ESPN Comments About Marvin in Summer League

[clrumph]

Quote:

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Atlanta's Marvin Williams is using the summer league to show signs of why the Hawks selected him No. 2 overall in the 2005 draft.

The former University of North Carolina forward was averaging a Revue-leading 26.0 points in his first two Revue games, and scored a game-high 22 as the Hawks posted their first win with an 84-74 victory over San Antonio on Monday.

Williams played 33 minutes and hit 12-of-13 from the free-throw line

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Here's the link:

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=2522439

No mention of Shelden so I guess if you can't say something nice then don't say anything at all

[DJlaysitup]

Way to go Marvin!! Wodoy said this would be his time to shine and obviously he got the word. Good to see it. Hopefully the strengthening work is paying off. At least it's not hurting his free throw shooting.

[Final_quest]

With all the Shelden hate going on right now, this guy is making waves. It's awesome to see Marvin lighting it up. Maybe he can just enjoy his life and have fun this year scoring 18-20 ppg while grabbing 7 boards.

Anyways, this is at least encouraging and hopeful to see him play well.

[Lascar78]

yup. Personally I think it's great because I think that Marvin is earning his starting spot, which will put Smith over at the 4. The sooner we put Smith there and see whether he can handle it, the happier I will be. I am really looking forward to this season.

Speedy/Lue

JJ/Salim

Marvin/Chill

Smith/Shelden

Zaza/?

+ whoever we get for Al

Looks great to me.

[swolehawk2]

He started to earn that spot last year.

[Johnnybravo4]

We also can't ignore the progress of Salim either. If he can become a Ben Gordon type for us then it will benefit us tremendously.

[swolehawk2]

I have been preaching that some around here gave up on Salim way too early.

[Final_quest]

I like seeing Salim do his thing, but this isn't anything new for him. Remember he had 37 points in one game last year.

I never gave up on him, but I just look at his play as more of the same. I think a lot of us expected Salim to play at this level.

[Lascar78]

I'll wait until I see the games. I have 100% faith in his abilities as a scorer. I want to see how his handle, defense, and ability to run the team look.

[Johnnybravo4]

Agreed. Although I have the suspicion that with the addition of Speedy, Salim will be playing less point and more of a run off screens spot shooter...which is a role I think he should play anyway.

[swolehawk2]

Quote:

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Agreed. Although I have the suspicion that with the addition of Speedy, Salim will be playing less point and more of a run off screens spot shooter...which is a role I think he should play anyway.

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Exactly, this staff tends to want to ignore what players do best and try to put them in roles that they don't fit.

[KB21]

I don't know what's more impressive. The fact that he is being aggressive on both ends of the floor, or the fact that he has gone to the free throw line 18, 15, and 13 times while only missing 5 of those free throws?

His ability to get to the free throw line combined with his ability to shoot the basketball from the perimeter gives Marvin the potential to be a dynamic scorer in the NBA. I believe that within the next year, he will develop is offensive game in the post and will become the inside/outside threat that most people envisioned him becoming.

Depending upon what his role will be this year, I can see him making the jump to around 15 PPG and around 7 RPG. I think it will be between year 2 and 3 that we will see the biggest jump though. As he matures into his body, improves his strength, and develops the low post aspects of his game, Marvin could make the jump from being a 15 PPG/7 RPG player to being a 23 PPG/ 10 RPG player in year three. And that will show why he was drafted with the 2nd overall pick.

[KB21]

What?

Just because this staff wants players to work on their weaknesses in meaningless summer games doesn't mean they are ignoring what these players do best. They certainly didn't ignore Salim's ability last year, because they have said that the first few plays when he was put into the game was to get him to shoot the ball and get his head into the game.

[Johnnybravo4]

What if he jumps to a 20/5 player this year..that would be sick...and what if Smoove is a 15/7/4/3 player this year....ok let me stop...

[Lascar78]

Quote:

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Agreed. Although I have the suspicion that with the addition of Speedy, Salim will be playing less point and more of a run off screens spot shooter...which is a role I think he should play anyway.

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I agree, but since when do you think that's his role? You've been trying to convince people that he'll be a starting caliber point for nearly a year now, with most of us telling you that he's much more likely to be a career scorer off the bench as opposed to a PG. When did the change of heart occur? When we got speedy?

[Johnnybravo4]

Yep. I mean I still think that he could run the point in sets because you don't want to run a short back court for long periods of time. But with Speedy and Lue being relatively young guys, there is no need to push Salim as a true point.

[DJlaysitup]

I think "league years" are more important than how many years a guy played in college (with the general exception of a borderline kid coming out of HS - which won't happen anymore). Salim is still very new to the league and seems to be improving some. No need to decide on what he'll be longterm now - just keep working with him and make some minutes for him somewhere.

Guards who come into the league and have a handle on things right off the bat (like CP3) are few and far between. Of course there is always the occasional player like Lebron - but that's different...we're talking normal human beings here.

I've never been particularly high on Salim, but he does have skills and it looks like he can continue to develop in most areas of the game outside of just shooting (where is is already great). SL is a great place for him right now to showcase abilities and (hopefully) keep learning.

Plus summer league gives the young guys something to do to keep them out of trouble. Thank goodness we're in Utah instead of LV...

[swolehawk2]

They used him as a scorer of the bench last year...now they are tryin to get him to play the point. (that came from Woody's mouth). Salim is a scorer, let him do what he does and don't try to burden him with tryin to run the offense...he needs to be able to guard ones, come off screens hit open jumpshots and get into the lane.

I don't want to see him spending the majority of his time pounding the ball at the top of the key.

Just don't want to see him misused like Diaw.

[DrReality]

The thing is there was a lot of complaining about Marvin on this board last year because of his summer league play. He had an injury and never put it together. I hope that we are having the same discussion next year re Shelden when he puts it together.

Re Salim: on the radio this morning 680 guys were saying that Salim got pulled from a game. It didn't sound clear to me whether this was current or stuff from last year. Anyone else hear this and whether it is a recurrent problem or old news?

[KB21]

It's probably the typical media spin, trying to create a story where there likely isn't one.