I think we should take an approach where we have two good shot blockers in the paint. That is the direction the new rules are pushing in. I would like to see Hakeem at C Cato at PF Barkley at SF Anderson or Mobley as the shooting guard with the other coming off the bench as an energy player and Stevie Francis manning the point. Chuck has always been a bit short to play the power forward slot anyway. Anderson is an excellent defender to throw at the slower 2 guards. And Cato would be a great help with defense and rebounding underneath while Anderson picks up shooting duties for the struggling Wizard. In addition, Cato and Olajuwan can switch on the floor between power forward and center, one of them should be able to dominate their defender on the offensive end.
Hydra, You have got to be crazy putting Barkley at the 3 spot. Barkley might only be 6'4 1/2", but his width, strength, and hops made him a great power forward in his prime-not speed, perimiter play, the ability to put the ball on the floor, or defensive ability. Those things are essentials for today's small forwards, i.e. the "all around game." I've often thought about putting Barkley at the 3 but have quickly realized that that move would be stupid (no offense intended). Barkley, Cato and Thomas should split the PF minutes. We are weak at small forward (Anderson is a tweener-not a steady three), but Barkley is NOT the answer in that department. What does everybody else think?
Barkley does it both ways, for those heavy godzillas he outquicks them, for those bambooes he outpowers them, frequently he does the both. In his prime he ruled the position, now the only two in the league he has problem with are Malone and Duncan. He holds his own facing them but outplays them just 1 outta 3, still not bad. Put him at sf doesn't work, mainly defensively and also wastes his rebounding. Ps. Thanks for the E, pass 1st shoot 2nd
Barkley can't guard most PFs either, so I don't see too much of a problem with him guarding SFs. How about putting Bark at the 3, when Kenny Thomas is in the game. Let Chuck, play down low and have Thomas pull the opposing PF out to the perimeter (theoretically, this would move the other team's best rebounder awy from the basket).
CB's defense never get any credit when he shuts down the likes of Othella Harrington and Chris Webber, let alone all stars like Tom Googs and I am getting used to that.
Gugliotta 1st game: 8 rb 19 pts 2cd game: 8 rb 6 pts Harrington 1st game: 11 rb 13 pts 2cd game: 7 rb 18 pts Webber: 1st game: 3 rb 7pts 2cd game: 11 rb 38 pts. These are the numbers of rebounds and points of the opposing PFs that you mentioned for all of the games that we played. In 4 out of 6 games the numbers of rebounds and points are very respectable. In the week performance by Googs, Kenny Thomas played 27 min. In the poor performance by Harrington, Kenny Thomas saw 20 min of action. And KT's D was good in both games. Charles is not a good defender. He will always give up a serious height adcantage to his opponent and really doesn't play team D at all.
Well Iverson scores 20 points every time while taking 30 shots. You don't judge scoring efficiency at absolute value solely. I can't remember the exact numbers, but the first game Webber was about 2-12, the first game Othella was about 4-15, and last game Tom Googs 3-13. Enough said.
CB is a decent defender and a good team defender, he played about 40 minutes the last three games in which we won, and our team defense were very good(excpet for the first half of the Grizzles game).
Final Fantasy, Charles is one of the worst team defenders in the league. He doesn't consistently switch over to help when he's needed and he's not really good at guarding the passing lanes. Just because team D is improving doesn't mean Barley is (there are still 4 other guys out there). As for the 4 of 6 good games, the opposing PFs shot between 40-50%, which is more than adequate offensive production. On a side note: as for the Iverson comparison, he shoots .416 from fg and .531 from 3pt range. This adds up to 30.8 ppg. I think you're exaggerating a bit about how much he needs to shoot to ge his numbers.
Well I don't know why he is not good at guarding the passing lane, he read the D, got steals in the pssing lanes and drove from coast to coast for a dunk, that's what I saw. Again, switching or not sometimes is the coach's decision, can't blame it all on CB. I saw CB played good D this season, he switched at pick-and-roll recently, apparently that's a coach decision. I saw him blocked the baseline using his feet. One sign he is playing good team defense is that our interior defense is quite strong as of now, For example, the arguably best point guard in the league Jason Kidd wasn't able to get one layup off penetration in the last two games. That has to do with the guard, shotblocker, and also CB, the minutes he played he made up half of our frontcourt.
Final Fantasy, I think that you'll agree that Walt Williams is a mediocre defender at best, but I have seen him blocking shots and getting steals from the passing lanes also. Does this make him a good defender? Absolutely not. Why? Because, he doesn't do it every night, every trip down the floor. And as far as Kidd's problems with the Rocket's D, you said it yourself: "That has to do with the guard, and shotblocker (i.e. Cato)." If he beats his man off the dribble, I guarantee that 9 out of 10 times, it's Cato changing his shot, not CB.
Back to the topic: C/PF- Cato PF(especially against Duncan)/C- Dream SF- Shandon SG- Mobley PG- Francis Great D, and pretty good O. I know I've seen this posted many times before, but I like it so much, I thought I'd post it again.
