A modest recruiting proposal: NO CENTERS EVER

[SeattleIrish]

Perhaps this is an idiotic suggestion, heady with the inebriating wine of a so-far-undefeated ACC season, but...what if we simply swore off recruiting 6'9 players or above---forever?

It seems to be easier to find 6'5 to 6'7 slashers than it is to find the next Elton Brand/Carlos Boozer, and this current team is just so damn much fun to watch!!!

Imagine a life without, "Patterson signs with UK", or "Jeffries (?) decides to stay home in Indiana". Isn't that a good life? A less stressful life?

Imagine a team full of 6'5 "runts" scurrying across the court, driving & dishing, hitting threes, spreading the floor and dunking, without some broad-shouldered lumberer drawing the defense in and clogging up the middle? Isn't that a pretty sight?

I imagine we could say "I suppose so." if some relatively swift-footed 6'9/6'10 consensus All-American begged for a spot...or perhaps we could allow him/them to walk on. But no more in-home-visits, hat-in-hand, offering up a scholarship that COULD have gone to someone smaller, swifter, "hungrier", and with a better outside touch.

I can imagine that world. It's a very nice world.






At least right now.

s.i.

[Oriole Way]

No thanks.

Hopefully we pick up Greg Echenique and you'll be back on the "centers are good, and many times they can help you win" bandwagon.

[Madrasdukie]

Why shut the door completely, if we get 'em well and good. For instance, the Suns with and without Amare.

[SeattleIrish]

It's meant more in the Jonathan Swift sense :-)

s.i.

[MarkD83]

If the player is 6'10'' and runs the floor and likes to hit the outside shot.....is that player really a center or if that player is 6'6'' but can shut down an opposing 7' center with their defense .....is that player not a center?

In either case I'll take Mike Dunleavy (6'10" as a Jr at Duke) and Chris Carawell (6'6" and as a freshman shut down Tim Duncan (if I recall correctly)on my team anyday.

[jlear]

How will the quarterback get the ball without a center?

[devildeac]

If the player is 6'10'' and runs the floor and likes to hit the outside shot.....is that player really a center or if that player is 6'6'' but can shut down an opposing 7' center with their defense .....is that player not a center?

In either case I'll take Mike Dunleavy (6'10" as a Jr at Duke) and Chris Carawell (6'6" and as a freshman shut down Tim Duncan (if I recall correctly)on my team anyday.

Not sure Jr. was 6'10" when he left Duke. I think he was 6'9" but OZZIE swears he was 5'7" when he was recruited, arrived at 6'5", kept growing and went to the NBA early at about 7'3"(and I think he is still growing-did you see the picture of him elsewhere on this thread[I think]):D

[jzp5079]

It's meant more in the Jonathan Swift sense :-)

s.i.

babies are delicious... especially 6foot 9inch babies wearing baby blue with Hansborough across their backs...

[juise]

babies are delicious... especially 6foot 9inch babies wearing baby blue with Hansborough across their backs...

I don't really get the babies reference, but I have to say it (in honor of Wednesday's game and all):

Psycho T... GET IN MY BELLY! :p

[SeattleIrish]

babies are delicious... especially 6foot 9inch babies wearing baby blue with Hansborough across their backs...

Thanks - I was starting to think I had the reference all wrong!;)

s.i.

[greybeard]

Mentioning Amare is interesting. A case could be made that the Suns were a more exciting club to watch without him. Without him, Diaw would start around the baseline, come out for a reception someone up towards the foul line, usually bounce will continuing away from the basket into a key space, and play to a teammate who had the best opportunity to attack off a kick out or was making a cut that had already penetrated the defense. Exciting, interesting stuff.

With Amare, the spaces that Diaw would otherwise see and go to to make a reception was often clogged with Amare and his defender being too close for an entry pass and play off of Diaw's reception and back to the basket feeds. Amare himself, when Diaw could make such a reception, had little feel for the one-two passing game Diaw is so adroit at.

As a consequence, Diaw's game and the sharpness it contributed to inside out play and movement off of it evaporated. The suns are left to get it to Amare for a scoring attempt in and around the paint, or create inside-out play off of Nash's initiation.

In my mind, less interesting. Which ultimately gives the Suns a better chance to win it all is beyond me. My sense is that all the trade rumors we have heard regarding Amare, however, might have something to do with things other than doubt about his long-term health. I think that he just might not fit best with how D'Antoni wants his team to play. Just a guess here, just a guess.

[mepanchin]

Why shut the door completely, if we get 'em well and good. For instance, the Suns with and without Amare.

I'd take Amare

[A-Tex Devil]

What if we had an Osby type right now to play 12-18 minutes a game? If this team is missing something, and I'm not sure it is, that's the type of guy I'd like to have right now.

(And when I say, "I'm not sure it is," it's not that we don't have weaknesses, it's just that this team is clicking as is right now, and I'd be afraid to muck it up).

