I don't count the SF with the frontcourt How do the rockets compare? Shaq is the best frontcourt SA is 2nd if Duncan stays. Portland is 3rd, but still lost the last two years in the playoffs because their frontcourt was too weak. sacramento, Utah, Minn, Den all have a go to guy making them better Phoenix is deeper. The Grizzle have Swift. I like Jamison over anyone the rockets have so I place GS above the rocs. They are a good offensive rebounding team. Dallas, Clippers, and Seattle are with the rocs at the bottom. I see Collier helping, but not well enough to elevate them above GS. I enjoy having a dominate backcourt, but think the rockets need to be atleast middle of the field in frontcourt to compete on a consistent basis. ------------------ "You've got 6 fouls, use them well" -Derrick Coleman
How did the Piston's frontcourt matchup when they were winning titles? I think you just need to be average, as long as one part of your game is WAY above average. Same with the Rockets, our backcourt sucked the years we won the title, but who cared? DaDakota ------------------
That was then and this is now. You cant win with a bad frontcourt and thats what we have. Its not bad but its not good enough to compete for anything. ------------------ "I talked about what degenerates they [Mets fans] were, and they proved me right. Just by saying something, I could make them mad enough to go home and slap their moms." John Rocker
Jamison plays Power FORWARD. ------------------ "I talked about what degenerates they [Mets fans] were, and they proved me right. Just by saying something, I could make them mad enough to go home and slap their moms." John Rocker
my bad, i thought i remebered them trying to convert him into a sf. Most teams are going to have a weakness. Do you guys think a strong backcourt cant carry a mediocre frontcourt? Or that a strong frontcourt makes up for a weak backcourt. I think it can go both ways. ------------------ No signature for you!
Jamison definitely played SF last season (when he played) - but this year I think Dave Cowans wants him to go back to PF.. should be interesting to see what happens there though... ------------------
Yep Joe Joe, Jamison is a Sf. Caffy started at the powerspot last year ------------------ We need to do whatever we can to keep Cat and Coop playing ball in Houston...
I know Jamison played at power forward the whole year till he went down. He probably switched over to sf sometimes but most was at power forward. He is really good at that position. ------------------ "I talked about what degenerates they [Mets fans] were, and they proved me right. Just by saying something, I could make them mad enough to go home and slap their moms." John Rocker
Uh, No Francis3, Jamison never played PF other than switches sometimes during the game. He was a PF in college but GS was trying to convert him into a SF. No he is going back to PF, that is why Caffey was traded to the Bucks. The Warriors didn't want to pay Caffey the ridiculous amount of money he makes to come off the bench.
That was then and this is now. You cant win with a bad frontcourt and thats what we have Did you consider Rodman and Luc Longley to be dominant? ------------------
Shaq is not better than the Admiral AND Duncan down low.....who was Shaq's low block mate? AC Green? I take the SA frontcourt on any given day. ------------------ HOOP-T ------------------
OK, let's talk frontcourts, but I don't consider the PF a frontcourt position. So we have a decent frontcourt with some potential in Cato. Much better than most of the West teams. Sorry, but the SF is in the frontcourt, you must add them too. ------------------ Just because you're white and play basketball doesn't mean you're a Matt Bullard clone, despite idiotic accusations to the contrary. visit www.swirve.com
if cato worked a little harder he could be the best shotblocking center in the west behind shaq. and with just that i think we could get by with just our frontcourt and do well in the playoffs. ------------------ "Win the game, baby!" -Rudy T in the fourth quarter of game 4 of the 1995 NBA Finals
If you do count the 3 in the frontcourt we are even worse off then a lot of the teams mentioned. I think that Dallas is much better than us up front with Nowitski. ------------------
if we can get a SF/PF with the skill level of rashard lewis (without losing backcourt or cato), we can contend in ONE year....our backcourt (SG,PG) scored like 65% of our points last year.....adding lewis and losing los and drew (I'm NOT proposing a trade) would make us a team as good as the current suns........but the suns have longley, and we have and hopefully will have Cato.......
