if we sign Monroe and draft a center, how many wins

[Rondo9]

edit.

[Quetzalcoatl]

How good a defender was Chris Bosh?  How about Pau Gasol?  How about Dirk Nowitzki?  How about Shaq in 06 (with Haslem as the PF and Toine as the SF)?  Those are your best big man from every champion since the 05 Pistons, aside from KG and TD (both great defenders, though neither a shot blocker).  This trend you think exists, not so much.  And frankly I expect the Cavs and Kevin Love to win the title this year.

Shaq, Bosh and Pau were all good defenders (probably 10th - 15th at their position, if not better) and Bosh and Pau were paired next to excellent big man defenders, as were KG and Duncan.  Pau had Bynum, Bosh had Birdman/Haslem and I'd even count LeBron, KG had Perk, Duncan had a selection of side kicks, etc. 

If anything, that's an argument for getting Monroe and a good defensive big to put next to him.

[manl_lui]

How good a defender was Chris Bosh?  How about Pau Gasol?  How about Dirk Nowitzki?  How about Shaq in 06 (with Haslem as the PF and Toine as the SF)?  Those are your best big man from every champion since the 05 Pistons, aside from KG and TD (both great defenders, though neither a shot blocker).  This trend you think exists, not so much.  And frankly I expect the Cavs and Kevin Love to win the title this year.

Shaq, Bosh and Pau were all good defenders (probably 10th - 15th at their position, if not better) and Bosh and Pau were paired next to excellent big man defenders, as were KG and Duncan.  Pau had Bynum, Bosh had Birdman/Haslem and I'd even count LeBron, KG had Perk, Duncan had a selection of side kicks, etc. 

If anything, that's an argument for getting Monroe and a good defensive big to put next to him.

Agreed, I think if you can pair an offensive big man to a defensive big man, that will do so many wonders. You can even argue Blake and Jordan and Dirk and Tyson

If you want to start young, Greg Monroe and WCS sounds good. I think that alone should probably get us anywhere between 5 to 10 wins next season. Or more. 

[Quetzalcoatl]

How good a defender was Chris Bosh?  How about Pau Gasol?  How about Dirk Nowitzki?  How about Shaq in 06 (with Haslem as the PF and Toine as the SF)?  Those are your best big man from every champion since the 05 Pistons, aside from KG and TD (both great defenders, though neither a shot blocker).  This trend you think exists, not so much.  And frankly I expect the Cavs and Kevin Love to win the title this year.

Shaq, Bosh and Pau were all good defenders (probably 10th - 15th at their position, if not better) and Bosh and Pau were paired next to excellent big man defenders, as were KG and Duncan.  Pau had Bynum, Bosh had Birdman/Haslem and I'd even count LeBron, KG had Perk, Duncan had a selection of side kicks, etc. 

If anything, that's an argument for getting Monroe and a good defensive big to put next to him.

Agreed, I think if you can pair an offensive big man to a defensive big man, that will do so many wonders. You can even argue Blake and Jordan and Dirk and Tyson

If you want to start young, Greg Monroe and WCS sounds good. I think that alone should probably get us anywhere between 5 to 10 wins next season. Or more.

Granted, Monroe is next to Drummond now who is really good in that respect, but they both want to play the 5 so badly.  I think Noel actually might be a good fit next to Monroe as a PF of sorts

[manl_lui]

How good a defender was Chris Bosh?  How about Pau Gasol?  How about Dirk Nowitzki?  How about Shaq in 06 (with Haslem as the PF and Toine as the SF)?  Those are your best big man from every champion since the 05 Pistons, aside from KG and TD (both great defenders, though neither a shot blocker).  This trend you think exists, not so much.  And frankly I expect the Cavs and Kevin Love to win the title this year.

Shaq, Bosh and Pau were all good defenders (probably 10th - 15th at their position, if not better) and Bosh and Pau were paired next to excellent big man defenders, as were KG and Duncan.  Pau had Bynum, Bosh had Birdman/Haslem and I'd even count LeBron, KG had Perk, Duncan had a selection of side kicks, etc. 

If anything, that's an argument for getting Monroe and a good defensive big to put next to him.

Agreed, I think if you can pair an offensive big man to a defensive big man, that will do so many wonders. You can even argue Blake and Jordan and Dirk and Tyson

If you want to start young, Greg Monroe and WCS sounds good. I think that alone should probably get us anywhere between 5 to 10 wins next season. Or more.

