Source: http://www.hoopsworld.com/article_14083.shtml "Phoenix Suns surprised the NBA when they played without a traditional centre and ran with the team?s five best players. If the Raptors want to have any success this season they should try to adopt this strategy. Currently the Raps are like a donut ? nothing in the middle! The only centre?s on the team?s roster are first-round bust Rafael Araujo, Loren Woods and Pape Sow. None of these players will scare opposing teams. The Raptors best chance for success would see them putting Rafer Alston and Morris Peterson in the back-court, Jalen Rose on the wing and letting Chris Bosh and Charlie Villanueva play in the post. Villanueva and Bosh are both 6?11 so they have the height to match-up against opposing centres while they have the speed and athleticism to cause match-up problems on offense. Last season the Suns were able to use Amare Stoudemire and Shawn Marion?s speed and athleticism to run opposing teams out of the arena" I personally dont think we can be compared to the Suns just because of Steve Nash we dont have a play-maker like Nash in our team.
While Marion is small, Amare is a beast, he's 6'10, very athletic, and very strong. We don't have anyone like that to play center. We can't really call it small ball in the Suns sense, they had 6'10 C, 6'7 PF, we would just have a weaker C, and Villa is not 6'11, more like 6'10.
The main reason phoenix's small ball worked is cuz they had a great pg who could distribute the ball, alston would rather shoot then pass.
I wouldn't mind playing without a true center. Bosh and CV should play well together and they would be a lot faster than the opposing centers. The thing is, Araujo needs some experience so he'll probably get a lot of playing time. Just don't count out the Raps, I have high hopes for Calderon :]
I think Sam Mitchell has shown throughout the last season that he will start the best combination of players given a situation, regardless of positions. Bosh and Villanueva will start (as soon as CV proves himself) as long as the opposing team doesn't have a Jahidi White / Shaquille O'Neal, big men who use their body to wear down the opponents. Sam will use a centre-by-commitee approach when we face Jahidi Whites of the league, consisting of Araujo, Woods and Sow.
Im not sure if playing small ball is whats best for the Raptors. But either way it aint like they gon be amazing. Anyways.. when things arent going good for a team they have to switch things up and try different things.
<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">Bosh and Villanueva will start (as soon as CV proves himself) as long as the opposing team doesn't have a Jahidi White / Shaquille O'Neal, big men who use their body to wear down the opponents</div> Thankfully, Jahidi White is not on a roster this season. Maybe we should look to sign him, our guys can use him and Araujo as practice against the tanks in the league lol.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting TheTruth5:</div><div class="quote_post">Im not sure if playing small ball is whats best for the Raptors. But either way it aint like they gon be amazing. Anyways.. when things arent going good for a team they have to switch things up and try different things.</div> That's the same thing the critics have said about the Suns last off-season. "Oh, the Suns will get into the playoffs but they won't be anything special." They had the best record in the league (62-20) and made the Western Conference Finals. Here's to hoping that the Raptors will make the playoffs in contrast to what the critics are saying. <div class="quote_poster">Quoting og15:</div><div class="quote_post">Thankfully, Jahidi White is not on a roster this season. Maybe we should look to sign him, our guys can use him and Araujo as practice against the tanks in the league lol.</div> That's one expensive target dummy.. at $4.27 million-per-year.
S'all good, everyone will get tough, you bounce into that guy once and you feel like you're dead. The man has a chest of steel.
