Shelden Williams: Solid Paint Work

I have been meaning to write an article about Shelden Williams for a while now, but never found the time.  So seeing that Brendan Jackson of CelticsHub wrote one, I'll just quote him instead.

One thing is indisputable: Shelden Williams is by far and away exceeding expectations. Through eight games, he has made the most of his time replacing Big Baby Davis off the bench by averaging 16.1 minutes, 6.9 points, 5.1 boards.

To give another perspective, through seventy games last year, Leon Powe's numbers were 17.5 minutes, 7.7 points, 4.9 rebounds, very comparable to the production we're seeing from Williams this season. Here's the catch though. Remember when I mentioned "expectations" earlier? Williams was brought in with the hope that he'd at least be a little better than Patrick O'Bryant, and needless to say, the Celtics are getting a far more quality player.

It is all a matter of perspective.  If you think about Shelden as a lottery pick, he seems like an underachiever.  If you think of him as a busted lottery pick like POB, then he's actually been a very pleasant surprise.  When you consider that he's a replacement on the roster for Leon Powe, you can see that statistically, thus far, he's filled that role.  Now that's a tricky/sensitive topic when you are talking about such a sentimental fan favorite like Leon, but you can't argue with results.

It will be interesting to see how his role will change once Big Baby comes back from injury.  Like Baby did last year, Shelden has made the most of his opportunity.  It is nice to know that we'll have that kind of depth off the bench - a luxury that we didn't have last year.