Decentralized: The 6'9" Center
Posted: Wed Oct 2, 2019 8:20 pm
An article today by Nigel Roxbury at Clips Nation revealed that JaMychal Green is another 6'9" body who can play center. Montrezl Harrell will also play center, and he's 6'9". Then there's Patrick Patterson, who was forced to play center for the Thunder, and he's 6'9," a concept that, with the help of assistant coach Rex Kalamian (whom Patterson knows back with Raptors), may be revisited this year.
See a common factor here? With Ivica Zubac as the only true seven footer who got ran off the floor by the Warriors, Clippers could be forced to ditch the center position entirely. As much as Doc Rivers wants to maintain a sense of tradition with seven footers playing exclusively at the 5, we've seen in the Lob City era how bad this was. Sure, they did have DeAndre Jordan who could set picks for Paul, Griffin and Redick, but his scoring was extremely limited to lob-jams and thunderous dunks at the rim, not to mention how bad his free throw shooting was, despite incremental percentage improvements. Think of Spencer Hawes, Byron Mullens and even your beloved Boban Marjanovic - they all had some kind of weakness to their game that Doc couldn't bring out of them, whether it was manageable or beyond fixable due to his mess-ups as coach/GM/father.
With a seven foot center, you can turn size into an obstacle for opposing shooters, and verticality into a preventative measure. Shots at rim are easier and nearly unguardable without a player who can match his height. Bigs are not speedy; they will take time to advance from half-court to half-court. It is also not uncommon for their free throw shooting to be decent or mediocre (though drawing fouls in general for your other shooters compensate for this upshot). If your big is extremely limited, as in a foul shield to protect your valuable players from being fouled out, like Lou Amundson and Ryan Hollins, then it really becomes an issue. In the past, guys like Olajuwon, Shaq, Chamberlain, Kareem and Duncan were the seven foot standards (the latter being an exception as a power forward/center hybrid, or cent-ward) - we're not having those guys anymore, I'm afraid.
Small-forward centers are practically the opposite. Speed, smarts and physicality make up for size - you can run the court faster, study on your opponents to time your jumps accordingly for blocks, and bully through other guards, making for intense defensive highlights. To see Harrell plow through a defensive specialist and some help defense, hopping into the air to throw the rock down the hatch for 2-points feels sort of liberating. There's more risk to having 6'9" centers on the floor, while their energy is not suspect, it is select in that over time, these guys will tire themselves out slightly quicker than true bigs. Shots at rim are fairer for opponents if the guarding opposition is not a seven foot player.
The additions of superstars Kawhi Leonard and Paul George might mitigate most of the undersized problems at 5, but could you imagine if Harrell, Patterson and Green, all 6'9" guys, perform decent or even better than their current starting center in Zubac? If this becomes true, I would not be surprised if Zubac is traded this year.
What's your take on the 6'9" guys? Do you think the Clippers are better off without a true seven footer, and that Doc should give up on even keeping tradition alive based on his past experiences from Lob City era? If Zubac is traded, would you rather keep tradition by going after another seven foot commodity, or fill it with a player who can play center, even if he's not truly one (ie: a power forward or small forward) and is completely undersized?
In other words, are the Clippers prepared to fake the 5 like how they did in faking the 3?
See a common factor here? With Ivica Zubac as the only true seven footer who got ran off the floor by the Warriors, Clippers could be forced to ditch the center position entirely. As much as Doc Rivers wants to maintain a sense of tradition with seven footers playing exclusively at the 5, we've seen in the Lob City era how bad this was. Sure, they did have DeAndre Jordan who could set picks for Paul, Griffin and Redick, but his scoring was extremely limited to lob-jams and thunderous dunks at the rim, not to mention how bad his free throw shooting was, despite incremental percentage improvements. Think of Spencer Hawes, Byron Mullens and even your beloved Boban Marjanovic - they all had some kind of weakness to their game that Doc couldn't bring out of them, whether it was manageable or beyond fixable due to his mess-ups as coach/GM/father.
With a seven foot center, you can turn size into an obstacle for opposing shooters, and verticality into a preventative measure. Shots at rim are easier and nearly unguardable without a player who can match his height. Bigs are not speedy; they will take time to advance from half-court to half-court. It is also not uncommon for their free throw shooting to be decent or mediocre (though drawing fouls in general for your other shooters compensate for this upshot). If your big is extremely limited, as in a foul shield to protect your valuable players from being fouled out, like Lou Amundson and Ryan Hollins, then it really becomes an issue. In the past, guys like Olajuwon, Shaq, Chamberlain, Kareem and Duncan were the seven foot standards (the latter being an exception as a power forward/center hybrid, or cent-ward) - we're not having those guys anymore, I'm afraid.
Small-forward centers are practically the opposite. Speed, smarts and physicality make up for size - you can run the court faster, study on your opponents to time your jumps accordingly for blocks, and bully through other guards, making for intense defensive highlights. To see Harrell plow through a defensive specialist and some help defense, hopping into the air to throw the rock down the hatch for 2-points feels sort of liberating. There's more risk to having 6'9" centers on the floor, while their energy is not suspect, it is select in that over time, these guys will tire themselves out slightly quicker than true bigs. Shots at rim are fairer for opponents if the guarding opposition is not a seven foot player.
The additions of superstars Kawhi Leonard and Paul George might mitigate most of the undersized problems at 5, but could you imagine if Harrell, Patterson and Green, all 6'9" guys, perform decent or even better than their current starting center in Zubac? If this becomes true, I would not be surprised if Zubac is traded this year.
What's your take on the 6'9" guys? Do you think the Clippers are better off without a true seven footer, and that Doc should give up on even keeping tradition alive based on his past experiences from Lob City era? If Zubac is traded, would you rather keep tradition by going after another seven foot commodity, or fill it with a player who can play center, even if he's not truly one (ie: a power forward or small forward) and is completely undersized?
In other words, are the Clippers prepared to fake the 5 like how they did in faking the 3?