Siler plays against Bynum; holds up well

[azuresou1]

"It's not often that rookie free agent center Garret Siler is forced to look up to someone on a basketball court. But that's exactly what happened to the 7-footer Wednesday when Los Angeles Lakers center Andrew Bynum cut through the door of the Hawks' practice facility to get a workout in at the John 'Beans' Beckett Invitational. Bynum and Siler matched up in two different games and Siler acquitted himself well, neither big man dominated the action -- that honor belonged to veteran pro Jerry Stackhouse (who has been on a tear this week on both ends of the floor against players much younger). Siler said he was just happy to have the chance to compete against a pro of Bynum's caliber. 'This is the best test for me to see guys like [Hawks center] Al Horford and [Bynum] out here,' Siler said. 'It helps mentally when you can say, 'hey, i'm d'ing this guy up and he plays for the world champions. He's got a ring.' So if you can hold your own going against and he's not just destroying you, hey, you must be doing something right.' "

http://blogs.ajc.com/hawks/2009/09/16/j ... logs_hawks

Apparently he's also more in shape and slimmed down, while still being huge.

[MaceCase]

I find that funny because Bynum was another big man that had trouble with his weight when he first came into the league. I don't think he's a good measure either for Siler's NBA readiness at least not in this instance. Considering his injury history how hard could Bynum have been going at Siler during an offseason pick up game?
What I find more telling was this tweet from Sekou:

Garret Siler needs a Trapper Keeper and lunch bag for what Al is doing to him right now. This is like home schooling your big kid.
9:13 AM Sep 14th from TwitterBerry

Now we all know Al is not one to half-ass a workout or back away from any bigman challenge and apparently he gave Siler the business.

So far he's 1-1 against NBA bigs but lets hold out till training camp to see how he does against more organized competition.

[JoshB914]

After Sekou told us that Solo "was better than ever" last preseason I've decided not to buy a word of his crap about how good all the bench guys are. He's good for some nice inside info, but it's painfully obvious his ability to judge talent is way off and he just buys all the crap that's fed to him from the PR people and coaching staff who aren't ever going to throw their players under the bus in September.

[raleigh]

Are they calling fouls? If not, I'm not buying.

[HoopsGuru25]

I don't see the point of bringing in Siler now. We already have 3 backup centers who are way too slow to get any minutes at PF and we definitely don't need a 4th. Two of them are bad...but atleast those 2 were All Americans in highschool and all conference players in college. If you are going for the devolpment route then I'd probably try to find a young guy who can shoot and hope he finds a niche similar to Novak,Wafer,and Morrow last year.

[evildallas]

Siler if he makes the team would (most likely) be a long term prospect likely to spend most of the year inactive and in the D league. I would be very disappointed if Al didn't school him. Al playing well affects the Hawks this year. I'm rooting for Siler (especially because it is hard to find or develolp good bigs), but the 14th or 15th man isn't going to impact us any time soon.