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Post by DERRENMATTS on Jul 15, 2019 14:05:50 GMT -5
At one point in recent memory, we had a heavy collection of great bigs in the NBA — Abdul-Jabar, Hakeem, Parish, Shaq, Alonzo, Robinson, Ewing, Yao, Dwight....... and then the landscape started changing and analytics became important, which led to the death of big men for the most part. Nowadays, you can win championships with a so-so Center if you have great perimeter players.
This might be the route Ainge, Brad and Zarren are taking. While the Sixers are spending a crazy amount for just their starting frontcourt (Embiid and Horford), we are spending only a fraction of that for 5 players (Kanter, Theis, Grant, Semi and Poirier).
Our 5 guys combined might not give us what Joel and Al will produce — but that might not be what Ainge and Co. are concerned about. Maybe their gameplan is to load up and depend on players who can dribble, score from the perimeter and drive the paint — and have bigs mostly set screens and trail for the possible lob dunks (obviously, the more they can contribute the better).
That’s the route it seems we’re taking.
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Post by jmost on Jul 15, 2019 15:44:44 GMT -5
Hard to say until we see the product on the court, especially the new guys, but there have always been teams that won without standout bigs. Rick Barry's '75 Warriors won with Clifford Ray at center. The Pistons had Laimbeer, and the Bulls had center by committee for their two 3-peats. The Celtics won (and nearly won again) with Kendrick Perkins, who has many admirers here, but was severely limited on the offensive end. Lebron won titles in both Miami and Cleveland with mediocre centers.
I'm not concerned about our bigs scoring if they can rebound, play good D without fouling excessively, set some picks and maybe pass a little. But both Theis and Grant can shoot a little and we'll have to see about the others. RWill is at least looking to do more than alley-oops, but is still very raw so I don't expect much there yet.
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