91-98 Keeper Playoffs (START JUDGING)

[TMACFORMVP]

Warspite | Snakebites | Keeslinator
TMAC | MJallDay59 | SamBone

Cellar | BlackIce | lukekarts
Miller | RR9 | bryant08

[CellarDoor]

Blackice:
PG: Stephon Marbury(38)/Mark Jackson(10)
SG Mitch Ritchmond(36)/Eddie Jones(12)/Jalen Rose
SF: Larry Bird(40)/Eddie Jones(8)/Jalen Rose
PF: Chris Webber(40)/Juwan Howard (8)
Cc: Dikembo Mutombo(40)/Shawn Bradley (8)

Cellardoor:
PG: Penny (28)/Smith (20)
SG Hawkins(24)/Penny(12)/Hill(12)
SF: Hill(28)/Kukoc(20)
PF: Nance(32)/Davis(16)
Cc: Hakeem(40)/Nance(8)

Best of luck to BI.

Defense: We're going to basically ignore Mutombo. If Webber, Marbury or Richmond come anywhere near the basket they'll have to concern themselves with their defender and Hakeem. We're comfortable with basically every match-up on the court. My perimeter players are all competent defenders and obvviously I have two great defenders and elite help defenders down low. Bird was still a beast, but he wasn't invincible anymore either, and Webber wasn't quite the beast he would be later.

Offense: HHH. No, not the wrestling icon. Hardaway, Hill, and Hakeem. Three supreme offensive players who can exploit their defenders. Bird was never overly quick, and his back problems slowed him down further. Hill had perhaps the quickest first step I've ever seen, and shouldn't have any trouble scoring on Hill. Marbury was never particularly effective, and Penny simply isn't someone who could be stopped. Down low, Mutombo was a beastly defender, but looking at their head to head stats from Hakeem's prime tells me Mutombo isn't going to slow him.

Long story short, I've got the three best players in this series, the better defense, and will likely sweep the series away.

[CellarDoor]

Lukearts:
Jason Kidd [38] / Derek Harper [10]
Glen Rice [38] / Byron Scott [10] /
James Worthy [36] / Rolando Blackman [12]
Rasheed Wallace [28] / Derrick Coleman [20]
Patrick Ewing [38] / Shareef Abdur-Rahim [10]

Cellardoor:
PG: Penny(28)/Smith(20)
SG: Hawkins(24)/Penny(12)/Hill(12)
SF: Hill(28)/Kukoc(20)
PF: Nance(32)/Horry(8)
CC: Hakeem(40)/Nance(8)

Best of luck to Luke.

Same as always, I’m going to do my best to ignore Luke’s write-up in my own and just address the (laundry list of) fallacies in a rebuttal.

Defensively:
We’re very confident that we can limit Luke’s team here. We’ll start on the perimeter. The match-ups will go as follows: Penny on Worthy, Hill on Rice, Hawkins on Kidd.

Kidd: Simply put, he’s not a scoring threat. He managed 12 points in the given season despite shooting 10.5 times (and almost 3 3s a game), and his TS was in Allen Iverson territory. Hawkins, our “worst” defender actually wasn’t too far off of Kidd’s DRTG. Kidd will distribute and do his thing, but he’ll be single covered.

Rice: He wasn’t a shooting guard. The main reason? Footspeed. Hill is leaps and bounds faster than him. Additionally, Hill is a long defender. I figured I’d see how Rice did against Hill, and it wasn’t pretty overall. Looking at the years before and after his super season Luke is going to try to use here I find the following numbers for Rice:
13 on 40%, 12 on 26%, 20 on 45%, 14 on 45%, 17 on 53%, 21 on 29%, 18 on 33%, 21 on 62%, 14 on 33%, 33 on 67%, 13 on 39%. Simply put: Hill limited the hell out of him. Now I’m not suggesting Rice is going to average 35% on the series, but he’ll be made to work.

Worthy: Big game James is known for scoring, scoring efficiently, and scoring in the clutch. There’s a few problems with that for this series: a lot of his scoring comes at the basket off of passes. A lot of those passes come as the result of double teams on Magic. The problem is there’s no Magic to double, and he’s got Nance and Hakeem waiting at the basket. Additionally, in this era James only had a 53% TS. 2.5% higher than Jason Kidd’s. If he gets 20 a game, it’s going to take a LOT of shots.

Down low we’ve got Hakeem and Nance facing off against Rasheed and Ewing. This is my favorite time for Rasheed…he’s not the post defender he’d become later, but he was a little more active in the team D, and he didn’t infuriate you with missed 3s. He and Nance should match-up pretty similarly. Nance will probably score a bit more, both will be hyperefficient from the field picking their spots. There’s not a lot to say here other than that Nance’s speed will allow him to help and recover on mid-range jumpshots Sheed may take.

