Reply With Quote
So there's a lot wrong with this. They are many types of skills and multiple types of players. But some skills tend to show up in certain players more frequently, and some skills work better on certain positions. Having a guard who's a great shot-blocker is just not as useful as having a big who is a great shot-blocker. It tends to be easier for guards to be elite ball-handlers because of biomechanics. That's why guys like Giannis and Kristaps are considered unicorns. They display skills you would expect to find in guys much shorter than them.
We don't disagree that in the modern age, kids are learning guard skills despite being taller. That's why almost every big coming out of school today has some semblance of a three-point shot. In even the recent past, those kids would have been discouraged from learning those skills over perfecting their post game or bulking up to defend inside. That creates a more skilled front-court crop to select from, which makes it less important to have guards with those skills.
This has two results. The first is that having "6-6 guys who can move their feet and shoot" is becoming extremely common. Those players aren't rare, even if PATFO treats them like they are. The d-league is full of those players. What you'd want is for the Spurs to identify the best of those players and cycle through them to find someone who sticks. They did this in the past leading to them finding Green. They tried it with guys like Malcolm Thomas and JaMychal Green. There's no excuse why they aren't doing it now. They aren't good enough to let guys like Pon eat up a spot and to earmark a precious two-way for Huestis. Those are spots to try out players like Davon Reed and Jarrod Uthoff. Them sitting on their haunches is frustrating to everyone.
The second result is where I think we are having our disconnect. Because of the more skilled front-court crop, back-court players are more available than ever. Again, I know it doesn't look like it, but it's easier than ever to acquire a shorter guy who can handle the ball and score points. Just because forwards got better doesn't mean guards got worse. So for the same resources available to pick up C-level wings, PATFO should be able to get B-level guards. If for some reason bigs were still learning post skills, them those skills would be cheaper to acquire than every. But since there's a finite amount of improvement someone can make during their development, those elements fell off for the aforementioned perimeter elements.
So it's cheaper and easier to get quality guards, and if you can find them, it's cheaper to get inside, post bigs. That gives the justification for considering a specialist approach to roster building. The next step is talking about its efficacy. This is getting really long as it is, so I'll leave it there for now, but as a short explanation, I'll say that a team with a methodical and disciplined offensive game plan does better with specialists, and a team with a faster-paced, free-flowing game plan does better with generalists. When the Spurs had their elite defense, it made much more sense to have the former game plan. But with their lack of talent (really on both sides of the ball outside of their main two guys and maybe Gay), it's becoming less advantageous.
