02-26-2007, 02:24 PM
|
#1 (permalink)
|
|
HoopsAddict.com
Join Date: Jun 2002
Posts: 9,348
|
Can the Pistons half-court team win the title? Answer: Yes
Quote:
7. The East-leading Pistons are an old-school team with a potentially enormous front line. Are they capable of winning the championship?
ANSWER: Every week looks more promising, let's put it that way.
The stats emphasize that the Pistons have become a superior defensive team since Ben Wallace's departure -- they now rank in the top four in both scoring and field-goal defense, after being a middle-of-the-pack team last year. The midseason pickup of Chris Webber has given them the traditional post-up center they never had with Wallace. Webber is a threat from the high post whether he's popping in jumpers, hitting Richard Hamilton on cuts to the basket or passing out to Chauncey Billups for catch-and-shoot jumpers.
The most impressive aspect of the Pistons is their profundity of big men. It's as if they're playing in a different era with their front-line depth chart of 6-10 Webber, 6-11 Rasheed Wallace, 6-9 Antonio McDyess, 6-10 Nazr Mohammed and 6-11 Dale Davis, who is old enough to appreciate the cast assembled by Detroit president Joe Dumars.
When Davis came into the league in 1991, he was a power forward. "The majority of teams went with a big center and a big power forward, so you usually had close to two 7-footers out there,'' said Davis, who spent his first nine seasons with the Indiana Pacers. "In the later years, with the shortage of big guys, I just shifted over to center.''
To sum up his 16-year career: He was a power forward who became a center, and today he is a situational center -- in other words, he is so anachronistic that he can only be deployed against other teams that play the old-fashioned low-post style. In all that time Davis' style hasn't changed one bit. It's the rest of the world that has changed around him.
"When teams go small now, most other teams usually go small with them,'' said Davis, who turns 38 next month. "But even with the league going small, I still can't see those teams winning championships.''
For all of the momentum toward small-ball and up-tempo style, the last 18 NBA champions have been essentially half-court teams. Until the Suns prove otherwise, then the answer is yes: The Pistons can win the title.
|
Sports Illustrated
I always enjoy reading Sports Illustrated's articles.
|
|
|