Charles Oakley on What It Takes to Build A Winner

[Traceman]

See the attached link:

http://www.thestar.com/sports/nba/raptors/article/720778--feschuk-the-oakley-show-rolls-back-into-town

I love Oak because he always says what's on his mind and he usually says it in "Oak Speak." There is an interesting article in today's Toronto Star regarding an interview with him and as always, he was full of great quotes. I found his thoughts on Butch Carter very interesting. Who woulda thunk it? The thing I found most interesting though was his take on how a winning team needs to be constructed.

You can't build a team with five scorers on the floor," said Oakley. "Put two on the bench and put two role players out there with 'em. Somebody's got to stop somebody."

He also said:

You can't put four or five scorers on the floor at one time. You can, but you ain't going nowhere. You got four or five scorers on the floor, ain't enough shots in a game, in a quarter, for everybody to be consistent. You need your two scorers, outside threat and a post-up threat. You need your sixth man who can score. You need another guy that can just be an all-around energy guy, and you need another guy who can just, you know, play basketball."

Sounds like he would agree with Woody that having Crawford come off the bench is best for the team. Also, I think we are pretty close to having what Oak thinks is necessary to win. The most obvious deficiency we have is the lack of a consistent post scorer but we have everything else. JJ is our "outside threat" scorer. Crawford is our "sixth man who can score." Smoove is our "all-around energy guy." I think that Al, Marv and Bibby are all guys "who can just, you know, play basketball" with different levels of skill. If Al (or possibly Marv) could emerge as a legitimate post threat, we could take that next step as a group.

[coachx]

How can anyone not like the big Oak Tree ?

That is unless you had to play against him.

He was the nastinest, most physical player that I can remember. Those Knicks teams with Ewing, Oakly, Mason, and X-Man were the nastiness front court I can remember..........maybe not the best frontcourt of all time but definately one of the nastinest.

I totally agree with his basic construction of winning teams.........the hardest thing to find is that legit post scorer.........the only guy I know of who won a title without one is Michael Jordan, the best player of my lifetime hands down.

[TheNorthCydeRises]

I've always liked Oakley far more than Ewing. Of those players in that Knick frontcourt, Ewing was the most talented, but easily the softest.

And he's definitely telling the truth on how a team should be constructed. He mentioned the outside-inside scorers on a team. Those are usually the most successful teams, if they have players around them that don't mind playing defense and doing all of the little things to help you win.

And he's dead on about Toronto. They have way too many offensive guys, and not enough guys who are willing to defend people. If their offensive people could play D, then they'd be OK. But if they sign Bosh, they may have to think about dealing Bargnani to get better pieces around Bosh. If they don't re-sign Bosh, use that money to get other people. Turkoglu was defnitely the wrong move, in my opinion, because he needs the ball just like Bargnani, Bosh, and Calderon do That's a team that would've been better off going after a defender/shooter like Trevor Ariza, than Hedo

The mid 2000s T-Wolves are probably the best example of this.

PG - Cassell

G - Trenton Hassell ( perimeter defensive specialist )

F - Spreewell

PF - Garnett

C - Ervin ( not Magic ) Johnson ( good man defensive center that kept KG at PF at times )

And had bench players like Mark Madsen ( rebounder, energy guy ), Fred Hoiberg ( shooter ), and Eddie Griffin ( soft big man, but could block shots ). Hudson and Szczerbiak were hurt most of the year.

That Minnesota team won 55+ games and made it to the WC Finals, losing to the Lakers ( mainly because Cassell was hobbled ). But by no means did they have a team full of stars.

Trenton turned reputation as a premier defensive specialist into McHale giving him a 5yr - 25 mill contract in 2005. Now, he's rotting on the bench in Jersey . . but because of McHale, he'll make around 5 mill doing it.

[MaceCase]

Gotta love Oak, I wish he would post on the Squawk.

[DrReality]

Is he talking about how to win on the poker table?