Hmmmmmmm. Center is not really where DMO excels IMO, he's neither a great rebounder or shot blocker and centers like DeAndre Jordan and Tyson Chandler have been very difficult match ups for him to say the least. Can he be better if he gets stronger this offseason of course he can. His true position is the PF spot.
I disagree that Dirk and DMo are similar PFs. DMo is a very average shooter, with his only plus shooting skill being the set 3. Dirk has an arsenal of different shots he can take and make. DMo's bread and butter is the post. On defense, DMo is clearly the better team and positional defender. My guess is he would still be better even if we were comparing him to prime Dirk.
You are not comprehending. Morey is as astute as anyone, and it is obvious that the Warriors just showed that wing play with small ball and a single paint protector (Green) is 'ship material. Somehow, someway, Morey has managed to have his very own Green in D-Mo. Equal paint protection, D-Mo a better shooter by far, Green better in a switch everything defense. If you have a quick mobile and fast big who can protect the paint like D-Mo a team can actually play small ball with the Warriors. If you have a center who is knocking down 38%+ from three point land you have a rim without defensive protection. You do not have to worry about driving lanes for Harden. Everything is just open around the basket except the space taken up by the weak side 2.9 dive by the point guard. I will bet on Harden in that situation. Morey can see this. It was made obvious by the Warriors this season. It will take Morey a season or two to adjust the roster. A starting five of D-Mo at center, Ariza at PF, someone better than Brewer at SF, Harden and Bev or a Bev clone with better three point shooting. Big meat to bring off the bench at PF for teams like the Griz.
I'm inclined to agree, the "true Centers" are going away, IMO. The only Centers that are Centers are D12, M. Gasol, D. Jordan, Bogut, and Hibbert. Everyone else are "undersized" Centers who are really PFs (examples of those include J. Noah and A. Horford). I agree that those who play Center will most certainly play more-and-more outside the paint to space the court. And the only one I listed who can do anything outside the paint is M. Gasol. The spacing is paying off huge dividends and it shows like when Kerr benched Bogut in favor of Iguodala (even though the issue, at least to me, was Barnes not being effective at all on defense on LBJ).
"Fluke" is not how anyone should describe their run this year. They were dominant across the board. You can't discount what they've done just because the teams they've played in the playoffs have had serious injuries. This is not a fluke or really even new. Look at Hakeem. He was not a "traditional" center, yet we had enormous success with him manning the middle. Modern thinking has allowed teams to better use their resources and expose their opponents weaknesses. The game will still be player dependent.....Curry and Harden have very different games, yet are both very effective players. They need different type of players around them, but both end up at the same destination. At the end of the day, the central challenge of basketball is "can I put up more points than you?" You may be an elite defensive team like Memphis, but if you can't score....it won't matter. That's not to say defense doesn't matter, but it has to be put in the right framework to make sense.
Really? Though I totally agree with you that that Rockets - Warriors series would have been a total toss up if Bev and D-Mo were healthy. I could tactically and strategically analyze that series, but you do not seem to be into that much.
I wouldn't call their season a "fluke" and didn't, what I would certainly call a "fluke" is their postseason run where they never played any team with an intact starting lineup the entire time. What team has ever been that lucky? Also, even with all of that luck, they still struggle. The Warriors-Grizzlies series would have been completely different with a fully healthy Mike Conley as well.....and the Warriors-Cavs series would be completely different with a healthy Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love. I don't think you should take too much from a team that got that lucky, it won't happen again.
This thread seems to have been hijacked into lets talk like we have some inside scoop and don't need cyberx.
I wouldn't go that far. What the Warriors are doing IS matchup dependent. They can't go small all the time and expect to win. For example, let's say the Rockets got LMA this summer. GSW can't go small if Dwight and LMA are on the floor together. No matter how much you pack the paint, you aren't going to stop that much size and athleticism We might score 1.5 PPS against a Green/Iggy front line, and no amount of hot shooting will make up for that. And the Green-DMo comparisons are not accurate. Their games have hardly anything in common. DMo is a smart team defender with good feet. He's no more or less than that. Green is a swiss army knife with great strength and length....one of the best at what he does in the league.
