Steve Kerr: NBA Has Almost Eliminated Power Forward Position

[RealGM Wiretap]

Steve Kerr spoke about how the NBA has moved away from traditional power forwards in which those players are almost exclusively either centers or wings.

"The other thing that hurts all the centers is there's no four-man anymore," Kerr said. "David West used to be a four, now he's a five. (Kevon) Looney -- ten years ago would have been a four. Now he's a five.

"So as a result, we end up with six centers on a roster ... now you're either a five or you're a three. The four position has almost been eliminated from the NBA.

"Unless you're Draymond Green and you just play whatever the hell position you want to call it."

Via Drew Shiller/Comcast

[rafisher1]

Funny that the Lakers are in camp with 4-7 footers and 4 Power Forwards.

[ChokeFasncists]

What the heck? It sounds like oxymoron

Isn't it more like the position has changed with Draymond as some kinda prototype?

[ChokeFasncists]

Funny that the Lakers are in camp with 4-7 footers and 4 Power Forwards.

Funny how B "can't coach modern defense and I hate three point shooting " S hated his predecessor MDA the innovator, tried to repeal whatever he did and now left a mess. Those 4 4s really need to acquire some 3 skills.

[Jalen Bluntson]

Guards and wings are interchangeable too. It's "positionless" basketball these days. The 3 ball is more prominent...especially for bigs. Back in the day...a big shooting a 3 was usually laughable!

[PDXKnight]

The 3 ball has changed the game drastically.

[NO-KG-AI]

PF has always been a weird position that seemed to be based on fitting around the other pieces that teams had. Unless you had a dominant PF, it seemed like there wasn't a prototype for what a PF should be, he just had to compliment your C, or mesh with your ball handlers well.

[12footrim]

Guards and wings are interchangeable too. It's "positionless" basketball these days. The 3 ball is more prominent...especially for bigs. Back in the day...a big shooting a 3 was usually laughable!

Yeah, but where as 10 or 20 years ago you had streach 4's like Matt Bullard/Bonner, Terry Mills, even Dirk now you see the go to line ups at least with more athletic switchable players in the mold of Harrison Barnes, Aminu, Ariza etc etc in those roles. More fairly tall athletic 3 types that can shoot a little and switch on to smaller players if needed and big enough to hold up a little on bigger guys and in some cases athletic enough to even get to the rim.

I think that's more the prototype moving forward than a Dirk or Draymond even. Those are just unique players that probably would and do get pushed to the 5 in crunch time. Even the Bonner/Bullard types like Ryan Anderson now play some 5 in crunch time at times.

[The_Hater]

What the heck? It sounds like oxymoron

Isn't it more like the position has changed with Draymond as some kinda prototype?

Shawn Marion could be deemed the prototype, modern PF. When MDA moved his skinny ass to PF back in Phoenix, everyone, media, fans, coaches and players thought he was nuts. Dray and the Warriors have definitely taken things to another level but Dray might end up being the prototypical Center going forward.

[floppymoose]

I have no idea why he mentioned Looney. Looney isn't anything now and wouldn't have been anything 10 years ago.

[ChokeFasncists]

What the heck? It sounds like oxymoron

Isn't it more like the position has changed with Draymond as some kinda prototype?

Shawn Marion could be deemed the prototype, modern PF. When MDA moved his skinny ass to PF back in Phoenix, everyone, media, fans, coaches and players thought he was nuts. Dray and the Warriors have definitely taken things to another level but Dray might end up being the prototypical Center going forward.

~lol~ Na, all the centers are gonna be 6'7?

He's a PF that can play C sometimes.

[antonac]

lets face it, a lot of the time the power forward was just another, slightly smaller, center in the team due to the effectiveness of post scoring and the importance of rim protection and rebounding.

those two things are far less important now, they clog the paint up on offense and teams take advantage of slower bigs by switching guards on to them or simply shooting the ball from the perimeter where they're useless.

every team could use rebounding but guys like Rodman, Barkley, Green etc have shown rebounding isn't just about being huge. ultimately there are only 5 players on the court and you need a mix of playmaking, scoring, shooting, defense, there's just no room to waste on someone who doesn't help add these things.

[The_Hater]

What the heck? It sounds like oxymoron

Isn't it more like the position has changed with Draymond as some kinda prototype?

Shawn Marion could be deemed the prototype, modern PF. When MDA moved his skinny ass to PF back in Phoenix, everyone, media, fans, coaches and players thought he was nuts. Dray and the Warriors have definitely taken things to another level but Dray might end up being the prototypical Center going forward.

~lol~ Na, all the centers are gonna be 6'7?

He's a PF that can play C sometimes.

He could easily play Center full time. The best lineups in the league these past 3 seasons feature Dray playing at Center while his defensive versatility allows him to play other positions as well.

And with the way the game is going requiring Centers to have more skill, i suspect more and more teams will play smaller players at the position who meet that requirement.

[dantheman74]

Steve Kerr is such a douchebag, he got so lucky joining in the position of coach of those guys, doesn't even have to tell them what to do to win. He's just a motivational speaker at best for that squad, "mah back, play hard now guys coz one day your back will be gone"

[Kevin Willis]

He's exaggerating, there are some players that are PFs like Kevin Love, Kenneth Faried, Patrick Patterson, LMA, etc. They can't play the 5 and they can't play the 3. You can put them in those positions but they will be destroyed. What he should say is small ball style makes a traditional 4 unnecessary but many NBA rosters can't play that way.

