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. Once the writeups are posted, I will add a poll, and the team with the most votes after 24 hours will advance. EACH MANAGER SHOULD ALSO VOTE FOR THEIR OWN TEAM IN THE POLL - IF YOU FAIL TO DO THIS, YOU ARE SIMPLY GIVING AWAY A VOTE. If the votes are tied, we will decide the matchup via AI vote.
You are not required to state or explain your vote, but you are free to comment in the thread if you want to.
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).
Alonzo Mourning (38) / Ervin Johnson (10) Karl Malone (38) / Glen Rice (10) James Posey (36) / Glen Rice (12) Reggie Miller (38) / JJ Redick (10) Gary Payton (38) / JJ Redick (10)
Good luck, Fade
On offense we have an elite point guard in Payton with the perimeter gravity of Miller and Posey and the bruising interior of Mourning and Malone. Rashard Lewis trying to guard Karl Malone will be...ugly...
Zo/Howard, and Malone/Lewis, Posey/Granger, Miller/Bell and Payton/Paul is pretty solid. The Payton/Paul matchup is particularly important since their offense seems to be quite dependent on Paul.
I'm struck by the talent difference, to be honest. I don't see much advantage for them in Howard/Zo or Paul/Payton. Meanwhile they don't have anyone particularly close to Malone or Miller. Four stars versus two.
Benches are decent, but I like bringing two sharpshooters in Rice and Redick. Johnson tops off 48 minutes of elite rim protection.
Just think the talent edge is pretty clear and nothing bridges it.
Comments to rationalize bad contracts - 1) It's less than the MLE 2) He can be traded later 3) It's only __% of the cap 4) The cap is going up 5) It's only __ years 6) He's a good mentor/locker room guy
20.6 ppg, 13.8 rpg, 1.4 apg, 1.0 spg, 2.9 bpg, .572 FG%, .594 FT%, .600 TS% - Led the NBA in bpg, DWS (7.6) - Defensive Player of the Year - NBA All-Star - All-NBA First Team - All-Defensive First Team
PF - Rashard Lewis (2008-09)
Spoiler:
17.7 ppg, 5.7 rpg, 2.6 apg, 1.0 spg, 0.6 bpg, .439 FG%, .397 3P%, .836 FT%, 220 3P (2.8 pg), .580 TS% - Led the NBA in 3P - NBA All-Star
SF - Danny Granger (2008-09)
Spoiler:
25.8 ppg, 5.1 rpg, 2.7 apg, 1.0 spg, 1.4 bpg, .447 FG%, .404 3P%, .878 FT%, 182 3P (2.7 pg), .584 TS% - NBA All-Star - Most Improved Player
Rotations C - Howard (38), Noah (10) PF - Lewis (38), Granger (6), Noah (4) SF - Granger (32), Elie (12), Bell (4) SG - Bell (33), Hinrich (15) PG - Paul (40), Hinrich (8)
FGA Per Player
Spoiler:
Chris Paul - 16.1 Dwight Howard - 12.4 Rashard Lewis - 13.8 Raja Bell - 10.0 Danny Granger - 19.1 Kirk Hinrich - 8.2 Mario Elie - 3.6 Joakim Noah - 4.7
Total: 87.9/88.0
This superstar pairing should mesh extremely well, with a pick-and-roll maestro in CP3 feeding a devastating roll man and lob catcher in Dwight (before he started to chafe at those roles later on in his career). Our floor spacing is impeccable with Granger, Lewis, and Bell (plus Hinrich off the bench) all bombing threes at high volume and accuracy. Both forwards provide a combination of size, shooting ability, and on-ball creation that opposing frontcourts will be challenged to contain. Defensively, Dwight is the anchor while CP3 is a menace at the point of attack. Bell, Hinrich, and Elie can lock in on varied perimeter threats. Young Noah is already creating havoc at that end. Granger is underrated, especially as a supplementary rim protector at the combo forward spot (1.4 bpg).
Matchup - Defensive assignments are straight up. The tough matchup is Lewis guarding Malone, but that's counterbalanced by Malone chasing around the most prolific three-point shooter in the league that season. - Claiming there's "no difference" between peak CP3 and 2000 Payton is just leaning on name recognition. In reality, I have two of the three best players given the seasons chosen (with a very strong argument for the two best), and in any case I'm not sure why Lewis and Granger are being erased from this evaluation of "talent". - This is the type of thing people like to breeze by when judging matchups, but 10 minutes with JJ Redick as your backup PG is just not viable in real life, especially when he's being pressured by a defender like Hinrich. - If you look beyond the names and how the offenses would actually function, there's no reason that CP3-Dwight running spread pick-and-roll with shooters like Lewis, Granger, and Bell shouldn't at least be able to keep up with Laimbeer's starting 5. That makes the bench minutes with one team having no ballhandlers whatsoever even more damaging.
