How come no one plays big?

[hateslosing]

Maybe one of you strategy aficionados can explain this to me, but why don't we play big? We always here about playing small and trotting out a wing in the power forward spot. How come we don't do the opposite and play three bigs? For example:

Lowry: Pg
Gay: Sg
Amir: SF
Hansbrough: PF
Valanciunas: Center

No shooting guard in the league is guarding Rudy 1 one-on one. Amir can hit the open shot and his length will bother a lot of wings on D. Is it a spacing issue? I feel like I'm missing something with this.

[Joey]

Play BIG? ... Casey would laugh in your face. Literally.

I, on the other, don't disagree with you.
Though Amir at SF is a bit of a stretch.
And Demar is already on the tall side compared to most other SGs in the League.

[Superjudge]

I think because small players can play big?

With the talent level starting to level off as the game of basketball reaches the limits of what players can do, developmentally within the parameters of the game, there is a premium on quickness and agility. Big guys, even at a high talent level, can't react quite as fast as smaller players.... I think

[Dino4life]

Because of the athleticism of the wings. Bigs would be at a disadvantage on defense and on offense they don't have that quick enough first step or handles to loose their man.

When you play small, notice only the stronger small fowards play at the 4 and the 4 uses both perimiter and inside game, we're also talking about a few inches of difference which are made up in verticals.

In short, its easier to get Stronger than it is to get faster.

[consmap]

If we played big, we could possibly pull it off with Acy at SF. That'd be a cool experiment out of the many that we've seen so far this season.

[duncan]

You can't think about lineups based just on offense. These guys will have to play defense as well. That why no team plays 3 bigs like that. The league is trending towards playing 1 big with a bunch of shooters.

[hateslosing]

You can't think about lineups based just on offense. These guys will have to play defense as well. That why no team plays 3 bigs like that. The league is trending towards playing 1 big with a bunch of shooters.

That's my point. If the league trends towards small line up, play big. Defensively you can defend the rim with your size and dominate the glass. You may give up some outside looks I guess.

[duncan]

That's my point. If the league trends towards small line up, play big. Defensively you can defend the rim with your size and dominate the glass. You may give up some outside looks I guess.

I think the idea is that these big guys don't have the speed to close out on shooters, or the footwork and ability to move laterly to keep shooters/slashers in front of them without fouling.

You said "you may give up some outsides shots", I'd be willing to say that any team using 3 bigs would give up a ton of outside shots.

I'm no NBA coach, but if it was that easy to just plug 3 bigs into the lineup and start winning, someone would have done it by now.

[Axel]

If we played big, we could possibly pull it off with Acy at SF. That'd be a cool experiment out of the many that we've seen so far this season.

I've been waiting all season for Casey to "unleash the Power 3"

[KHD]

I've been waiting all season for Casey to "unleash the Power 3"

[Rapstor4Life]

Have you not seen Detroit Games?? thats why

[Axel]

Have you not seen Detroit Games?? thats why

Acy knows his limits much better than Josh Smith does. Acy would just set picks, crash boards and hustle on D. Plus his beard is awesome. Considering the way Gay is shooting, it's not like we'd be losing a lot of floor spacing anyway.

[ezz_bee]

I'd try it. Why not? The excuse, "if it worked someone would be doing by now" can be used for everything that's never been done. Frank Vogel is going against by (almost) always having two traditional bigs on the floor at all times. Indy's been a successful team this season and last going that route. Last year's grizz are also a good example.

The reason against it offensively is spacing. With three bigs the other team is just going to crowd the paint, which makes it harder to get good inside looks, and you rebound as a team. The only team I think I've seen recently trot out a 3 big man line up is maybe Splitter/Duncan/Diaw from the spurs (if they ever used it)

The key with having multiple big men is you need exceptional players. They need to be either exceptional shooters (Diaw) or exceptional passers (David West, Marc Gasol, Boris Diaw) Amir seems to be a decent passer in some situations, but I don't think he is on the level of Diaw, or Gasol.

Defensively, if you're up against a team that loves the 3 ball, you need maybe 2 guys that can play at the perimeter/close out on shooters. This is a very rare ability.

I don't think the Raps have the roster to go with 3 bigs. Any match up with hansbrough at the pf spot can't really be seen as big because he's undersized at that postion and makes up for it by playing bigger with hustle and effort.

I could see an Acy/Amir/JV line up do interesting things on both ends of the floor but I'm not sure how much value you get out of it.

Teams that go big usually have their most talent player as their SF (Lebron/Melo/Gay), in essence you're asking your most talented player to play out of position and you believe that they can do it because their talent overcomes the difficulty of playing a different position. If you ask a less talented player to play multiple positions it is less likely to work.

I'm not sure that Acy or Amir has the ability to defend on the perimeter or to launch threes at a high enough rate to keep the defense honest.

Again, though. What's the harm in trying?

[JawsGT]

I'd definitely love to see Acy get some burn at the 3.

[Fully]

I love Quincy Acy but he's a fringe NBA player. You don't drastically shift your philosophy just to get him some more minutes - out of position no less - because that would be crazy.

The other drawbacks to the hypothetical lineup in the OP is that Derozan, our best player through 15 games, is not on the floor, and a severe lack of spacing which is already a problem for the Raptors in much more traditional lineups.