Re: Knight Move

[Adam A Suchocki <Twilight@world.std.com>]

Sorry, I agree with the disagreement to the disagrememnt.  Edwards was
already past his prime, and is very marginal as a real center.  He was a
good scorer, but was as much a face up scorer as a back to the basket
scorer, and seemed to excel from about 10 feet from the basket. 

Edwards was a weak rebounder, and not very good defensively, aside from a
tendency to catch players with elbows.  I really can't believe you just
threw him into a list of Jabar, Parish, Sikma, Malone, Chaimbelin, Walton,
etc... one of these players is not like the others in talent.  If the 1989
james Edwards is a real center for a championship team, then more than 3/4
of the teams in the league have real centers.  Longly is a much better
defensive player than Edwards was.  

Adam


 On Mon, 7 Jul 1997
Ecophiloso@aol.com wrote:

> >> -Aside from the Bulls, who are an anomaly (because MJ is an anomaly), no
> one
> >> has won a championship w/o a real center since the 70's.  Bird needed The
> >> Chief, Dr. J needed Moses, Isaiah needed Edwards, LA had Jabbar and
> Houston
> >> has The Dream.  We'll probably need someone other than Knight to play the
> >> pivot in order to win #17 but Baker and McDyess are far less realistic
> >> options than he.  Knight is w/o a doubt a legit off the bench 4/5 (a la
> >> McHale in the best of all possible futures...)
> 
> >Again, before the bulls, the Pistons won back to back championships with
> >Lambier and company manning the post.  out of the last 9 championships,
> >only two have been won with a dominant center.
> 
> Sorry to disagree Adam.  The Pistons failed to win until they picked up an
> admittedly old, past his prime James Edwards to play center and move Laimbeer
> and his outside game to the perimeter where it had belonged all along.  They
> could not, did not and would not win with Laimbeer in the pivot.  Aside from
> the Bulls, no one has won w/o a real center (I define real center as someone
> who has a back to the basket game along with the ability to make opposing
> centers struggle for their low post points and pick up both off. & def.
> rebounds) going all the way back to the '75 Warriors:
> '76-Cowens
> '77-Walton
> '78-Unseld
> '79-Sikma
> '80, '82, '85, '87, '88-Jabbar
> '81, '84, '86-The Chief
> '83-Malone
> '89, '90-Edwards
> '94, '95-Olajuwon
> 
> Go Green,
> Daniel
> 
> "So how are we going to inbounds the ball against Pitino?"  -Chuck Daly to an
> assistant after taking the Magic job.
>