If you had a chance to build the Franchise around any positional player?

Excellent post!

 

How many Franchise Centers are in the league right now?

2?

So yeah, if you have a chance to get a Franchise Center, you do it.

 

None of those bigs you mentioned have led a team anywhere, you just basically proved my point.

Thanks.

DD

 

Good big men are just hard to come by. I don't think big men in this area are weak, the good ones have always been hard to come by.

You need a dominant player in the frontcourt and backcourt. Period. It doesn't matter which one you get first as long as you can dominate or excell in both.

 

Not quite.

Quality big men are held in such high regard that GMs are willing to gamble their high draft picks on unproven big men with high potential.

That's a pretty good indication of which position they feel is most crucial for success.

 

Good big men are indeed hard to come by...that's why this era of centers is weak.

Can you imagine how dominant Rik Smits would be in this era? And he was considered a 2nd or 3rd tier center in his era.

Both Olajuwon and Duncan have won without dominant guards.

 

If you're considering that all positions dominate the game the same way, I would go with a Center.

But, there are NO centers in the league today that would be able to do that. So, I would built around a strong combo guard/forward.

 

an all star guard. common sense tells you to build your franchise around a great center, but realistically, how many great centers are out there right now? this league is starting to be a guard driven league. big men these days are too fragile. the only centers in the nba that i would build around RIGHT NOW are the nets lopez, dwight, andrew bogut, the memphis gasol, and maybe yao.

 

It comes down to this: if you had a choice between top level talent:
[*] at center position (Hakeem, Wilt, Russel, Kareem, Shaq),
[*] at SG position (Jordan*, Kobe, West, Drexler, Gervin (from this link )),
[*] or at SF position (Bird, Lebron, Wilkins, Erving, Pippen),

then you build around the center.

The reason is simple, you can find second tier level talen at SG/SF position much more easily and build a championship contender. I'd take top center + all star SG over top SG + all star center.



*Michael Jordan may transcend the build around center rule.

 

(fixed formatting)

It comes down to this: if you had a choice between top level talent:

• at center position (Hakeem, Wilt, Russel, Kareem, Shaq),
• at SG position (Jordan*, Kobe, West, Drexler, Gervin (from this link ))
• or at SF position (Bird, Lebron, Wilkins, Erving, Pippen),

then you build around the center.

The reason is simple, you can find second tier level talen at SG/SF position much more easily and build a championship contender. I'd take top center + all star SG over top SG + all star center.


*Michael Jordan may transcend the build around center rule.[/

 

I am not talking about the 1st three peat. I am talking about the post steve and cuttino era.

 

I disagree with the notion that centers of this era are weak. The game has been changing and I don't think some centers in previous eras could have excelled here and vice versa.



Both Olajuwon and Duncan have won without dominant guards.[/QUOTE]

I said dominant or excelled, there is distinct difference between the two. My point was that you need to have a well rounded team.

 

The current era of centers is weak compared to Olajuwon's era.

Look at the top 4 centers of the current era: Duncan, Yao, Howard, and Gasol.

Compare them with the top 5-8 centers of the mid-90's: Mourning, Mutombo, Smits, and Divac.

Obviously, there's a dropoff in talent, but its not nearly as extreme as the dropoff from Olajuwon/Ewing/Robinson/Shaq to Duncan/Yao/Howard/Gasol.

Both Duncan and Olajuwon have won titles on teams with no other all-stars. Whens the last time a superstar wing led a team to a title with no other all-stars?