"Natural Position" and Shard

[CourtsideTV]

I am sick and tired of this let smove shard to his natural position talk.

The only natural position shard has is chucking up 3's, collecting benjamins, and hitting game winners. He can play 1-5. He has no natural position.

/end rant

And quit with the trade hedo threads.

[PimpORL]

Shard>Hedo
Hedo's stats>Hedo
Trade Hedo for a good PF while we still can.

/end rant

[drsd]

Shard>Hedo
Hedo's stats>Hedo
Trade Hedo for a good PF while we still can.

/end rant

If GM Smith is willing to gamble on team unity, this is the most plausible way to get a starting PF. We will see.

[TNMagicFan]

I do think that if Shard was playing SF he would be putting up better numbers. If he were defended by SF's on a nightly basis you would see him scoring in the post a lot more frequently . Plus trying to guard bigger, stronger guys has to wear him down .

If Cook were to continue playing as well as he has , I would like to see Shard at SF and Hedo at SG( or vice versa) . Cook is that big body we need at PF

[Last Guardian]

According to 82games Hedo is ridiculously good at SG. Perhaps it could be an experiment one day if things start to faulter again.

[axl_c_cool]

listen, i USED to post alot, but iv slowed down the last year, but i gotta say hedo isnt a superstar and never will. Rash is ALOT better player. answer me this, if hedo is so great why dont they ever switch up? good teams switch up if they have similar positions. hedo is very good, but shard is ALOT better then your making out courtside

[parso15]

listen, i USED to post alot, but iv slowed down the last year, but i gotta say hedo isnt a superstar and never will. Rash is ALOT better player. answer me this, if hedo is so great why dont they ever switch up? good teams switch up if they have similar positions. hedo is very good, but shard is ALOT better then your making out courtside

Thanks for not posting anymore

[mhectorgato]

According to 82games Hedo is ridiculously good at SG. Perhaps it could be an experiment one day if things start to faulter again.

http://www.82games.com/0708/07ORL8C.HTM

Yeah ... we've won 100% of the time if he plays SG.

Conversely we lose every time if he plays C.

[Typhoon20]

I do think that if Shard was playing SF he would be putting up better numbers. If he were defended by SF's on a nightly basis you would see him scoring in the post a lot more frequently . Plus trying to guard bigger, stronger guys has to wear him down .

Those are some good points, though I don't entirely agree with the ''if he was playing SF he'd put up better numbers'' ideology.
Yes, Shard has to be more physical on D but it also gives him more room and better legs in the long run.He doesn't have to run around a lot to catch up with the leagues elite SF's. He can get away with more steals on D and has the ability to score much more on O because the opposing PF can't guard him that well because of Shard's speed.
If he had to play SF, he'd wear down a lot more against the likes of Kirilenko, Josh Smith, Butler, Lebron, T-Mac, Prince and a bunch more great SF's that I can't think of right now. Instead playing him at the PF gives him more room at the perimeter. I think we benefit more from the SF-PF hedo-shard combo than we suffer.

What pleasantly surprised me is Hedo's job at the SF,
especially against opposing elite SF's. He was guarded by Billups, Rip, Prince and even Sheed at times, and he even got the double-triple team a lot from Prince-Rip-Sheed...against one of the leagues arguably top 3 defensive teams. He also did that against Pierce and the Celtics as well as the Spurs. He was guarded by Bowen and yet put up what 28-7-7 ? That's the thing, he gets to play against a lot of elite SF's and mostly does well, very well. He hasn't played one bad game against the leagues top 3 defensive teams, which is very pleasant to say the least.

But anyway, to jump on the bandwagon:

TRADE HEDO !

[TNMagicFan]

I don't want to trade Hedo . He is a very valuable member of our team . I'm surprised that SVG hasn't tried playing Shard/ Hedo at SG . He seems to think outside the box which is good .

Dwight
Cook
Hedo
Shard
Nelson

With that line up we have 4 players at 6'9 or taller . That would surely help our rebounding . It would be nice to stop teams from getting so many offensive rebounds against us . Shard/ Hedo at SG would giving opposing SG's fits with their length

It may be a stupid idea , but we don't have a traditional line up anyway . Couldn't hurt to try it

[CourtsideTV]

listen, i USED to post alot, but iv slowed down the last year, but i gotta say hedo isnt a superstar and never will. Rash is ALOT better player. answer me this, if hedo is so great why dont they ever switch up? good teams switch up if they have similar positions. hedo is very good, but shard is ALOT better then your making out courtside

I never said anything about shard being bad.. All I said was Im sick of people saying "put shard at his natural position is a joke"...

hedo and shard are both equally talented in their own ways.

