What has become evident this summer is that our frontcourt is way soft. Ming gets pushed around by some scrubs, Griffin was pushed by Mark Madsen of all people, Nachbar is a Euro (enough sad), MoT is soft as a doughnut, Kenny is tough but small. Apparently strength and power upfront is our main weakness now as was pointed out by none else but Bill Walton. (The back-up SG problem is not really a problem. remember, Steve is a combo guard, he can slide to the 2 when Moochie is on the floor, plus Rice can play a two, too) My question is, is that really so important. The NBA is much different from the mid-90s' "uglyball" personified by Pat Riley's teams. The rule changes helped a lot the finnesse teams. It used to be that because of the strict illegal D rules "true bangers" like Dale Davis or Denis Rodman would demand coverage, when in fact everybody knew they were not posing any real danger. Now such players are real liabilities on offense since their men can slide to guard the true offensive talents. Offensive minded finesse teams such as Dallas and Sacramento are doing very well these days. Even before the rule changes, physical power was overrated. I remember after the Drexler trade everybody was saying that we couldn't do anything without Otis Thorpe. In fact we had to play Robert Horry at 4 most of the time. Hakeem was strong, but just on physical strength alone we were overmatched in every series in 1995. Consider: Dream-Horry vs. Ostertag-Malone Dream-Horry vs Robinson-Rodman Dream-Horry vs Shaq-H. Grant I am not saying that we are ready to beat the lakers with the team we have. What I am saying is that we can make the playoffs without having much brawn in the frontcourt, and that we should let Ming and Griffin develop their physical strength in a year or two instead of looking for some "banger" right now to address our weakness.
It's not so much that we 'need power upfront'.. It's just that you are not likely to win many games in the NBA when you are being out-rebounded by 18 to 20 boards per game. If, for example, cato would at least box out and fight for the loose balls that come into his immediate vicinity, we would be talking about this issue far less. But the fact is, this team is vulnerable to the teams with frontcourt strength because that weakness translates into more 2nd-chance points for our opponents AND less points for us. Heck, if we could just manage 2 defensive rebounds per game more for each of our frontcourt players (EG, cato, MoT and even KT, Ming) that would amount to probably 3 less 2nd-chance buckets per game, plus fouls, which would shave off an average of at least 6 pts per game from our opponents. As bad as this team was last year, we were still in a lot of close games that we eventually lost. Those 6 points could have meant the difference between a winning and a losing season. AND, with the (hopefully) improved roster this year, we should win quite a few more games just from increased talent. Add in just a bit more defensive strength and blocked shots (Ming, EG), we ought to see a pretty big turnaround this coming season. So it's not just a mindless mantra of 'we need strength up front'; it's a legitimate concern. Hopefully that improved strength will come from our own players finally playing up to their potential, instead of having to add it from outside the organization. Ciao
Power is not necessary for offense b/c you can choose whatever style you want to score. Not so with defense including defensive rebounding (ditto, Nero). Dallas has a soft front court. They didn't have problem scoring. They got killed on defense and second chance points in the playoffs. The Kings on the other hand have more power up front on defense and therefore can play with the Lakers.
Not many studs left in the league. The future stud/thug is Kenyon Martin. God, I love his game, attitude, smarts. The guy played 4 years of college ball and it payed off as an immediate impact player. Yeah, I know what you mean. However, the Rockets will not be "soft"; just not have a stud/thug. MoT is adept under the boards, and maybe, just maybe, Clousou (as in "Cato") will continue his turnaround.
That "scrub" is 265 pounds and, if you see the photograph, had his hand pushing Yao in the chest....no call, of course; the #1 pick in the draft (rookie) won't be getting any sympathy. I wouldn't mind trading Glen Rice and KT for Brian Grant, except that Brian Grant adds an expensive power forward to a team already bristling with them.
Grant is a good banger with not much O. It'd be nice to have him coming off the bench if it weren't his fat contract.
