04 Pistons were LOADED with size and elite bigs, enough to disrupt Shaq and Medvedenko LOL. Had Horace and Mailman been 100% healthy, Lakers probably win the series.
Don't tell me DET with All-Stars Ben Wallace and Rasheed Wallace, the lengthy Tayshaun Prince PLUS former All-Stars Memo Okhur and Antonio McDyess, PLUS Elden Campbell and Big Corliss Williamson weren't built to complement Chauncey and Rip so they could win it all.
Don't tell me the Lakers acquisition of Mychal Thompson and his 10 min a game wasn't done so LAL could counter all that size from the Celtics and Bad Boys of DET.
If having Impact Bigs didn't matter then how come Sir Charles, Oliver Miller, Tom Chambers, and Mark West wasn't enough to beat Cartwright, Grant, Levingston, Williams, Kukoc, and Stacey King even though PHX had All-Stars Kevin Johnson and Dan Majerle plus Ced Ceballos, Danny Ainge, and Richard Dumas, all scorers deluxe?
It's cause Chicago's Bigs were Better. Nonetheless they still needed impact bigs cause you take Cartwright and Grant away from the Bulls and replace them with scrubs like Keith Closs and Matt Fish and MJ don't three peat.
If you can win titles "going small" then how come in two separate playoff series Nash, Amare, Matrix, Diaw, Bell, Barbosa, Jalen Rose, James Jones, Kurt Thomas, Joe Johnson, Quentin Richardson and D'Antoni - a team that, btw, would win 60 games in today's NBA - could never beat Duncan, Horry, Nesterovic, Nazr Mohhamed, Malik Rose, Matt Bonner, and Oberto in the playoffs? Let's not act like Timmy was averaging 40 against PHX and didn't need the help of his bigs.
And after all Amare, Marion, and Nash were just as big a Big 3 as Tim, Manu,and Tony STATISTICALLY SPEAKING. Isn't it?
But which team had more bigs and thus could play more physical and protect the paint, grab key rebounds, win the positioning battle inside, etc etc.
There's a reason, after winning the title and after failing to win the title, that MIL added Ibaka after trying out Cousins, and PHX added McGee and Biyombo so they can help Ayton be more physical and throw bigger bodies at Giannis when they meet in the Finals rematch.
As great as Embiid and Jokic are, they won't win it all cause they don't have enough Javale's, Lopez's, Portis's, and Ibaka's on their roster to help them out. It's the same reason the Lakers won't win another chip until they get AD some legitimate help inside.
Last year, "the Suns quite literally had the best big in the series" according to some folks, but why didn't they win? Well, here's hoping the additions of McGee and Biyombo and the subtractions of Saric and Kaminsky will yield better results.
Seeing that PHX beefed up, what was Milwaukee's response? Let's go ahead and bring in ex-champ Serge Ibaka to help Giannis.
When you watch NBA basketball for 40 plus years, there is ONE COMMON DENOMINATOR on ALL Championship teams going back 50-plus years and it definitely ain't "you can win going small, you can win without solid bigs."
In fact, you don't even need an elite big or elite Center to win it all, as long as the team's supporting cast has enough impact bigs aka impact players with SIZE AND LENGTH, guys with experience, to support the star guards or star forwards in order to make the team a defensive force come playoff time.
See: Chicago Bulls dynasty. See: Detroit Pistons 88-91 and 04. See: Toronto Raptors 2018. See GSW dynasty.
See: 88 Lakers with a 39-40-year old way past his prime Jabbar but still had Worthy, Green, Rambis, Thompson, and of course Magic and his 9 rebs per game. You surround Magic and old *** Kareem with mediocre/scrub bigs like Stanley Roberts, Mel Turpin, Dwayne Schintzius, and Brad Sellers instead of Green, Thompson, and Rambis you think they go back to back in 87-88? lol
Even the back to back Olajuwon Rockets needed the length and defense of Otis Thorpe, Chucky Brown, Robert Horry, Carl Herrera plus stretch big Chilcutt to contend with all those bigs the Knicks had and then have to deal with Shaq and Grant the following year. As we know, Shaq had no other bigs but Grant to help him that's why he lost. Shaq had Tree Rollins, Jeff Turner, and Anthony Avent...no wonder Olajuwon and co swept them lol
I can go on and on and on.....
darthska
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