[Optimus_Steel]

Shard>Hedo
Hedo's stats>Hedo
Trade Hedo for a good PF while we still can.

/end rant

Why trade Hedo? If we trade Hedo for a PF, it would be very hard to acquire another player that can match Hedo's production and ablities. It would be hard to get someone that can score, pass and be a matchup nightmate like Hedo. Its easier to acquire a PF that can rebound and play some decent defense while keeping Hedo. Thats really what we need. We dont need a great PF, just a decent one that can do the dirty work. And again, this team is not a finished product and its gonna take some time to acquire those other pieces, the FA period, expring contracts and draft are gonna into play.

[Furinkazan]

Well
I wouldnt want to trade Hedo but do You guys belive that Shard is willing play as a PF for the rest of his days?
Especially when his numbers went low...and I wonder what will happen if Hedo will end up as an All Star.Just few days ago we could hear Shard comment and as we see he feels like he is still 2nd option and Hedo is 3rd.
Now ...If Hedo will end up in All Star game I wonder how Shard is going to take the fact that he is no longer the 2nd best Magic player.
Furthermore I Dont see us benching an All Star Hedo.

second option is to bench Hedo But can we bench such a good player?
but if we wont bench him then its ok this season it will stay as it is...
but what with the next year?
it still comes to one
Shard playing as a pf for the rest of his days:D

anyhow
I dont see Otis making any trade especially involoving Hedo and with Cook recent play Otis must feel we are set up and dont need a PF..so he can just wait for Battie.

[TooNice00]

i used to hate on hedo but i realized if anything we should consider ourselves lucky for him to improve to an all star level. the way hedo is playing right now for only 6million is an amazing steal. his contract is so small for his level play that you'd be lucky to get someone with equal value. there is nothing wrong with shard and hedo at the SF and PF slots. the problem is that we can't really adjust to playing big when needed. without battie we only have cook. adonal foyle is just there to give howard around 10mpg of rest. if cook can continue his current level of play of around 6-10ppg and just be active on defense, whether it is just hacking people so they don't get easy shots, it will help a lot. cook isn't a good defender but he does weigh 260 pounds which is a lot harder to push out of the paint.

[parso15]

Shard>Hedo
Hedo's stats>Hedo
Trade Hedo for a good PF while we still can.

/end rant

I think you made a small mistake... you probably meant:

Shard<Hedo
Hedo's stats<Hedo

This one makes sense in basketball terms

[MJallday59]

If Hedo plays the 2 spot and Rashard moves back to the 3....who do you suggest starts with dwight???

[TNMagicFan]

If Hedo plays the 2 spot and Rashard moves back to the 3....who do you suggest starts with dwight???

Brian Cook if he continues his recent play

[PimpORL]

-= original quote snipped =-



Why trade Hedo? If we trade Hedo for a PF, it would be very hard to acquire another player that can match Hedo's production and ablities. It would be hard to get someone that can score, pass and be a matchup nightmate like Hedo. Its easier to acquire a PF that can rebound and play some decent defense while keeping Hedo. Thats really what we need. We dont need a great PF, just a decent one that can do the dirty work. And again, this team is not a finished product and its gonna take some time to acquire those other pieces, the FA period, expring contracts and draft are gonna into play.

I think that would be alright if Hedo could play SG, but we can get a much better PF if we trade Hedo. He's our best tradeable asset right now and it makes sense because SF is Rashard's natural position.

Hedo's trying to play outside of his game. I'm not saying he's statpadding, but he really shouldn't be taking this many shots and he shouldn't have the ball as much as he does.

He's not as good offensively as Rashard. Like d12fan said, we'd be better off with Rashard playing SF and punishing teams with his height. For the last 2 seasons with the Sonics Rashard has had almost a 59% TS% while scoring over 20 ppg. That's ridiculously efficient.

Another thing is that Rashard makes clutch shots because he's clutch. Hedo's makes clutch shots because he takes so many damn shots.

Based on 82games.com
Rashard 65% eFG% in clutch situations
Hedo 48% eFG% in clutch situations

[TooNice00]

what PF do we trade hedo for?

[PimpORL]

what PF do we trade hedo for?

I didn't think that far ahead.