Originally Posted by
Jumbo
Ah, two of the favorite recurring topics on DBR. I just thought it was worth noting that last night, the Phoenix Suns played a six-man rotation over 48 minutes. For significant stretches of the game, they played Shawn Marion, a 6'7" SF-turned-PF at center, James Jones, a swingman, at the 4, and three guards. And this was in the NBA, where everyone is big, where veterans like Jalen Rose are locked to the bench, and the opponent has Tim Duncan in the middle, and plenty of size and depth in other spots.
Now, Phoenix ended up losing, and did seem to wear down physically. (Well, I think as much of anything, Phoenix ran out of options). But, to take a team a strong as the Spurs down to the wire playing six men of 48 minutes while using a small lineup should show you something: A lot of our preconceptions about basketball are wrong.
Duke might not have a Steve Nash running the point or someone as freakishly athletic to play a hybrid forward spot like Shawn Marion. But, then again, Duke's not facing many Tim Duncans either. The point is, there are many ways to skin a cat in basketball. And if Duke's lacking a bit of size next year, beyond Zoubek and maybe Thomas, that's not such a big deal.
Might Duke have trouble guarding an occasional post player one-on-one? Sure. Might Duke lack a back-to-the-basket scorer at times? Perhaps. But on the other hand, how much do you think teams would enjoy trying to match up defensively against a lineup that featured, say, Paulus-Scheyer-Nelson-Henderson-Singler, at times next year?
K's got plenty of talent to work with next year. He's got enough athletes to keep Duke competitive on the boards. He's got enough midsized players like Thomas, McClure and Singler, to battle against post players. As long as Duke develops more cohesiveness on the defensive end than last year, no one's going to overpower the team at the end. And then it's up to K to make the most out of a team with some potentially scary offensive weapons, and force teams to match up to Duke, rather than the other way around.
The bottom line is there are only a handful of games where Duke's going to go against some sort of an awesome post presence. And as long as Duke counters that with other strengths, it shouldn't matter.