That is a informed position and post
I have seen the centers playing and I like what we have and the potential and hope Ben comes back as well.
Certain countries might not need a world class center but we most certainly do. We donāt have the outside shooting to overcome a middle of the road center. Hallock opens up so much for the offense. It will become very clear the first Olympics without him.
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How about JRHat center? He has the size, 6 feet 6 inches, extremely long arms, extremely fast for a center and has an array of shots. Let us see how he does at Stanford when he finally gets to play with and against the big boys all year.
Your endless promotion and defense of certain players is exhausting- itās clear you have a personal connection . Anyone who watched the series against Italy-especially the last game-sees the weaknesses of the center play.
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In the last 50 years or so, three teams won the Olympics without relying on a dominant center- Italy in 1992, Spain in 1996 and Serbia in 2024. So yes, it is possible but pretty hard. And, of course, nobody expected Serbs to win two years ago. They looked pretty mediocre in 2022-2023 and at the preliminary stage of the 2024 Olympics.
Hallock opened up everyone, no doubt. Heās unbelievable. Obert did a good job too. The way I look at it, itās a sliding scale of sorts. In 2024, Hallock was the best center in the world (or one of them), while our system execution was average. That recipe put us in the mix to get a good result. With a lot of crossover luck and a ballsy game against Hungary, we took home a Bronze. Luck is good. Hope we get more of it.
You remove Hallock, and you need the system to shine through. The perimeter players to improve. The man up man down to be incredibly dangerous. If youāre saying you donāt think the US is capable of improving that piece of the game under the current regime, and that we need the '24 recipe of top center and average to good system/perimeter play, I agree with you. Biggest indicator of future performance is past performance lol. My point is only that you donāt NEED that to be the recipe in todayās game. Plenty of other teams are working with average center play and being highly proficient. Iād rather highlight the larger hill to climb, which is the development of the broader group, rather than pick out a few kids at center that are progressing really well, but not at the level of Cosmin Radu yet.
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Good demonstration of how important 6-5 % is. In the last olympics Serbia had 63 opportunities with 38 goals (60%). Croatia 90 opportunities 39 goals (43%). The US was second in the number of PPlays with 85 and tied for last with 40% (34 goals). The conclusion is if you dont have a dominant center drawing a ton of exclusions you better have high fifties / sixty % on your PP.
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I would posit that our feeble performance on 6v5 was due to our lack of lefty (remember, not one lefty on the ā24 team) threat. At that level (even the elite collegiate level) the goal of the defense is to make you take the shot THEY want you to take. Moreover, teams were willing to take the exclusions to get to 5v6 as the numbers were in their favor.
As you can tell by my handle, Iām definitely a believer in the importance of Center play. However, as @polo4 mentioned, under the new rules the ability of a dominant set to dictate the outcomes of games has been diminished. I think with these new rules you need to be strong up the middle (goalie, C, CD) AND a killer lefty.
I think looking at our development of players in the States we are simply not developing Centers or Lefties like the traditional powers (Serbs, Hungarians et al). Spain is an interesting case study as a model that optimizes the new rules, but thatās another topic for another day.
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Fair enough, questioning my intent is one way to debate/discuss. I have a personal connection to the love of the sport, the athletes and the US developing and winning.will leave it here.
Thats the right point