Hollinger 11-17-08

[Warhawk]

A little blip from his article:

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/columns/story?columnist=hollinger_john&page=PerDiem-081117

Smallball is dominant; that's the word on the street. But perhaps it's losing some of its luster. Not only are the Suns, who made all this popular in the first place, playing with a much more traditional lineup, but I now count three teams among those who have defied the trend and gone big -- real big.

(discusses Orlando's lineup last year as a possible exception to the smallball trend)

But more recently, two teams have gone to huge frontcourts and had some success with it.


In Sacramento, the Kings responded to Kevin Martin's absence by playing 6-11 rookie Jason Thompson alongside 7-footers Mikki Moore and Brad Miller in the frontcourt. While Thompson has had some trouble chasing smaller players around the perimeter, the lineup has seemed to give the Kings some much-needed rebounding help, and in fact they've played reasonably well, given Martin's absence and their general talent level.

 

[netseee]

It is true, playing as SF is little bit hard for JT who is 6'11" and 250 lbs even he is fast pace

 

[Aenadin]

well he is taller and heavier than the SFs around... he is very quick for a Forward and a Center to guard... but for a SF i think he can keep up

whats good about him on the SF is that he can rebound and he is long... if we can start giving greene minutes on the 3 then we have a lot of long players

 

[fnordius]

Also true that the team's done pretty well with it -- and it's a refreshing change for those of us who are sick of small ball. When Greene has more experience, it might be nice to have him at SF, with JT and Hawes on the 4 and 5... I really like the idea of having three 6'10"+ guys on the court at once, so long as most of them have the speed to pull it off.

It's been a long time since we could do that... too long!