Biggest disappointments of the off-season?

[admiralsnackbar]

Have you stopped and carefully looked at the frontlines of each of the top centenders in the league? All of which feature at least 2, in many cases 3, players of great size and length in their frontcourt rotation. Let's take a look, shall we:

Fakers - (Gasol, Bynum Odom, Mbenga)
Blazers- (Aldridge, Oden, Camby. Pendergraph)
Mavs - (Haywood, Chandler, Ajinca, Mahinmi)
Celtics -(Garnett, S. O'Neal, J O'Neal, Perkins)
Magic - (Howard, Gortat, Orton)
Heat - (Ilgauskas, Magloire, Bosh, Pittman, Howard)

All these guys at least 6'10" or above. Many of which are legit 7-footers. All the top contenders have size and length. And to add further insult to obvious injury, the Fakers added Spurs castoff Theo Ratliff, to help further shore up their frontline - as if they needed any more size?

All these teams have responded to the talent "arms race", by trying to match size with the Fakers. Meanwhile, the Spurs roll out Duncan, Splitter, Dice, Blair and Bonner. Get the picture? The Spurs are STILL undersized. Again, having Splitter is a wonderful addition that will be of great help to Duncan. However, the Spurs shouldn't have stopped there. Duncan and Dice are aged. Blair is woefully undersized.

For the past 3 postseasons, the Spurs FO and many of us fans figured that the Spurs had enough to contend against the top compe ion in the West. And every spring, we've watched Duncan get literally worn down from the burden of having the carry the team's offensive and defensive load, on both ends. Recall how the Suns picked and rolled Duncan to death, while literally running rings around the Spurs defense on the perimeter, during that epic 4-game sweep? Teams that win the rebounding battle and can stop their opponents usually win. The Suns outshot and outrebounded the Spurs in each of those 4 playoff games. They won handily.

The NBA is an ever-evolving league. Of course, there is always a need for shooters. However, at some point, in tough, grind-it-out, playoff games, defense, rebounding and interior scoring usually prevail. Look no further than the NBA finals matchups the past 3 seasons, for further example. If the Spurs had significantly upgraded their perimeter defense, perhaps the size disadvantage wouldn't be as glaring. However, that's not the case. Be it Mahinmi, Ratliff or whoever, this team needed an upgrade for its 5th big.

Nothing can match size and skill, except for size and skill. Anyone who believes otherwise is foolish. Furthermore, it would delusional to believe that the Spurs are adequately prepared to contend or contest against these bigger frontlines, particularly the Fakers. After all, as 2-time NBA champions, they SHOULD be the measuring stick.

There's no doubt that more talented bigs are always welcome, but if we are going to have a team that relies on shooting and penetration of necessity, it's encouraging to have probably the best pure rebounder in the league in Blair, along with Tim down low. Interior defense is great, but rebounds win ball games. Tim -- even now -- is at least as good on both ends of the court as any big the Bulls ever had, and Blair has all the skill of Rodman (arguable based on sample size, I admit).

The Bulls three-peated twice on the strength of their back-court and rebounding against teams with pretty decent front-courts, so while I'm not arguing we are going to win a ring next season or that Manu is Jordan, I am saying dominant teams have done more with less up front.

[TD 21]

Have you stopped and carefully looked at the frontlines of each of the top centenders in the league? All of which feature at least 2, in many cases 3, players of great size and length in their frontcourt rotation. Let's take a look, shall we:

Fakers - (Gasol, Bynum Odom, Mbenga)
Blazers- (Aldridge, Oden, Camby. Pendergraph)
Mavs - (Haywood, Chandler, Ajinca, Mahinmi)
Celtics -(Garnett, S. O'Neal, J O'Neal, Perkins)
Magic - (Howard, Gortat, Orton)
Heat - (Ilgauskas, Magloire, Bosh, Pittman, Howard)

All these guys at least 6'10" or above. Many of which are legit 7-footers. All the top contenders have size and length. And to add further insult to obvious injury, the Fakers added Spurs castoff Theo Ratliff, to help further shore up their frontline - as if they needed any more size?

