Team SquareRosterG
Jason Kidd '10:
10/6/9/2, 43% 3P% on 5 3PA/G, +4 BPM, 11th in All-D voting,
All-StarG/F
Terance Mann '23:
14/5/4/1 per 36, 52/39/78 shooting, 62 TS%G/F
Tracy McGrady '03:
32/7/6, 46/39/79 shooting, +11 BPM (led league),
All-NBA 1st, 4th in MVPF
Joe Ingles '16:
39% from three on 6 3PA/36, 10/4/3/2 per 36
F
PJ Tucker '18: 6/6,
37% 3P%, (Playoffs: 9/7 with 2 3PM/G at 47 3P%),
+6 on-off on a 65-win teamF
Kevin Garnett '05:
22/14/6/2/1, +10 BPM (led league),
All-D 1st, All-NBA 2ndC
Shaquille O'Neal '95:
29/11/3/3, 58 FG%,
All-NBA 2nd, 2nd in MVPC
Marcin Gortat '09:
11/13/2 per 36, 57% FG%Picks and FGA:Rotation: G Kidd 36 / Mann 12
G McGrady 40 / Mann 8
F Tucker 26 / Ingles 16 / Mann 6
F Garnett 40 / Tucker 8
C Shaq 40 / Gortat 8
About Team Square:It starts with the Big 3: an elite perimeter #1 who handles and shoots, a dominant interior #1, and one of the greatest defenders of all time who also happens to be a perfect offensive complement. All three are MVP-level and fit perfectly together.
Getting Kidd as the 4th piece was crucial for me. This season in Dallas, he was an all-star and led a 55-win Mavs team in BPM and DBPM. As always, he was a great defender across multiple positions and one of the most creative passers of all time. He had also fixed his jumper by this point and was a high-level three point shooter (43% on over 5 attempts a game).
Our complementary wings – Tucker, Mann, Ingles – bring tough defense and outside shooting, with Mann also proving some north-south dynamism and playmaking off the bench.
Overall, I really want to highlight our rebounding and physicality. Shaq is one of the great offensive rebounders and physical presences of all time. KG is one of the great defensive rebounders and shut-down defenders of all time. Kidd is one of the greatest rebounding guards ever. TMac is huge at 6’9” playing the 2, and Tucker is a brick wall who gets big clutch rebounds every year deep into the playoffs. We’re going to have a massive physical edge on the floor and especially on the glass every night.
Offensively, this team is tough to stop because of the combination of interior dominance, outside shooting (5 players over 37 3P%), and playmaking. The TMac/KG two-man game is not switchable because KG punishes smalls. It’s not trappable, because KG in space is too dangerous in the mid-range, getting to the rim, or throwing lobs to Shaq. You can’t play it straight up because TMac cooks you. You can’t send a third defender off a shooter or off Shaq, because that’s an instant open three or alley-oop. Not a lot to do there.
There’s also no good way to bottle up Shaq here, because between TMac, Kidd, KG, Mann, and Ingles, we have creative passers all over the floor. We can always swing the ball until we find an easy entry pass, a crack behind a fronting defender, or the right angle for the lob.
Defensively, KG probably offers the greatest ever combination of switchability and rim protection. He never got to play with an athletic force like young Shaq at the 5, who makes things even easier on him. Between Tucker, Kidd, and Mann, we also have good options to make life difficult on perimeter players of any size.
vs. lilroddyb:Roddy has a nice team, but I think we match up well.
One main advantage I see is that I think our offense is just more explosive. Roddy has no offensive talent on the level of either Shaq or TMac to create easy shots. George, Roy, and Porter are all fine offensive players, but not really lead playmakers or offensive centerpieces of the same caliber. This puts a lot of pressure on his bigs to generate offense, when they are both going against (in some sense) superior versions of themselves on my squad.
So I’m not worried about playing through our Big 3 as usual on offense. We can also attack a weaker defender in Roy by putting him in screening actions with TMac (even when he’s not the primary defender), whereas we don’t have the same problem on the other end.
On the defensive end, we have pretty straightforward matchups. Shaq on Dwight pretty much neutralizes most of Dwight’s offensive package, by putting someone both bigger and more athletic on him. KG on AD is probably the best defender ever to snuff out the screen and dive game that was young AD’s bread and butter; the facts that Dwight/Chandler crowds the paint and roddy has no elite pnr ball-handler both help us with that. Tucker on George makes life tough for Paul. Kidd on Roy and TMac on Porter are both fine matchups for us.
On a more reductive level, your mileage may vary, but I do kind of think it’s arguable that we have the three best players in the series, which is something a team can rarely say in these games. Anyway, take it away roddy, and good luck.