Granted, Monroe is next to Drummond now who is really good in that respect, but they both want to play the 5 so badly.  I think Noel actually might be a good fit next to Monroe as a PF of sorts

another good point. I think we can "try" to trade or sign Monroe and then trade our pick to 76ers for Noel

I keep seeing this come up, if 76ers have top 2 pick, Towns or Okafor, will make Noel or Embiid available. I would jump on this

[wdleehi]

Monroe is fools gold to me. In the modern NBA you need your big men to be able to defend.As the NBA progresses more and more to inside out games we're going to need bigs that can shoot in the pick and roll and pick and pop, and now in this new era- shoot from deep.... and defend the rim ala Myles Turner and Bobby Portis.
The Spurs have shown this. The Bulls, the Thunder, Clippers, Pacers, Hawks, Pelicans have shown this.  Would I be right if I said only Memphis with Randolph have an inferior/average defender at the 4 of the best 8 teams in the NBA? Can't think of any other weaker combos being significantly held up other than perhaps the new Thunder duo of Ibaka and Adams and even then Adams is improving significantly, very quickly.

Would far rather go after Roy Hibbert or DeAndre Jordan over this guy- he just doens't fit with Stevens system and only hurts spacing- meanwhile having zero positive effect on the defensive end.

In other words, he'll hurt our spacing on the offensive end and be a neutral/negative on the defensive end. He's a suckers max player in the modern NBA. Can't play D and can't shoot past 5 feet.

NBA only goes in a direction until someone with the opposite talent ends up on a team with enough talent for him to be successful.  Then it becomes "the new direction of the NBA"

No, the NBA generally goes the way of the NBA superstar and the Hawks and Spurs have proven that even without a current top 5 (or perhaps 10) player you can beat the best players in the world to some extent.
Stars will probably always rule the NBA because a basketball court is just so small and the best players have so much impact on the overall outcome in that confined space, but
three point shooting and efficiency are ever increasing para-mounts and they've never been so heralded/important in relative success.

The NBA still gravitates towards a superstars game, but coaching and strategy are making the fight closer and more tactical than it's ever been. The new draft changes will favor this revolution even more.

Except the Spurs have an elite level big man the plays close to the basket in Duncan, the Hawks have won nothing.  The Spurs have stars.



Didn't we hear this same thing the one year Detroit won, only to watch star lead teams win most the titles after that?

KG was barely considered a top ten player, when he came to Boston. You don't need top five or top ten stars. You need players with the potential to be that. Considering Detroit, Ben Wallace was really a top ten player, when you look at impact, but defensive players don't get that recognition.

KG was a top 5 play at that time who sacrificed his offense to win a title. 

[Irish Stew]

My first preference is a slimmed down Sullinger over Monroe because it is both the easiest and cheapest solution and also allows us to address the 3 and 5 positions. Like other posters have mentioned, I would closely monitor the Embiid/Noel situation and see if we can do something there. Because of our strong play in the second half of this season, our own pick has been devalued and we would probably have to include at least both of our picks this year or, more likely, our pick this year and the Brooklyn pick next year. JMAC has suggested going strong after Khris Middleton and I think that this is both an excellent and realistic idea. This would give us a strong defensive and offensive frontcourt, that combined with our already strong backcourt rotation, makes us a very interesting team. Guys like Love, Jordan, or Butler are sexier acquisitions but are unlikely to sign here. Cauley-Stein would be a great draft choice but will not be available anywhere near where we will be drafting and it's a whole lot harder to move up significantly in the draft than people think. Including the Clippers pick will just not get it done.

[Neurotic Guy]

Monroe is fools gold to me. In the modern NBA you need your big men to be able to defend.As the NBA progresses more and more to inside out games we're going to need bigs that can shoot in the pick and roll and pick and pop, and now in this new era- shoot from deep.... and defend the rim ala Myles Turner and Bobby Portis.
The Spurs have shown this. The Bulls, the Thunder, Clippers, Pacers, Hawks, Pelicans have shown this.  Would I be right if I said only Memphis with Randolph have an inferior/average defender at the 4 of the best 8 teams in the NBA? Can't think of any other weaker combos being significantly held up other than perhaps the new Thunder duo of Ibaka and Adams and even then Adams is improving significantly, very quickly.

