Best of Enemies Draft : Round 1 - Larry_Russell* vs Snakebites

[Laimbeer]

Here is a quick list of what you need in your writeup.

1. Specific years for each player on your team
2. Rotations and minutes for each player
3. Reasoning as to why your team will win and/or why people should vote for you.

Do not vote in this thread until both managers have submitted their writeups.

If writeups aren't posted within 24 hours, we will vote solely based on the players they have drafted (and any rotations they have posted on their roster page).

**First to 3 votes advances**

...

...

[Larry_Russell]

STARTERS

PG: Derek Harper (1989-90) 14.2
18ppg, 3rpg, 7.4apg, 2.3spg, 37% on 3-3pta
DPOY-3, All Defense 2nd

SG: Doug Christie (2002-03) 7
9.5ppg, 4.3rpg, 4.7apg, 2.3spg, 0.5bpg, 39.5% on 2.3-3pta
DPOY-5, All Defense 1st

SF: Paul Pierce (2007-08) 13.7
19.5ppg, 5rpg, 4.5apg, 1.3spg, 0.5bpg, 39.2% on 4.6-3pta
FMVP, All NBA 3rd, All Star

PF: Rasheed Wallace (2007-08) 11.3
12.7ppg, 6.6rpg, 1.8apg, 1.2spg, 1.7bpg, 35.5% on 4.1-3pta
MVP (14), All Star, 12th in All Defense voting

C: Wilt Chamberlain (1966-67) 12.1
24ppg, 24rpg, 7.8apg
MVP, All NBA 1st, All Star, #1 RPG, FG%, PER, TS%, OWS, WS, WS/48

BENCH

PG/SG: Malcolm Brogdon (2022-23) 10.9
15ppg, 4.2rpg, 3.7apg, 0.7spg, 44.5% on 4.5-3pta
6-MOTY

SF/PF: Lamar Odom (2010-11) 10.9
14.5ppg, 8.7rpg, 3apg, 0.6spg, 0.7bpg, 38% on 2.2-3pta
6-MOTY

SF: Reggie Bullock (2022-23) 6
7.2ppg, 3.6rpg, 1.4apg, 0.7spg, 38% on 5.1-3pta


ROTATION

PG: Harper (36) / Brogdon (12)
SG: Christie (36) / Brogdon (12)
SF: Pierce (38) / Bullock (10)
PF: Wallace (26) / Odom (22 )
C: Chamberlain (40) / Wallace (8 )

86.1/88


Matchups as follows.

Harper and Christie will both split time on Magic and will look to take him at 3/4 to full court all game long.
Harper in the chosen magic season defended Magic and held him to only 14 ppg on 34% shooting and Christie is arguably a better point of attack defender in some ways than Harper, with his 6-6 frame.

When not guarding MAgic, Harper or christie will be on White instead.

Pierce will take on Worthy, and I think this is a matchup that works for Pierce, having Sheed and Wilt behind him and Worthy's absolute lack of a shot lets Pierce sag off heavily and play the passing lanes a bit.

Sheed will take on Lopez, sheed isnt as athletic as Wilt at all, but athleticism isnt needed to defend Brook. He is primarily situational post up player 2/3rds of his shots came from the 3pt line, and the rest were put backs or post up. Rasheed will stick with him on the outside and just trail him

leaving Wilt to patroil the paint while defending McAdoo. McAdoo is primarily a low post, back to the basket put the rebound back in type of guy. This is not going to work on Wilt.
Wilt has the size, height, strength and athleticism advantage here.
In his career, McAdoo averaged only 17/9 in 4 games against an old, post injury Wilt.

Defensively I just have no real weaknesses here to be exploited.

My bench is fantastic with 6moty Brogdon and his 44% 3pt shooting coming in a guard, and 6moty Odom coming in with a bit of everything.


Offensively we will look to attack. We will run a lot of pick and roll knowing that Lopez will always look to drop down to cover for Wilt that will leave any of my 3pt shooter to bomb away as Magic will not be looking to come over the top of a Wilt screen. If White takes on my Point guard that will leave a mismatch as neither Magic or Worthy are capable of defending pierce on the peremiter.

And I still have my bigman in the middle to make things happen, every shot on the rim has the potential to be a put back or tip out for Wilt.

[Snakebites]

PG: Magic Johnson 90-91 12.4 FGA
SG: Derrick White 23-24 9.2 FGA
SF: James Worthy 86-87 14.7 FGA
PF: Bob McAdoo 73-74 19.0 FGA
C: Brook Lopez 18-19 9.7 FGA

B: Wesley Matthews Jr. 12-13 11.7 FGA
B: Jae Crowder 20-21 8.2 FGA
B: Jon Barry 95-96 3.0 FGA

Johnson (24)/White (24)
White (14)/Matthews (26)/Barry (8)
Worthy (30)/Johnson (14)/Matthews (4)
McAdoo (24)/Crowder (24)
Lopez (34)/Mcadoo (14)

Alrighty, lets do this.

