https://www.blazersland.com/time-to-do-the-opposite/ "Since Golden State will have the small-ball version of the game all but wrapped up, why not go with something no one else is doing? Go big — Do the Opposite!"
Well if that were to be the case then Hibbert would be a good piece. Small ball around the league is a large factor which has contributed to his lack of production, and made him less valuable. That strategy might help us in the regular season but it would hurt us in a series vs a team like GS. I'm hearing Hibbert connected to Charlotte.
Giving up is not an option. If the team was terrible, tanking for the shot at a franchise player might be a possibility but this roster should be Top-5 in the WC. So how do you differentiate yourself from those at the top that creates more of a chance then playing them at their own game?
Who has said giving up. You still try. You just play to perpetually make the first round of the playoffs. Geez. You give up and it will kill attendance. I'm talking about giving up any HOPE of winning a title. Big difference. It's still a fun game to play and watch though. I mean people still come and see the Athletics play.
Players have to promise to be architects after their NBA career is over. Either that or marine biologists.
I think we should be able to go big more often anyway. We were playing with either Meyers as a stretch 4 or with Harkless or Aminu who are tweeners. We were almost always down in Points in the Paint and most of them we had came from our smaller players going to the rim and not by scoring from our bigs. We need a scoring inside player, that's why management wanted Gasol. That's why I want us to bring back TRob. We currently don't have such a player, maybe Vonleh or Alexander but they aren't getting much playing time
But seriously, I think it's stupidity when people talk as though you have to model your team after the last champion. It wasn't too long ago when small ball would never work in the playoffs now all of a sudden everyone thinks they need to implement it? It's not some new idea.
I thought this was the plan last year when we were trying to get Monroe to team with LA and had signed Aminu and traded for Henderson ... we would have had two defenders to somewhat contain Curry and Thompson and would have counted on our bigs to overcome the scoring differential by dominating inside. I still think it's something that could work. They talk how professional sports always are about imitation. The thing about that is the imitators usually don't have as good of personnel to mimic the team they are trying to be, and they may trying to force some things positionally or pass over greater talent just to fit a system. I always felt you get the best talent you can and coach to try to fit your personnel ... the team that best forces its opponent to play its style then wins. And usually, in a couple of years, the pendulum swings back. Guys that dominate the paint will become the new market inefficiency, some coach will develop a system that covers the 3-point arc, force opponents to take long 2s instead and scores at will inside on the other end. And, while everyone else is trying to be the latest version of Golden State, the team that makes that move will get the best interior scorers at very good value.
Exactly right, it is nothing new. Doug Moe and Don Nelson tried it for years. It was entertaining and it scored a lot of points but it didn't win big games. Part of that was because there were actual big men in the game. Teams can play 'smaller' now because there aren't any talented big men with a low-post game to abuse all of these little guys running around. Shaq. Olajuwon, Sabonis, Gilmore, Robinson, Jabbar, Parish, both Malone's would shoot 70% from the floor against these Lilliputians.
With the way the Warriors are built: Teams should be practicing slowing the pace in the regular season and trying to destroy them inside. Their new death lineup with Curry, Thompson, Iggy, Durant, and Green has to be exploited down low. Durant is skinny and Draymond is severely undersized. This means teams should be targeting legit low post bigs like Cousins, Okafor, Marc Gasol, Kanter, Monroe, Zbo. Obviously these guys would be at a disadvantage on defense, but you must play two low post bigs and punish them down low. The two bigs will have to guard green and iggy. The Grizzlies actually have the kind of team to cause the Warriors problems. I'm just not sure they have the star power and closers to get it done.
Would it make sense for the Grizz to make a move on Westbrook? I wonder what they could get him for...