Wow. So trading Ariza is a possibility? Wonder if there's really a chance or if it's one of those chances. Speaking of insurance costs, Canaan was pick #34 and we traded I believe it was pick #37 in this year's draft for McDaniels. But there's also an opportunity cost here that you're not discussing. That is the opportunity to keep McDaniels around on a cheap 1-year or 2-year deal and see what his upside becomes. We did not get the opportunity to see what McDaniels could bring to this team this past season. And that's a cost you can't bake in. Wouldn't it be a shame if we signed Llull and then didn't have the ability to match some piddling 2 year/$3 million offer for McDaniels because we were over the cap and didn't have our MLE left? Or wouldn't it be a shame to sign Llull and then to match some 2 year/$3 million offer sheet we'd have to release Kostas and Pablo and give up Birds rights to Brewer and one of Bev/Smith??? Because that's what it would take to match some little 2-year $3 million offer if we've signed Llull to the MLE. That means your cost of insurance was two high second round picks plus the opportunity cost of taking a look at McDaniel's upside OR it would be 2 second round picks plus the trade flexibility of Kostas' and Pablo's non-guaranteed deals plus Birds rights to Brewer (Brewer cost us 2 second rounders too) plus either Birds rights to Bev or non-Birds rights to Smoove (in the case of keeping McDaniels). Moving forward from the cost of insurance last season it makes more sense to look at how to maximize the value of the assets we currently own or control through draft or Birds rights. McDaniels is an asset because he has potential and he outplayed his draft position in his rookie season. If McDaniels were put into this year's draft based on what he did last season he'd most likely be drafted somewhere between 10-20. Because he's proven he can be a plus defender at the NBA level already. I'd definitely take him over RHJ and RJ Hunter for instance. And personally I'd take him over Sam Dekkar and Kelly Oubre as well. (But that's some of my bias probably. Oubre does have high potential and is a similar type of athlete to McDaniels and younger.) I would think Morey values McDaniels as worth at least a high second round pick at the minimum. So, I can't see any reasonable way that McDaniels signed to a reasonable, modest 1-year or 2-year contract, paying him somewhere in the neighborhood of what a #20 pick in this current draft or last year's draft would significantly lower his asset value. What would lower his asset value is if he stinks it up this fall in training camp, or he gets injured or runs into some off-court trouble during the summer or fall leading into next season. On the other side of the asset ledger, Ariza's asset value will probably never be higher and indeed Ariza's asset value could become negative in a hurry if he suffers an injury or otherwise underperforms this upcoming season. Heading into the mother-lode of all free agent summers most teams will be super reluctant to take on Ariza's contract after this upcoming season since they will most likely want as much cap space as possible to chase multiple max free agents that are going to pile up at the free agent door come June 2016. So, if there were a deal that could be done like say....Ariza and #18 for #8 and the non-guaranteed deal of Anthony Tolliver, then we could squeeze some of those younger, higher value assets and draft picks into the pipe along with keeping more Birds rights on valuable guys like Smith and Brewer while simultaneously clearing out cap space for our own 2016 free agency plans. It would probably be a lot easier to aggregate a player like Terrence Jones and move out his salary with #18 and Trevor Ariza to a team like Detroit who is on the verge of losing Greg Monroe will have the cap space to take in $11 million of salary while sending back a small non-guaranteed deal of Tolliver or nothing at all other than the pick. All these reason are why I said I expected Ariza to turn into a trade chip when we signed him last summer. Over the long term he hurts our roster flexibility and he's at the age where he's maxed out his skills and more likely than not to be decreasing in positive impact. That's not a strike against him. He was great here last year. We squeezed every ounce of positive play out of him. But looking forward at the bigger picture it makes a lot of sense to move him out now before it becomes a problem to move him out and costs us more assets rather than acquiring assets. And as good as Ariza is...he's replaceable.
