The Cleveland Cavaliers will add, Joakim Noah as the first player off their bench.
In 2013-14, Noah was DPOY, 4th in MVP, an All Star, 1st Team All NBA, and 1st Team Defense. A guy that doesn't need the ball on offense and is happy to grab rebounds, block shots, generate steals, and pass. That year he averaged 12.6 p, 11.3 r, 5.4 a, 1.5 b, 1.2 s and led the league with 6.6 DWS (a solid 11.2 WS overall). He is a classic do everything stat sheet filler that will fill in nicely when Shaq is resting.
I would describe this differently. That Joakim Noah doesn't need shots but he does need the ball.
Chicago ran their offense through him as a high post facilitator. That is why he was able to get so many assists. Without running the ball through him in the high post, you lose the assists.
I remember they had articles at the time (2011?) when Joakim Noah got injured at some point. Maybe it was an old TrueHoop article. People were shocked that Chicago were missing him on offense. They looked at his scoring (low), his shooting (ugly), and lack of shot creation and were shocked Chicago missed him on offense. Than they finally started to recognize the value of Noah's passing and how he improved Chicago's offense with it.
Passing was a big part of his value as a player and what separates him from the other "rim runner" type centers. It gives him a value on offense that they do not have. However without the ball regularly touching his hands to act as a facilitator, you don't get that value. He comes one of those basic "rim runners". He needs the ball to elevate himself above them (offensively).
As a rim runner, I don't think Noah is as good as some others because he is not as athletic / as good at playing above the rim as some of the other rim runners.
------------------
LeBron and Luka have never made much use of high post passing bigs. They have always under-utilized them.
Shaq is a facilitator also but a different type of facilitator. Shaq is a low post passing hub but he doesn't pass much from the high post. So the offense will be completely different with Shaq vs without Shaq.
This is not that unusual (Luka, LeBron). Playmakers who are that talented and that prolific often prefer to make the plays themselves than play off-ball. Magic Johnson was the same way late in his career. LAL rarely used Vlade Divac's passing until after Magic retired from the team because the ball was always in Magic's hands (Divac 1.0apg first 2yrs next to Magic in 24mpg). Same with Mychal Thompson who before before joining LAL was a very good passer in Portland. Kareem was the only big man whose passing was part of the offense. A low post hub like Shaq on these Cavaliers teams next to LeBron & Luka.
Topic: 2025 CelticsBlog Fantasy Draft: '05-'25 Edition (Read 60840 times)