By Lefteris Moutis/ moutis@eurohoops.net
Mike Batiste welcomed very European fan in the world of the undersized centers and the duo of Olympiacos: Kyle Hines and Joey Dorsey added them “in vogue”. So, who centers are more useful nowadays in the European basketball, the undersized or the “old school” ones?
The giant centers
Until some years ago every team had in its roster (at least one) giant who could play excellent post game and was tall and heavy like the “old school” model of basketball was guiding. During the last seasons the “dinosaurs” were going to disappear from the basketball world, but this one next to (always among the best) Ante Tomic is Boban Marjanovic who also proves that there is still room for 7footers. In any case, these two have the best ranking in the Euroleague this season! Moreover, among the best there are still giant centers like Krstic, Kaun and Vazquez who have an excellent career in the Euroleague for many years.
The undersized centers
However, the basketball moves and is getting faster. The majority of the top level European big guys moves soon to the NBA and the new trend is the mobile American centers who can play excellent defense vertical and in the perimeter thanks to their speed. The Euroleague coaches chose often to play “defense with switches” and these centers are the ultimate weapon for that. Dorsey, Lasme, Gist, Dunston, Hunter, Hines made their name by this way and usually they are effective also in the offense if there isn’t in front of them a player in their size. It’s expected that in the next years the undersized centers will conquer because there are many mobile Americans in the market and they are cheap.
Our conclusion: It depends, but the basketball moves on…
Who wouldn’t like to have a player like Ante Tomic? But how many are the 7footers who have such a technique and can’t be beaten so easily be their opponents? Few and most of them live and continue their career in the NBA. So, the right answer for a coach or a GM is “the combination of the two types of the centers”. You can name one of them as starter and the other one as back up but it’s crucial to have both. Few teams have only one type of centers in their roster like Olympiacos (Dunston and Hunter are mobile and Kavvadas doesn’t play at all) or Barcelona (the shortest among Tomic, Pleiss and Lampe is 210 centimeters and none of them can defend effectively in the perimeter). So, it’s better to combine centers though the direction of the European basketball during the last years shows that the mobile centers are at least necessary to any team.
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