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Originally posted by: jacktruth
Quote:
Originally posted by: Mavs Rule
Now this is what I call a quality debate! Nice posts Jacktruth and Stressboy. I tend to lean toward stressboy's take on this. The big five have shown that they play very well together, and having them start would give us more of a cushion going into halftime of more games.
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Unless you always play your entire starting lineup for the entire first half, I don't follow your reasoning. Who you choose as your starting five doesn't describe what happens in the first half as much as a list of who played how many minutes. Who you sub in during the first half has a bit to do with the number of points you score in the half.
Also, how much "cushion" you have at the half has to do with how many baskets you prevent on the other end of the floor. This big 5 lineup cannot effectively guard the center position consistently. Recall that playing center defensively involves man-to-man and help defense. It involves much more help defense than the power forward spot. Although Dirk is improving at pretending like he's a center, he is still not a center and will never be as effective at center as he is at power forward on offense or defense.
How much cushion you have at the half doesn't always translate to how much cushion you have at the end of the game, which I much prefer.
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And I would say that it is the help defense at the 5 spot which gets Dirk in most of his foul trouble. He has greatly improved at this area IMO, but that doesn't mean that we want to place him there early because he's either likely to pick up fouls or allow a layup drill. Neither are particularly appealing. Bradley is the absolute best player on the team at playing help defense from the 5 and one of the best in the league.
And stressboy I would hardly call guarding the 4 position perimeter defense, unless you're taking on a team with Dirk on it every game.