TimberKat wrote:Exp0sed wrote:Chuck Everett wrote:
They're probably going to need him to play some minutes in every game (8-12). As of right now, he's only played in one of the three Lakers games. Minnesota is too big to expect Jokic/Gordon to never have foul trouble or need a breather.
Funny how the narrative had changed. It was all about small ball a few years ago. Everyone thinks Wolves were crazy making the Gobert trade. When the trade happened, Connelly and Finch said they see the new trend coming and other teams are going to have to figure out how to play big to match up with us and everyone laughs including Chuck and Shaq.
that's not entirely accurate. Gobert just came off yet another season in which he dominated on D in the rs and was borderline unplayable in the playoffs. Wolves were correct in thinking this was a personnel and scheme issue and not an innate issue with Gobert himself, so good on them
however, the bulk of the criticm for that trade was because it was universally felt the price they paid was a.) way too steep b.) way above the market value of Gobert at the time and c.)that they were bidding against themselves..no1 could figure out why they offered so much when Aingle was clearly very interested in selling and no1 else but them was buying
it was less about the actual basketball fit even tho like I said, there were plenty of doubts regarding that as well at the time and it makes sense if u consider Gobert's playoff play on those Utah teams
however, it asbsoultely works in the current context and it's downright dominant
small ball has been dead for a while, all of the last champions were big teams playing traditional Centers
there was a moment in time when everyone was trying to copy the Dubs and non-stretch bigs were significanly devalued. however when u look at most of the top teams, many of which have Centers that can stretch the floor, they're just not small
they're actual bigs who can shoot well, Jokic, Embiid etc.
Gobert for instance can't do that but u still got a PF whose arguably the best shooting big in the NBA
same goes for a guy like Giannis who isn't really a threat from deep but is deployed alongside a giant Brooke Lopez who shoots very well on large volume
fwiw, small ball wouldn't have worked if there was a guy like Jokic in his prime at the time