Launch Pad, first of all, you misconception about interior defense is that a shotblocker is responsible for all the penetration, what about blocking the way or make blockattempts to change their shots? You don't need to be a shotblocker to change shots. Wheather Cato or CB blocked the shot is not the point, the point is the factour strong interior defense illustrates that CB is playing good team D. Cato just played from 20-30 minutes while CB around 40 a game, that should tell you something. Second of all, first you stated "he is not good at play passing lane", while give no definition of what is good at guarding passing lane,what is guarding passing lane well if steals from passing lane does not count? Third of all, "cuz he doesn't do it every night, every trip down the floor." Who can do it well offensively or defensively every night on every possesion? Nobody, that's another misconception. If you are talking about heart and desire, then pls open another thread. As you said CB is not a good defender, not good at switching or guarding passing lane, that's about defensive skills not heart and desire, pls don't mix it up.
Final Fantasy, A shotblocker is not responsible for all penetration, and I have not asserted that. What I did say was that if a guard beats his man (i.e. the 1st line of defense) off the dribble, then the fact that he has to confront a seven foot tall shotblocking force like Cato makes it very hard to finish the shot. Even if Cato doesn't block the shot, he makes it a lot harder to make it. Now assuming that CB is the one that switches off of his man (which he usually doesn't) to contest the shot, the fact is that a guard like Kidd will have no problem shooting over his 6'4 1/2" frame. Next, good defense of the passing lane is the ability to make it harder for the opponent player to pass the ball to your man. This can consist of slapping away lazy soft passes (a good percentage of the Rocket's own turnovers come from this), intercepting long passes, and generally, making it difficult for the opposition to move the ball around. CB is not active enough on D to do that. Last, maybe a player can't make the good defensive stop everytime that he makes it down the floor, but he can sure try. And yes, that is a question of having the desire to stop the other team. Face it, it's very difficult to play great D if you don't make a great effort and that takes heart. I don't see how you can consider that a seperate post at all.
I am saying CB is a decent defender and occasionally a good defense stopper, if you don't attribute interior defense to front court players it's up to you. As to guarding the passing lane, I will let it go, this is very subjective if you don't admit steals in passing lane is not guarding the lane well. I saw CB do it twice in the last six games, and once from Cato in this season, once from Hakeem, none from the other front guys. Maybe there is more but CB is doing a good job at reading the offense and guarding the passing lane, period. Walt is trying to play defense, he is putting up effort but his skills are not good enough, that's why you can separate deisre and skills.When players tried and the result is poor that's skill's problem.
Final Fantasy, Don't try to twist my words around. I don't attribute interior defense to one particular front court player in our debate, Charles Barkley. There are plenty of defensive minded PFs in the league. Steals are part of defending the passing lane, but 2 steals over the course of 6 games doesn't mean that you guard the passing lanes well. That just means that you're lucky. Players like Drexler used to pick up 2 steal/ game ! Walt does try to play defense sometimes. But like I said before, you have to keep it up. You can't get lazy, or you will get scored on. Players like Elie had good defensive skills, but their skills alone wouldn't make them stoppers. They were stoppers, because they were too proud to let their man score. Also, guys like Brent Price had very mediocre defensive skills, but played decent defense, because he put a lot of effort into it (e.g. staying in front of their man, putting a hand up in the other guys face, and diving for loose balls).
Dream/Cato Cato/Barkley/Thomas Rogers/Anderson/Bullard Anderson/Mobley Francis/Drew This should be our tall team - 3 6'11" guys in the post, lot's of blocked shots. Take Walt out until he starts at least hitting in practice. Bullard is even better right now. I believe we shouldn't keep Barkley and Dream in at the same time. We only need one superstar in the post, otherwise it takes away too much from the running game. Cato Barkley Anderson Mobely Francis should be our running team. Serious athleticism. Barkley runs the floor better than Dream right now for whatever the reason.
I think we need to look at the matchups with different teams. I think there are situations where we may be able to ust Dream-Cato & Barkley together. Think about K Garnett. He typically plays the 3, and this is a terrible match up for Chuck or Walt (and virtually anybody in the NBA). I could see Cato matching up with him. KG may be faster and more experienced in the NBA but Cato is an athlete. Other teams play almost a 3 guard offense. I know the Knicks have started both Houston & Sprewell & the Howks have started both Jimmy Jackson & I Rider. All of these guys are big guards or small forwards. Here I could envision Cuttino & Anderson playing together. One thing I do want to stress is to decide on a starting 5. Matchups can be made later in the game. Although I am not a Walt fan, i do think he is a decent fit as a starter. With Dream/Chuck in the post their will be open shots to knock down, and Walt can do that. I would love to have an athletic 3, but for now starting Walt is fine. If he shoots well he plays his minutes, if his shot is off then bring in Rogers, Cuttino, Dream/Chuck/Cato. I would further think when we need to make a decision on who starts at the 4/5 positions that Dream will start. Dream has always been a starter, don't make him change now. The only question is Cato/Chuck. I would leans towards starting Chuck, because I love the energy of Cuttino & Cato. These 2 coming into the game together could be a spark to keep the running game going, along with Francis, Andreson, and either Dream/Chuck to rebound. But at the same time I see the merits of separating Dream & chuck. Either way I wouldn't be dissapointed.
Stevie Cat Anderson Cato Dream with Chuck coming in for either Cato,if he's in foul trouble or preferably Dream.Dream will be fresh though and he was playing with that injury for a long time.Before he went out he was blocking shots and playing good D.Healthy,look out.Alot of people are going to be surprised and be eating crow when he returns.As long as he accepts his role and doesn't demand the ball in the post all the time,we will be fine....lots of talent I also feel there is a trade coming down the pike...............HH
