24 replies to this topic

[Cj2008nw]

Why not just start Haslem at the 4?... Let Battier sub LeBron and Lewis sub Haslem...

Opens up the floor for Lebron to be in the paint and post up and if he gets doubled he will pass it out to one of the 4 shooters he has

[CYLakers]

Heat just recognizes the obvious.

That their main competition in the East are the Celtics and they play small ball too from 1 to 5.

So i don't see it as a bad thought and i don't see it to be a one way problem. Size is good but you can overcome it with speed and quickness especially if you have a team full of players from 2 to 4 that can crash the boards on offence and gang rebound on defence. Heat won't be the first team in history to make that plan work if they manage to do it.

Thats one reason why i feel good about the acquisition of Howard instead of Bynum. You have a Center that he can move better he is more athletic and he can be used better as a help defender than Bynum. And thats a good thing when you see that an increased number of teams like to play small ball part or full time.

Lebron can play at 4. That doesn't mean that they would do it permanently. They use him there when they want to diminish the impact of the size of the opponent. If the other team thinks that they are gonna get some points from a good match up at the 4 possition and they don't or they get them and give them back on defence thats a major blow and a bullet dodged by the Heat.

But they don't want to wear Lebron out. SF is the position to be for him.

[bfc1125roy]

Why not just start Haslem at the 4?... Let Battier sub LeBron and Lewis sub Haslem...

Liability on offense.

[Majesty]

So they are planning to have leBron drive and have Battier keep power forwards out of the middle because he can hit the three from the corner.

It's a smart tactic if they have intention of LeBron trying to bully the ball inside because Bosh and Battier can stretch the floor and because of the defensive assignments the lane won't be crowded, so LeBron can drive and if the center or the power forward rotates over to stop him he'll just dish it to either side.

That's probably their strategy.

[L.A.K.E.R]

The only reason the small-ball lineup worked for them in the Finals was because OKC had zero low-post scorers and Scott Brooks was too stubborn with his lineups. He refused to match up despite having two consecutive games where Shane Battier torched them in the first quarter off multiple open looks. Should have sacked Perkins early in the series, he was completely useless throughout. He also became too paranoid of KD getting fouls while guarding LeBron and went away from it completely (despite KD playing the most effective one-on-one defense against LeBron), ultimately blowing 4 consecutive games.

They can't run a small-ball lineup against us because we have two bigs that can score in the low-post on a consistent basis with Dwight capable of saddling their entire frontline with foul trouble by half-time. There is no chance of Chris Bosh defending Dwight one-on-one in the post. If they double him, we'll just swing it to the open man for a good look. Small ball is a novelty, it won't be feasible over the course of an entire year.