See, the way I look at it, the center position isn't as important as it once was. Teams with wings are dominating right now.
I have another way to look at it. Are you going to be able to out "wing" the Heat and Thunder? Probably not. So if you build something that is different and creates different kinds of matchup problems then maybe you contrast enough with them to compete? That's not to say you can get by with substandard wings -- you definitely need good/great ones -- but maybe if you have a great point guard but can play through your big positions you get lucky that way? Let's get real, to beat those two teams you're going to need a plethora of talent and a lot of luck, but just trying to copy them is likely to fall short.
It should be noted that a Brazil team with better bigs but far inferior talent overall Hung with the US Olympic team yesterday, primarily by dominating inside. Aldridge/Freeland/Leonard could roughly compare to Nene/Splitter/Varejao (maybe). If we can do something similar--only with a much smaller overall talent gap--perhaps we might have a chance...?
Teams with MVP-level wings are dominating. Lamb isn't an MVP-level player, and never will be. I'm not saying Leonard will be one, either.
That was the entire idea behind offering Hibbert. He played very well against the Heat, because they had nobody to match up with him. In other words, exactly what you said is what I'm saying. If you can't be them, become something different than them, not a lesser version of them.
Couldn't disagree more, you're just talking flavor of the month. Right now there are not a lot of good big men, so "wings" are doing well. Of course, soon the "wing" proponents will start including PGs as "wing players" - watch fpr it.
