09-17-2020, 02:13 PM
(This post was last modified: 09-17-2020, 03:12 PM by KillerLeft.)
There has been lots of discussion recently about "possitionless basketball" and "small ball" and other misleading nomenclature. My observation is that much like every other analyzed subject in modern society, the debate tends to get broken down into two, needlessly limited viewpoints simply so that groups can form on one side or the other in order to oppose each other with as much gusto as possible.
When it comes to center play, the debate has somehow become "big guys vs. not big guys" which is moronic and not at all where the innovation point lies.
Here's Kevin O'Connor, doing a pretty good job of explaining what makes Bam Adebayo so freaking special:
https://youtu.be/dXvsnOVrWh0
Now, is that dude not big? I mean, relative to who? When compared to the prototypical 90's centers, no, he is not big. But this observation completely misses the point, and fails to provide context as to WHY this trend towards smaller "bigs" is happening.
In the video, segments are devoted to how he impacts the game in the following ways:
Will there be more like those guys, or are they outliers? I think we'll see many more, and that this will be the norm, eventually. Hell, if you keep going down the list (past the top 3) of who's coveted around the league at this position, most of the names you'll see are guys whose teams are in the process of molding them into being worthy of inclusion with that group (see Porzingis).
Basically, if there's a way you can be played off the floor, then the good things you do don't really matter, because...well, because you can't be on the floor. Guys like Whiteside, Drummond and Adams look just as out of place today as Roy Hibbert did not too long ago. I will probably lose people here, but I expect that Rudy Gobert isn't too far behind them.
It's interesting to me that people in Dallas, specifically, don't seem to get what's happening. We just saw this same renaissance happen with the 4 position, and we all had front row seats for it. It started right here with our Mavs. Remember how the talking heads all thought Dirk couldn't win at the 4 because he wasn't tough enough, and that you needed an Anthony Mason or a Charles Oakley there? Then remember how guys like Dirk, Webber, Garnett, Wallace, etc all changed the game and how building your offense around a player like that became the arms race around the league? Now, it's just a given that you have to have at least one big on your roster who can do those things. Would anyone reading this really even consider putting Anthony Mason on the floor in the playoffs right now as the second big? Next to another unskilled big guy, to boot? Is it really so tough to understand that this evolution has spread to the 5?
That's what is happening, and because we're early in the evolutionary process, there just aren't very many players who fit the bill. But everyone knows they have to start playing that way. To do otherwise would be a little like building an NFL offense around the wishbone.
There will be another Shaq someday, but it's not going to happen until the guy in that body can do everything Bam can do. It's the requisite skillset that's changing, not the desired body type.
https://twitter.com/mikepradanba/status/...47040?s=21
Don’t ever let someone get away with posting something about defense in support of a center who can’t do what’s in the clip above, because that’s how defense is defined now.
When it comes to center play, the debate has somehow become "big guys vs. not big guys" which is moronic and not at all where the innovation point lies.
Here's Kevin O'Connor, doing a pretty good job of explaining what makes Bam Adebayo so freaking special:
https://youtu.be/dXvsnOVrWh0
Now, is that dude not big? I mean, relative to who? When compared to the prototypical 90's centers, no, he is not big. But this observation completely misses the point, and fails to provide context as to WHY this trend towards smaller "bigs" is happening.
In the video, segments are devoted to how he impacts the game in the following ways:
- half court offense: not only can he contribute in the traditional ways - setting screens, rolling hard, etc, he can handle the ball and facilitate for others, and not just standing at the elbow like Vlade Divac and Brad Miller used to, either. His "triple threat position" is actually a triple threat.
- transition offense: He can actually be trusted to bring the ball up, even in important moments of the game, and make good decisions. This is huge, because it puts the defense in an insanely awkward position, as they have exponentially less experience setting up their half court defense under those circumstances.
- half court defense: he doesn't have to play drop coverage on the pick and roll against ANYONE, because he has the foot speed and athletic reflexes to hedge, blitz, whatever, and then recover to the paint to effectively defend the rim. Also, he has the ability (at the center position!!!) to SWITCH onto most ball handlers and still manages to bother them into taking low percentage shots. When post passes are thrown (not a very frequent occurrence anymore, but it does happen) he is more than capable of holding his own in those situations, too.
- transition defense: he's fast. And, he's smart. And, he plays hard all the time. I see this get glossed over by so many fans who assume that every NBA player is up to the task of going top speed for long stretches of the game, just because they're "pros." From what I've seen, this is far from the case, and sometimes a skilled player is rendered useless on any given night just because he can't keep up with the opposing team's pace. There's a commonly held misconception by NBA fans that the playoff game is less concerned with running and more focused on the half court game. This is false. These teams are still trying to run and get themselves easy baskets - they'd be stupid not to try. However, all of the teams who rely on players who can't keep up have been weeded out, and the deeper we go into the tournament, the fewer mistakes are made, resulting in more well guarded half court possessions. In fact, I'd go as far as to posit that this responsibility (running the floor relentlessly on transition D) might just be the primary thing coaches look for in their big guys, which is another way of saying it's like the "minimum basic skill" required to carve out a career at that position.
Will there be more like those guys, or are they outliers? I think we'll see many more, and that this will be the norm, eventually. Hell, if you keep going down the list (past the top 3) of who's coveted around the league at this position, most of the names you'll see are guys whose teams are in the process of molding them into being worthy of inclusion with that group (see Porzingis).
Basically, if there's a way you can be played off the floor, then the good things you do don't really matter, because...well, because you can't be on the floor. Guys like Whiteside, Drummond and Adams look just as out of place today as Roy Hibbert did not too long ago. I will probably lose people here, but I expect that Rudy Gobert isn't too far behind them.
It's interesting to me that people in Dallas, specifically, don't seem to get what's happening. We just saw this same renaissance happen with the 4 position, and we all had front row seats for it. It started right here with our Mavs. Remember how the talking heads all thought Dirk couldn't win at the 4 because he wasn't tough enough, and that you needed an Anthony Mason or a Charles Oakley there? Then remember how guys like Dirk, Webber, Garnett, Wallace, etc all changed the game and how building your offense around a player like that became the arms race around the league? Now, it's just a given that you have to have at least one big on your roster who can do those things. Would anyone reading this really even consider putting Anthony Mason on the floor in the playoffs right now as the second big? Next to another unskilled big guy, to boot? Is it really so tough to understand that this evolution has spread to the 5?
That's what is happening, and because we're early in the evolutionary process, there just aren't very many players who fit the bill. But everyone knows they have to start playing that way. To do otherwise would be a little like building an NFL offense around the wishbone.
There will be another Shaq someday, but it's not going to happen until the guy in that body can do everything Bam can do. It's the requisite skillset that's changing, not the desired body type.
https://twitter.com/mikepradanba/status/...47040?s=21
Don’t ever let someone get away with posting something about defense in support of a center who can’t do what’s in the clip above, because that’s how defense is defined now.