Why interior D is so important

[Final_quest]

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Second, historically there are alot of big men who would be perfect: Deke, Mourning, Robinson, Chief, Hakeem, Russell, etc.

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Basically we would be OK if we acquired a Hall of Fame center. I'll agree with that.

I think what ex is trying to say is, it's not in the cards for us. Actually we are missing out on him in this draft: Greg Oden.

[Traceman]

Dalembert, Chandler and Curry were the guys BK had in mind last off season. I'm sure Ben Wallace and Nene will make his list this off season. All BK can do is make offers, he can't make them accept them.

[exodus]

Yes you did. This is from the very first post:

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You can talk all day about Harringtons scoring ability but he can't slow down even average players near the rim so he certainly won't even be a speed bump for Wade or Lebron.

You can talk about Zaza's rebounding, the fact that he is young and can improve but it doesn't matter. He can't play significant minutes for the Hawks if the Hawks are going to be legit contenders because he is a weak defender.

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[Traceman]

AND Zaza are weak defenders. How is that quote NOT an indictment of Al and his D?

[exodus]

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Dalembert, Chandler and Curry were the guys BK had in mind last off season. I'm sure Ben Wallace and Nene will make his list this off season. All BK can do is make offers, he can't make them accept them.

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Wallace isn't leaving Detroit. The best available fa centers are Przy/Nene. Lets assume the Hawks get one of them.

Will Przy/Nene, playing 30-35 minutes a game, be enough to turn our interior D from one of the worst to potentially one of the best?

No friggin way. That is a fantasy, and I like both guys.

Look at Dalembert. He is leading the league in blocks and is getting 7.4 defensive rebounds a game compared to 4.7 for Zaza. I don't know how high he would rank as far as devensive centers go but let's just say he is top 5 for the sake of argument. i don't know if he is or not.

Philly's D still sucks. The reason is that he can't cover for everyone. He has Webber playing next to him who is on Zaza/Al's level and they also play Randolph and Bradley, both of whom suck on D.

One good interior defender can't cover for everyone. it is going to take more than one defensive center to strengthen the Hawks interior D enough to become a contender.

It doesn't matter whether Zaza is a backup or not, he will still be playing and be a defensive liability whenever he is out there. same with Al. There is NO WAY that both of them can be in the rotation without the Hawks interior D being weak.

And of course you completely avoid the issue of actually affording one of the free agent centers. Assuming they sign Al to a 8-9 million deal they won't have the money to pursue those guys under the cap.

[exodus]

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How is that quote NOT an indictment of Al and his D?

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You are saying I am just hating on Al. I am talking about both Al and Zaza.

Are you trying to tell me that Al isn't a weak defender?

[TheNorthCydeRises]

I have to agree with Diesel 100% on THIS topic.

What's lost in this argument, is that Boston used to KILL Detroit on the interior, when the Pistons couldn't beat them.

The Pistons a good interior defensive team? NO way.

They were a team that used to hack and kill people on the interior, especially the slasher type forwards and guards.

This current Detroit team is far and away a better defensive squad than the "Bad Boys". The Bad Boys played defense via intimidation.

The Bad Boys did give the Bulls the blueprint on how to play intimidation style defense, and team defense. And when push came to shove, Phil Jackson would always have his "3 headed monster" at center, do the hacking to slow the game down.

Name a center that could change the Hawks fortune on the interior? That's easy.

Ben Wallace.

What if Ben loved Detroit, but they low-balled him in the offseason with their offer? And what if the Hawks came out again with guns blazing, and offered Ben a HUGE contract?

That would change EVERYTHING here.

When I say a HUGE contract, I'm talking about the Hawks offering Ben a 4 year - 50 million dollar deal.

And say that we could re-sign Al for 4 years at 32 million.

You're talking about a lineup like this:

PG - Lue ( or draft pick ) . . or even an improved Salim

G - JJ

F - Harrington

PF - Smoove

C - Wallace

You're trying to tell me that THIS lineup wouldn't be extremely improved over what we have now defensively and with interior defense?

And here's something else to consider.

With that lineup, you'd have to assume that Wallace would have a tremendous defensive influence on Smoove, possibly making him an even better player. And a more aggressive player on defense, and especially on the boards.

And with Harrington, you're now looking at a situation in which he would only have to work more on his perimeter defense, instead of both perimeter and post defense.

Even with Lue, when his man blows by him, he'd now have to worry about Smoove AND Wallace in the paint.

With ZaZa relegated to the bench, and with Chill, Marvin and Salim providing the firepower off of it, the Hawks would instantly be a playoff team next year.

[exodus]

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What if Ben loved Detroit, but they low-balled him in the offseason with their offer? And what if the Hawks came out again with guns blazing, and offered Ben a HUGE contract?

And say that we could re-sign Al for 4 years at 32 million.

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Let me count how many ways this is a fantasy;

1) There is this minor complication called the salary cap which will prevent this scenario from ever happening.

2) No way Dumars lets Wallace walk out on a championship calibur team, and Wallace has already stated that he has no interest in shopping around for the best deal.

3) Wallace is 32 and is already showing signs of slowing down. Even if they could get him, which they can't, he wouldn't be the answer.

4) Harrington isn't going to sign a 4 yr 32 million deal if he has a lick of sense.

I am sure I could think of some more but it is getting late.

And Boston killed every team inside due to 3 guys named Bird, McHale and Parish, arguably the best front line ever.

[TheNorthCydeRises]

And we know that Wallace is probably 95% staying in Detroit. And that chance probably goes to 99% when talking about us.

But that wasn't part of what you were originally talking about. You were acting like we couldn't bring ANYBODY in here that would justify Al staying. If we could get that big time defensive and rebounding center, I'd be all for Al staying for 3 - 4 more years. Why? Because we'd still have Marvin locked in for that amount of time.

But I still agree with you in that our best option is to deal Al, and try to find some backup defensive minded players to replace him . . and hope everybody else can replace what Al does offensively, which I think they can.

[Diesel]

I felt the biggest mistake Detroit made (even though they got championships) was to trade AD for Aguire.

And Aguire did start!

Rodman, Johnson, and Salley were the ones who came off the bench.

[Diesel]

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Will Przy/Nene, playing 30-35 minutes a game, be enough to turn our interior D from one of the worst to potentially one of the best?

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The big picture is this.. We don't need to be the best interior defense in the land to upgrade this team substantially. We just needs somebody better than Zaza. I would love to get Pryz. I know if we got Pryz, he comes in and gives us a better C. PERIOD. Hell, we could trade for Gadzuric and acheive the same goal.

We don't have to have the best interior defense. That's straight up BS.

We just need to be better than we are.

Plus we need to modify our coaching. I wonder what the hell is Woody coaching. A lot of times it is his defensive rotations that put us all out of position to defend the right players. Last night, we're doubling Bron on the wing?? What the hell??

[Traceman]

and both are horrible defenders and AI only plays D in spurts. C Webb used to be a decent defender but he has no lift or quickness anymore. Korver has always been horrible.

Nene or Pryzbilla would certainly be upgrades for our interior D and a frontcourt of Pryz/Al/Smoove or Nene/Al/Smoove with Zaza off the bench wouldn't be horrible defensively. We wouldn't have to be Pistons good - but heck, who is?

[exodus]

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Korver has always been horrible.

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Not really. Philly fans tell me that Korver is actually a pretty good help defender even though he is below average individually, but he is a much better man defender than Webber.

one defensive center simply isn't enough to the problem of the Hawks interior D. that is just wishful thinking.