"tweeners", better know as Hybrid 4's, are the next big thing in the NBA.

If this is true, we're a lock to win it all.

 

guards have taken on the role that SF's used to do... coaches find it more effective if a guard can rebound the ball in the nba, to set up the break and make better passes than SF's. This is why guards are getting more rebounds in the modern nba that past era's. Not because PF's and Centers are camping at the ft line. The nba today consist of a lot of boxing out and jocking for position which allows these smaller guards to get the rebounds needed to lead an effective fast break.

 

None of this is new... you're just young. Or you have bad memory.

 

"tweeners", better know as Hybrid 4's, are the next big thing in the NBA."

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Well, Houston sure seems to have cornered the market of those types of guys...

 

Still I would like a few 7 footers on our team.

 

It's all about defense. A tweener who can actually guard multiple positions(3/4) well is a good player. A tweener who can't do that is going to be out of the league sooner or later.

 

Not a fan at all. Dont like all the small PG/SG tweeners either.

 

I think the difference between the tweeners on the Rockets roster and those that are stars for other teams - Bosh , Amare , Aldridge , Durant , Lebron , KG in his youth and even Deng .... is their length relative to their position. Those guy's all have the size of a player one position bigger while they have the athleticism of the position one smaller .... The Rockets tweeners are all small relative to their position.

An example is Patterson being 6'9" playing center .... compare that to Bosh or KG being 6'11" and with long arms too. When they slide to center , their teams dont lose any length.

 

Even still, This approach is dead in the water when a dominant 5 is guarded in the block by a tweener. I honestly think that wherever Howard goes he will win a ring if they actually give him a better compliment than Nelson, or Turko..Having a beast 5 that can wear a team down in a series of 7 games is the way to go IMO.

Same can be said for Bynum if he loses the attitude and stays away from the 3pt line.

 

Don't forget that we played the best when we had Parsons at the 4.

 

I find a lot of flaws in this logic.

1. You don't seem to have a great grasp on what "tweener" means.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tweener_(basketball)
In the NBA, 97% of the time, you're talking about a power forward that doesn't (initially) have the size and/or strength to make it at the 4, and doesn't have the quickness, shooting, handling, or other skill sets to do well at the 3. Occasionally, a few of these guys do find their way: Juwan Howard, Antwan Jamison, Anthony Mason, etc.

2. Your own definition of "hybrid" 4s pertains to:
Dirk Nowitzki, Chris Bosh, Kevin Garnett, Amare Stoudamire, Andrea Bargnani, etc. These are a different class than the smurf forwards Morey's been collecting.

3. That success, not coincidentally, has a bit to do with the out of position 3s in question being the best two players in the NBA. Miami went to that approach out of necessity when Bosh went down. OKC went small when Brooks realized that Perkins was worthless with no low post big to guard, and Miami shifted to match up with that small ball.

4. Putting a rugged 4 at the 5 has been a decades old move by teams that don't have a worthwhile center, nothing new about that. Portland Portland would keep Aldridge at PF without hesitation if Oden had been able to stay on the floor. It should be telling that Portland's actively searching for a new C that can move Aldridge back.

 

Echo a previous poster. Durant is ultra efficient as a 4 when he goes against other "hybrid 4s." If Tim Duncan is playing the 4 then Durant will get crushed on the defense side if they leave him in that spot.

 

The problem as I see it is that the current NBA paradigm is for 1 Point Guard, 2 Wings and 2 Big Men. That makes it very difficult for someone to straddle the 3/4 positions, because the skills required to be on the wing versus being a 'big' are completely different. Eg. Defending in the post vs. defending the perimeter, outside shooting vs. post game.

The game is full of 'tweeners' today because in college you can play a big man's game at 6'8" or 6'9", but in the NBA that's considered short for the PF position. All those guys who've spent college working in the post suddenly find they have to guard comparitively nimble SG/SF hybrids on the perimeter and just can't handle it.


ST

 

Juwan Howard a tweener? I always thought he was a pretty typical power forward. 6-9, hit the 15 footer and had a little bit of a post game. He just wasn't a good defender.

 

This multiplied by 1 billion.

 

good point .. the game is officiated differently .. with more teams trying to pack the middle with zones the low post is a lot more crowded. I bet even hakeem would have used more of the high post and face up (bc he can bc he is awesome) than the back ot the basket that he used ..

of course hakeem also faced a lot of zone defenses (granted they were illegal at the time but that didnt stop teams from using it.. it also didnt stop him from killing them)