What I like about Shelden Williams

[Brickowski]

BBD is a much better offensive player than Williams.  Defensively they are roughly equal.  BBD is a better post defender, but Williams is a better rebounder, so it evens out.

Powe is a better offensive player than either of them, but defensively Powe is not as good as either BBD or Williams.

[CoachBo]

Uh, I'll take Williams' defense over Davis' every day, along with his rebounding, intelligence and effort.

Poor Shelden. If he'd just been drafted by Ainge, he'd be worshipped by this board.

In the meantime, he's an outstanding acquisition who provides exactly what this team needs off the bench. Great, great move by Ainge.

[billysan]

For me the big thing with Shelden Williams is expectations. It is easy to bash him because of his draft position, but is that really his fault? The guy has been labeled a bust. He is in position to really help himself this season with a little time working with Clifford Ray.

If Shelden Williams has a good year as a productive member of our rotation, he will help his career. This will make Danny look like a genius and we will likely sign him to a reasonable contract extention. It would be a hilarious form  of justice if he won comeback player of the year as part of the Celtics championship run wouldnt it?

Regardless of whether he is better than Leon Powe or Glen Davis is irrelevant at this point to me. Is he better than Brian Scalabrine as a backup PF? Is he more cost effective than all three of them? He is producing now at an acceptable level after just 2 games into the regular season. That is enough that we should sit up and cautiously take notice. He may or may not end up being our 4th big for the long term. Time will tell, I just feel lucky to have him.

[Chris]

Uh, I'll take Williams' defense over Davis' every day, along with his rebounding, intelligence and effort.

Poor Shelden. If he'd just been drafted by Ainge, he'd be worshipped by this board.

In the meantime, he's an outstanding acquisition who provides exactly what this team needs off the bench. Great, great move by Ainge.

If Williams can learn to cleanly catch passes in traffic, then I will agree with you.  But until then, he is going to have some ground to make up on Davis.

[BudweiserCeltic]

Baby is clutch.

[CoachBo]

Uh, I'll take Williams' defense over Davis' every day, along with his rebounding, intelligence and effort.

Poor Shelden. If he'd just been drafted by Ainge, he'd be worshipped by this board.

In the meantime, he's an outstanding acquisition who provides exactly what this team needs off the bench. Great, great move by Ainge.

If Williams can learn to cleanly catch passes in traffic, then I will agree with you.  But until then, he is going to have some ground to make up on Davis.

Chris, I really don't care what we get offensively from Williams. We didn't bring him in for offense. With this group, and this bench, we need defense and rebounding - neither Davis' strengths - from that role. Baby's decidedly mediocre as a defender, and he's just way too easy to defeat on the glass.

We're getting both of them, plus smart basketball - which is really great to see after all the years of brain-dead bench play from the Celtics. It's a mistake, I think, to assume that every member of our bench has to have a well-rounded game. They don't. You bring in different pieces who give you the ability to address different issues on the floor. Williams' role is defense, rebounding and smart basketball, one it appears he's more than able to fill at this point.

When Davis comes back, he won't be asked to do what Williams is. He'll be asked to score. He'll be a different piece of the puzzle, and he has to be because the only thing well rounded about Davis is Davis, unfortunately.

[kozlodoev]

I can't understand why everyone is so head-over-heels about Williams' defence.

He gets pushed off the block all the time, seems a bit uncoordinated moving around, and has never blocked more than .5 shots per game.

Williams is certainly serviceable, but Glen Davis seems much better defensively to me.

[Bankshot]

Baby is clutch.

Yup.  He may not rebound well, but he will get the clutch rebound or shot or catch the pass for a clutch shot.

[Chris]

Uh, I'll take Williams' defense over Davis' every day, along with his rebounding, intelligence and effort.

Poor Shelden. If he'd just been drafted by Ainge, he'd be worshipped by this board.

In the meantime, he's an outstanding acquisition who provides exactly what this team needs off the bench. Great, great move by Ainge.

If Williams can learn to cleanly catch passes in traffic, then I will agree with you.  But until then, he is going to have some ground to make up on Davis.

Chris, I really don't care what we get offensively from Williams. We didn't bring him in for offense. With this group, and this bench, we need defense and rebounding - neither Davis' strengths - from that role. Baby's decidedly mediocre as a defender, and he's just way too easy to defeat on the glass.

We're getting both of them, plus smart basketball - which is really great to see after all the years of brain-dead bench play from the Celtics. It's a mistake, I think, to assume that every member of our bench has to have a well-rounded game. They don't. You bring in different pieces who give you the ability to address different issues on the floor. Williams' role is defense, rebounding and smart basketball, one it appears he's more than able to fill at this point.

When Davis comes back, he won't be asked to do what Williams is. He'll be asked to score. He'll be a different piece of the puzzle, and he has to be because the only thing well rounded about Davis is Davis, unfortunately.

My point is that the difference between Williams and Davis defensively is miniscule.  Williams is a slightly better rebounder (although I think he is getting more credit than he deserves, based on his reputation from college).  So if Williams is going to continue to fumble away every third interior pass thrown to him (and this team has a lot of very good passers), then he is going to be more of a liability than Davis.

