Blake at SF?

[KyletheDingbat]

Do you see Blake ever being able to morph into a SF? I think he can. I think he's quick and fast enough (by the way has anyone else noticed his elite speed in the full court? He's one of the fastest at the 3-5 in the league I think), and is 80% there with handles. Passing is already great for a SF, he's got the moves and agility for the position. All that's missing is the jump shot.

Here's where I get really interested: if he made the jump, wouldn't he immediately be one of the most dominant SF's of all time? Definitely the biggest and strongest, most athletic along with Lebron... What do you think?

[scoobs07]

Would be a complete waste of time because he wouldne really be utilizing his strengths. That being said, I could see him being a Lebron point forward type, but I am sure he is happy having the best PG in the league getting him the ball.

[og15]

I've thought about this in passing before, but what's interesting is that teams are moving the opposite direction. Guys with Blake's size are being moved to PF (Lebron, Carmelo). He technically can't shoot well enough to be a SF in the way most teams play a SF. The reality is also that Blake is close to a SF sized player that is really strong and can post up and is explosive than he is to a "big man" in terms of a PF/C type player. Let's look at his "basketball height", that is standing reach.


Blake's Reach
I'm going to show a comparison of Blake's reach to SF's, to some PF's who people call undersized, and just some other guys for comparison.

Blake has the same reach (8'9) as these players: Bobby Simmons, Joe Johnson, Shane Battier, Josh Childress

Blake has a shorter reach than these players: (8'9"5) Jared Sullinger, Justin Holiday, Marcus Morris, Sam Young, Rasual Butler, Josh Howard, Matt Bonner, Carmelo Anthony, Shaun Livingston, Andre Iguodala, Paul Millsap (8'10) Thomas Robinson, Kyle Singler, Trevor Booker, Kawhi Leonard, Wesley Johnson, Michael Dunleavy, Damien Wilkens, Martell Webster, Kevin Love, Jason Smith, Thaddeus Young / (8'10"25) Lebron James (8'10"5) Markieff Morris, Ekpe Udoh, Dajuan Summers, Ryan Gomes, Brandon Bass, David Lee

There are more, such as guys like Rudy Gay and then in the highest mark at SF, a guy like Durant, but they are exceptions.

Blake wouldn't be in the upper tier when it comes to reach as a SF, he would be closer to the average actually. Technically, Blake is more of an undersized PF than both Lebron and Carmelo when if comes to how high they reach. Considering Lebron is a heavy and strong guy who is also athletic, he actually has a better combination of PF height, size, reach and weight than Blake. This is one of the reasons I am not as hard on Blake in terms of "why can't he just turn and shoot over guys in the post", and also in terms of why he pump fakes a lot in the post. Basically everytime you see Blake posting up, it somewhat similar to a Lebron, Carmelo, posting up against PF's and C's. So what he does even taking into account his athletic ability and strength is very impressive.

Disadvantages
The main issue will be guarding SF's, it's just not something he would be used to. If you were an experimenting coach, you could test out playing Blake at "SF" next to a 3PT shooting PF. All this means is that you throw out Blake and a shooting PF. Blake plays exactly the way he does now except the opposition has to decide whether to guard him with their PF or their SF. If they guard him with their SF, he has a strength advantage, if they guard him with their PF, your PF has an advantage on their SF.

It's something that with the right players you could attempt for stretches in a game just to change things up, but it would require a PF that could shoot, and you would have to determine in practice if Blake can actually guard SF's without picking up fouls or struggling defensively.

Advantages
Another issue is that Blake is a mis-match at PF in terms of speed, so that allows him to get out on the break and score. He would still be faster than a lot of SF's, but there's less of an advantage. The consolation is that the Clippers already under utilize Blake in transition anyways as the team plays a lot more half court basketball than they probably need to. Blake only has 14% of his possessions in transition, which is very weak for a guy that is faster and more athletic than most guys at his position.

On the other hand, if teams actually guarded Blake with SF's, it makes his post up game much more effective because he doesn't have to over think and sometimes fake too much, and he can actually just turn and shoot a hook over the majority of defenders put on him. He would also have a big strength advantage over most of them and teams would double him more and allow the Clippers to use him as a playmaker.

[mkwest]

If you bring in the right complementary piece, it would be interesting to see how it would work on occasion. If it was situational and the match-up worked, I'd be open to it.

