Post#12 » by W_HAMILTON » Sun Jan 6, 2008 4:38 pm
Mohammed is a "serviceable" big man.
Okafor is one of the better big men in the league.
Even with the season he's been having, if it wasn't for him being a restricted FA, teams would easily offer him 10m/year if they had it. They'd stop waffling around, play him at center, and let him flourish defensively. End of story.
Just like everyone was asking where he was defensively this season, but then he gets moved back to center, with Wallace playing PF (something that should have happened a long time ago), and he's averaging over 3 blocks/game along with his usual double-digits in rebounding. It's hard to be an anchor defensively when you're away from the basket, being forced to chase around quick PFs.
They should leave him at center, period. He's a center, and he can match up with most of the centers in the league. He's at his best defensively, and even offensively, when he's the center. Why they think he has to play PF, I don't know. I understand keeping him out of foul trouble, but do a "combo-guard" type rotation with Okafor/Wallace/Mohammed, where Okafor/Wallace start at C/PF, Mohammed subs in for Okafor at center, then when Okafor comes back, he can sub in for Wallace at PF and play a few minutes at PF, then when Wallace comes back, Okafor slides over to center. That way he isn't forced to be the defensive anchor the entire game, which I guess they think will lead to him being in foul trouble. At the same time, they said they wanted to keep him out of foul trouble because they wanted his offense...but he took like two shots the last game, so who the hell cares about saving him from foul trouble if he's only gonna get two shots?