[vango]

I'm enjoying this season but it never hurts to be versatile - a big man - preferably an athletic one has his place with us I think.

A good one is hard to come by though - I like the quote on the DBR home page that cycles around where (I think it was) Seth Greenberg who said a true post player wants to be a PF and a PF wants to be a SF - nobody appreciates what it takes to be a true post player (or something like that).

The one thing that strikes me about this team is how it is constantly echoed as to how Coach K is taking the Phx Suns blueprint and applying it to this team. I believe that to be true - but I've often wondered if our first round game with Delaware State in the 2005 NCAA's got Coach K to thinking.

Del. St. spread the floor, put their big man (was it Roundtree or something like that?) at the top of the key with Shav on him and played him one on one in the open floor allowing him to take Shav off the dribble or kick out (the DSU player was just a better open court player). I watched that game and thought it was absolutely brilliant. Had Del. State's players been as good a group of basketball players as they were atheletes I am convinced they could have beaten us. It was the first shot clock era non-stall offensive set I have seen that made me think - this could change basketball. I just can't help but wonder if that game made Coach K think and D'Antoni's style drove it home....

[jzp5079]

I don't really get the babies reference, but I have to say it (in honor of Wednesday's game and all):

Psycho T... GET IN MY BELLY! :p

Google Jonathon Swift Modest Proposal

Read it, you'll understand. It's also quite educational, and equally entertaining.

[trinity92]

Mentioning Amare is interesting. A case could be made that the Suns were a more exciting club to watch without him. Without him, Diaw would start around the baseline, come out for a reception someone up towards the foul line, usually bounce will continuing away from the basket into a key space, and play to a teammate who had the best opportunity to attack off a kick out or was making a cut that had already penetrated the defense. Exciting, interesting stuff.

All fine and well when you have Marion and Diaw on your team, but we don't come close. Marion, in particular, plays way bigger than 6-7.

[Olympic Fan]

My only gripe with this thread is the use of the word "center" ...

What do you mean by that? Are you going to insist that the every team has a center -- thus Lance Thomas is Duke's center?

If you mean the tradition, big man in the middle, then Brian Zoubek is a center -- Marty Nessley was a center, but Duke's last good one was Mike Gminski. All the other good big men -- Laettner, Brand, Boozer, Shelden -- were forwards playing in the middle. I don't know ... maybe Cherokee qualifies.

I'm just saying just don't get too hung up on positions. In 1988, Duke had 6-10 Danny Ferry playing on the wing with 6-5 Robert Brickey and 6-7 John Smith doing most of the dirty work in the middle. Which was the center?

I think we all would love a perfectly balanced team with a great big man in the middle (whether a "center" or a "power forward"), a great playmaker at the point, a couple of great scorers on the wing and a great defender/rebounder at the other frontcourt spot. But it's not easy to arrange all those pieces at the same time -- when you're missing one piece or another, you do the best you can.

Nobody has done a better job of putting odd pieces together and making a great team. He's had Final Four teams without true big men (1988) and he's had Final Four teams without true point guards (1988, 1989, 1994). He's won an ACC without any size at all (1997) ... and he's doing a great job this year with the smallest frontcourt in the ACC.

[Madrasdukie]

Mentioning Amare is interesting. A case could be made that the Suns were a more exciting club to watch without him. Without him, Diaw would start around the baseline, come out for a reception someone up towards the foul line, usually bounce will continuing away from the basket into a key space, and play to a teammate who had the best opportunity to attack off a kick out or was making a cut that had already penetrated the defense. Exciting, interesting stuff.

With Amare, the spaces that Diaw would otherwise see and go to to make a reception was often clogged with Amare and his defender being too close for an entry pass and play off of Diaw's reception and back to the basket feeds. Amare himself, when Diaw could make such a reception, had little feel for the one-two passing game Diaw is so adroit at.

As a consequence, Diaw's game and the sharpness it contributed to inside out play and movement off of it evaporated. The suns are left to get it to Amare for a scoring attempt in and around the paint, or create inside-out play off of Nash's initiation.

In my mind, less interesting. Which ultimately gives the Suns a better chance to win it all is beyond me. My sense is that all the trade rumors we have heard regarding Amare, however, might have something to do with things other than doubt about his long-term health. I think that he just might not fit best with how D'Antoni wants his team to play. Just a guess here, just a guess.

Interesting take.
I tend to like the post defense and rebounding ability Amare brings along with his patented explosive game...haven't looked at the numbers just a casual observation.

[BD80]

If the Suns don't think they need a big man - at least Amare, please explain the rumor that they are about to trade Marion for Shaq?

[BD80]

BTW Why didn't Duke recruit Amare? We just can't get the good big men. :(

The newest conspiracy theory, Roy is going to sign every high school player 6'9" or taller so that there is no one left for Duke.

Duke will land more "big" men, good ones, I just hope they play as well as part of a team as this year's players are.