Boban Marjanovic’s dominance was so evident in this game that even the commentators can’t figure out why Stan Van Gundy (henceforth referred to as “Can’t Van Coach”) doesn’t give him more minutes. They later concede that Marjanovic has trouble guarding mobile bigs and that’s why he’s unsuitable in many matchups, but I’ve got a refutal for that line of thinking:
Even if Marjanovic does get scored on by opposing bigs, he scores on them MORE. At worst it’s a wash, at best he’s using all 7’3″ of his superior Serbian-ness to utterly dominate whatever manlet is tasked with trying to stop him. Sure, he’s turnover-prone and slow. But he’s BIG and he has SKILL around the BASKET. He’s not getting paid that big contract to watch some Australian dude with a topknot take all his minutes. He’s getting paid to show nowaday’s finesse centers what play from a REAL center looks like. And Can’t Van Coach is preventing him from doing exactly that.
Luckily the Pistons are dropping hard out of the playoff race so the last few weeks of the season might see larger quanitites of hot Boban action. Detroit keeps getting blown out by inferior teams and their collection of role-players is looking more and more like a one-hit wonder. Boban won’t be able to save their season by himself, but he’ll make their games a lot more entertaining from here on out. If he gets minutes, that is.