Derek Fisher of the Lakers can bench press 400 lbs. It's not about physical size, it's about the attitude. Take for example, KG he's a bean pole but be has such an aggressive demeanor that he is much more than sufficient at power forward defensively. Mo T on the other hand has all of the physical size that you could want in a 4, but ditto doesn't seem to be aggressive enough to get boards. And my best example is a certain player by the name of Charles Barkley dude was awesome on the boards, and he was only 6'5". I hope that Cato continues to improve and don't think that he is inadequate defensively. As for the others they need some more Mr. Mean influence this guy was a mauler on D.
What makes you think that Ming won't get some rebounds for us and from what I have heard about Eddie there will be a few rebounds that he will provide. Let's give this team a chance before we start bad mouthing them.
On Inside Stuff and they also said that Shaq can bench approximately 800 lbs. It's almost absurd how strong Shaq is that's why Ming won't dominate him, Shaq's like Baby Huey with those freakish abnormal genes.
jevynd: What do you mean exactly by dominate? Do you mean physically subdue or do you mean out perform on the BB Court? The first, no BB Player can do that! The second Yao could, in time be better in score, rbs,blocks, F/G %,F/T%. Some he might be better than Shaq even in his first season! We will just have to wait and see.
Someone's at it again with crisp assessments on players and incomplete and illegible sentences. Yes, we've all heard of that Charles Barley "dude". I'm a ticket holder and have seen him play "once or twice". How about you, got tickets? Seen Fisher play much? Cato? Watched him block out? Notice how he doesn't set his hips like a Barkley or Oakley, and how he tends to be a bit too close to the basket in a rebounding situation? Ever watch Fisher jump shot? Notice he's got a near-perfect parabola? Regarding "Mr. Mean"... we don't need a "Mr. Mean" or "Enforcer" or anyone of ill-will. We're gonna have a pretty nice team this year. I have no clue how Yao or KC/MoT/KT/EG, etc. will gell or perform in a tough conference. I'll bet we average more rebounds than Dallas or Pheonix, though.
C'mon now, 800 lbs bench-press!! Hell, Shaq should've competed in a few weight-lifting competitions when he was at the Olympics, could've matched the gold medal records of Jesse Owens & Carl Lewis. Or maybe, when he's bored with playing basketball, he can be a LT or TE in the NFL. God knows, with his 800 lbs bench, that no one could tackle him! Shaq probably benches his weight (350 lbs), and he may get up to 400 lbs.
yeah i think that 800 should be cut in half.....wait a minute when willis played for us in 98 he could lift 500 pounds. Sooooo maybe shaq could lift 600 but no 800. you misread it and got you 6 and 8 mixed up.
Willis could most likely squat that much but benchpressing 500 lbs is no easy feat and would be considered world class level. Willis was strong but that may have been an exageration.
About 5 years ago I was at a conference and the lunch speaker was an old 6'10" guy that used to play basketball at Kansas State in the late '50's. I spoke with him afterwards about his 2 years of matchups with Wilt (overlapping careers). He recounted stories to me that were unbelievable. He had some buddies at KU that said Wilt walked through the weight room once, had the football players stack the bar to near bending, and proceeded to clip-off about 6 reps. No one could believe it and none of the footballers could even do it once. I have no idea how much weight was on the bar; and in 1957, I doubt if the average football player (lineman) could bench much more than 350#, or so. But this fella claimed it to be true. Let's just say it was 400#. 6 reps would be pretty good. That year, Wilt also set the Big 6 shot put record in track (held for many years), and, as stories go (grow), could outrun anyone on the track team; but preferred the field events because he didn't like running. Those stories and others make Wilt appear nearly superhuman; but one must admit, he was probably among the strongest BBall players of all time - who happened to be 7'2".
Kayman you need not call all our players soft. I'd love to see you on the court with them. You'd like like a peewee league player!
