Frank Vogel: Teams Struggle Playing Big Without All-Star Level PF

http://basketball.realgm.com/wiretap/245532/Frank-Vogel-Teams-Struggle-Playing-Big-Without-All-Star-Level-PF



Frank Vogel: Teams Struggle Playing Big Without All-Star Level PF



APR 6, 2017 11:28 AM


The Orlando Magic never established the "smart, physical, unselfish, defensive-minded” identity Rob Hennigan expected them to have this season.

The Magic tried to play two big men together.


Frank Vogel sees the Magic now as a “small-ball team that plays up-tempo and does a lot of switching and swarming.”

The Magic have moved Aaron Gordon from small forward to power forward.

“I think the biggest thing it depends on is the power forward position,” Vogel said Wednesday. “What’s your best power forward’s identity? If it’s LaMarcus Aldridge, you’re going to be a big, pound-it-in-the-post team. If it’s Aaron Gordon, you’re going to be an up-tempo, run-the-floor team. It depends mostly on that, I think. But this is how most of the league is playing right now. So if you’re going to try to play big, you’ve got to do it with basically an All-Star-level power forward or you’re going to struggle.”

Gordon clearly fits better offensively at power forward.

“We’ll see what the roster looks like next year,” Vogel said. “You have to create your style of play based on what your roster looks like. But there’s definitely a feeling that what we’ve done the second part of the season has the development of our young guys and this group going in the right direction.”

JOSH ROBBINS/ORLANDO SENTINEL



bob
MY NOTE:  An interesting perspective.  It makes sense, of course, if you don't have a big PF then it's hard to play big but you could go with a 2-headed monster and play 2 centers like Charlotte with Zeller and Kaminsky.  So, GSW PF is Draymond Green, not a big PF, and they are an uptempo team of shooters who lead the league in fast break points.  The Cavalier PF is Kevin Love, who isn't particularly mobile but is deadly from outside.  That's a weird team, though, because they have LBJ and a distinctly undersized center who doesn't run much and they are 14th in the league in fast break points.  LAC has Blake Griffin at PF and they are 13th in fast break points.  Boston is 17th.  Our PFs are Amir and Kelly.  Kelly runs, surprisingly, but Amir not so much.  The Lakers are 7th and their PF is undersized Julius Randle.

Sure, your personnel affects your style, of course, but is that necessarily good or bad?  Utah has Gobert and Favors and they are 29th in fast break points and they're a pretty good team.  Toronto has Valanciunas and Ibaka and they're 18th.

And, oh by the way Frank, if you're struggling to play big then why did you trade away Serge Ibaka for Terrence Ross and move Gordon to PF?  

What do the rest of you think of this focus on the PF as the defining position of a team's style?

http://stats.nba.com/teams/misc/#!?sort=PTS_FB&dir=-1




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