Comments on: Pistons aren’t following NBA’s small-ball trend

By: DasMark

DasMark — Fri, 19 Oct 2012 10:31:45 +0000

But that wasn’t small ball. Lewis and Hedo are both 6’10. If anything, they went big. But, Hedo and Lewis could shoot the long ball, so it looked more like a small ball style of play. Really, they were a novelty outfit built to hide Howard’s offensive deficiencies. It wasn’t small ball at all.

The teams that are successful at the small ball model also happen to have top 5 league talent on their roster. LeBron James, Wade, Durant and Westbrook make up for a lack of a center.

Also, like said above, those teams lacked an impact center. Perkins has never been the same after his knee exploded in the finals against LA. Which makes another point, people are really looking at this last season in a vacuum. Dallas won a championship with a lot of credit going to the defensive presence of Tyson Chandler. The year before, you have the Lakers with Pau Gasol and Bynum. Most championship teams have had impact centers.

By: apa8ren9

apa8ren9 — Fri, 19 Oct 2012 00:41:13 +0000

The small ball trend is a direct result of terrible center play of the last 15 or so years in the NBA (since expansion) like Corey said. How many bigs now have a legit post game ala Ewing or Shaq? Its really bad because to be effective with your team you dont necessarily have to avg 20 pts. If you are a big and can avg 12-16 legit in the Post Points. You can field a competitive team. It also comes down to matchups. With Detroit at this point from a competitive standpoint your only chance is to be better in the front court where Miami is weak. No one is better than James and no one on our roster is better than Wade, so to be competitive you have to have good players in the back court and have top 10 players in the front court. Hopefully Monroe and Drummond will reach that level sometime in the future.

By: frankie d

frankie d — Fri, 19 Oct 2012 00:33:57 +0000

not true.
check the stats.
daly ushered in an entirely new approach to winning.
pre-daly and the bad boys, the best teams – the lakers, the celts, philly – were dominant offensive teams. sure, there was the occasional team that did not fit that mold, but that team was the exception, rather than the rule.
daly changed that dramatically. phil jackson emulated daly’s success with the bulls teams and the league has followed suit ever since.
daly was the most important coach of that last generation because of his impact.

By: Patrick Hayes

Patrick Hayes — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 22:48:20 +0000

I don’t know about that … Orlando played a variation of ‘small ball’ with Howard. Hedo Turkoglu and Rashard Lewis were both career small forwards and they played a lot of PF in Orlando.

By: Vic

Vic — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 22:15:50 +0000

Small ball only works if you’re playing with Michael Jordan or LeBron James.
Stretch fours only work if you’re playing with Dwight Howard.

Everybody else just plays normal good old-fashioned basketball. I think that half of the success of small ball happens because of the con game of small ball. They trick people into trying to beat it by matching it.

Even the inventor of small ball Don Nelson, said that he only did it because he didn’t have enough good big man. He said he only did it when his team was bad.

Anybody watching the finals last year could see that the thunder played way better when Nick Collison was in versus when Kendrick Perkins was in. You just have to have a big man that can also cover a lot of ground quickly. I think OKC would have beat Miami if they have given that Collison more of the minutes at center.

That being said, I agree with Freywagg, I think we have the perfect lineup options to beat LeBron now. What Maggete jerebko and Drummond, I wouldn’t be surprised if we as an 8 seed gave the 1 seed all they could handle. Plus our secret Heat kryptonite Austin Daye.

It’s all on if the coach has enough intelligence and courage to play the right players.

By: Scott Free

Scott Free — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 21:48:02 +0000

^ Well Said.

By: danny

danny — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 21:36:26 +0000

A lot of people utilize small ball when they are losing games. It allows them to open the field and have more shooters. What people do not realize is that okc and miami have bosh and ibaka. they are able to run the floor like deers and they are able to step out to the 12-15 foot areas and hit from there. Does that mean we need to use that style? No. Basically we did some small ball last year and it didnt work for us. we are a team that grinds and plays defense lets keep it that way.

By: Corey

Corey — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 20:59:46 +0000

Small ball is for teams who don’t have impact centers. A team with a Howard, Bynum, or Chandler doesn’t play smallball. The rise of smallball is because of the dearth of quality centers nowadays.

By: freywagg

freywagg — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 20:50:37 +0000

If we go big (Drummond, Monroe, Jerebko, Maggette(I know he’s not a great defender, feel free to pick someone else)/English, Stuckey)
you don’t think those guys might be able to guard and frustrate Bosh, James, Battier, Wade, Chalmers?
This is where see what Drummond turns into as far as elite defender. The dude is uncannily quick for his size. If we could pull off Monroe on Bosh and Drummond on James, I think we’d be in a pretty unique place as far as slowing that line-up.
Sure, I’m getting ahead of myself dreaming of Drummond being able to guard perimeter players, but physically, he’s like LeBron, one size up – way quicker and more agile than he should be at his height/weight. I’m willing to dream that he becomes a one of a kind defensive talent.

By: Patrick Hayes

Patrick Hayes — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 20:29:08 +0000

“remember when everyone was trying to find a 6’8? point guard after a certain michigan kid had so much success?”

Yep, the Heat almost ruined Steve Smith’s career trying to make him into a PG.