Marty [Mori Chu] wrote:The evidence is happening right in front of our eyes. Look at this playoffs. No team left has anything approaching a traditional "dominant" big man. None of these teams play inside-out or like to post up. The nerds and stat-heads have figured out that is not the way to win. All of the teams left have amazing guard/swing play and 2-3 big stars who can shoot, pass, and defend.
Warriors:
Curry - excellent shooter, good passer, average defender
Durant - excellent shooter, ok passer, good defender
Thompson - excellent shooter, average passer, good defender
Green - ok shooter, good passer, good defender
(just a sick top-4)
(no dominant traditional big; KD is a 7'0 SF)
Rockets:
Paul - good shooter, excellent passer, good defender
Harden - great shooter, great passer, poor defender
Capela - ok shooter, ok passer, great defender
(role-playing defensive big)
Celtics:
Kyrie - great shooter, good passer, mediocre defender
Horford - good shooter, good passer, great defender
Tatum - good shooter, good passer, ok defender
Brown - mediocre shooter, good passer, great defender
(no traditional big man)
Cavs:
Lebron - good shooter, great passer, great defender
Love - good shooter, good passer, mediocre defender
Thompson(?) - poor shooter, ok passer, good defender
Smith(?) - good shooter, bad passer, bad defender
Korver(?) - great shooter, ok passer, bad defender
(god what a drop-off after the top 2)
(never should have traded Kyrie)
None of these teams play traditional bigs. And they're the best teams in the league. It should tell you something.
What's untraditional about Thompson and Capela?
Again, why do you want to imitate Golden State? We're not going to beat them playing their game, we don't have Curry and Durant.
Do you think a team could win in today's NBA with prime Shaq?
Philly is an up and comer and plays Embiid, should they trade him?
Should Utah trade Gobert? He couldn't get them past Houston
I'm also not sure why people think we're just gonna start throwing the ball into Ayton down low and stand around and watch him go to work. Ayton isn't Shaq. He has a pretty well developed jump shot already. We didn't get to see much of him creating from the perimeter in Arizona, but that area of his game could be developed.
Igor uses a lot of ball movement, with multiple screens on and off the ball. Ayton can screen and roll, screen and pop. He can pass out of the short roll, pass out of a double. He's not horford and probably won't ever be the ball handler/passer that horford is but he's also not Alex Len or Greg Monroe or Al Jefferson. Ayton is mobile and more skilled.
Those "traditional" bigs can't stay on the court because they can't guard anyone. Ayton has a lot to work to do on the defensive side of the ball, but he's got all the tools to be able to defend in this modern NBA. And he just might be good enough to force the Aron Baynes and Javale McGee to be put on the court.