Lots of speculation on how Phil would do on the big court. I have my opinion on that and will share it but first lets take a look at examples that would be applicable to Phil as well as go over his skillset and how that would apply to the big court. By the way, all of this is a moot point seeing as how the professional rules are short court, but I have a fair amount of time to kill here in Finland and figured I would exercise my brain a bit. Domestically speaking it is really a moot point as the more important issue is having a legitimate professional tour that will train American players to be in a position to get a Gold Medal at the Olympics.
First off, examples of players that can be used to somewhat compare Phil too from the big court era. There are a fair amount of them to choose from. I'll pick Pat Powers, Mike Dodd, Tim Hovland, Rob Heidger and of course Mike Whitmarsh. All 5 of these players were a tall 6'5 to a small 6'7. Phil is a small 6'9 for reference so he has all of them by 2 or 3 inches in height. All of these guys are pretty agile for their size and all of them tend to be of the skinnier variety so are not weighing in at 250 pounds. Much like Phil not weighing 200 pounds soaking wet. All of them were fairly successful on the big court and won multiple tourneys with the exception of Heidger. He never won an AVP event but did win a USAV event. PP won a dozen or so events and of course Whitty, Hov and Dodd are legends of the game. So moving on to Phil's skillset on any court, let's compare vs. what the 5 aforementioned players skillsets were on the big court.
Passing: Phil is a very under rated passer mostly due to the fact that I get served 90%+ of the balls. I can tell you that his technique is excellent from a coaches perspective and I think he would have been an absolutely dominating outside hitter on the indoor side of the game but that is another story. Compared to the 5 other guys, the only guy I would probably give the nod over Phil is MD. I would say Phil is a better passer than Heidger and PP with no question and about on the same level as Hov and Whitty. I realize that those guys had to pass more court than Phil currently does, but Phil grew up playing on the old school court as well. From a purely technical standpoint he ranks ahead of all of them in my book.
Setting: Have to look at this from two points of view if looking at it from the big court point of view. Clearly Phil has better setting hands than all 5 of these guys. Heidger would rank second and all the rest of the guys were basically bump setters. But you also have to look at it from a bump setting perspective as well. Right now, when Phil bump sets, he has to be exact since the court is smaller and I need a better set than most to sideout or score a point. I think his bump setting is actually pretty good. But, I think he would struggle the most with this skill to start off with. I would probably rank him ahead of PP but behind the rest of the guys. I know Whitty was an excellent bump setter as was Dodd. Probably the top two. Hov and Heidger were good bump setters as well.
Hitting and Shots: I think clearly Phil's hitting is better than all of them except maybe PP. I would rank him ahead of PP though as Phil's range is amazing. PP could hit the ball harder than Phil though. Heidger and Hov had wet noodles for arms and Whitty's wasn't much better. Dodd could hit a pretty pacey ball but I don't think he hit as hard as Phil. Shot wise Phil would have to get better for sure. He has an excellent deep line shot and an okay cut shot. He would probably have to develop a few more shots in his repertoire. Although I don't think PP had great shots nor did Whitty. Dodd and Heidger had good shots and Hov was solid as well.
Blocking: Phil is as good if not better than all of them. (Dodd blocked some but I see him as a great defender) Phil is clearly huge at the net. Probably bigger than all the other guys although I have seen pictures of PP and Whitty in their prime and they were way up there. Phil is also a very good reader as to whether the hitter is going to shoot the ball or hit the ball. Where Phil would suffer to start off with is pealing off the net. He worked hard on it this past year and is much better than he was. But I would put him way behind Whitty, Hov and Heidger. Can't speak for PP on this one. I do believe that with a year or two of practice and games where he is working on dropping off the net, that he would be on par with those other guys. Dropping off the net is athleticism and Phil has a lot of it just like those other guys.
Serving: Only PP had a great arm and ability to bang a jump serve out of all 5 of the guys mentioned. Hov, Whitty, Dodd and Heidger all had below average jump serves. Phil would be above all 4 of those guys and I know his touch from the service line and ability to spot the ball is really good on the little court so I would imagine it would be even better on the big court.
Others:
Defense - Phil is pretty quick and light on his feet and I think he could play defense behind a block pretty well. Give Dodd a pass on this one since he is one of the greats at defense. I think he would be better than Heidger and PP for sure. Whitty never played much so tough to say but he was the last guy cut on an NBA team so you know he is athletic as all hell. It pains me to say it, but Hov was a ridiculous athlete so I am sure his defense is pretty damn good and I would give him the nod over Phil.
Transition Setting: Give all of these guys the nod over Phil for now. Much like bump setting, it is something you have to do over and over again. Phil is pretty good but there just are not as many opportunities to bump set in the current game. If Phil got his hands on the ball then clearly he is way better than all the rest. I think he would quickly catch up though with a year under his belt.
Don't think I forgot anything unless you want to go to the intangibles like mental toughness ect... Don't think I want to go there so will leave it alone. End result for me is I don't think Phil would be as dominant on the big court as he is on the smaller court, but I do think he would immediately be one of the best players and within a year or two of playing exclusively on the big court I would rank him in the top 3. His athleticism is NBAesque and certainly on par with any of the 5 guys I mentioned.
