Thought about our bigmen

[Bruno]

First I'm not a nba specialist, so correct me if I'm wrong.

Against Hawks three weeks ago, Harrington killed us in the first quarter and then he was Bowned.
That was great but it's not Bowen task to defend against opposite PF. He should defend on the best opposite swingmen. Even against long three, he does a great job.

Against Lakers, Bruce bowned Bryant but Odom scored 27 on us.

We have nobody to defend on quick PF with some perimeter offense like Odom, Nowitzki, Jamison, SAR, Harrington...
We have some difficulties against small ball too. (see Bulls@home)

Among our 5 bigs the only one able to defend well against such players is Horry and he is in the freezer til April.

After the Malik trade and the signing of Oberto instead of Scola, I find that our PF/C rotation is not well balanced. More and more teams play with combo forward at the power forward and we haven't any good answer against that.

We have the mystical long three, but don't we missed more a fast four ?
Even if the playoff will be a different story, I find a little worrisome to have allmost every game an opponent we couldn't matchup well.

Should we be worried about that or am I in Bull mode ?

[leemajors]

it just puts our defense a little out of sorts. duncan and nesterovic are both at their best when defending the paint. a PF with more range and a jumpshooting game forces one of them out of their element. if that PF has a good game and our offense does not we tend to look bad - i.e. playing their game instead of ours. different teams propose different strats and lineups, and good jumpshooting teams with a perimeter oriented PF tend to be our achilles heel. it's just the way it is, and pop and co. are gonna have to find a way to defend it.

[mrpach]

the eternal search for the long 3

[xcoriate]

long 3 = fast 4

[slayermin]

It would be nice to pickup that quick 6'10 guy but as long as the Spurs match up well with the Pistons and the Heat, I think we are in good shape.

The Pistons looked great tonight against the Clippers. Dunleavy resorted to the hack-a-Ben the last seven minutes of the game. It was pretty pathetic.

[Bruno]

long 3 = fast 4

Not exactly and that's my point.
I don't think small ball is a good way to go with Spurs : we aren't a fastbreak team and we need to feed Duncan.
I don't speak about guys like Tayshaun Prince, we still have Bruce who does a good job against biggest 3 in the league.
I speak about guys like Malik Rose and Sharod Ford : a real PF who can guard the perimeter.

[mikejones99]

Duncan Oberto manu bowen and parker can be that linup sometimes. Oberto will improve and can pay like Rose

[SouthernFried]

Oberto has the physical ability to guard Outside shooting PF's. He is athletic, and quick...moves like a small forward.

But the guy seems to be outta position a ton. Or, he'll play too close to someone, and they just go around him. From what I've seen, Oberto simply doesn't know how to play defense. He doesn't move laterally at all, ends up running beside his man...instead of moving side to side, in FRONT of his man. He could be the answer to someone like Dirk...but he's got a long way to go yet.

[ShoogarBear]

Oberto has the physical ability to guard Outside shooting PF's. He is athletic, and quick...moves like a small forward.

Uh, I don't think so. That's the first time I'v ever seen Oberto described as "quick". You yourself pointed out his lack of lateral mobility. He's got reasonable mobility on the offensive end, but Dirk would destroy him on the perimeter.