kuclas wrote:We don’t know how dominant in today’s switch heavy wings With length pseudo double teaming to help out on Shaq. How would he do? Probably still a beast. But he would be at a more disadvantage having to handle the ball in low post with the defensive wings cheating in.
lakers would still have enough spacing with outside shooting for Shaq to be unstoppable. Kobe, Robert Horry and fisher/fox on the perimeter.
So Lakers championship teams were well balanced even for this modern era.
The modern centers can’t dominate like Shaq. Closest is Embiid and he hasn’t got a clue how to find the open man when doubled 70% of the time. Or maybe embiid doesn’t had the right fit around him. I do think Shaq would have a huge problem Ben Simmons were his point guard and Horace grant was at the 4 slot.
But Shaq just special. He was probably robbed of 3 nba mvps. For him to have just one is a crime.
The switch heavy wings would be utterly annihilated. Shaq was one of the few post players of his era that got the full mob treatment in there even before it became standard tactics, and he was just an earth mover at a time when he might easily be having to move 2 260lb bodies in there. He was much more saavy and mobile than people gave him credit for when making the catch, and when he went, all you could do as a defender was ride the wave and maybe try to make a last second play on the ball. Or flop like Vlade.
The real problem for Shaq would be on the other end with the extreme pick and roll spam/ constant switching and 3pt bombing. Shaq could put up more of a fight than could a Muresan character, but he would still be attacked relentlessly unless you protected him with a zone scheme that let him just lurk in the paint.
