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Originally posted by: jacktruth
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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.
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Stressboy already answered this and I agree with him. Jamison off the bench does not get the minutes that he would if he started. Starting allows him to get in a flow and we have seen that it makes a difference with him. He was started in the second half against Denver and had a season high in points scored. And almost all of those came in the second half. Of course one game will not tell the story, but it does bode well for my point since it has not been tried before in the regular season that I can remember.
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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.
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It has been shown in other posts that the big five lineup outscores the opponents handily (in +/- stats), and better than any other combination of players that Nellie has tried, so Dirk has been somewhat successful as center in that formation. I agree with your idea about Dirk being more effective at the PF. I tend to think that Bradley, Dirk, Jamison, Fin, Nash would be the best lineup, but I don't think Nellie has really given that combination much of a chance yet.
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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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Yes that is very true. But you have a much greater chance of blowing someone out if you have a lead going into the half. Also I had already mentioned the end of game importance in my previous post. That was:
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The more they play together --> the more they learn the nuances of each other's game --> the more they will click at the end of games and when playoffs roll around.
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Jacktruth, I was very impressed with your post, and the thinking that went into it. Thanks for your contribution.
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