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. Snakebites:Never fun to see Snakebites, who built a cool team here, but I think we can pull this one out.
On offense, we attack through our Big 3 of course. Bell is fine, but I’ve never been all that high on him as a shut-down guy, and he’s the only real option on TMac here. However, having Harden on the floor for 40 minutes basically forces you to switch on D (since Harden won’t do anything else), so in any case we can peel Bell off from TMac with a screen from Tucker or KG whenever we feel like it, then pull Harden into more difficult actions. (E.g. is he going to then switch the next screen onto Shaq?)
On the interior, our size and physicality are going to really tell. 34-year old Gasol is not as mobile a defensive player as he was in his Memphis prime, and playing 35 minutes against Shaq is a tall order. When mummified Rockets Mutombo gets in the game, it’ll be even tougher to handle our pnrs and movement with a center as mobile as young Shaq diving to the rim. In all situations, Snakebites plays weaker rebounders at the 4 and 5 and we have dominant rebounders all over the floor, so that’s going to be a major advantage for us as well.
On the other end, we can play pretty straight. Kidd on Harden is too strong to get bodied and too smart to get fooled by the trickery. TMac on Bell is easy. Tucker is on Durant: smaller, ultra-physical guys who push him around and deny the catch always bothered OKC Durant more than other types of defenders. Tony Allen is a similar example -- remember that '13 KD shot 53 TS% with 4.4 TO/G with Allen on him in a playoff loss to the Grizzlies. KG on Kirilenko allows KG to roam around and blow up all those pick and rolls, and Shaq guards Gasol, although we can switch around the big matchups as needed. Having KG as maybe the greatest pnr team defender of all time is IMO a bit of a trump card against a Harden team. With another rim protector alongside him, I think we have enough defensive answers for our offense to tell.
PS: I hope all those people who busted my chops for using ‘13 Durant last game – of whom Snakebites was one! – show up to vote in this one…
