Oh boy, Jordan and micah in round one
LineupPG - Kidd(40)/Rubio(8)
SG - Korver(36)/Ingles(12)
SF - Durant(40)/Ingles(8)
PF - Dirk(28)/Mason(20)
C - Ewing(36)/Dirk(12)
Dirk listed as backup center due to who he'll be defending when Ewing is off the floor (Gilmore/Andersen), leaving Giannis/Williams to Mason. Our Kidd/Korver/Durant/Mason/Dirk lineup will likely be our preferred closing lineup (sub out Korver for Ingles if one or the other is hot from deep).
RolesDirk - offensive gravity, force defenses to adjust to his presence as the premier big man shooter the game has seen. Top tier iso scorer.
KD - very similar to Dirk, but brings a unique package to the SF position with his length and rim-protecting skills.
Ewing - be the defensive anchor and a top tier garbage man on the other end.
Kidd - run the offense, lead guard defender.
Korver - provide some more of that fabled 'gravity', essentially remove one defender from playing help defense due to the risk of allowing one of the highest efficiency shots in basketball (open Korver 3).
Mason - bring us some playmaking from the front court, along with great defense from 3-5.
Rubio - be a poor man's Kidd when he takes his spot.
Ingles - hit the open shot, be a tougher defender than anyone expects. Essentially Korver with a slower trigger, more ball skills/defense.
Offensive StrategyAs I'm sure many of you are aware I'm normally a defense first sort of guy, but in this particular match-up I think it's our offense that gets the job done. micah has a long list of strong defenders (Jordan/Giannis/Gilmore/Bowen/Cheeks), but I don't feel they match up particularly well with what we're trying to do. What are we trying to do you ask?
Well here ya go:
1. Funnel some defensive boards to Kidd and get out into transition looking for shooters (Korver/Ingles/KD/Dirk) or rim runners (mainly Ewing). If you can manage it transition offense is almost always the best option. Gilmore being a bit of a plodder could be a liability here (though I'll confess to not having seen too much of his earlier career).
2. Spam the pick and roll with Kidd and Dirk/Ewing. Cheeks is a great defensive PG, but it's always been incredibly tough to stop pass first PGs and it's only gotten tougher in recent years with the number of screens their defender is run through. Should generate plenty of extreme mismatches for Dirk, looks at the rim for Ewing, or just solid looks for the shooters off the help defense rotating.
3. Look for Dirk isolations, micah's team just doesn't have a good answer to Dirk. Giannis is a great, phenomenal athlete, but he's not ready for Dirk in the mid-post, Gilmore isn't any more of an answer (a Kidd/Dirk pick and roll would absolutely feast in that scenario). The smaller defenders that disrupted Dirk earlier in his career (like Bowen) were no longer an option by the time '11 rolled around.
Other options, less ordered:
-KD isos, another great iso player, though any of Giannis/Jordan/Bowen are much better cover options than anybody available for Dirk.
-Constantly look for the wing shooters (Korver/Ingles), they are both in that absolute top tier of pure shooters, if they're both getting plenty of open looks our offense will really hum.
Defensive StrategyAssignments for starters (whoops, had to adjust
):
Jordan - Kidd
Miller - Korver
Bowen - KD
Giannis - Dirk
Gilmore - Ewing
Starting with Jordan. Our main defender on him will be Kidd, one of the best defensive guards to ever lace them up, he's got the size and athleticism to hang with Jordan and hopefully contain him from time to time (this is peak Jordan afterall, about the most that could be hoped for). The main guy who'll probably see time on him when Kidd is off might come as a bit of surprise, but it'll be Ingles, has the size advantage and quicker hands than one would expect. Very smart player overall including on defense. But we have a lot of faith in our defensive backcourt, and the only perimeter player we'll really try to actively avoid getting switched on to MJ is Korver. Help defense is where you really hope to contain MJ though, and Ewing down low is a solid option for that, where we have the advantage over some other teams is KD's additional rim protection from the perimeter (KD will primarily be on Bowen when he's in to let him roam a bit on defense and save a bit for offense).
On to Miller. Miller actually seems like a decent spot to 'hide' Korver, Korver's clear weaknesses on D stem from on-ball defense and athleticism, which Miller won't really be punishing him for. In some ways Korver is the evolved role-player version of Miller and will know what to expect with all the off-ball action, I think he'll do a solid job of hanging with him.
Giannis is really the tough one. We've wound up opting for Dirk and daring Giannis to shoot. Mason when he's in will be a stronger matchup. Overall what we wound up feeling is that though Giannis a great young player he's not really among the top tier 2nd options in this competition(he'd be #4 on our team behind Kidd/Durant/Dirk), and daring him to consistently beat us (taking the ball out of Jordan's hands) is a risk we're willing to take. The same good help defense will help to slow Giannis as was there for Jordan.
Gilmore is a decent post up guy and will hit the glass, but we think overall he breaks fairly even with Ewing and don't expect that match-up to swing much in either direction. When Mason is in and Dirk shifts down to center Gilmore will have a bit more of an advantage on offense, but we feel we can easily win that back on the other end where he will really struggle to hang with Dirk or Mason.
Cheeks/Bowen/Williams/Andersen are all decent to good guys who'll fill their role, but game planning too much for them is a bit of a waste, the game will be won or lost based off how we defend those first 4 (and obviously how our offense does as well).
SummaryI think this one overall comes down to whether you feel the more isolated offensive games of Jordan/Giannis can consistently dominate to hang with our well oiled offensive machine (despite the good defenders I don't really think micah's squad has much of a shot at slowing us down). If you think we can disrupt Jordan/Giannis I think the series slants clearly in our favor, and even if we can't I'd still call it a toss-up.
Vote with your heart and feel free to ask any questions left unanswered, I'm looking forward to the discussion generated from these match-ups
