Kurt Thomas vs Shaq: Why Was Kurt a Better Fit?

[JohnVancouver]

[quote="Sun Scorched"]

I'm all for team chemistry, but the point of each and every basketball game is to put the ball through the hoop more often than your opponent. O'Neal shot 60% from the field and helped our anemic rebounding... which both directly serve my last point. I love Stoudemire, but he can't (or won't) do either of those two things.

/quote]

Of all the things Stat is guilty of, offensive inefficiency is not one of them. I'm too lazy to look it up but he must be around 50% from the field. He kind of specializes in high-percentage shots

Shaq doesn't "demand" a double-team anymore. How many 'gimme' layups did he miss in 1+ seasons? He brings a lot of things, no denying, but he brings a lot of p[problems too.
I mean, we were supposed to be thrilled that he raised his FT percentage to over 60%? That still makes him a liability at the end of games. What's the point of having him if you can't play him when you need him?

[Sun Scorched]

I'm all for team chemistry, but the point of each and every basketball game is to put the ball through the hoop more often than your opponent. O'Neal shot 60% from the field and helped our anemic rebounding... which both directly serve my last point. I love Stoudemire, but he can't (or won't) do either of those two things.

Of all the things Stat is guilty of, offensive inefficiency is not one of them. I'm too lazy to look it up but he must be around 50% from the field. He kind of specializes in high-percentage shots

Shaq doesn't "demand" a double-team anymore. How many 'gimme' layups did he miss in 1+ seasons? He brings a lot of things, no denying, but he brings a lot of p[problems too.
I mean, we were supposed to be thrilled that he raised his FT percentage to over 60%? That still makes him a liability at the end of games. What's the point of having him if you can't play him when you need him?

You have me on Stoudemire's efficiency. I know he hovers around 50% and when you consider that lately more of his attempts have come from mid-range than from dunks and put-backs that number becomes even more impressive.

I'm not going to excuse O'Neal's FT%, it simply can't be done. Had that man learned to shoot a free throw, he could have come a lot closer to passing Chamberlain on the all-time scoring list.

But last season I regularly saw O'Neal draw double teams and I just don't think this team is built to capitalize (or even recognize for that matter) off of the spacing provided by a presence down-low instead of the spacing provided for by playing at break-neck speeds.

[hitachi7]

The overall offensive efficiency was close. In the Shaq days our FG% was higher but we took less 3's (at a worse clip). The TS% and eFG% were really close in the eras. Defensively though KT>Shaq, mainly because he wasn't nearly as exploitable in the PnR, and that ended up being more valuable than Shaq being a better 1on1 defender. Last year's team was our worst defensively by far, but that was from losing Bell/Marion more than anything. We were a good defensive team with Bell/Marion/KT in the lineup.

[Orange_Blooded]

Had more to do with the personnel around KT(namely Marion) and the fact that KT was not a star and didn't have to start, we used him on match ups when needed, with Shaq we mad others match up with him. Also didn't hurt that KT had a sweet stroke at times and didnt clog up the lane and allowed marion, Amare and the boys to slash and run the pick and roll with nash.

[JohnVancouver]

Had more to do with the personnel around KT(namely Marion) and the fact that KT was not a star and didn't have to start, we used him on match ups when needed, with Shaq we mad others match up with him. Also didn't hurt that KT had a sweet stroke at times and didnt clog up the lane and allowed marion, Amare and the boys to slash and run the pick and roll with nash.

Yeah, it's easy to forget that KT came into the league as a scoring monster and then refined his game to make himself more valuable. Not many players are cap[able of doing that