Playing Without A True Center

[KyCatFan]

With Skal not turning out to be a Towns/Davis/Noel/Cousins type of player, having Willis play as a stretch 4 has seemed to work great for us. It is forcing the defense to come out to the perimeter to guard him and allowing for more room to operate in the paint and also more room for guards to drive. This could be our tweak for this year. Hopefully we keep at least 1 stretch 4 on the roster every year in case we don't have a lottery pick caliber center.

This is the team makeup that might have worked better for a guy like Wiltjer. He is a similar player to Willis. Both shoot well from the outside, but have been limited by their defense. I admit Willis has improved his defense, but he will never be a great defender. I love his effort on rebounding though. Do you all think Wiltjer could have worked hard enough to be a better defender and rebounder to get playing time on a team like this or is he just not athletic enough to ever gotten more playing time here?

 

[mj2k10]

With Skal not turning out to be a Towns/Davis/Noel/Cousins type of player, having Willis play as a stretch 4 has seemed to work great for us. It is forcing the defense to come out to the perimeter to guard him and allowing for more room to operate in the paint and also more room for guards to drive. This could be our tweak for this year. Hopefully we keep at least 1 stretch 4 on the roster every year in case we don't have a lottery pick caliber center.

This is the team makeup that might have worked better for a guy like Wiltjer. He is a similar player to Willis. Both shoot well from the outside, but have been limited by their defense. I admit Willis has improved his defense, but he will never be a great defender. I love his effort on rebounding though. Do you all think Wiltjer could have worked hard enough to be a better defender and rebounder to get playing time on a team like this or is he just not athletic enough to ever gotten more playing time here?

Willis and Wiltjer are completely different. Willis is a good athlete. Wiltjer is a snail. Willis isn't a great ballhandler, but he does have the ability to beat a guy off the bounce, so teams can't just bum-rush him on the perimeter. Wiltjer is a truly gifted shooter from all over the court, but he's never going to beat anyone off the bounce (ever). He's going to score in the post, or on face-up jumpshots.

As for the other part, in all honesty I am almost anti-center, unless you surround that center with 4 good shooters (or 3 good shooters and a PG who kills people off the dribble). I can't think of a single offense in all of basketball that operates with multiple big guys (who aren't perimeter threats) that doesn't look stagnant and congested. Maybe the Spurs (except Aldridge is great from 15-18 feet). Which is why I would love to see Willis and Gabriel as the forwards next year. Gabriel has the potential to be a threat from the perimeter, but regardless, he's an agile guy who's kind of between a 3 and a 4. I'd much rather see him with Willis (and Bam at the 5, most likely) than have some monster lineup with him at the 3, Bam at the 4, and Bolden at the 5. I just think it would make for an ugly, stagnant offense. But with Willis able to hit 3's? Then not so much.

 

[trinity45]

With Skal not turning out to be a Towns/Davis/Noel/Cousins type of player, having Willis play as a stretch 4 has seemed to work great for us. It is forcing the defense to come out to the perimeter to guard him and allowing for more room to operate in the paint and also more room for guards to drive. This could be our tweak for this year. Hopefully we keep at least 1 stretch 4 on the roster every year in case we don't have a lottery pick caliber center.

This is the team makeup that might have worked better for a guy like Wiltjer. He is a similar player to Willis. Both shoot well from the outside, but have been limited by their defense. I admit Willis has improved his defense, but he will never be a great defender. I love his effort on rebounding though. Do you all think Wiltjer could have worked hard enough to be a better defender and rebounder to get playing time on a team like this or is he just not athletic enough to ever gotten more playing time here?

With Willis on the court, teams are less likely to zone, he forces the defense to spread out giving a guy like Alex a bit more room in the lane area.

 

[stenchymouse]

The great thing is that Willis and Skal can shoot well enough to force opposing defenders to follow them out to the perimeter.

Against Kansas that will be huge because Self likes to play man to man.

Also, if our guards will crash the lane, we can get a lot of offensive rebounds, which we have been doing.

 

[kyjeff1]

Cal can adapt to any group of players and eventually turn them into a team. 2013 was a challenge, it was coming together before tge Noel injury. He has had years where he's done more with less (U-Mass and Memphis) and every year he has a different team.
I see people constantly calling out Cal for being wrong on what he was doing with Skal but is that fair? He's right far more often than he was wrong and honestly Skal couldn't even hold on to the ball for more than 2 seconds so nobody knew what he could actually thrive at.

 

[Nubb16]

With Skal not turning out to be a Towns/Davis/Noel/Cousins type of player, having Willis play as a stretch 4 has seemed to work great for us. It is forcing the defense to come out to the perimeter to guard him and allowing for more room to operate in the paint and also more room for guards to drive. This could be our tweak for this year. Hopefully we keep at least 1 stretch 4 on the roster every year in case we don't have a lottery pick caliber center.

This is the team makeup that might have worked better for a guy like Wiltjer. He is a similar player to Willis. Both shoot well from the outside, but have been limited by their defense. I admit Willis has improved his defense, but he will never be a great defender. I love his effort on rebounding though. Do you all think Wiltjer could have worked hard enough to be a better defender and rebounder to get playing time on a team like this or is he just not athletic enough to ever gotten more playing time here?

Willis is a much better athlete than Kyle. But Kyle was a money shooter. I think Kyle could score a lot on this team but I don't think it would help us that much. One thing Kyle could do that would benefit this team though is score from the low post. But Derek is way less of a liability on defense, Kyle was slow footed and just didn't cover smart. He was a offensive weapon but willis fits really well on this team now. However we could use the post scoring, Kyle had good footwork.

 

[kyjeff1]

Willis is a much better athlete than Kyle. But Kyle was a money shooter. I think Kyle could score a lot on this team but I don't think it would help us that much. One thing Kyle could do that would benefit this team though is score from the low post. But Derek is way less of a liability on defense, Kyle was slow footed and just didn't cover smart. He was a offensive weapon but willis fits really well on this team now. However we could use the post scoring, Kyle had good footwork.

I agree.
Plus, check #10 on ESPN's top 10 plays for something KW can only dream of doing. I would take Willis every time over Kyle because Willis is a very good outside shooter, slightly less efficient than KW from out there but he does everything else better than KW.

 

[Bluegrass79]

NBA barely uses the center anymore. Heck shot blocking and good centers in the nba are like finding a needle in a hay stack.