re: West Standings (Updated: 2/2) - Who Stays? Who Goes?

quote:

---

Spurs- Boris Diaw
Heat- Chris Bosh (not a defensive liability but still)
Mavs- dirk

---

Boris Diaw is not a stretch 4 and was like the 5th most important player on that team. In his 3 seasons with the Spurs, he's taken 1 3pt shot per game. He's also playing on the one team in basketball that undeniably achieves more than the sum of their parts. Spurs winning was not evidence of the stretch 4 being valuable.

Chris Bosh was not a defensive liability. There is no "but still".... At no point did I say that being able to stretch the floor hurt a team. But given the choice between combining Bosh's defense with LBJ and Wade vs his 3pt shooting, almost everyone would take his defense.

Dirk is a once in a generation player and a legit 7ft tall. Ryno is 2 inches shorter with short arms. If Dirk was only 6'10 with short arms, his legacy as an all around player would be very different. In incredible part of his value is that he can't just be rebounded and shot over by more athletic 4s.

And in what defense would Hibbert or Howard ever be guarding a stretch 4 instead of a center? If its an offense where Ryno is playing as the Center than we are in big trouble on the defensive end. And I'm not saying stretch 4s are overvalued by the whole world necessarily. Im saying this board has a tendency to overvalue them because we have a good one who is incredibly likable.

I guess a better way to put it would be that this board undervalues forwards that are tough, big, athletic and rebound and defend well. Like Kendrick Perkins. And I'm not saying Kendrick Perkins would be as valuable to this team as Ryno. But they are closer in value than Ryno is to Z-Bo.