[MitchB3]

I want to start out with this, Draymond is a 3 playing the 4, the reason why he's successful right now is because there's no more post-dominate player(s).

[ChokeFasncists]

Shawn Marion could be deemed the prototype, modern PF. When MDA moved his skinny ass to PF back in Phoenix, everyone, media, fans, coaches and players thought he was nuts. Dray and the Warriors have definitely taken things to another level but Dray might end up being the prototypical Center going forward.

~lol~ Na, all the centers are gonna be 6'7?

He's a PF that can play C sometimes.

He could easily play Center full time. The best lineups in the league these past 3 seasons feature Dray playing at Center while his defensive versatility allows him to play other positions as well.

And with the way the game is going requiring Centers to have more skill, i suspect more and more teams will play smaller players at the position who meet that requirement.

Even if he plays center full time, he won't be the prototypical center.

There's a reason he doesn't start there

Guys like KAT, Cousins, Whiteside, Turner, Jokic are still doing well.

I don't think any team starts a 6'7 at center?

[The_Hater]

~lol~ Na, all the centers are gonna be 6'7?

He's a PF that can play C sometimes.

He could easily play Center full time. The best lineups in the league these past 3 seasons feature Dray playing at Center while his defensive versatility allows him to play other positions as well.

And with the way the game is going requiring Centers to have more skill, i suspect more and more teams will play smaller players at the position who meet that requirement.

Even if he plays center full time, he won't be the prototypical center.

There's a reason he doesn't start there

Guys like KAT, Cousins, Whiteside, Turner, Jokic are still doing well.

I don't think any team starts a 6'7 at center?

The entire subject of this thread is about how prototypes are changing. Even the prototype for a PG has changed the past 10 years, once they had to pass first and now they have to be able to shoot with range. If you can't, you're limited.

You're assuming here that the prototype for Center won't change when it already is in the process of changing. The NBA finals the past 3 years featured teams who played Green and Thompson at Center, neither meets your prototype. Dwight Howard is completely unwanted in today's league. So much for the days of Wilt/Russell, Kareem/Parish and Shaq/Hakeem. They're over.

[ChokeFasncists]

He could easily play Center full time. The best lineups in the league these past 3 seasons feature Dray playing at Center while his defensive versatility allows him to play other positions as well.

And with the way the game is going requiring Centers to have more skill, i suspect more and more teams will play smaller players at the position who meet that requirement.

Even if he plays center full time, he won't be the prototypical center.

There's a reason he doesn't start there

Guys like KAT, Cousins, Whiteside, Turner, Jokic are still doing well.

I don't think any team starts a 6'7 at center?

The entire subject of this thread is about how prototypes are changing. Even the prototype for a PG has changed the past 10 years, once they had to pass first and now they have to be able to shoot with range. If you can't, you're limited.

True

You're assuming here that the prototype for Center won't change when it already is in the process of changing.

Not true, all I'm saying is that Green is still closer to a PF than being the prototype for center. The prototype for center has changed and will change but I doubt it'll be a 6'7 guy, he's more of a part time outlier.

The NBA finals the past 3 years featured teams who played Green and Thompson at Center, neither meets your prototype.

Those teams didn't go the finals because of them tho. If they are their teams' best player then it's different. If they put another good taller guy there they'd still go to the finals.

Dwight Howard is completely unwanted in today's league.

He's an idiot, he doesn't want to do PnR, otherwise, he'd still be pretty good

So much for the days of Wilt/Russell, Kareem/Parish and Shaq/Hakeem. They're over.

In some ways, yes, but not completely, there will still be plenty of seven footers starting at center in this league.

[The_Hater]

Even if he plays center full time, he won't be the prototypical center.

There's a reason he doesn't start there

Guys like KAT, Cousins, Whiteside, Turner, Jokic are still doing well.

I don't think any team starts a 6'7 at center?

The entire subject of this thread is about how prototypes are changing. Even the prototype for a PG has changed the past 10 years, once they had to pass first and now they have to be able to shoot with range. If you can't, you're limited.

True

You're assuming here that the prototype for Center won't change when it already is in the process of changing.

Not true, all I'm saying is that Green is still closer to a PF than being the prototype for center. The prototype for center has changed and will change but I doubt it'll be a 6'7 guy, he's more of a part time outlier.

The NBA finals the past 3 years featured teams who played Green and Thompson at Center, neither meets your prototype.

Those teams didn't go the finals because of them tho. If they are their teams' best player then it's different. If they put another good taller guy there they'd still go to the finals.

Dwight Howard is completely unwanted in today's league.

He's an idiot, he doesn't want to do PnR, otherwise, he'd still be pretty good

So much for the days of Wilt/Russell, Kareem/Parish and Shaq/Hakeem. They're over.

In some ways, yes, but not completely, there will still be plenty of seven footers starting at center in this league.

My guess is you're viewing Gasol, Towns, Embiid and Cousins are prototype Centers. But they all meet the new model. They can all shoot from deep and they are all excellent passers. 3 of them have lethal dribble drive games too. They happen to be Typical Centers in terms of size but their skill sets are more of a perimeter player. That's the change that is taking place in front of our eyes.