-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Cheeks Should Help John Salmons -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- By Roland Laird for HOOPSWORLD.com Jun 12, 2005, 18:08 Folks I know I?ve been gone for a couple of weeks. Life got busy on me, but I hope to be here week after week from here on out. Tonight the Detroit Pistons try to tie the series with the Spurs, and lots of Sixers fans are scratching their heads as they watch two ex-Sixers make a serious mark on the series. Both Bruce Bowen and Nazr Mohammed spent some time on Broad Street, but neither stayed long enough to reach their full potential. Billy King probably pondered the Sixers propensity to bail on young players before they?d ripened. Probably another reason why O?Brien got bounced. I was at the FU Center for the Bowen and Mohammed years. Forget about Mohammed, the Sixers made a mistake trading him back in ?01, but that?s water under the bridge. In terms of Bowen however, my opinion is this. Bowen had to go, even now he?s really just a role player that stumbled into a good situation. Given time, seasoning and a boost of confidence from Mo Cheeks, John Salmons will emerge as almost as good a perimeter defender as Bowen as well as becoming a bona fide offensive threat. For all the people that believed Samuel Dalembert and Willie Green were mistreated by Jim O?Brien Salmons probably was damaged even more than both of them. People tend to forget that for much of his second year in the NBA (under Ayers and Ford) the Wesley Snipes look-alike was a productive player and under O?Brien his numbers were comparable, yet he only played in 58 games during the O?Brien regime. Nobody is saying John is going to be a star, but big guards that can defend, rebound, pass, make open jumpers and get to the rim are not really that easy to come by. link: http://www.hoopsworld.com/article_13043.shtml i just hope that mo cheeks helps salmons be the player we all invisioned him to be when he was drafted. an impact player.
I think everyone is underrating the year Salmons will put up. I am one of those who think AI's minutes should be cut down, he can't play all 48 minutes every game. Salmons has impressed me in the very short time he's been around. He can make us deep on the bench which all good teams have.
If Iversons minutes get limited which they very well may, then it is people like Slamons that will benefit and get court time. They have to bring it every minute they are on court though or Iverson will not like sitting on the bench. I think Salmons along with Green and Iguodala are a good basis to build upon. San Antonio do so well becuase they utilise their bench and their role players very well. If Philly can do this and with Mo at the helm, we are looking pretty good to, the we may just suprise a lot of people and make major noise in the playoffs this year!!!
