07/29/2010 - Duke Sports Information

Williams sees opportunity to shine in Denver

By Aaron J. Lopez, Nuggets.com, 7-23-10

Labels can be misleading, if not patently inaccurate.

J.R. Smith was labeled as an uncoachable malcontent who would never contribute meaningful minutes for an elite playoff team.

Chris Andersen was labeled as someone who flew too close to the sun and saw his NBA career melt in the process.

Arron Afflalo, Dahntay Jones, Johan Petro. All three came to Denver carrying figurative labels that said they couldn't do this or they couldn't do that.

One by one, they all proved otherwise while playing for the Nuggets, and Shelden Williams is hoping to be the newest member of the Denver chapter of the Diamonds in the Rough Club.

"There's a number of players who came in and turned things around," Williams said this week. "Hopefully I can add my name to the list."

Fulfilling a need for more size, defense and rebounding, the Nuggets signed the 6-foot-9, 250-pound Williams to a free-agent contract on July 15. He was the No. 5 overall pick out of Duke in 2006, but he has struggled find consistent minutes while playing for four teams in four seasons.

"It's not what I expected, but different players have different paths," Williams said. "Hopefully I'll be able to turn things around and stick around one place for a while."

Denver certainly qualifies as a turnaround town.

For the complete story visit http://www.nba.com/nuggets/features/nuggets_williams_20100723.html