All these teams have responded to the talent "arms race", by trying to match size with the Fakers. Meanwhile, the Spurs roll out Duncan, Splitter, Dice, Blair and Bonner. Get the picture? The Spurs are STILL undersized. Again, having Splitter is a wonderful addition that will be of great help to Duncan. However, the Spurs shouldn't have stopped there. Duncan and Dice are aged. Blair is woefully undersized.

For the past 3 postseasons, the Spurs FO and many of us fans figured that the Spurs had enough to contend against the top compe ion in the West. And every spring, we've watched Duncan get literally worn down from the burden of having the carry the team's offensive and defensive load, on both ends. Recall how the Suns picked and rolled Duncan to death, while literally running rings around the Spurs defense on the perimeter, during that epic 4-game sweep? Teams that win the rebounding battle and can stop their opponents usually win. The Suns outshot and outrebounded the Spurs in each of those 4 playoff games. They won handily.

The NBA is an ever-evolving league. Of course, there is always a need for shooters. However, at some point, in tough, grind-it-out, playoff games, defense, rebounding and interior scoring usually prevail. Look no further than the NBA finals matchups the past 3 seasons, for further example. If the Spurs had significantly upgraded their perimeter defense, perhaps the size disadvantage wouldn't be as glaring. However, that's not the case. Be it Mahinmi, Ratliff or whoever, this team needed an upgrade for its 5th big.

Nothing can match size and skill, except for size and skill. Anyone who believes otherwise is foolish. Furthermore, it would delusional to believe that the Spurs are adequately prepared to contend or contest against these bigger frontlines, particularly the Fakers. After all, as 2-time NBA champions, they SHOULD be the measuring stick.

I don't need to "stop and look"; I know them off the top of my head.

Mbenga is a minimal player and not even on the Lakers anymore. When he was, he was never a rotation player.

Pendergraph is an unproven, minimal player, who's not a rotation player and is only 6-9.

Mahinmi and Ajinca (he won't even be active) are not rotation players and are both unproven.

Perkins is out until January-February. Once he returns, Shaq probably won't be in the rotation. But because it's possible at varying points against quality opposition and in the playoffs that they could all play, I'll give you this one.

Orton is unproven, minimal and not only will not be in the rotation, but like Ajinca, he won't even be active.

Pittman is unproven, minimal and barring injury, is likely to spend most of, if not all of, his season in the D-League. Howard is 6-9, minimal and will not not only not be in the rotation, but won't even be active more often than not. Magloire is minimal and also won't be in the rotation.

Out of the guys you named, seven are legit seven footers. That's it.

Ratliff is irrelevant because barring injury, he won't be in the rotation. Aside from a lot of the players you named being some combination of minimal, unproven and not quite as big as you think, you're overlooking that important fact. If they're not going to play in the playoffs barring injury, then why list them? The same thing would have happened had the Spurs re-signed Mahinmi.

I already conceded the Spurs are still slightly undersized, but it shouldn't be nearly as big of an issue as before. If you think about a potential matchup with the Lakers, they'll probably lean heavily on Duncan, McDyess and Splitter. One of Blair or Bonner will probably play relatively sparingly as the fourth big.

You're not thinking about this logically. Given what they could afford, would you play a Mahinmi or an Elson or an Mbenga over Blair, against the Lakers, just because they're taller? If the answer is no, then there's no point in having one of those types if they wouldn't play anyway.

I didn't. It was obvious last off season that the Spurs would ultimately need another long, second or third big caliber big, in order to win the championship. Theoretically, they now have that big. McDyess and Blair are solid players though and I wouldn't bench either just to play some guy who's taller but not nearly as good a player.

Size AND skill. That's just it. You find me another proven, rotation quality big that's 7-0, that the Spurs could have brought in without gutting the team. It has to be someone head and shoulders better than Blair, because that's really what we're talking about here. Not an irrelevant fifth or sixth big, like many of the types you named, which isn't going to be in a playoff rotation.