LR has an extremely deep team that is fairly talented, but I think my team presents a very interesting matchup for him.

It's hard to speculate about how effectively Wilt Chamberlain would be able to defend in space, but given he was a pretty conventional low post bigman on defense and simply never had to even attempt to guard a front court like the one I've built, I think this is a major trump card for me. Brook Lopez a volume three point shooter who will seek to either draw Wilt out of the paint or simply punish him for refusing to do so. In addition to this, Bob McAdoo was something of a Dirk prototype with his ability to score effectively on the perimeter.

This well spaced out front court creates lots of space for Magic Johnson's playmaking, but also for his not often-enough spoken about post play, which was especially revenant in the later parts of his prime like the selected year. The shooting of my front court combined with Magic gives my team an inverted offense vibe that I think will trip up LR a good amount.

James Worthy was not only an excellent third option on a Magic team in real life (the exact role he'll be playing here) but was also a versatile and effective defender who Bird described as his toughest matchup- so I plan on putting him up against Paul Pierce- who I don't think quite has the quickness to take advantage of him. Magic hides on Doug Christie (who was a great defender and playmaker, but not really a volume movement shooter to create problems for us here), and Derrick White takes the other Derek.

I don't see a good defender for Magic here. He should be able to post up on Christie and Harper all day long, neither of them are big enough or strong enough to really handle him.

On the other end of the floor I think the weakness of LR's team is that he doesn't have an athletic enough scorer in the backcourt to really punish me for using a super big lineup with Magic and Worthy on the perimeter. And that size will be a challenge for him to deal with.

LR built a great team but I like the way I match up here.

[Fadeaway_J]

Larry's team is a slightly better version of mine with similar strengths and weaknesses: well-balanced with lots of depth, but not quite enough top-end firepower. Magic running with Worthy and McAdoo is a scary prospect, and the floor is spaced nicely by Lopez and White. I agree with Larry's move to switch Sheed onto Lopez, but the player he's describing isn't McAdoo who is a midrange monster and quicker/more agile than most 5s (including Wilt).

Vote: Snakebites

[Snakebites]

McAdoo is primarily a low post, back to the basket put the rebound back in type of guy. This is not going to work on Wilt.

McAdoo is literally the opposite of this. Definitely a guy who thrived scoring far away from the basket, extremely ahead of his time.

If he was primarily a low post player wouldn't have picked him in round 2 and certainly wouldn't be playing him at the 4, even with a stretch guy like Lopez.

[Dr Positivity]

I like Larry's team a bit more but this is a horrific matchup for Wilt's style of defense, I'm not sure he likes setting picks either. On the other hand though Snake's team is only ok on defense and McAdoo is the opposite of a Giannis type defender beside him, Wilt could destroy Lopez pretty bad as a scorer and rebounder and open up 3pt shots. I'll say Larry survives due to the bench play. Vote Larry.

[Larry_Russell]

McAdoo is primarily a low post, back to the basket put the rebound back in type of guy. This is not going to work on Wilt.

McAdoo is literally the opposite of this. Definitely a guy who thrived scoring far away from the basket, extremely ahead of his time.

If he was primarily a low post player wouldn't have picked him in round 2 and certainly wouldn't be playing him at the 4, even with a stretch guy like Lopez.

All the video and reading I have done on bob he wasnt playing "far away from the basket"
Unless 10-15 feet is considered far away.

The second part has nothing to do with the type of player mcadoo was

And its all moot anyway as old wilt dominated mcadoo in head to head

[Fadeaway_J]

McAdoo is primarily a low post, back to the basket put the rebound back in type of guy. This is not going to work on Wilt.

McAdoo is literally the opposite of this. Definitely a guy who thrived scoring far away from the basket, extremely ahead of his time.

If he was primarily a low post player wouldn't have picked him in round 2 and certainly wouldn't be playing him at the 4, even with a stretch guy like Lopez.

All the video and reading I have done on bob he wasnt playing "far away from the basket"
Unless 10-15 feet is considered far away.

The second part has nothing to do with the type of player mcadoo was

And its all moot anyway as old wilt dominated mcadoo in head to head

10-15 feet isn't usually considered "low post", and he did most of his best work facing up.

4 games in McAdoo's rookie year is not a particularly relevant sample, and that's even assuming they were actually going head-to-head (McAdoo is listed as a PF that season).

[flaco]

McAdoo is widely considered the original stretch 4. He was far from an old school, back-to-the basket big. Didn't have 3pt range, but his prime years were prior to the 3pt era. I bet he would have developed a reliable 3 in the modern game.

