Would you rather have a scoring big or a rebounding/defensive big?

[syfy9]

Would you rather have a go-to post player that will reduce the number of times the offense stagnates (but is an average defender), or a big that will rebound well and provide elite toughness down low but is limited offensively?

Some examples :

Scola or Okafor?
Dirk or Tyson Chandler?
David Lee or Kenneth Faried?

[Yoki_IsTheName]

I'd really prefer a scoring big.

Scoring bigs, most of the times at least, put's opponents bigs in foul trouble, and that' a great deal.

He still has to play some decent defense (so pass on Scola), but if he'll average a double-double, gets to the line atleast 6-8 times, a suspect defense is probably a setback I'd be willing to take. So yeah, someone like David Lee is my kind of big. I'll just find a way to hide his defensive lapses.

[BASS_THUMPER]

a  big scorer

any big will get rebounds

[bfrombleacher]

We have Sully.

[CelticConcourse]

I'd gladly take a 10rpg All-Defensive 7-footer...

[LilRip]

definitely a rebounding/defensive big. i'd love to have a legit shot blocker in the back who can suck in rebounds, get putbacks and set great screens.

[Yogi]

Dirk or Tyson Chandler is not a real question.  Maybe prime Dirk or Howard?

[lightspeed5]

scoring big can become a black hole on offense.

[ScottHow]

Give me the defense and rebounding

[syfy9]

Dirk or Tyson Chandler is not a real question.  Maybe prime Dirk or Howard?

Dirk is getting old and slow. He's an average defender for his size and won't crash the boards like Chandler (his skill set offensively is top 8 in the league, imo, though).

Chandler quietly won the series against us for the Knicks. He had so many offensive tips to his teammates - he attacked the boards with regularity. He's also still a very good defender - another anchor like him alongside KG would give us the best interior defense combo in the league.

Dirk poses a whole other dimension to our offense, something that Chandler can't do. Chandler can, however, be a pick and roll guy with Rondo (remember him and CP3 in his New Orleans days?). Both would make us pretty dang good. They're both great locker room guys and were important pieces to their championship run - without one, the Mavs never would have won.


I'd pick Dirk as well, but I would hesitate about a dozen times before I officially pick him.

[LB3533]

I think in today's game you would really want to have a defensive minded big guy, a rim protector instead of a scoring big.

The days of 20/10 big men are almost over. These types of players are virtually extinct.

In fact, this season there were exactly zero players who averaged 20/10 for the whole season. First time in the last 8 seasons that this has happened. Normally there are at least a handful of players who averaged 20/10.

[CelticConcourse]

I think in today's game you would really want to have a defensive minded big guy, a rim protector instead of a scoring big.

The days of 20/10 big men are almost over. These types of players are virtually extinct.

In fact, this season there were exactly zero players who averaged 20/10 for the whole season. First time in the last 8 seasons that this has happened. Normally there are at least a handful of players who averaged 20/10.

There were what, 11 guys who had 16/8 which is fine. Even if someone did average 20/10, he wouldn't be on our team

I'd gladly take a 15/9 guy... KG was 14.8/7.8... if we had two of those guys we're a contender

[Kane3387]

Scoring! Refs reward them more!

[KGs Knee]

The correct answer is one of each.

A big that does both would be best, but, unfortunately very few, if any, bigs like that exist any more.

[indeedproceed]

For me it all depends on just how good the players are at doing either skill. Also, there are extremely few guys who are truly good at just one side of the game, and terrible at the other side.

Example: Howard is a defensive force, but he can average over 20ppg. Dirk in 2011 was an average defender at worst. David Lee, while a dbl-dbl machine able to pour in 20 isn't a defensive liability.

Tyson Chandler is a great example of the type of guy you're talking about, so is Larry Sanders. But for the offensive version, Im really not sure who you'd peg.