Full-time SF? I don't think I would be a fan of that. He would certainly need to become a much better shooter, both in the mid-range and preferably respectable from outside. Even then, like og mentioned, it would be best if it happened alongside a stretch 4.

Right now, Blake is still young, so the quickness is there. As he gets older, it would be harder to keep up with the SF's. So, Blake would need to show some vast improvement on his shot very soon to make this work imo.

[TheNewEra]

Think we would need a long post scoring big at PF for it to work even in small spots like a Kaman/P.Gasol/Dirk

[og15]

I think you would rather have a perimeter big that can beat up on mis-matches, but not really a primarily post scoring big cause if you have DJ, Blake and another post guy, that's a lot of crowding.

At SF, you would want Blake playing as a post-up SF, not as a perimeter SF, that would be improper use of his skills. This is actually similar to what Miami is doing. They totally changed their offense from last year to use the post up as a playmaking asset and less as primarily for scoring, so they took Bosh out of the post and put Lebron and Wade, their best playmakers there. Bosh doesn't get many post-ups anymore, not because he's bad, but because post playmaking has a tendency to prevent your offense from getting stagnant.

So you put a guy like Channing Frye for example who can shoot very well outside, but will also kill SF's in the post if teams made that switch. Pair him along with Blake and Blake guards SF's, then it could be interesting.

Kaman can't really guard PF's and doesn't have enough range, Gasol is better inside than shooting jumpshots, but Dirk works, but I mean that's not that realistic, maybe a not so good player because with Dirk who even cares how you play them together, just toss them out there

Technically, the not as fat version (fat version probably still works) of Charlotte Boris Diaw who could hit three's could also work, and so could the non-sucky / more athletic version of Lamar Odom, Odom version 05-06 maybe.

[Neddy]

what a bad idea.

[mttwlsn16]

Ned that legit made me l-o-l

[jflipclip]

I think you can make a strong argument that it would help us defensively (and therefore, in transition).

@og13 On the topic of his post-up game: Reach is one thing, but I think Blake's footwork is more of a concern. He doesn't establish position as good as some of the players you listed. He does sometimes, but not consistent enough which is why sometimes you see him "stuck" in the post.

[og15]

Agreed jflipclip, but I think part of it is also indecisiveness Blake doesn't go into the post thinking I will do this move until they stop it, then I will counter, then counter, then counter. He thinks I will go in there then just figure it out when I get there. The best was in the post is to have one move that you can spam and then until and when the defense stops it, you go to something else, then when they think that's coming, you go back to the first move, etc.

Blake is more of a freestyle type of guy in the post.

[Angel strike1]

what we getting for pf?

find a pF better then blake and get him to sign with clips will think about it

[og15]

This hypothetical player would replace the SF in the starting lineup, so technically, you're looking for a PF better than Caron Butler

[Angel strike1]

This hypothetical player would replace the SF in the starting lineup, so technically, you're looking for a PF better than Caron Butler

Not really . To move Blake of pf u saying u got a new stud pf.
Replacing butler at sf is way easier then all this

[Chronz]

Part of me wishes we would have experimented more during our lone losing season with him. Sticking him as strictly a bigman isn't utilizing his entire skillset. We could have mixed it up some, similar to how Josh Smith was utilized in his youth.

[mj_shoefanatic]

We should go after Danny Granger this offseason that way Blake can stay at PF.

[og15]

This hypothetical player would replace the SF in the starting lineup, so technically, you're looking for a PF better than Caron Butler

Not really . To move Blake of pf u saying u got a new stud pf.
Replacing butler at sf is way easier then all this

I think you're missing the idea. It's in order to create matchup issues for the opposition. If you just get a regular old PF, then the whole plan of making Blake a post up big SF is gone and there's no point in doing this. If you get for example, Ersan Ilyasova though (this example isn't meant to be realistic btw), that's a different story. This is all based on an assumption that Blake can guard SF's anyways.

People get too worried about offense, defense is the issue. A player can technically play anywhere on the floor offensively as long as you have the right players around them. Andre Miller will at times post up more than anyone else on his team. Bosh was moved to the perimeter and Lebron and Wade are now the post-up options. I think people's mindset is that if Blake is a "SF" that the team would stick him on the perimeter on offense where Butler is.

That's just dumb. You stick him in the exact same spots and run the exact same plays, just that now a SF has to guard him. That's why in this hypothetical, your PF would have to be one with perimeter skills, but who is capable of punishing a SF down low or easily shooting over them if they are switched onto them.