[Thespiralgoeson]

Originally Posted by FINtastic

I seem to recall Rodman absolutely getting in Shaq's head in the '96 Eastern Conference Finals. Rodman was perfectly able to do his thing. That same Rodman would have dominated this current Shaq on the boards. Dominated.

You're right, Rodman in his prime would probably dominate Shaq now. I don't know that he'd dominate Duncan though. All I'm saying is, if Rodman were in today's NBA, it probably wouldn't be a good idea to start him at center. At least not for an entire season.

If you think Rodman was doing his damage because he was playing alongside Luc frikkin' Longley, I don't know what to say.

Not what I'm saying at all. I'm saying Rodman never had to play out of position for entire seasons at a time. He and the bulls probably benefitted from that, wouldn't you agree? Otherwise, why not just start Rodman at center his whole career? Rodman was a phenominal power forward, and as such played his entire career at power forward. Marion is a 3 and should play at 3, and Amare is a 4. The only thing I'm saying, I just don't think it's a good idea to play people out of position.

Oh, and that's very deceptive to attribute Ben Wallace's play to Rasheed. Rasheed didn't get there until midway through 03-04. Ben Wallace was playing center before that, and all he managed to do was put up a 13.2, 13.0, and 15.4 in the previous seasons respectively.

Again, all you're doing is throwing out per game averages that really don't mean anything. I never said Ben was a great rebounder because he played next to Rasheed. I'm saying Detroit had a lot of success because they played with two big men. I brought up Rasheed, because they didn't get out of the East until they got Rasheed. Indeed, I think it was that very system of playing with such a monstrous frontcourt that made them so tough. If they didn't have Rasheed and played Big Ben at center with another undersized player at the 4, I doubt they would've won a championship and had near the same level of success they've had.