Bynum ain't in this convo, so off 21, With Duncan aging and declining and Dwight Howard nothing more than a glorified Mutombo, Gasol has obviously taken up the torch as the NBA's premiere bigman. Going further, he's arguably the last 7 footer who actually plays like a true big and not some wannabe 6-10 shooting guard. Now I love Gasol's game, but 10-20 years ago, he's barely an all star. Not a slight against Gasol but more of an implication of how the NBA culture has changed. Bigmen used to dominate the MVP voting and now it's perimeter players. A player like Artis Gilmore would probably be the league's best center today.
What's to blame for the near the extinction of the "bigman?"
Rule changes that cater to perimeter players?
The Jordan effect: Players growing up emulating his game, wanting to be "like Mike," then undergo a drastic growth spurt and never adjust their game, so they remain playing like guards even though they should be learning a post game.
Laziness?
Not going to college?
What say you?
here's a good post on the topic
http://jonesonthenba.com/2006/05/not...ally-wave.html
Thanks.
2006???
Good post son. Pau has more offensive weapons in his left nut then dwight has in his whole body. Dwight is a beast on D most of the time but he cant score for unless its a dunk fed to him. Left hand, right hand, jumpshot, great FT shooting, god damn no wonder Kobe keeps mentioning that Pau is very underrated still.
Good point Jd. Ike is almost "Shaq-ish". Dunk, Dunk, Dunk, block, block block.
Imagine Pau with Kareem's sky-hook? Cap (KAJ) was the last of the pure scoring bigs in my opinion.
The influence of the European game perhaps? Personally, I miss watching good post play.
I wonder how a player like Kevin McHale would do in today's league. That dude was probably the craftiest low-post player I've ever seen.
Next to Hakeem, of course.
Skill-wise, there's nobody even remotely close to those dudes in today's league.
Last edited by Capt Bringdown; 05-22-2010 at 10:53 PM.
Mchale always says he enjoys watching LA cuz its more old school. 3-4 players that can post up. I wish we saw more of that. Now the league is pretty soft with a bunch of long shots & 3 point chucking..I guess GM's dont realize that jumpshooting teams RARELY win les
Pau = Penis in portuguese
Cant take him seriously
it's not the players fault.
it's the rules.
defensive 3 second violation ruined shot blocking big's. there is no more big time presence clogging the lane.
David Stern did this to open up the lanes to see more Jordan-like dunking and
Dirk = Choker in pig latin
Can't count on him for anything.
Shaq wasn't just dunk dunk dunk. Shaq's power game definitely overshadowed his skill but it doesn't mean that skill didn't exist. Shaq had some great moves in the paint and a pretty one-handed fadeaway from the baseline. I used to marvel at his agility and footwork for a man his size.
Agree ...
But part of it is Sportscenter no one wants to play in the post because after watching Jordan KG, etc make plays from the perimeter in ...that is all young kids wanna do ...
When i coach kids want to practice cros-overs more than drop steps or reverse pivots ...
Pau to me is what Rony Seikaly would have been had he came out during this era.
Check out the article. It's a good read. The reason a lot of teams fall in love with the 3 pointer and jumpshots is to create spacing for guards to penetrate. Combine that with the rule changes that cater to guards and you have GMs now building teams around athletic 2s and 3s rather than the traditional way.Mchale always says he enjoys watching LA cuz its more old school. 3-4 players that can post up. I wish we saw more of that. Now the league is pretty soft with a bunch of long shots & 3 point chucking..I guess GM's dont realize that jumpshooting teams RARELY win les
Even so, you still can't beat great post play, no matter how many rule changes you implement to manufacture the next Jordan. Once you guys got Gasol, I knew it was only a matter of time. He's always been Tim Duncan-lite in Memphis and now with Duncan's decline, has surpassed him.
As a general rule, championship teams are built around big men with good low post skills on both ends.
Your right. What I should have typed was "for the most part" because that's what it was. Not bashing my boy Shaq but he wasn't a basket of shooting skills either. Yes, his footwork was quite impressive for a man his size but you put an A$$ on me the size of Texas I can "ballerina" my way to the basket any day, all day.
Yeah...the bottom line (no pun intended) was that Shaq was pretty much unstoppable in his prime.
Shaq, or more to the point, his left elbow.
Shaq didn't always have to use his ass to get to the rim though. Ask D-Rob (sorry Spurs fans lol). Can you ever see Dwight Howard making moves like this? The footwork? The speed? And then just going over Robinson and kicking him off like a sack of garbage? It was easy to see the thunderous dunks and all that but I always saw the moves. It wasn't fair for a man the size of Shaq to be this coordinated and quick.
Shaq skills on Dwights. I would of LOVED to see a 27-28 year old Shaq go against Dwight. It would be a straight gangbanging. How can you call yourself superman when you cant even post up big baby hahaha come on sonnnnn.
Yup, I remember "that" elbow...
at the end of the day he could also do this:
Prime Shaq would murder any center in the NBA today. Absolutely murder. By halftime Big Baby would be laying under the bench in a fetal position.
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