would think Simmons would know better than that.

Agreed, but when has SG really been a balanced, rational basketball fan?  

There really is no defending Sheed here, but to blame him for this teams play this year is ridiculous.

[StartOrien]

Not to mention it seems silly for him to call someone else "bandwagon" when he hasn't said an optimistic thing about the state of Boston sports since his half-assed Celtics won the championship article.

I'm not a fan of this either, but isn't this the opposite of "bandwagon"?

And I don't disagree with anything in this article (except I don't think Sheed ever got suspended for Ts thanks to a couple being rescinded).  Sheed is phenomenally talented physically and mentally, but he flat-out refuses to consistently use his talents efficiently.  It's not fair to pin everything on Sheed, but he exemplifies everything that's wrong with this year's team relative to the last two.

To me, it seems as if he's first one off the wagon, last one on.

I'm shocked to see the positive reviews; I have to agree with Chris, it's a boring topic. At the end of the day he makes 6 million dollars and is underperforming. There's a long list of players exactly like this.

It just urks me that he's calling someone else lazy, when his points are presented in bullet-point fashion.

[FallGuy]

Well written and some funny stuff all along. I was surprised to see some positive things about Sheed in that article.

But bashing Sheed and making him the scapegoat for the team's poor behaviour and lack of intensity is ridiculous ; you would think Simmons would know better than that.

This paragraph destroyed the rest of his arguments in my opinion :

Sheed's Celtics are 25-24 since Christmas. The 2008 world champs killed themselves every night. A depleted 2008-09 Celtics team exhibited remarkable pride and heart. Now they're bored and sluggish? Now they're searching for ways to get fired up? Now they're blowing home games left and right? Now they're on pace to break the unofficial record for "most players-only meetings and clear-the-air dinners" by a contender in one season? A team led by three future Hall of Famers who ALWAYS tried in the past? It doesn't add up.

Sheed may not have infected the Celtics as Character X did, but he did compromise the one thing that made them special: intensity. They care only when it suits them. The seven words that defined Sheed's career. Both the team and Sheed think they have an on/off switch that can be flicked at any time. Not true. They are in denial. "Lost" has the Smoke Monster; the Celtics have the Smoke and Mirrors Monster. And it's the entire team.

"Sheed's Celtics"? Really? And the guy has infected the entire team, and 3 future Hall of Famers just because it "doesn't add up" and you have to find a scapegoat/culprit? Come on...

This paragraph makes no difference to the rest of his arguments which are overwhelming. You can disagree about this point (I do too, to some extent) but he's basically spot on with the rest of it.

[FallGuy]

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=simmons/100407&sportCat=nba

This has to be his worst article to date. I don't want to get into a Sheed argument here, everyone's thoughts on Rasheed are more than covered here.

But how can you publish an article, written almost exclusively in bullet points, and call someone else out for being lazy and being overpaid?

Not to mention it seems silly for him to call someone else "bandwagon" when he hasn't said an optimistic thing about the state of Boston sports since his half-assed Celtics won the championship article.

Not his best piece in terms of flow and prose but man, you gotta let this optimistic thing go. He doesn't NEED to be optimistic to be a fan. Why don't people understand this?

And btw, if you'd heard him talking about the Sox two weeks ago, he sounded optimistic. As well, he was very proud and positive about last year's team and their spirited title defense without KG.

[The Walker Wiggle]

But bashing Sheed and making him the scapegoat for the team's poor behaviour and lack of intensity is ridiculous ; you would think Simmons would know better than that.

I don't know I got the impressions that while Simmons would single out Sheed as the most galling reason for the Celtics struggles this season, he's well aware of the longer list.

There were damaging trade rumors, young guns (Kendrick Perkins and Rajon Rondo) rebelling against the old guard, legitimate alpha dog and chemistry issues, a coach who can't consistently motivate his team or settle on a rotation, ongoing rebounding woes and, worst of all, old legs.

[OriginalODb]

But bashing Sheed and making him the scapegoat for the team's poor behaviour and lack of intensity is ridiculous ; you would think Simmons would know better than that.

Agreed, but when has SG really been a balanced, rational basketball fan?  

There really is no defending Sheed here, but to blame him for this teams play this year is ridiculous.

Well I don't think its that ridiculous, I think the main difference between this year and last is that you replaced young hungry players fighting for a contract with Sheed and young players with contracts (Rondo, Baby) I don't think that Sheed is to blame for all the problems but I do think he has affected the intensity and drive of the team negatively

[PierceMVP08]

Where does the bandwagon talk come in?  I didn't really read anything about bandwagon fans in there.  Just wondering.

Also, I feel like Simmons is writing without really knowing what he is writing about.  I feel like he doesn't really watch this team.  Not because he's calling out sheed because I think sheed is a big part of the problem, but because Simmons only talks about generic examples.  For instance he never gives any specific examples except for the clippers game.  Thats all fine and good but he watches all clippers games.  That doesnt really tell me he watches the Celts consistently.  One other game he mentioned has the OKC game but i have to believe thats because he has a man crush on Durant.

I love Simmons but sometimes he is overly harsh on the Celts (maybe its because he wants to come off as unbiased) and doesnt really give them much credit when its due.  Ehh, just some random thoughts i guess