Would far rather go after Roy Hibbert or DeAndre Jordan over this guy- he just doens't fit with Stevens system and only hurts spacing- meanwhile having zero positive effect on the defensive end.

In other words, he'll hurt our spacing on the offensive end and be a neutral/negative on the defensive end. He's a suckers max player in the modern NBA. Can't play D and can't shoot past 5 feet.

NBA only goes in a direction until someone with the opposite talent ends up on a team with enough talent for him to be successful.  Then it becomes "the new direction of the NBA"

No, the NBA generally goes the way of the NBA superstar and the Hawks and Spurs have proven that even without a current top 5 (or perhaps 10) player you can beat the best players in the world to some extent.
Stars will probably always rule the NBA because a basketball court is just so small and the best players have so much impact on the overall outcome in that confined space, but
three point shooting and efficiency are ever increasing para-mounts and they've never been so heralded/important in relative success.

The NBA still gravitates towards a superstars game, but coaching and strategy are making the fight closer and more tactical than it's ever been. The new draft changes will favor this revolution even more.

Except the Spurs have an elite level big man the plays close to the basket in Duncan, the Hawks have won nothing.  The Spurs have stars.



Didn't we hear this same thing the one year Detroit won, only to watch star lead teams win most the titles after that?

KG was barely considered a top ten player, when he came to Boston. You don't need top five or top ten stars. You need players with the potential to be that. Considering Detroit, Ben Wallace was really a top ten player, when you look at impact, but defensive players don't get that recognition.

KG was a top 5 play at that time who sacrificed his offense to win a title.

Yes.  KG averaged 22/13/4 in 2005-6 before the trade to Boston.  Also was All-Defensive 2nd team that year.  Unlikely there was anyone on the planet who would not have considered him to be top 5 in the NBA at that time. 

[mahcus smaht]

Not a huge Monroe fan, but if we sign Monroe and draft Turner wed have to probably roll with a Monroe, Zeller frontcourt for the next year or two however if Turner reaches his potential that would be a really great front court. Monroe is athletic, can score in the post and rebound, but struggles in 2 areas: 1, he has no jumper 2, he isnt good defensively. These happen to be Turner's strengths.

That being said, Monroe Zeller going a line up of:
Smart Thomas
AB Young
Turner Crowder
Monroe Sullinger
Zeller Turner
Isnt bad especially because it opens KO up as trade bait (I assume Sully will have 0 value off of the foot injury) This also establishes some modicum of consistency which Brad loves and also you have to factor in the fact that Smart, AB, Young, and Zeller to some extent are still improving and  Sully is in a contract year.

That looks pretty similar to Washington, Chicago or Toronto especially if Young and Smart make big jumps. I say anywhere between 6 and 3 while fighting for the division crown.

[gpap]

I think adding Monroe and trading for either Faried or Noel makes this a 40-45 win team.

I think Monroe can flourish either at PF or C.

Regardless, after Kevin Love, Monroe is number 2 on my free agent wish list this summer (I know the odds of getting Gasol, LMA or Jordan are almost zero.)

[European NBA fan]

Monroe is fools gold to me. In the modern NBA you need your big men to be able to defend.As the NBA progresses more and more to inside out games we're going to need bigs that can shoot in the pick and roll and pick and pop, and now in this new era- shoot from deep.... and defend the rim ala Myles Turner and Bobby Portis.
The Spurs have shown this. The Bulls, the Thunder, Clippers, Pacers, Hawks, Pelicans have shown this.  Would I be right if I said only Memphis with Randolph have an inferior/average defender at the 4 of the best 8 teams in the NBA? Can't think of any other weaker combos being significantly held up other than perhaps the new Thunder duo of Ibaka and Adams and even then Adams is improving significantly, very quickly.

Would far rather go after Roy Hibbert or DeAndre Jordan over this guy- he just doens't fit with Stevens system and only hurts spacing- meanwhile having zero positive effect on the defensive end.

In other words, he'll hurt our spacing on the offensive end and be a neutral/negative on the defensive end. He's a suckers max player in the modern NBA. Can't play D and can't shoot past 5 feet.