You are exactly right. But Gobert, D-Mo, and Mozgov (and probably more) fit into that category as well. But D-Mo is more of a "new age" center, with significant range. How important is range for a big? If the center is capable of dragging out of the paint the defensive center and holding him there is there anyone in the paint to protect the rim? How would that look to a player like Harden? A lot like a fast break perhaps. No center in the NBA is going to beat Harden to the rim if they both start 18 feet away. There is a world of possibilities here. And the Warriors just opened it up.
No. Just no. Defense is still important in the NBA and without Ariza or a like player, the Rockets would just have to outscore opponents.
And here we go. <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Sources: Jimmy Butler plans to pursue shorter-term offer sheets <a href="http://t.co/YA8LWpkz8L">http://t.co/YA8LWpkz8L</a> via <a href="https://twitter.com/WojYahooNBA">@WojYahooNBA</a></p>— Yahoo Sports NBA (@YahooSportsNBA) <a href="https://twitter.com/YahooSportsNBA/status/610929142813491201">June 16, 2015</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script> http://sports.yahoo.com/news/source...tml?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter Sources: Jimmy Butler plans to pursue shorter-term offer sheets Spoiler By Adrian Wojnarowski 2 hours ago Yahoo Sports Chicago Bulls restricted free-agent guard Jimmy Butler has plans to pursue shorter-term offer sheets this summer, resisting the Bulls’ initial plans to offer him a five-year, maximum contract extension, league sources told Yahoo Sports. As the NBA’s salary cap is set to dramatically rise beginning with the 2016-17 season, Butler has become far less interested in locking himself into the five-year, $90 million-plus deal the Bulls are expected to present him on July 1, league sources said. For Chicago, there’s no challenge to retaining Butler. As a restricted free agent, the Bulls have matching rights on any offer sheet. Nevertheless, Chicago could be faced with Butler’s agents at Relativity Sports, Happy Walters and Steve McCaskill, loading up a short-term offer sheet that includes a trade kicker and the potential loss of Butler to unrestricted free agency in 2017. As Butler spends time in Los Angeles this summer, a stretch that’s included an overseas “Entourage” promotional jaunt with producer Mark Wahlberg, Butler’s intrigue with signing a potential Los Angeles Lakers offer sheet has increased, league sources told Yahoo Sports. Butler has preliminary plans to pursue meetings with several teams once free agency starts in July, sources said. Several teams pursuing Butler told Yahoo Sports that they’re under the impression a short-term, max money offer sheet is the wisest way to approach Butler this summer. Unless Bulls officials bring Butler a shorter-term deal that’s more favorable to his long-term earning power, they’ll likely be waiting to match an offer sheet, league sources said. Butler could sign a three-year offer sheet that guarantees him $50 million, but allows for a player option on the third year that could allow him to move into unrestricted free agency and re-sign for a five-year, maximum deal worth as much as $190 million. It is understandable why Chicago wants Butler locked into a five-year, $90 million max extension under the current salary structure, but that appears to be a deal Butler plans to pass on. Chicago has to sell Butler on a post-Tom Thibodeau era under Fred Hoiberg to get him fully comfortable with the franchise’s direction. What’s more, there’s an increasing belief surrounding Butler and point guard Derrick Rose that they need to come to a greater understanding about how to best co-exist on the floor. The Bulls understand that Butler had the staying power to turn down a four-year, $44 million extension (four-year, $48 million would’ve gotten the Bulls a deal, sources said) during an exclusive negotiating window in October, and they’ll have to wonder too: If there’s a player with the conviction to risk playing out the 2015-16 season for his $4.4 million qualifying offer and become an unrestricted free agent in 2016, it could be Butler. Nevertheless, that’ll be considered a long shot in the process. At 25 years old, Butler had his best NBA season, earning a spot on the Eastern Conference All-Star team. An elite two-way player, Butler averaged 20 points, 5.8 rebounds and 3.3 assists per game. His career averages are 11.7 points, 4.3 rebounds and two assists. He was the 30th overall pick in the 2011 NBA draft. He was voted the NBA’s Most Improved Player this season. Thibs firing only adds fuel to this fire.
