Tracy can definitly play some min.s as a 4, but he will stay at the 3 most of the time. That is where he has his advantage. The Mavs and Suns are built around thier all-stars. Just like we are trying to do. They have just done a better job so far. Since we have all-stars that have a different game than Nash and Nowitzky sp? we should build around them differently. But we still have to match up well with those teams ,or we will have this long of an off-season for YEARS to come.
The only reason Tmac played Dirk was that Dirk was bothered by quick and lenky defenders. Dirk wasn't an inside PF. That's why he did well. Plus Dirk dropped 50 something points on Juwan.
Dirk isn't your everyday PF though, he relies on his outside jumper more than anything else, which is why TMac was effective in guarding him. While it would be difficult to find a PF that can matcup w/ TMac, it would be just as difficult for TMac to guard big, strong PFs that like to post up. And I wouldn't say that the Dallas offense is the mold for the future, let's not forget this is their first trip to the finals ever, despite having unbelievable regular seasons the past 5-6 years. The past 4 championships were won by defensive minded teams, and it's the same reason for the Mavs recent success, not their offense.
Well they can switch to zone, but zones would be exploited by Lebron's biggest strength, which is penetration. And sure they can put anybody on Lebron, but the point is to dictate the matchups and lineups. Like for example the Mavs/Spurs series. With Dirk at the PF, they effectively matched out both of the Spurs' centers (Rasho and Nazr), because Duncan couldn't guard Dirk, and needed to move over to Diop or Dampier. So they had to go with a smaller PF in order to hang with Dirk, which took them out of their normal lineups. I'm not saying that Lebron should go to C full time. But I do recognize that it could be an unstoppable matchup in certain situations. With a once in a lifetime athlete like Lebron, you need to think outside the box, or you risk wasting his unique talents.
My kingdom for Lamar Odom. A player like that would really help us run different matchups...even a line-up with TMAC/LO at the four to get small.
put Tmac to match against likes of Duncan, Brand, Amare... Yeah, that's going to prolong his career. We need an agile PF that can defend, rebound and shoot when open, like Haslem. The best poistion for Tmac is where he is now. I expect next season we are going to open the game by establishing Yao down low, and Tmac will be wise let Yao share the load now that he has reached dominant level. With the personnel we have, we just gotta play our game. The Lakers got 3 champions with Shaq and Kobe and a marginal third scorer. We can do it too.
Isn't it funny how every time a different team makes it to the NBA Finals, we have to hear "this is the way of the NBA!!" When Detroit wins, it's "You see- we need to get rid of our superstars and have 5 equally good players at every position!" Then, the Spurs- "you see- small ball only works in the regular season!" And then, the Mavericks-"you see- we need small power forwards, speedy quick guards, and no main presence in the center position- and we'll win championships that way!" The winning formula is simple: the team with the better players wins. The only way a team with less better players 1-10 wins is if they have a Jordan or other dominating figure.
Whether Dallas or Suns are the mold of NBA's future will be told in this final. Conventional wisdom says a team with a dominant inside force, outside force and good role players will win easy.
Not gonna happen unless were playing the mavs. I think the biggest mistake that Pop made was not playing Nazr in the playoffs. I saw the guy score 30 on the mavs this yr and they beat the Mavs easily. He played right into the hands of the Mavericks.
I don't think T-Mac would be very effective at the 4. A team is balanced when you have some inside - outside threat. If Tracy plays the 4, then we will have a big inside presence with him and Yao but a laughable outside threat (and I don't want to be mean, but le'ts be realistic). We definitely need T-Mac on the outside. Can he play a few minutes a game at power forward ? Sure. But not when Yao is on the floor, I don't think it would work.
The way to kill MAVs was what we did last years in the playoff against them. Put a defensive specialist on Dirk, crowd him of his jumper. If he drives, Yao's right there to welcome him. I dont care how Josh Howard, and others score, if we stop Dirk, Mav's game plan is gone. We were close last year. Had we got better players to engage Terry, Howard, on the defensive end, we would've beaten them. We have to forget about last season. Now dig out those old vids how we played the second half of the season two years ago.
You're right. You'll see in this series. Miami will double him as soon as he gets the ball. Then fade off him as he starts the dribble and entice him into the lane to meet Shaq and Zo. Then if he picks up his dribble look for them to double him again, making it difficult for him to get off his jumper.
We are on the same page. Dirk is a great player and Dallas is unbelievably deep. But we would be fools to copy their playing style or the Sun's. Do you see how Terry defends, man he would be worn down easily in the Miami series. Howard is a good player, but I think Poesy will have his way to contain him. Dallas and Sun's playing style entices you to play their speeds, especially the Suns, but they are very vulunable. A inside-outside slow down playing style is like a solid rock that will edge out eventually.
Best post of the thread. I like going inside out. We should be planning our offense according to our players, not the other way around just because Phoenix and Dallas are coping with historically a lack of big men.
It's not about copying their playing style, but being able to matchup with what those teams are throwing at us, and against the Spurs to actually be able to dictate the matchup: 1. Against the Mavs everything starts with who will guard Dirk. Traditional PFs have shown themselves to be ineffective at guarding him. They moved Duncan off him in a hurry, and outside of KG I can't really think of any other PF types who would be able to check him. Once you put one of your swingmen on Dirk, then it moves to who will guard Howard. He's emerged a lot this year to be a good scoring option. So I don't think the traditional PF will be able to hang with him either. We need to be able to field a Yao plus two swingmen frontcourt if we want to compete with them. 2. Against the Spurs, being able to dictate Duncan into playing center would be huge. He's not going to want to bang with Yao all game long considering that he's giving up about 40 lbs. But if we put a PF on the floor that can face Duncan up or run him off screens, they would have to pick their poison. 3. Against the Suns, since they have athletes and scorers at every positions, it's important to get as much team speed on the court as possible. Not so much to compete against their firepower and try to outscore them, but to get speedy guys who can defend and rotate against all those athletes. Considering that these are the teams that stand between us and the NBA finals, it's imperative that we be able to matchup with them, and be able to counter what they might throw at us, or to make them counter what we are doing.
They're in the East. They didn't need to get by two out of Dallas, San Antonio, and Phoenix in order to even make the finals. And who said anything about not going inside/out. We have the soon-to-be best inside player in the world, and that isn't going to change even if we run speedy, skilled Fowards next to him. Toss it inside to Yao, and have him toss it back out to anybody because we got skilled offensive players at every other position. That should be our ideal. All this thread is saying is that we need to tweak the formula in order to compete. And it's not as if this is some crazy leap of faith. Last I checked, Robert Horry played a lot of crunch time minutes at the PF for the Rockets, Lakers, and Spurs title teams. If that isn't proof that this is an option we need to have in order to compete for a title, then I don't know what is.
