I hate Candied Yams too

[Kim Malo]

At 09:32 AM 10/4/2006, Pereira, Jorge M wrote:
>Jones is a prayer, at most.  All the heart in the world will not make up
>for his physical shortcomings.  I'd doubt he's 6'9", very little jump
>and no offensive skills other than the putback layup.

HUH? I'm not the fan some here were but did you even see the kid? 
Because he no question has the legit height (and he's listed at 6'11" 
not 6'9") and he very definitely can jump. In fact that's mainly what 
he is at this point - an eager, athletic long player who is very very 
unpolished. No offense is dead on and his overall game resembles an 
over eager puppy in some ways, but as a potential spot role player 
who can and will try to defend, rebound, and shot block, he has real 
possibilities. Especially since he's taller as a defender than our other bigs.

Certainly more possibilities than Kandi, who has had years to prove 
he was worth even the veteran's minimum and never has. And who may 
have more offense but is hardly a guaranteed 2 with it, especially 
when he started pulling a Scal and taking too many bad shots despite 
not hitting. His shooting % isn't that much better, BTW - both in the 
lower 40s. While not exactly being a force in other ways, except on 
infrequent occasions. It's nice that he may have finally been forced 
to face reality enough to beg to come in to camp but exactly what do 
you think happens when he has another guaranteed contract, based on 
past history.

You said you wanted blocks? Well Jones did it at the same rate - half 
as many in half as many minutes, and that's as a very unpolished 
rookie in very scattered minutes, meaning there's a valid chance of 
improvement there with some experience and coaching. While on a per 
minute basis he outrebounded Kandiman. Kandi's pretty much a WYSIWYG 
and what I saw was pretty unimpressive, mostly because I saw a lot of 
loafing around on the court to back his reputation.

Again, I'm not a huge fan of Jones because you can see that he is 
likely always going to be a role player, but he's certainly a legit 
near 7 footer and I'd much rather have him than Kandiman or another 7 
footer they plan to keep out by the freaking 3 point line, then 
wonder why he doesn't get offensive rebounds. While if you're really 
looking at who to keep in terms of being able to trade them later, I 
also think a young near seven footer with a willing attitude who 
clearly will be helped by some polish is a lot more tradable than 
someone with a well established notorious reputation of mailing it in 
most of the time.
Kim