Phil Jackson took dump all over the point guard position for 20 years. Very few teams with its best player as point guard during that span won titles. Its that now, the big low post center is being phased out with it. So its a bunch of lengthy wing players going up and down and everyone else has to keep up. As the Rockets saw with Yao Ming, speed kills and the slow lumbering guy can be gameplanned out. The point guard with help of the friendlier rules is making a resurgence, so it looks like its all nothing but ballhandlers, slashers and shooters and spacers. Still someone has to clean up after those guys. Usually a tall man so length still matters. Just need a good "transcendent" tall guy. Thats where you with Demarcus Cousins, people want to take a chance on his potentional It happened fast, but NOT overnight.
If we get D. Howard in Houston, we'll just call him a tall forward so he fits into the model. It's mostly a bunch of word play, toying with semantics. I'll bet Riley wouldn't balk at having Howard on his own team...and he'd probably go on about what a fine center he had.
Since when did Miami became the first team with hybrid players? Chicago once had Ron Harper, Micheal Jordan, and Scottie Pippen all capable of defending positions 1-3, or in Pippen's case even opposing 4s. Meanwhile, Riley's Knicks were the very definition of a "traditional" team at the time: Ewing(center), Oakley(bruising PF), Smith(big SF), Starks(shooter), Harper(distributor). Riley later used a lineup built around a traditional center in Mourning and a traditional PG in Tim Hardaway. When at the same time his protege in NY was getting to the finals and conference finals led by a tweener in Larry Johnson and two SGs of Spreewell and Houston.
You know, I kinda agree with the article. An example would even consist of the Rockets: Parsons was playing three different positions, PPat/Scola playing two different positions, Budinger/CLee playing two different positions. Many of our lineups had versatility over the traditional style of play; it translated into "small-ball" lineup, as it was called.
Agreed. But you have to wonder how they'll measure up when a real dominant big man comes into the league... On a Hakeem or Shaq level. Could be another 10 years before we see that. It also doesn't look good for Chris Paul types who dominate the ball. They give the coach greater control but limit versatility.
Its easy to be positionless when u have a guy like lebron. I said years ago vs celts lebron should play 4 and make garnett guard him. He's strong enough to guard a guy like kg. You replace lebron with any other player and this wouldn't even be a topic. Guys like odom and terrance jones can give teams great flexibility.
Woww man da heat are so smarts, deh play battier at sg and sf too. why no battier play sf only. heat iz greatest
How is a position-less approach the reason James played 43 minutes a game. He played that many because he was almost always the best player on the court.
I can't believe Riley is taking credit for this. Seems pretty obvious that Royce White started the revolution!
I can't believe Riley is taking credit for this. Seems pretty obvious that Royce White started the revolution!
D-Mo, Royce, Jones has nice potential for us. Parsons can guard SG/SF/PF. I'm starting to this nucleus we have. To a lesser extent Douglas is an undersized 2 guard who can play PG a bit. Plus Harrelson can play 4/5 with range out to the 3 pt line. We can start Lin, Lamb, Parsons, Pat, Asik then have Douglas, Jones, Royce, D-Mo, Harrelson come off the bench to create match up nightmares.
I don't think the article is saying the Heat invented this approach, just that they are using the philosophy. And Morey's been talking for years about having guys who are versatile and can play multiple positions. And it wasn't new when he said it either.
It doesnt say they're the true originators. Though it does imply that they're the leaders of the "new approach" to basketball. At least according to Chris Bosh.... I do agree with Bosh about quick players everywhere who can put the ball on the floor (though can't be talking about Joel Anthony and Battier)
People just try to sugar-coating simple reality - there are no dominant big men in the game now. It's not like bunch of visionary league officials, owners, GMs, came up with a grand idea - "position-less". If there is a 7-foot on the market, who has a post move, can shoot, and defends well, which revolutionary team wouldn't want that ONE-position old school center? A random guy on the Internet claims that he prefers easy-going next-door girl over Angelina Jolie, like he has the option to choose from
I don't even think Hakeem would be super effective in this era. This is guard oriented league. Since Dwayde finals all the finals MVPs have been perimeter oriented players.
Its part correct. Its more putting both into one. The lengthy "defensive stopper" who can be also be "3 pointER shooter" like Shane Battier and James Jones. At least its 2 dimensions instead of one. 1 dimension for each side of the ball. Or its about the 3 point shooter with length, like Kyle Korver and Steve Novak. Still, there's the thread from last year where James Jones was assisted on 100% of his made baskets the first 3/4 of the season. That is not a playmaker, that is a SPECIALIST role. Battier did his job in the last postseason, though he's not a multi-faceted playmaker in the Mike Miller sense. Robert Horry started that almost 20 years ago. Clifford Robinson played that role until he was 40 years old, how "ground breaking" is that now? Not about the stars so much, but about the role players. Anyway I never considered "redundancy" a terrible thing. Why not have 2 Brandon Roys on the floor if you can get them. Why not have 2 Rasheed Wallaces. Maybe they complement each other instead of having a "cancelling out" effect. Its a little bit of both guard oriented and lack of big men reasons. Its not like they havent tried to the find the next big man. There's been the Greg Oden, Kwame Brown, Hasheem Thabeet, Darko Milicic, Derrick Favors picks. Even Andrew Bogut & Andrea Bargnani. They'll take some Hakeem ability out of that if they can get it lol.
