Noah's started 24 games at C, the 38 year old Thomas 29. On paper, Brandon Roy is the starting SG of the Blazers, but Wes Matthews is the starter when you look at a stat called "games started." ;-)
The thing about the Miami bigs is that none of them are post players ( or at least you can't count Dampier as a post player as these days he's easily negated ) They are all jump shooting bigs now . They post / paint players are James and Wade - two of the best in the league at their art. And they are two willing passers. It ain't hard ...just stack the deck with jump shooters around the two best guys in the league in attacking and converting at the rim. Miller, James Jones etc and the 15ft to 18ft jump shooting bigs. Its where we will get found out with not having another perimeter creating guard /wing Its also why , out of all the 2 guards that have been discussed , why guys like Stephen Jackson and OJ Mayo were perhaps the most important given that opposing defenses need to check them and for the fact that they can also check the defenses the other way.
Now now ...don't get cute. We are talking in the context of the playoffs when we will have our starting 24 year old Center back.
They only have 'depth' at the position in the sense that they have a bunch of guys at the position who are not obviously better than one another. I don't think they have any depth at all because those guys all blow in one way or another. With the exception of Haslem, I think I'd take Noah, Boozer, Taj, Omer, and (maybe) Kurt over EVERY one of those guys.
Add Bosh or remove Boozer from our lists and the positions look a lot closer. Though in a match up against Miami, I think I like the idea of Boozer guarding Ilgauskas and Noah chasing Bosh around. The last game we played them, the highlight was watching the match up between the 38 year old Thomas and the 37 year old Juwann Howard.
Noah, Taj, Omer, Kurt >> Ilgauskas, Dampier, Howard, Haslem (?). Again, the worst of those four might be better than anyone on the Heat. I understand that Kurt and Howard are both old, and that Kurt has been playing a lot since Noah has been injured. But I would wager that opposing coaches are planning on how to defend against Noah, and not Kurt, when they face us in the playoffs .
I wouldn't worry so much about defending Noah vs. making sure to box him out. No Homer: Ilgauskas is the 2nd best of the 8 you listed. Haslem and Taj are a wash. Omer and Dampier are a wash, too.
1). Noah is a capable offensive player, outside of just garbage points. He can finish with both hands, has a jump hook from both blocks, plays the high post well, and arguably has a better handle than our SG and SF. He's not Jerome Williams out there. 2). Even if you 'only' have to box him out, it's still defensive attention which subtracts in a zero-sum way from other things the defense could be doing, like rotating over to stop a cutter or running the fast break. 3). I'll concede that nitpicking among Taj, Omer, Kurt, Big Z, et. all is subjective, and none of them are impact players. However, the difference between having a Noah-like player and having none at all is big, and enough to give us a decisive advantage. 4). This is a 'to each his own' thing, but I still think I would take Kurt, Taj, and Omer over anyone on the Heat (sans Bosh).
I agree with all you wrote, but consider that Thomas is starting over Taj, Omer, etc. It seems to me if we had Z, he'd be getting all the minutes Noah can't play (when healthy) and that he'd be our starting C over Thomas. I'd be happy guarding Noah near the basket - it's a good excuse to clog the lane with one of my bigs.
