Out With Sean; In With Shawne

It took me about half the day to realize that Sean Williams hadn't been traded for Shawne Williams. That would've made a very stupid kind of sense. Then, it dawned on me that the New Jersey Nets just decided it didn't have the energy for both of them.

Sean Williams may have been on your fantasy team at some point. He was a shot-blocking madman who couldn't do much else. For pot-related infractions, Williams was in exile from the Boston College team when he entered the draft in 2007, where the Nets took him seventeenth. He had a lot of cool nicknames, and last year smashed a PC in a mall.

Shawne Williams is an ultra-athletic wing who spent one year at Memphis before going pro in 2006; the Pacers took him at seventeen (just like Sean Williams). He showed promise, but was stuck behind Danny Granger, half a season of Stephen Jackson, and Mike Dunleavy. In September of 2007, Williams ran into some legal problems involving weed, guns and a car. That spring, a murder suspect turned up at his house, and it wasn't long before he ended up a Maverick, traded for Eddie Jones and second-rounders. And after being traded earlier this week, now he's a Net, and Sean Williams is gone.

Both of these guys fit any number of cliches: troubled, raw, promising, disappointing, and forever tantalizing. Yet in the end, the Nets decided they'd had enough of Sean Williams, but according to The Newark Star-Ledger, Rod Thorn "surprisingly didn't discount Shawne Williams as someone who might stick around for a while." Out with Sean Williams, in with Shawne Williams.

Tuesday on Truth About It, Kyle writes about the pains of having Andray Blatche -- another perennially unfulfilled talent -- on his team. But say the Wizards blow it all up and, say, end up with Tyrus Thomas in their lap? Is the grass just always greener when it comes to players who never seem to get off the ground? Maybe teams simply can't resist taking a gamble on one of these guys at any given time.

They just need a change every few years. I'm not sure what you'd call it, but it's something like the inverse of "change of scenery."

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Full story at http://nba.fanhouse.com/2010/01/12/out-with-sean-in-with-shawne/