NBA only goes in a direction until someone with the opposite talent ends up on a team with enough talent for him to be successful.  Then it becomes "the new direction of the NBA"

No, the NBA generally goes the way of the NBA superstar and the Hawks and Spurs have proven that even without a current top 5 (or perhaps 10) player you can beat the best players in the world to some extent.
Stars will probably always rule the NBA because a basketball court is just so small and the best players have so much impact on the overall outcome in that confined space, but
three point shooting and efficiency are ever increasing para-mounts and they've never been so heralded/important in relative success.

The NBA still gravitates towards a superstars game, but coaching and strategy are making the fight closer and more tactical than it's ever been. The new draft changes will favor this revolution even more.

Except the Spurs have an elite level big man the plays close to the basket in Duncan, the Hawks have won nothing.  The Spurs have stars.



Didn't we hear this same thing the one year Detroit won, only to watch star lead teams win most the titles after that?

KG was barely considered a top ten player, when he came to Boston. You don't need top five or top ten stars. You need players with the potential to be that. Considering Detroit, Ben Wallace was really a top ten player, when you look at impact, but defensive players don't get that recognition.

KG was a top 5 play at that time who sacrificed his offense to win a title.

please show me a ranking in 2007, who had him as a top five player...

Nowitzki, James, McGrady, Bryant, Nash, Bosh, Duncan and Arenas were ahead of him by a good margin in the MVP votes that year. He was tied 9th with Carlos Boozer.

Ranking players is about perception. And KG was not perceived a top five player. He still had the potential, though, and that's what matters. He (or perhaps Chris Paul) should've been MVP in 2008. But that's another story

[wdleehi]

Monroe is fools gold to me. In the modern NBA you need your big men to be able to defend.As the NBA progresses more and more to inside out games we're going to need bigs that can shoot in the pick and roll and pick and pop, and now in this new era- shoot from deep.... and defend the rim ala Myles Turner and Bobby Portis.
The Spurs have shown this. The Bulls, the Thunder, Clippers, Pacers, Hawks, Pelicans have shown this.  Would I be right if I said only Memphis with Randolph have an inferior/average defender at the 4 of the best 8 teams in the NBA? Can't think of any other weaker combos being significantly held up other than perhaps the new Thunder duo of Ibaka and Adams and even then Adams is improving significantly, very quickly.

Would far rather go after Roy Hibbert or DeAndre Jordan over this guy- he just doens't fit with Stevens system and only hurts spacing- meanwhile having zero positive effect on the defensive end.

In other words, he'll hurt our spacing on the offensive end and be a neutral/negative on the defensive end. He's a suckers max player in the modern NBA. Can't play D and can't shoot past 5 feet.

NBA only goes in a direction until someone with the opposite talent ends up on a team with enough talent for him to be successful.  Then it becomes "the new direction of the NBA"

No, the NBA generally goes the way of the NBA superstar and the Hawks and Spurs have proven that even without a current top 5 (or perhaps 10) player you can beat the best players in the world to some extent.
Stars will probably always rule the NBA because a basketball court is just so small and the best players have so much impact on the overall outcome in that confined space, but
three point shooting and efficiency are ever increasing para-mounts and they've never been so heralded/important in relative success.

The NBA still gravitates towards a superstars game, but coaching and strategy are making the fight closer and more tactical than it's ever been. The new draft changes will favor this revolution even more.

Except the Spurs have an elite level big man the plays close to the basket in Duncan, the Hawks have won nothing.  The Spurs have stars.



Didn't we hear this same thing the one year Detroit won, only to watch star lead teams win most the titles after that?

KG was barely considered a top ten player, when he came to Boston. You don't need top five or top ten stars. You need players with the potential to be that. Considering Detroit, Ben Wallace was really a top ten player, when you look at impact, but defensive players don't get that recognition.

KG was a top 5 play at that time who sacrificed his offense to win a title.

please show me a ranking in 2007, who had him as a top five player...

Nowitzki, James, McGrady, Bryant, Nash, Bosh, Duncan and Arenas were ahead of him by a good margin in the MVP votes that year. He was tied 9th with Carlos Boozer.

Ranking players is about perception. And KG was not perceived a top five player. He still had the potential, though, and that's what matters. He (or perhaps Chris Paul) should've been MVP in 2008. But that's another story

MVP voting is a joke.  Just look at the years Jordan didn't win because voters wanted to vote for someone new. 



We saw him on the court. 