Rockets95, Okay lets say this is best teams only considering PFs and C. The SF position is closer to the 2 than the 4 these days. Jamison, Horry are among the the few that can play each position, defensively (not great but can play). I think Jamison will be the starting 4 this year, but I didn't see much GS last year. Aelliot, Jordan and Pippen were the best wing tandem by far in the NBA. They rebounded well. btw, it wasn't as necessary to have a good frontcourt in the east as it is in the west now. I would take LA and SA frontcourt last year over any frontcourt Jordan went against. ------------------ "You've got 6 fouls, use them well" -Derrick Coleman
First, I don't think it is reasonable to remove an SF when discussing a front-court. How can you take away Pippen and Horry's contributions away from their teams titles, they both did a lot of things associated with 4's and 5's--block shots, rebounding, etc. Leaving out the 3 from a front-line is almost as bad as comparing guards--except for the point guard, or comparing benches--except for the 6th man. Even the Bulls front courts (Cartright, Grant, Pippen & Longley, Rodman & Pippen) were considerable better than average overall, and among the top 1/4 in defensive skill. There PF and SF position have always been manned by about the best in the league defensively, Grant had a well-rounded offensive game as well. As for Detriot, their front court was probably 3rd best in the entire league , behind Boston (easy #1) and the Lakers (probable #2). Edwards, Laimbeer, Rodman, Salley, Aguire or Dantley, that is a hell of a good and deep front court. Even if not the 2nd or 3rd best, the Pistons' front court was no worse than 4th overall in their glory years (maybe put Milwaukee or Houston there, depending on the year). Now if I stick to the rules of the thread, even though to me it isn't that logical, you still need to have a formidable PF/C combination to be a serious team. At the least, you have to have a major defensive and rebounding presence from these guys to make a title contender. Further, you almost always will also need some offense from their too, unless you have a guys like Jordon with 2nd and 3rd options like Kukoc and Pippen (even treating the latter 2 players NOT as front court players). I do think there is no question we are in the lower 1/4 in the league in front-court skill, whether you consider the 3-4-5 or just the 4-5. You have to be solid in both the front-court and back-court to win, we had the best front court in the league in 99 but couldn't win (our guards sucked because they were either too young or just too untalented versus the comp.), we now have the best young backcourt in the league but now need to put a better than average frontcourt with it to seriously be in the mix. We don't need to be lead by our front-court, as with Detroit (Thomas-Dumars-Johnson), Francis-Anderson-Mobley can be the leaders, but I would say we still need 1 more borderline all-star and a couple of good complimentary/defensive players around them. Though we can be hopeful that Cato, Thomas, Collier or Langhi might be a piece or two, but NONE of them at this point even inspires my confidence that they are even a complimentary piece, let alone the close to all-star piece. We have a long way to go on this front (no pun intended). ------------------ "The Rockets were ahead of the Suns by 20 late in game 2 of the series, but when the going got tough, we just Pippened . We would not be done in the series though."
I've always thought it was kind of arbitrary that the backcourt is the PG and SG while the frontcourt is the SF, PF, C are the frontcourt. This is a very inmteresting thread for me. I will cease to use front court to refer to only the 4,5 , but I am still only talking about the 4,5. I will now coin the term "power positions" to only refer to the 4,5. My rationale is that I see 3's guarding 2's more than I see 3's guarding 4's. There are exceptions like Horry, but I would rather have Pip guarding a 2 than a 4. Chris Porter dropped to the 2nd rd because he didn't have the skills to play the 3. Many unstoppable college 4's have been duds because they couldn't make the transition a power position to a ball handling postition. When a college 3 isn't big enough they just become a 2. No problem. And back on topic. With the great PFs and Cs in the west currently, I think any team wanting to get far in the playoffs need good power position players defensively and reboundingly to win. If not, your players inside will get worn out eventually and steamrolled since every team has a top notch power position player. All bets are off when a great player is involved. ------------------ "You've got 6 fouls, use them well" -Derrick Coleman
San Antonio has/had the best frontcourt combination in Robinson/Duncan. LA is second only because of Shaq's power in the post. Green is serviceable, but if O'Neal skill was any less they would drop. Portland was third with Sabonis/Wallace, because Sabonis' passing adds a whole other element to their game, and Wallace can flat out take over a game at times. If Cato can work hard night in and night out, and Thomas grows the way I feel he can the Rockets can be somewhere in the middle of the pack. But then again they could both turn out to be even better then we could have hoped. ------------------ Proud Member of whatever Clutch City club is currently the most popular and/or controversial.
