Markk wrote:
LOL Shaq and Akeem prototype? Have you ever seen Shaq play in person, up close? He he demands a double team.
Yes, I've seen Shaq play in person a bunch of times. That's neither here nor there.
I am not saying they are average. I am saying they fill center position in the prototypical way. That means a very tall person who plays offense primarily around the low post and baseline with an available back to the basket game while also playing defense in the same area with primary responsibility for interior defense of the basket.
There's a reason that there are few centers of this type in the NBA anymore, and it's not because of lack of tall people. Shaq or Hakeem are going to get their butt dragged all over the court in fast lineups that play a stretch frontcourt. Hakeem is not faster than Kevin Durant, Lebron James, and Kevin Garnett pinging around. Olajuwon had good close out speed for a center who generally liked to look for the block down low, not for anyone. He’s going to be worn down and your bench isn’t well suited to the pace and space game. You offered yourself no flexibility to deal with this. It's like you think Hakeem is Giannis.
Shaq is a dominant post player close to the basket. He will likely be able to muscle his way to two points at a decent rate while drawing in fouls. You don't even seem capable of acknowledging my point regarding points per possession and comparing what's going on at the other end, so I'm not sure what can be said. You're convinced you know so much more about basketball, but talk about it in a very superficial way and don't seem to be picking up on the fact that I keep referring to metrics and sources that show a relatively sophisticated understanding. This is occurring while you think I'm not aware that Reggie Miller shot threes. Good grief, man.
That I'd suggest only keeping one traditional center on the roster in an era where teams are increasingly going with zero is not some shocker.
My team aside from those team is a small team...what are you talking about...if I have a weakness it is I am two small in a pack’'em in half court game.
Your team is small, especially off the bench, but it isn't necessarily faster. That's a problem. My starters are faster than yours 1:1 at 3 of 5 positions and around parity in the other two. You're not going to win by out-running them because there isn't this speed gap that you think exists. It's as though you forgot that Curry and Jordan are quick.
Here is the game plan, it is very easy as you wrote, against my starting line up...get ready to run and try to stop us.
Running is a terrible game plan when transition opportunities are going to be way down due to all the high efficiency scoring going on. It's pretty darn hard to run after a made basket. Players who routinely scored a very high % of the time in the face a lot of defensive attention are now going to getting much less defensive attention by sheer necessity. This is going to lead to a lot fewer misses than you'd see in a typical NBA game.
It's like you think this will be a game at the Y. But yeah, I'll take my chances with your plan to try to run on players like Micheal Jordan, Kevin Garnett, and Lebron James. Have fun.
Akeem has wheels for a big man.
Jabbar was very fast as a big man in his mid 20's. He got up and down the court. Again, we're not talking about Lakers Jabbar here. Old-man - how is this guy still playing? - Kareem kept pace with Hakeem/Sampson surprisingly well in the 80's and that's after he lost about 5 steps. Kareem also lit them up in his late 30's, if I recall.
Hakeem did not have overwhelming speed at his height. What he had going for him was god-tier agility for his height.
Kareem was better than or at parity with Hakeem at every aspect of the game except defense while having a few inches on him. As I said, I don't think the marginal defense difference is worth going Hakeem. It's not a terrible choice, so I don't take much issue with it. Hakeem is a defensible option. Shaq is probably the player you should cut.
and can put it on the floor, and play straight up defense, not post just post defense. He can put in on the floor like James Worthy with quickness and take it to the hole like James.
If you take Hakeem's setup post game away from him, he's more ordinary than before. He can do other things that you point out, but you're fooling yourself if you think his post-game is an after-thought to what he is bringing to the table. I don't think setting up dream shakes is where you want to be with all time greats running around everywhere, so this makes Hakeem suffer by comparison. I like Jabbar because he can catch and get a very difficult to guard shot off quickly as his main way of generating offense. He's an unconventional jump-shooter first.
Yeah, Hakeem worked Shaq over when Shaq was young. No one is saying that Hakeem is a bad player. Since no one figured out the sky hook except kinda Wilt, I'm going to go ahead and assume Shaq wouldn't have either.Shaq said in his career, Akeem was the only player he never figured out defensively.
Rodman, seven time NBA rebound leader on great teams...and multiple defensive player of th eye are awards...I’ll take that every time for a team.
Imagine if you could have someone who is in the neighborhood of Rodman at rebounding, probably a better defender, taller, faster, and - get this - can reliably hit open and semi-open shots if needed.
It turns out you can. And you stubbornly refuse to take it.
Players like Rodman being on the floor helps solve the "how do you hide Curry on defense" problem fast.