Flash is the Future wrote:OGSactownballer wrote:I am going to stipulate that you are obviously much more familiar with the Heat than I am. However, looking at it as a basketball player and coach for over thirty years, you have to acknowledge that 1) Wade's PRIMARY offensive weapon is his speed as a driving/sladhing scorer combined with the strength to finish against players his size or larger - very similar to Martin for us but Martin finishes by going over or around guys with his greater LENGTH. The other thing 2) Beasley is most effective being able to operate from 15-17 feet in and IN THE POST where he can take advantage of guys with - once again - his SPEED.
Now like I said, I'm not a Heat expert, but from what I have detailed here I would say that putting a guy in the paint that is a step slow would only clog it up and severely restrict your incredible primary and secondary offensive options. By using a high post center that opens up the paint (taking his man outside as a true high-percentage midrange jumpshooting threat), and is able to hit the cutter or the post man OVER THE TOP, you increase the effectiveness and impact of your offense (relieving the need for transition defense by creating higher percentage opportunities that make the other team take the ball out of the basket) and the overall impact of your top two players.
Just my .02, for what it's worth.
It makes good basketball sense. Though when Miami acquired Shaq, everyone said that he and Wade wouldn't work well together because Shaq would clog the paint, and we all know how that worked out (Championship). Honestly, between JO+Brad Miller, I'm not sure who I prefer.
The thing that happened with Shaq there is that he had actually become a pretty good passer out of the double (and triple) team while he was in LA - Phil Jackson and the triangle would tolerate no less - and it probably just became ridiculously easy for him when he got a kid who was even FASTER than Kobe.
I hear what you are saying though about a preference between Brad and JO - really two very different types of big. Personally, although a lot of the Sac board guys are have pushed for some JO trades, I'm not to keen on it. Our young bigs will get more paint time with Brad just playing out his contract here than if we bring in a guy who is basically like bringing back a crippled C-webb again.
This is the real reason that I can see Marion making sense for us - even though I'm not a Marion fan either - he actually does not interfere with the development of Hawes and Thompson, and if anything a half-season of him here might be a benefit to them and even a couple of other players who have strayed from the path here (i.e. - Beno) by pushing them to hustle harder and teaching them how to more effectively use their body positioning in the post.