Front Court - Okafor at C and Sean May at PF

Rich4114 · Post #1 » by **Rich4114** » Thu Mar 13, 2008 11:26 pm

So I wanted to start a thread on our lack of front court shooting. I think this has been a big problem for us because of the limitations we've got there.

The guys that we've got out there at the 3-4-5 spots are poor shooters and makes it difficult to score against teams that do a good job defending J-Rich or Carroll.

I guess this is where Sean May being out / failing as an NBA player hurts. He can knock down those mid range jumpers constantly and not get owned on the boards or defense. He's actually a perfect fit next to Okafor, but who freakin knows if he's gonna be able to play. We need to find a guy like that and place Okafor at C. Centers are expected to have no jump shot or range. Okafor, though only 6'10" is really a center. As much as we want to make him a PF I think it just doesn't work. He had his best season last year playing center and I don't think it was a fluke. I like the idea of having Nazr out there to so we can not get so owned on the boards, but he is also a center. Playing two centers gives us little offensive options in the half court.

I think this is a huge problem that needs to get addressed some how. If May isn't going to be able to do it, we need to find another guy like him if we're going to resign Okafor. This should be on the list this summer IMO.

Then we can play Nazr at backup C and someone else like Jamario at backup PF.

How does everyone else feel about this? The other thing is Okafor extending his game a bit to include a mid range jumper. His rookie season he showed that little duncan-like bank shot he'd go to sometimes but now we never see it anymore. He needs to add something like that to his game to make defenses worry a little bit. I wonder what this season is going to do to effect the whole free agent thing we're going to have to deal with.

W_HAMILTON · Post #2 » by **W_HAMILTON** » Thu Mar 13, 2008 11:41 pm

When it comes to our big men, it doesn't matter whether or not they can shoot, it matters whether or not they can score. Both Mohammed and Okafor are capable of scoring. But if they are viewed as an afterthought on offense, then, no, teams will not respect them or spend much effort into defending them.

You don't have to put much effort guarding a guy that takes 4 shots.

doc.end · Post #3 » by **doc.end** » Fri Mar 14, 2008 9:50 am

I don't think we have poor shooters at 3-4 spots. Even our centers are not bad in scoring it is that they aren't going to shoot many shots.

I don't get it. Yes we have a hole at Pf unless we are playing small ball and we are able to convince an undersized player to play a pf in this system in the same time (Wallace?, Dudley?, last year Herrmann).

With McWinnis gone I think we are doing well at SG/SF positions, Carroll and Richardson are spreading the defense quite well, sometimes opposite tems left one of them open, It's a benfit from playing two 3pt sharpshooters in the same time. J-Rich is able to make his shots even if well defended, with a hand in his face.

Yes we have a problematic position at PF. In ideal case we would have tall, well rebounding, offensive minded unselfish pf with an ability to find open teammates. Until we have one, we could play

i) Crash as we did - as a quick, hustling pf able to creating mismatches - which is a big rick for his health (unluckilly I still think he is best at PF for our team).
ii)Dudley - an unathletic but very clever player with ability to get unexpected boards. We didn't play him at this positions for many games to tell how succesfull it could be.
iii)Okafor - who is usually unable to guard quicker PFs effectively. He is much more better as a C. But for stretches of agame or against teams with heavy PF-C duo it can be possibility.
iv)Davidson or even Hollins at this spot. Neither is a starter (yet?). Davidson is too unexperienced, has his qualities and it would be fine if he gets some minutes off the bench at PF regularly. Hollins is hustling young big man with an amazing leap but behind Oak and Nazr he doesn't have a chance to get his minutes at C (unless we go with iii) or/and Nazr is in foul trouble). I wonder how useful or not would be at PF as a backup against opposite bench players (probably paring with Nazr at C). Not much room for improvement.
v) May - believing in miracles and hoping Sean May will play more than 5 games
vi) Jamison - if we can sign him (as many of fans here apparently want to) he could be good for this positon especially with his inside outside game when paired with Crash or Dudley at SF

or we can sign someone completely diffent. Or draft. (Check the videosection - last oof season I hopped on Nikola Vujcic band wagon I still think he could be an useful option - sadly nothing changed this year except we get rid of Walter Herrmann to be even thinner at Pf position).
vi)

Post #4 » by **BigSlam** » Sat Mar 15, 2008 12:05 am

McMay's not the answer. We've had a healthy McMay against teams like the Raps and the Pacers and guys like Bosh and Jermaine make a happy meal out of him.

He's not a good defender at all.

Rich4114 · Post #5 » by **Rich4114** » Sat Mar 15, 2008 6:43 am

Defensively May hasn't shown much, but he can rebound and score and would be the best PF option we've got right now (if he's healthy of course). Jamison would be the best fit, but he too sucks at defense. But the idea is if you've got a solid defender playing C, you can go for a more offensive heavy PF and sacrafice the D just a bit. Just my opinion on that. Wonder if we could just get Boozer from the Jazz for Morrison, May, and our #1 or something.

doc.end · Post #6 » by **doc.end** » Sat Mar 15, 2008 4:32 pm

Rich4114 wrote:Defensively May hasn't shown much, but he can rebound and score and would be the best PF option we've got right now (if he's healthy of course). Jamison would be the best fit, but he too sucks at defense. But the idea is if you've got a solid defender playing C, you can go for a more offensive heavy PF and sacrafice the D just a bit. Just my opinion on that. Wonder if we could just get Boozer from the Jazz for Morrison, May, and our #1 or something.

You can't be sure if Boozer is going to play at all. We know what he did.

For me May is not the best PF option we've got right now. It uis still Wallace, Dudley respectively if they play together.

Post #7 » by **Paydro70** » Sat Mar 15, 2008 9:21 pm

May would be a much better starter than Wallace or Dudley. He's a better rebounder, would defend bigger guys better, and offers a style of scoring that nobody else on the team has.

I don't get the "can't be sure if Boozer is going to play at all" comment.