Bobcats Roster

I have not followed the NBA closely for a long time maybe guys who are 6'9" or maybe a little less play center now. If so it makes me wonder what a guy like Shaq in his prime would do against those type guys.

 

Charles Barkley did OK at power forward at maybe 6'4-6'5. The games changed. It's not so much size anymore as it's athleticism with adequate size

 

You still see some guys like Kwame Brown, Kendrick Perkins and Andrew Bynum who are big guys.

 

yeah, but chuck did have problems with tall pf's on him. and i don't think his strength was ever his defensive prowess. bismack is pretty much only going to be out there for his defense and rebounding.

he'd probably be a good change of pace from kwame who's more of a classic center. we'll see if silas has softened on his general disinterest in playing rookies.

 

I suspect that ownership will force Silas to play some rookies. A big guy who can play defense and rebound is good to have whether he plays at the 4 or the 5. I guess for Bismack it will depend on who else is on the roster. If we have a strong center he may get more minutes at the 4 and vice versa.

 

It's why Shaq was able to still be effective when he actually played, despite putting no effort into conditioning and having maybe a tenth of his former athleticism.

 

It seems like there used to be a lot of great centers in the NBA but not so much anymore. Kareem, Wilt, Ewing, Hakeem, Shaq, David Robinson, Moses Malone, Robert Parrish, Bill Walton were all better than almost any center playing today. Dwight Howard could hang with them but he is about it. Is that because the game has changed or there are just fewer big men who are athletic enough to play these days?

 

i think you're kind of unfairly comparing like 40 years of nba history to the last few years. at any particular time, you probably have a similar number of athletic big men.

 

Maybe so but outside Dwight Howard who is playing at the 5 at a high level in the NBA today.

 

i think the emphasis of putting big guys at the 5 isn't quite the same as it was in previous years. tim duncan could certainly be a 5, for example. i'd say he's played at a high caliber.

i think amar'e could be in contention. chris bosh is probably somebody to consider, tho again he's playing the pf position instead of center.

then you have guys like nowitzki, bargnani, love, etc. who are seven footers who play a completely different style of ball than all the classic seven footers.

so i think the quality seven footers still exist, they just aren't relegated to the role of a classic center. they're taking advantage of their athleticism and basketball skills in different ways.