The problem I have with Shawne Williams is that he is not someone who lost it, and is really dedicated to making a strong comeback. I don't think Shawne has every had a strong year in the NBA. When I look at Shawne's track record in the NBA, he had 2 years with Indiana, and one year with Dallas. Point production, field goal percentage, rebounds, and points per game all look like "random walk" i.e. up one year, down the next. It doesn't seem like he has been able to make any consistent progress during his 3 years in the NBA aside from the fact that his free throw percentage did go up to .818 in his last year. But in the same year he shot .818 from the line, he shot .286 as a field goal percentage, which is quite dreadful.
Toney Douglas is dedicated to making himself better. Shawne, to me, seems like someone who will play hard, but who isn't dedicated to working on his technique real hard. He is a talented guy. But he has been underachieving consistently for a long time. With all of that talent, it doesn't make sense to me that there is almost no progress.
My sport was the opposite winter sport to basketball, I was a wrestler. On our college team, we had a wrestler named Bennie Joesph. When he wrestled his actual matches, he tried really hard but came up short repeatedly. He felt sorry for himself. He just couldn't understand why he didn't win. He refused to concentrate on getting better in practice. Shawne's .818 foul shooting average indicates he does have the potential to contribute with rebounds in the paint, while also taking his defender to the outside and shooting well from there, which is an attractive combination for a D'Antoni player.
Its not enough to try hard at practice. Unless Shawne is able to learn new skills, he may not get the playing time he wants. In the same way D'Antoni doesn't want to waste playing time on AR now, unless Shawne keeps making progress on the practice court, my bet is that he too will continue to sit.
Here's what I think will happen. If Kelenna Azubuike starts getting significant shooting guard minutes, I am thinking about trying Field's at power forward with Amare at at Center. Why Fields? He has a 6.7 rebound average this year in 28 minutes. Amare is higher at 8.1 but he gets 35 minutes a game. He is also significantly ahead of Gallinari's 4.8 minutes with 30 minutes a game. Moskov gets 2.3 rebounds a game in 13 minutes and Wilson Chandler's 5.9 rebounds a game in 31 minutes. If Chandler can play power forward being only 1 inch taller and 15 pounds heavier, maybe Fields can do it too. I think he has rebounding talent which is more important than Wilson's 1 inch and 15 pound advantage. Dennis Rodman was 6.7 and 228. He averaged close to 17 rebounds a game for the 7 years between 1991 and 1998.
What do you think Answer Man of this "far out" idea?