I think we need a lineup of: Tmac Kmart Joe johnson Luis scola Sam dalembert That would be nice. Plenty of one on one jump shooters
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I voted for Size matters. It's unfortunate W(p)ussies of today's game feel they can't win if they're not playing with one of their bootay buddies.
scola can has post moves sam isn't an offensive player tracy can't play a whole season, much less an abbreviated season. interesting you brought up Joe Johnson, the Hawks are pretty much that team with a bunch of one on one players and shooters.
This is a huge misconception. We're not talking about regular season wins here. Yes the number of good point guards has gone up demonstrably. Yes the style of no-hand-checking has allowed for an unprecedented display of Matadorism when it comes to perimeter defense. But in the playoffs, in the conference championships and Finals especially, things get tougher. Refs swallow whistles. It's all about who can execute their offense in spite of the highest quality half court defense on both sides. Teams that win championships don't have to have a center, but they HAVE to have someone that create a scoring opportunity in a way other than passing the ball. In one-on-one situations, sometimes one-on-two and even one-on-three. Big men can do that. Guys like Kobe, Dirk, and Jordan could do that. Finally Lebron has understood how to do that. Durant beat San Antonio because of his unstoppable fourth quarter shooting, both the mid-range shot and the three. You want a scurry little Aawen Bwooks or Tywon Lawson getting you 25ppg in the regular season, go ahead. That guy running to the hoop is gonna get knocked off his ass and out of the playoffs with hardly a foul called. The NBA has barely changed at all when it comes to crunch time. Regular season wins are meaningless if you don't have someone who can perform in the postseason.
yeah but having merely shooters around Howard has not brought the ultimate prize either You still need that other all star, arguably more than one budding star
I missed the part where I said I wanted Brooks or Lawson instead. Playoffs today are called very different that 15 years ago. It's a very different game. Of course its more physical, but it's also a lot more geared towards perimeter players. Look at the leading scorers for the games in the playoffs. It's all PG's and wings. Wade, Parker, WestBrook, Rose, Harden, Rondo, Paul and your Lawson. 8 out of the top 25 scorers were point guards! That's more than 1/3 of the top scorers. Go back 10 years and you didn't have a single pg in the top 20 in scoring in the playoffs! Not a single point guard! The league is completely different, by design. The whole point of the NBA rule changes was to make the game freer and more flowing. And they did that. That's why Orlando doesn't go anywhere in the playoffs. That model doesn't work anymore. You have to build your team to the current game, not the past one.
Oh you mean the NBA Finals? If that's nowhere then I'll take that then this purgatory we are in now. 2008-09 NBA Orlando Magic* 59 23 .720 1 6.49 109.2 101.9 Lost Finals S. Van Gundy (59-23) Oh I forgot, in the 2010-11, they passed some anti big man rules that's the reason why they suck now.
i could have sworn we had that in Dragic (all star) and Parsons (budding star) already the way some people here post.
Take your Chris Paul or Steve Nash or Deron Williams or Rajon Rondo then. Those guys don't win NBA titles as their teams' BEST player. Derrick Rose has a shot if he can keep his athleticism, but he's not a passer he's an unstoppable scorer. Dwyane Wade used to be like that, but he's not anymore. You're saying the game has changed. I'm saying that it's changed in the regular season but not in the Finals. Modeling your team into a guard heavy offense has a ceiling below that of one around a big man. That's why the best PG's in NBA history didn't win titles on their own (Magic had Kareem and Worthy; Oscar had Wilt; Isaiah had the Bad Boys) or they didn't win it at all (Stockton, KJ, Mark Jackson, GP, JKidd until he was a role player).
I agree, dude! I'd rather draft Andre Drummond (potential All-Star for several years) than DH12 (1 year rental and than he leaves us for Dallas).
@ Tinman - You forgot this guy - He was here long before any of those others. Tho I doubt many are old enough to remember that far back
That year DH also took the 4th most shots, behind guys like Rafer Alston, and they had a pretty easy path to the finals that year, being able to knock of a wounded Celtics team 3-2. Celtics were crippled by the Garnett and Powe injuries. When the Magic hit a good team, they got wallopped.
People seem to forget that Dream had serious jumper from 18ft in. He hit it regularly from the same spots that Bosh hit's his jumper (although Bosh did develop a 3pointer). Dream's jumper set up a lot of what he did when facing up taller centers and consistenly hit the baseline jumper off penetration. Dwight howard has very little in the jump shooting department.