His numbers took a hit as he played for the team (much like the other two stars) and won the title. 



Oh and by the way, KG was defensive MVP that year.


Oh, and by the way, KG was among the 5 players selected to the all-NBA first team.

[European NBA fan]

Monroe is fools gold to me. In the modern NBA you need your big men to be able to defend.As the NBA progresses more and more to inside out games we're going to need bigs that can shoot in the pick and roll and pick and pop, and now in this new era- shoot from deep.... and defend the rim ala Myles Turner and Bobby Portis.
The Spurs have shown this. The Bulls, the Thunder, Clippers, Pacers, Hawks, Pelicans have shown this.  Would I be right if I said only Memphis with Randolph have an inferior/average defender at the 4 of the best 8 teams in the NBA? Can't think of any other weaker combos being significantly held up other than perhaps the new Thunder duo of Ibaka and Adams and even then Adams is improving significantly, very quickly.

Would far rather go after Roy Hibbert or DeAndre Jordan over this guy- he just doens't fit with Stevens system and only hurts spacing- meanwhile having zero positive effect on the defensive end.

In other words, he'll hurt our spacing on the offensive end and be a neutral/negative on the defensive end. He's a suckers max player in the modern NBA. Can't play D and can't shoot past 5 feet.

NBA only goes in a direction until someone with the opposite talent ends up on a team with enough talent for him to be successful.  Then it becomes "the new direction of the NBA"

No, the NBA generally goes the way of the NBA superstar and the Hawks and Spurs have proven that even without a current top 5 (or perhaps 10) player you can beat the best players in the world to some extent.
Stars will probably always rule the NBA because a basketball court is just so small and the best players have so much impact on the overall outcome in that confined space, but
three point shooting and efficiency are ever increasing para-mounts and they've never been so heralded/important in relative success.

The NBA still gravitates towards a superstars game, but coaching and strategy are making the fight closer and more tactical than it's ever been. The new draft changes will favor this revolution even more.

Except the Spurs have an elite level big man the plays close to the basket in Duncan, the Hawks have won nothing.  The Spurs have stars.



Didn't we hear this same thing the one year Detroit won, only to watch star lead teams win most the titles after that?

KG was barely considered a top ten player, when he came to Boston. You don't need top five or top ten stars. You need players with the potential to be that. Considering Detroit, Ben Wallace was really a top ten player, when you look at impact, but defensive players don't get that recognition.

KG was a top 5 play at that time who sacrificed his offense to win a title.

please show me a ranking in 2007, who had him as a top five player...

Nowitzki, James, McGrady, Bryant, Nash, Bosh, Duncan and Arenas were ahead of him by a good margin in the MVP votes that year. He was tied 9th with Carlos Boozer.

Ranking players is about perception. And KG was not perceived a top five player. He still had the potential, though, and that's what matters. He (or perhaps Chris Paul) should've been MVP in 2008. But that's another story

MVP voting is a joke.  Just look at the years Jordan didn't win because voters wanted to vote for someone new. 



We saw him on the court. 


His numbers took a hit as he played for the team (much like the other two stars) and won the title. 



Oh and by the way, KG was defensive MVP that year.


Oh, and by the way, KG was among the 5 players selected to the all-NBA first team.

No he wasn't either of that. He wasn't even on the 2nd team. I'm talking about 2007, when we acquired KG. I have written it two times, and it should be pretty clear from the context, too.

The 2007-2008 season proved that the perception, that KG wasn't a top five player anymore, was wrong. But that's almost impossible to know beforehand. That's why I say, that it's the potential to be a top five or top ten player that's important, not the rankings we would make right now. Because perception can be deceiving, and circumstances can change.

[Moranis]

How good a defender was Chris Bosh?  How about Pau Gasol?  How about Dirk Nowitzki?  How about Shaq in 06 (with Haslem as the PF and Toine as the SF)?  Those are your best big man from every champion since the 05 Pistons, aside from KG and TD (both great defenders, though neither a shot blocker).  This trend you think exists, not so much.  And frankly I expect the Cavs and Kevin Love to win the title this year.

Shaq, Bosh and Pau were all good defenders (probably 10th - 15th at their position, if not better) and Bosh and Pau were paired next to excellent big man defenders, as were KG and Duncan.  Pau had Bynum, Bosh had Birdman/Haslem and I'd even count LeBron, KG had Perk, Duncan had a selection of side kicks, etc. 

