Anyone who tells me this kid has "poor" muscle tone is crazy. He is in better shape then 90% of America. And he seems to be dedicated to working out. He may not be Lebron, or Melo - but he is a solid pick and he should be welcomed to the Knicks with open arms by the fans. We dont have many good players on our roster - so lets hope he becomes one instead of dogging him from day one because he isnt 7'0.

Posted by OasisBU:

Anyone who tells me this kid has "poor" muscle tone is crazy. He is in better shape then 90% of America. And he seems to be dedicated to working out. He may not be Lebron, or Melo - but he is a solid pick and he should be welcomed to the Knicks with open arms by the fans. We dont have many good players on our roster - so lets hope he becomes one instead of dogging him from day one because he isnt 7'0.

oasis i'm not dogging him if you were thinking i am. i started the thread!
i don't know what sweetney will do until he does it. but i like to balance the scale of thought if that is okay with you sir.
i think people say he has poor muscle tone because he couldn't bench press 180 pounds more than 3 or 4 times
but i agree the kid should be welcomed with open arms to the knicks. after what knick fans have seen at the 4 spot these past years he should be embraced

i agree with you fishmike 100 percent. it's not about the height when the other things like you mentioned are there. i don't think he will be a shot blocking force but of course neither do you. i think his strengths are inside scoring and rebounding the ball.

hey i push buttons cause this is a forum. never personal. i asked who is he blocking because i'm just trying to see if you know what you are talking about.

seems like you do

but you got to admit that pic i found was interesting. like you said who knows how potential will eventually turn about in a "not so perfect" setting
well you said something like that. same thing right

Well, I don't know about 18/11-- those are great numbers. :) Some recent high draft pick, high profile big men would dream of putting up those numbers on a consistent basis (Yao, Stoudemire, K-Mart, Fizer, Swift, Odom, Curry, Chandler). Jermaine O'Neal and Brand are pretty much the only young bigmen to emerge in the last 5 years capable of those numbers (though Brad Miller isn't so far off...).

It's just not that easy being a dominant scorer or rebounder-- and its even rarer that you have both in one package.

Some comparisons:
We might want to compare him to is Danny Fortson--- who I think has similar athleticism and dominated in a similar way back in college. Fortson, with playing time, grabs an unbelievable number of boards.

I wonder how he compares to a guy like Zach Randolph, who left college very early and has shown major flashes of brilliance in recent times. He demonstrated some dominant numbers in the playoffs and has been the king of the summer leagues each year of his career. I think Randolph is a better athlete, though he suffers from similar babyfat issues as Sweetney.

Shortie PFs who get their shots blocked a lot are okay in my book as long as they still have a high FG%... and still manage to get the boards. I think Sweetney might peak out at 14ppg/8rpg in his best season. (though I hope he proves me wrong!)

If Sweetney can develop his defensive game, he'll fare much better than his detractors expect. Aside from KT and Shandon, we have nobody up front who can play any real D.



[Edited by - HARDCOREKNICKSFAN on 07/31/2003 20:06:39]

Oh... Just a thought about him not being able to do many reps at 180lbs...

It's harder when you have the arms of a 7'er... you have more distance to push the bar. :) I recall an article on Earl Boykins from SLAM--- it said he could bench press more than anyone on the Warriors. (yeah, in that stubby little body of his)

However, as many have stated, for a big man, its more important to have a strong lower body as far as fighting for position goes.