With Damien Wilkins signed, and Management obviously thinking he is going to be a great player, what about grooming Shard to play power forward? He played there some last year. His drives to the basket are getting smoother every year. He can put the ball on the floor now. Think a Sheed type power forward. Marion did it without much problem and Lew has 3 inches on him. Just a thought, go ahead and shoot it down now.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Odde24:</div><div class="quote_post">With Damien Wilkins signed, and Management obviously thinking he is going to be a great player, what about grooming Shard to play power forward? He played there some last year. His drives to the basket are getting smoother every year. He can put the ball on the floor now. Think a Sheed type power forward. Marion did it without much problem and Lew has 3 inches on him. Just a thought, go ahead and shoot it down now.</div> I don't think Shard is physical enough to play PF especially in the West. I like him at sf for you guys because it put him out on the perimiter where he can make good things happen.
That's just laughable. Rashard is about as tough as some McDonald's soft serve when it comes to contact.
I think a lineup w/Shard primarily playing 4 gets us killed. His reboudning #' aren't even good for a 3 let alone playing the four spot. One word comes to mind when I imagine him getting matched up against Amare, Boozer, Randolph, SAR, Garnett, Duncan, Brand, Kenyon, etc. on the defensive end....sub. He would get pounded trying to post up all the time too, because those guys would pound him down low and take away any block posistion available. But I do think that we should run several more plays a game with him down on the block. If he is going to take his game to the next level, he needs to learn to get to the line more. His fadeaway jumper is money and like Odde mentioned his handles have improved enough to where he's really tough to guard when he faces up down there. So even if we have him slotted at the 3, it doesn't mean we can't occasionally post him up in our offensive sets. He is the only guy we have that as of now would/could draw a double team down low and we should take more advantage of it then we did last season I think. A lineup of Rid, Ray, Wilkens, Lew, Center would be effective for portions of the game I think, but not as a starting unit or a group you would want playing a ton of minutes together. They would be a great running team, but you've got to rebound to be able to run.
Sweet Lew can play spot minutes at the power forward spot but he can't rebound well enough to give him excessive minutes at the four. Out of our big men Sweet Lew is our worst post defender. It's amazing how a player with his size and athleticm isn't even an average shot blocker. Sometimes I think that people forget that he is 6'10" and doesn't rebound on either end or block shots. Sweet Lew can present match up problems for small forwards and power forwards but I think that he is best served playing the three with one of our better post defenders anchoring the power forward slot. God forbid that a post player would step on Sweet Lew's toe when he making a move in the post.
I agree with the sentiment so far, except on the rebounding. Lewis has been the team's leading rebounder from the 3 spot in several games, and I imagine his rebounding numbers would improve at the 4 with him closer to the basket on defense and offense. I also think that his post offense has improved greatly over the past two years. His eFG$ is quite good inside at .634, though his dunking sways that quite a bit. He has developed a couple of moves on the low block that seem to work well for him, and has garnered enough respect that teams double him when he moves down low. He is taking 18% of his shots from in close though, and I would like to see that number climb closer to 25% this season. His interior defense, even on the big SF's is worse than suspect. Watching him guard the post it seems to me that he is still hesitant with his shoulder, and his push to have Nick get surgery and express regrets that he didn't do it himself tells me that I am probably right. That being said, I don't think he could guard most of the PF's in the league at all. He would consistently require help from the C and guards which would open up more jump shots for the other team. Marion gets away with it because he is so strong, and Amare is an INCREDIBLY athletic player who can stay on his man until the last second and still block Marion's man from the weak side if he needs to. The Sonics don't have a center with that ability and would get punished with Lew guarding the 4 spot.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting psheehy:</div><div class="quote_post">I agree with the sentiment so far, except on the rebounding. Lewis has been the team's leading rebounder from the 3 spot in several games, and I imagine his rebounding numbers would improve at the 4 with him closer to the basket on defense and offense. </div> Yeah, his #'s might improve because a ball here and there happens to bounce his way as a result of being a tad closer, but remember he has 4's and the occasional 5 boxing him out now instead of 3's. And I would hope Lew led the team in rebounding a few times last season, the guy is 6'10" and playing 38 minutes a game!!! The fact is Rashard has gone from being a rebounder with some promise, to an average rebounder for the 3, to a mediocre rebounder at the 3, to a SF with very subpar averages. His rebounding #'s have declined each year for the last 4. The shoulder might have something to do with this, but I doubt his confidence to bang grows because he's getting matched up against guys outweighing him by 30-50 pounds.
Last year DeMarr Johnson pushed him under the hoop for a big offensive rebound to tie up that horrible Denver game. Nuff said.