If anything, that's an argument for getting Monroe and a good defensive big to put next to him.

Bosh and Pau were good defenders.  You might want to tell the world that.  They weren't terrible defenders, but they certainly weren't good defenders.  And you see now you are changing the dynamic by talking about a lesser player next to the PF.  You can't have it both ways, either there is a new trend or there isn't.  YOu can't just pick and choose what you look at to fit your supposed new trend.  There isn't a new trend.  The teams with the superstar at 6'6" or taller win (and compete for) titles.  It has been that way since the dawn of basketball and will continue to be that way. 

[wdleehi]

Monroe is fools gold to me. In the modern NBA you need your big men to be able to defend.As the NBA progresses more and more to inside out games we're going to need bigs that can shoot in the pick and roll and pick and pop, and now in this new era- shoot from deep.... and defend the rim ala Myles Turner and Bobby Portis.
The Spurs have shown this. The Bulls, the Thunder, Clippers, Pacers, Hawks, Pelicans have shown this.  Would I be right if I said only Memphis with Randolph have an inferior/average defender at the 4 of the best 8 teams in the NBA? Can't think of any other weaker combos being significantly held up other than perhaps the new Thunder duo of Ibaka and Adams and even then Adams is improving significantly, very quickly.

Would far rather go after Roy Hibbert or DeAndre Jordan over this guy- he just doens't fit with Stevens system and only hurts spacing- meanwhile having zero positive effect on the defensive end.

In other words, he'll hurt our spacing on the offensive end and be a neutral/negative on the defensive end. He's a suckers max player in the modern NBA. Can't play D and can't shoot past 5 feet.

NBA only goes in a direction until someone with the opposite talent ends up on a team with enough talent for him to be successful.  Then it becomes "the new direction of the NBA"

No, the NBA generally goes the way of the NBA superstar and the Hawks and Spurs have proven that even without a current top 5 (or perhaps 10) player you can beat the best players in the world to some extent.
Stars will probably always rule the NBA because a basketball court is just so small and the best players have so much impact on the overall outcome in that confined space, but
three point shooting and efficiency are ever increasing para-mounts and they've never been so heralded/important in relative success.

The NBA still gravitates towards a superstars game, but coaching and strategy are making the fight closer and more tactical than it's ever been. The new draft changes will favor this revolution even more.

Except the Spurs have an elite level big man the plays close to the basket in Duncan, the Hawks have won nothing.  The Spurs have stars.



Didn't we hear this same thing the one year Detroit won, only to watch star lead teams win most the titles after that?

KG was barely considered a top ten player, when he came to Boston. You don't need top five or top ten stars. You need players with the potential to be that. Considering Detroit, Ben Wallace was really a top ten player, when you look at impact, but defensive players don't get that recognition.

KG was a top 5 play at that time who sacrificed his offense to win a title.

please show me a ranking in 2007, who had him as a top five player...

Nowitzki, James, McGrady, Bryant, Nash, Bosh, Duncan and Arenas were ahead of him by a good margin in the MVP votes that year. He was tied 9th with Carlos Boozer.

Ranking players is about perception. And KG was not perceived a top five player. He still had the potential, though, and that's what matters. He (or perhaps Chris Paul) should've been MVP in 2008. But that's another story

MVP voting is a joke.  Just look at the years Jordan didn't win because voters wanted to vote for someone new. 



We saw him on the court. 


His numbers took a hit as he played for the team (much like the other two stars) and won the title. 



Oh and by the way, KG was defensive MVP that year.


Oh, and by the way, KG was among the 5 players selected to the all-NBA first team.

No he wasn't either of that. He wasn't even on the 2nd team. I'm talking about 2007, when we acquired KG. I have written it two times, and it should be pretty clear from the context, too.

The 2007-2008 season proved that the perception, that KG wasn't a top five player anymore, was wrong. But that's almost impossible to know beforehand. That's why I say, that it's the potential to be a top five or top ten player that's important, not the rankings we would make right now. Because perception can be deceiving, and circumstances can change.

When talking NBA season, mentioning both years in the season helps.


2007, KG, Celtics:  leads to the 2007-2008 season when KG was on the Celtics.




Meanwhile, the season before, KG was a top 2 big man along with Duncan.