So what's up? Well after all these years, I think JT should now go. DMC might be more suited playing with either a stretch 4 (i.e. Williams), Gray can be a good pair we want that C next to DMC to have some offense. Or N'Diaye can rotate just to save DMC some fouls.
No. The only player who ever worked in that role was Robert Horry, and even he was disposable, and just came in and accomplished no more than the pure PFs did next to the same centers (Thorpe before Horry in Houston, Grant before Horry in L.A.).
a quick-footed garbage man(i.e. Landry)
No. Not what Landry is anyway. He's a rebounding/defensively challenged black hole of a scorer. The idea of a roleplayer is right though. If Cousins was a shotblocker, the guys who have always worked best next to the great centers have been hard working tough guy defensive stalwart PFs. Oakley, PJ Brown, Dale and Antonio Davis, AC Green, Kurt Rambis, Thorpe, Rodman etc. Somebody to watch your center's back and clean up all the dirty work he can't.
or with a 7 footer than moves him to PF.
No. I myself was of the opinion that you could shift Cuz to PF before this season began, but times change -- he's putting up staggering numbers against centers. You don't go move a guy dominating at that level to a new position. You change everything around him, but not him.
The one missing category, which has been talked about ad nauseam, is a defensive PF, and preferably long shotblocking PF, or a center with enough mobility to fake it as one. We had one for a single season in Dalembert. We passed on not one, but TWO of them last year as Geoff put the cherry on top of his career by drafting a small tweener bust instead of Andre Drummond, or John Henson, both of whom he brought in and worked out but could not see the talent in. Probably because they didn't shoot enough threes. Now we are discussing if Larry Sanders is really available, and if he is, whether its worth the risk, because that's the fit.
Cousins is actually already better then Brad Daugherty, but that is the closest comparison for a major center, and the fit next to him was not just one, but TWO long shotblocking forwards in Larry Nance and John Hot Rod Williams. We don't need that amount of offense form the position, but we need that same style of guy. Long, athletic, protects the rim. Its literally the only thing Cousins is not able to do, and so what we are looking for there should be pretty obvious.