[moiso]

Williams has been a good rebounder his entire career in whatever minutes he has played.  Baby has been below average rebounding the ball.  There is no comparison as far as rebounding goes.
And I agree with coachbo as far as having a big guy who concentrates on defense and rebounding as opposed to jump shooting.  But still it would be nice if Williams could catch passes and finish after getting offensive rebounds- things he is not good at.

[CoachBo]

Uh, I'll take Williams' defense over Davis' every day, along with his rebounding, intelligence and effort.

Poor Shelden. If he'd just been drafted by Ainge, he'd be worshipped by this board.

In the meantime, he's an outstanding acquisition who provides exactly what this team needs off the bench. Great, great move by Ainge.

If Williams can learn to cleanly catch passes in traffic, then I will agree with you.  But until then, he is going to have some ground to make up on Davis.

Chris, I really don't care what we get offensively from Williams. We didn't bring him in for offense. With this group, and this bench, we need defense and rebounding - neither Davis' strengths - from that role. Baby's decidedly mediocre as a defender, and he's just way too easy to defeat on the glass.

We're getting both of them, plus smart basketball - which is really great to see after all the years of brain-dead bench play from the Celtics. It's a mistake, I think, to assume that every member of our bench has to have a well-rounded game. They don't. You bring in different pieces who give you the ability to address different issues on the floor. Williams' role is defense, rebounding and smart basketball, one it appears he's more than able to fill at this point.

When Davis comes back, he won't be asked to do what Williams is. He'll be asked to score. He'll be a different piece of the puzzle, and he has to be because the only thing well rounded about Davis is Davis, unfortunately.

My point is that the difference between Williams and Davis defensively is miniscule.  Williams is a slightly better rebounder (although I think he is getting more credit than he deserves, based on his reputation from college).  So if Williams is going to continue to fumble away every third interior pass thrown to him (and this team has a lot of very good passers), then he is going to be more of a liability than Davis.

I don't agree with you at all about Davis' defense, which is below average in my view. When he wants to work - which isn't always - he can be adequate, but that's about it.

[Fafnir]

http://www.basketball-reference.com/play-index/tiny.cgi?id=VwyVD

Chris, Baby's rebounding rate is 11.9 and Sheldon's is 16.9.

That is a huge difference, for some perspective KG's career rebounding rate is 17.1.

[Bankshot]

Williams has been a good rebounder his entire career in whatever minutes he has played.  Baby has been below average rebounding the ball.  There is no comparison as far as rebounding goes.
And I agree with coachbo as far as having a big guy who concentrates on defense and rebounding as opposed to jump shooting.  But still it would be nice if Williams could catch passes and finish after getting offensive rebounds- things he is not good at.

You do know that it was the Celtics that wanted Davis to practice his shooting right? It was not just his decision to shoot jumpers.  And it did help them win a playoff game.  And this year, with the addition of Sheed they want him to play in the paint more. (All this is taken from an Ainge interview).

[moiso]

Williams has been a good rebounder his entire career in whatever minutes he has played.  Baby has been below average rebounding the ball.  There is no comparison as far as rebounding goes.
And I agree with coachbo as far as having a big guy who concentrates on defense and rebounding as opposed to jump shooting.  But still it would be nice if Williams could catch passes and finish after getting offensive rebounds- things he is not good at.

You do know that it was the Celtics that wanted Davis to practice his shooting right? It was not just his decision to shoot jumpers.  And it did help them win a playoff game.  And this year, with the addition of Sheed they want him to play in the paint more. (All this is taken from an Ainge interview).

  I know.  If Baby is going to have a long career he's going to have to his that shot, because he's not good under the rim.  Davis has much more all around skill than Williams- ball handling, passing, shooting.  I still like big men who are beasts, and thats what Williams tries to be.

[Evantime34]

Williams has been a good rebounder his entire career in whatever minutes he has played.  Baby has been below average rebounding the ball.  There is no comparison as far as rebounding goes.
And I agree with coachbo as far as having a big guy who concentrates on defense and rebounding as opposed to jump shooting.  But still it would be nice if Williams could catch passes and finish after getting offensive rebounds- things he is not good at.

You do know that it was the Celtics that wanted Davis to practice his shooting right? It was not just his decision to shoot jumpers.  And it did help them win a playoff game.  And this year, with the addition of Sheed they want him to play in the paint more. (All this is taken from an Ainge interview).

I agree, in his first season Baby rebounded well and scored in the paint. Then in his second season he played in a different role (to draw big men away from the basket and shoot jumpers). With Sheed now on the team as the shooter off the bench, and KG back healthy being the shooting big man of the first squad BBD's role will be more similar to that of his rookie season. His rebounding numbers will go up this year.
As far as defense goes, I rememeber BBD being lauded for his excellent defense on bigger players like Tim Duncan. Baby might not be as long as Williams but he is quicker and probably stronger too.