I mean, I do want to argue those things.carey wrote:I guess I don't understand why Bender can't play the 3. He can defend the 3 just fine. Once he starts hitting his outside shots consistently he can be a player you can put anywhere from 3 to 5. Now if you want to argue it's more advantageous to put him at the 4 and use his quickness to beat bigger guys I can buy that. Or if you want to say he's not ready to use his size to punish smaller 3's yet I can buy that too. I can't get behind the idea that we couldn't run him as a SF if we chose to do so. He runs the floor, he passes, he defends. What exactly can't he do that SFs do in the modern NBA?
For me it's more about what's better for the team than an indictment of Bender's game. I think we'd be better off exploiting his skills against opposing 4s and 5s, and dragging them away from the basket/beating them down the floor, than running post-ups for him against smaller 3s (who he can't "blow by" for baskets). It's the way the league has moved.
