RickB-Orlando wrote:I didn't say Ryan was better, I simply point out that claiming his production is purely a result of the system - which almost everyone on this board says has not changed in years - seems to be at odds with the statistical evidence. I'm not knocking Shard, I maintain that without him on the team there is no finals trip.
Can't say it doesn't have anything to do with the system tho. Van Gundy's teams do take a ton of 3s. Not to say he wouldn't be an impact player elsewhere tho.
Except he's not. The Magic never run a play for Ryan, yet he's the second leading scorer on the team. If you watch the games, you won't see a set play run for Ryan where he's the number one option on the play; it rarely if ever happens.
That's true. But Shard's role in the offense was very hard to figure out too, especially when Vince arrived. I say he was the #2 option, but really, he could have been 3rd or even 4th on some nights.
I think it can be argued that a scorer moving to a team with a dominant big man has the potential to have more scoring opportunities than on a team where that isn't the case. Shard had many more open shots here than he ever did with Seattle, due to the doubling of Dwight.
Ehhhhh. M not going to follow you there. Yea he's coming to a dominant big man, but there's only one ball. And when Shard's not used to getting the ball in the post, and us trying to develop Dwight's role in the offense, it can cause a lot of indecision and mess with Shard's game. I think going from a team where you are the only option pretty much, to a team where there's a lot more viable options will have more impact on yer scoring than Dwight giving him more open looks.
In a vacuum, yes, but when you compare ages and potential, I can't see it. Shard may have peaked before he got here, he in 2009 he was a good player near the top of his career; and again,without him there's no way we get to the finals. But given the age difference and potential for growth, I think it's a much closer call. People seem to skip over the fact that Anderson is only 23 as if it doesn't matter, but it does. He has room to improve, without question, but plenty of time to do so.
If you look at Shard's stats in the first few years he played starter minutes, his stats were 14/6 and 16/7, very similar to what Ryan is doing this year. A lot of folks on this board write about Ryan as if he's as good as he is going to get. I don't think there's any reason to thin that's the case.
Potential schmotential. How often does a player come around a reach his supposed potential? Plus, I know it wasn't you that said it, but other guy was saying Anderson is better than Shard was. Can Anderson improve? Surely. I think he coooooould make an All-Star game. I doubt it. But he could. He needs to add more to his offensive repertoire, tho. And that's not from a statistical perspective. Watching Shard and Anderson, it's obvious Shard had more tricks in his bag. Anderson can try to add those tricks, but it won't be as natural, and in crunch time and come playoffs, it'll be easier to shut down.
(Gotta study, gonna try not to come back to this discussion)
