RealGM

What do you guys think of the concept of having your defense anchored by a wing player? Lets say Scottie Pippen( Best example possible probably ). He can guard the opposing teams best player, play the passing lanes, block more than a shot a game and give you great rebounding. I know it kind of contradicts itself that your anchor isn't in the middle, but given this line-up for 82 games :

PG: Mario Chalmers
SG: Joe Johnson
SF: Caron Butler
PF: Scottie Pippen
C: Jared Jeffries

How do you think they fare? Pippen is obviously the best defender out of the group, and Jeffries isn't a shot-blocker, and doesn't match up that well at the C position.

That team would likely get murdered on the boards. We've seen great/elite defenses anchored from the perimeter, Miami and Philadelphia being current examples, but they're at least above average on the defensive boards. If you booted Caron Butler, moved Pippen to SF, and inserted someone like Udonis Haslem at PF then you could have a pretty good defensive team without a traditional big man anchor.

Yeah its possible for sure, but as kabstah mentioned, D rebounding would suffer quite a bit in that lineup. A team of Chalmers/JJ/Pippen/Reggie Evans/Al Jefferson doesn't have a big man anchor, but the rebounding is good and Pippen could anchor it from the perimeter.

I think that particular lineup wouldn't work well, but you could field a very competitive defensive lineup with something like:

PG: Rajon Rondo
SG: Avery Bradley
SF: Andre Iguodala
PF: Jared Jeffries
C: Nick Collison

Just curious, why do you ask, and with that particular lineup?

azuresou1 wrote:I think that particular lineup wouldn't work well, but you could field a very competitive defensive lineup with something like:

PG: Rajon Rondo
SG: Avery Bradley
SF: Andre Iguodala
PF: Jared Jeffries
C: Nick Collison

Just curious, why do you ask, and with that particular lineup?

Wanted Pippen as the non big man defensive anchor since he's one of the most versatile defenders the game has seen, and the team around him is good enough to play some defense to help him out( Jeffries = decent man to man defender, excellent charge drawer, decent size ), Butler is a solid man to man defender, and can play the passing lanes well, same for Chalmers.

I was just wondering how successful a team can be when anchored by a wing player.

Philly had one of the better defenses in the league - anchored by Iggy at SF. They were limited by their offense, which was one of the worst in the league.

Guys like Pippen, Jordan,Lebron, Kirilenko (great help defenders) could anchor team defense.
Jordan and Pippen covered in Bulls all court and intimidated opponents like big men.