Quote:
Originally Posted by kaushikentucky
And the reason they can play small ball is because there are no great bigs. The league isn't bigger and stronger. That's a myth.
See the product of this statement does not take into account pace. There is no way that the big men back in the day could keep up with this pace. The new big man that is the most conventional with a modern flair....is Andre Drummond. He will develop a back to the basket game, strong as a bull, and is a freak-athlete. The speed combined with all those features will make him deadly.
The bigger men will have trouble, and I know ppl will say Boogie is the best big man and I think he is on an individual talent standpoint, but I don't think he would fare well with how the game is changing, he will have to be the 2nd option on a championship team.
Watch Boogie's recovery when he's trailing the play, they wait till he gets to the paint and attack him. He's a very very good player who in my opinion deserves more love than he gets, but the league is moving away from that size of Center. Love Boogie's range, but if you play dominantly better on one side of the ball over the other, it's hard to contend and show your team what it takes to win games.
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Olajuwon, Shaq (in his prime), Ewing, David Robinson, Dikembe, and Mourning (to name a few) are all as if not better conditioned than Drummond. I don't see how you can make that argument. Sure, there were some circus side show oddities back in the day like Shawn Bradley, Ostertag and the like, but that's the same as today, but even more magnified by the lack of talent.
I have no doubts any of the previously mentioned centers would reak havoc both on the offensive and defensive ends. Heck, Drummond is rendered useless outside of 4 feet...I can't even imagine what a guy like Olajuwon could do to these flat footed centers that can't play a lick of defense and aren't allowed to handcheck. Nightmares galore.