Both teams have talented players and good synergy. That said, I envision them playing a totally different brand of basketball. Wilt thrived in the half court and asked his PG to wait for him before initiating offense. Magic thrived in the open court. Wilt is an interior-oriented big. BroLo and McAdoo are perimeter-oriented bigs. Given we play under modern rules, I think Snake's team would be better suited for the pace-and-space era.

Vote: Snakebites

[Larry_Russell]

So now we bet on McADoo developing according to the modern game, but Wilt the most uber athlete the league could not be used as a screen setter, rim runner and would exclusively be a paint guy who couldnt defend in space despite being a freakish athlete?

[flaco]

So now we bet on McADoo developing according to the modern game, but Wilt the most uber athlete the league could not be used as a screen setter, rim runner and would exclusively be a paint guy who couldnt defend in space despite being a freakish athlete?

Freakish athlete in terms of strength and verticality, not in terms of explosiveness and mobility. Here's Phil Jackson commenting on Wilt's game. If anyone is qualified to speak on Wilt, that's probably Phil Jackson.

Watch on YouTube

;pp=ygUhcGhpbCBqYWNrc29uIGpvaG4gc2FsZXkgd2lsdCBzaGFx

[Colbinii]

So now we bet on McADoo developing according to the modern game, but Wilt the most uber athlete the league could not be used as a screen setter, rim runner and would exclusively be a paint guy who couldnt defend in space despite being a freakish athlete?

Freakish athlete in terms of strength and verticality, not in terms of explosiveness and mobility. Here's Phil Jackson commenting on Wilt's game. If anyone is qualified to speak on Wilt, that's probably Phil Jackson.

Watch on YouTube

;pp=ygUhcGhpbCBqYWNrc29uIGpvaG4gc2FsZXkgd2lsdCBzaGFx

Ben Taylor also has an excellent episode on greatest defender(s) ever and Wilt wasn't a great horizontal athlete. It is what separated Bill Russell [More similar to KG in that regard] and Wilt as portable defenders. Wilt was a straight line athlete with incredible strength and leaping ability, but he wouldn't be able to navigate screens in the modern NBA.

Giannis also struggles to defend in space as he isn't an elite horizontal athlete. Elite Athlete, yes, but he isn't a perfect athlete like LeBron James or Russell Westbrook.

[Colbinii]

I prefer the spacing components of Snakebites, you can tell he went all-in on spacing after the Magic Johnson selection in round 1. Worthy as a slasher/cutter utilizes the spacing exceptionally well here which allows McAdoo to do damage as a play finisher from all over the court.

Larry has size and defense which continues to go unmatched in this game. I expect this match-up to be similar where he simply overpowers and out-sizes the opposition with enough juice off the bench in Lamar/Brogdon.

Larry_Russell

[Larry_Russell]

So now we bet on McADoo developing according to the modern game, but Wilt the most uber athlete the league could not be used as a screen setter, rim runner and would exclusively be a paint guy who couldnt defend in space despite being a freakish athlete?

Freakish athlete in terms of strength and verticality, not in terms of explosiveness and mobility. Here's Phil Jackson commenting on Wilt's game. If anyone is qualified to speak on Wilt, that's probably Phil Jackson.

Watch on YouTube

;pp=ygUhcGhpbCBqYWNrc29uIGpvaG4gc2FsZXkgd2lsdCBzaGFx

Dude set a highjump of 6-6
Dude had a long jump of 22 feet
Ran the 100 meter in less that 11 seconds
Ran the 400 in 49 seconds
Ran the 800 in less than 2 mins
A 48" vert
Shot put champ

Hank Stram tried all he could to get Wilt on the Chiefs as a wide receiver, and reportedly Wilt worked out as a wide receiver
https://imgur.com/qZxt4aV

He was a Volleyball champion and wanted to compete in the olympics, and agility is KEY to playing volleyball.

Watch on YouTube

;ab_channel=FoobasSports

Look at him blocking jumpers from the mid-long range.

Watch on YouTube

;ab_channel=WiltChamberlainArchive

Listen to former players talking about his agility, athleticism and run/jump ability.

I really have to disagree with the mobility/explosiveness comment.

[uberhikari]

I wouldn't have switched Wilt onto McAdoo because Sheed is a perfect defender for him but I understand why he did it. Snakebites team has fantastic synergy with a spacing frontcourt + Magic/Worthy who can attack the paint. However, Worthy is a mismatch at PF because of his quickness and agility but that's an advantage he doesn't have vs Pierce. Overall, Larry just has too much firepower especially when taking his bench into account. And, most importantly, Wilt will obliterate Lopez more than McAdoo will hurt Wilt. Vote: Larry_Russell

[Snakebites]

Damn.

Liked my team a lot and thought I had a shot.

GG

[Laimbeer]

LR advances