Hakeem and Ewing, the match-up everyone loves too see. Except Ewing. Here’s their playoff numbers: Hakeem +8 points, +2 assists, +14% FG, -3 rebounds (all offensive oddly enough), -.4 blocks. Simply put, Hakeem dominated him. And if we’re to infer anything from those rebounding numbers, he did it while playing help D (no body on Ewing leading to more O boards). The year Luke picked (which he doesn’t have the best DRTG despite his roster page, btw) was very similar to the year he faced Dream in the finals. This will be a beating as it was for everyone else, and Hakeem will do it while helping everyone else.

So to recap: Luke’s most (only) efficient scorer in this series will likely be his 5th option.
Offense:
Triple H. Hardaway, Hill, Hakeem. Penny will use his ballhandling, footwork, and size to abuse Kidd. Kidd is probably the best equipped guy in the era to handle Penny, but Penny will continue to get his, especially with someone glued to Hawkins and Hill at all times (as they should be). Penny was also a gifted passer, and Nance and Hill are both very good off ball and Hawkins knows how to present himself for open 3s.
Hill is probably the guy who will be able to exploit his guy the most on the perimeter though. Worthy was pretty solid at defending old school SFs. Your big guys like Bird, your elite scorers like King. Hill is part of a new Breed along with Pippen offensively, except better. Hill had a deadly first step that James could’ve never kept up with, but especially this era’s worthy. He was crafty, could shoot, and could pass when the help came. I don’t see any evidence or reason to think Worthy will slow hill down.
And Hakeem…well Hakeem is a Hakeem. He’s a ridiculously talented scorer and could find cutters and shooters alike. He shred everything in his path, and Ewing wasn’t/won’t be the exception. Nance and Hawkins along with the bench (Kukoc, Smith, Davis) will be opportunistic. Kukoc and Smith add to the shooters while Davis’ midrange game was good and he could rebound/play D and help D with the best of them.

Rebuttal to come next.

[BlackIce]

PG: Stephon Marbury(38)/Mark Jackson(10)
SG Mitch Ritchmond(36)/Eddie Jones(12)/Jalen Rose
SF: Larry Bird(40)/Eddie Jones(8)/Jalen Rose
PF: Chris Webber(40)/Juwan Howard(8)
Cc: Dikembo Mutombo(40)/Shawn Bradley(8)

vs Cellar

Tough matchup. Simple as that.


-on defense Mutombo can contain Hakeem better then just about any C in the league. Webber won't have to do much against the offensively limited Nance, Bird will do his best against Hill, Ritchmond will guard Hawkins and Marbury..will try and guard Penny Hardaway.

-on offense we will run the ball though our big man, Chris Webber. Bird is our closer, and secondary facilitator and Ritchmond can do more then spot up in the 90's, he can do damage with the ball in his hands.

[SamBone]

BONED SAMUELS
PG: Tim Hardaway ’97 (35) / Brent Barry ‘96(13)
SG: Ray Allen ‘98 (30) / Mario Elie ‘95 (18)
SF: Chris Mullin ‘92 (33) / Glenn Robinson ‘98 (15)
PF: Karl Malone ’97 (36) / Jayson Williams (12)
C : Jayson Williams (8) / Marcus Camby ’98 (20) / Olden Polynece ’94 (20)
Situational: Mark Eaton ’91 and Moses Malone ‘92

vs MJallday59

Mark Price(93) / John Starks(93) /
Latrell Sprewell (93) /Ricky Pierce (98)
Steve Smith(95) / Detleff Schrempf(95)
Charles Barkley(93) / Charles Oakley(94
Alonzo Mourning (95)/

My team is more efficient and has more shooting. I have better rebounding and have a much more cohesive unit on both ends of the court.

If Alonzo couln’t share the ball with forward that needed the ball in Larry Johnson during 1995, I have no idea how he could play next to Barkley, or with Spree. Zo went on to become a great defender and rebounder, but this version on Zo was not that player. This Zo was more looking to get his own points then trying to stop others the way he did during his great Heat career. Add to that the fact that he traditionally struggles against Camby head to head, I like my BIGS rotation against the hot headed Zo.

Offensively, I think my well run unit should strive in this series, Chuck will have a lot of trouble stopping the pick and roll, and Price will not be able to defend the much quicker Hardaway. Mullin should eat up Smitty. Spree was scrappy, and should prevent Ray Allen from going off, but Ray should still hit for his regular amount of looks for our 4th option. Mario Elie should have a classic playoff explosion in this series, and Big Dog will eat up Detlef

I just think my unit will run much, much more smoothly. That is why I believe you should all VOTE FOR THE BONE!

[SamBone]

BONED SAMUELS
PG: Tim Hardaway ’97 (35) / Brent Barry ‘96(13)
SG: Ray Allen ‘98 (30) / Mario Elie ‘95 (18)
SF: Chris Mullin ‘92 (33) / Glenn Robinson ‘98 (15)
PF: Karl Malone ’97 (36) / Marcus Camby ’98 (12)
C : Jayson Williams ’98 (20) / Marcus Camby ’98 (8) / Olden Polynece ’94 (20)
Situational: Mark Eaton ’91 and Moses Malone ‘92

vs TMACFORMVP
[PG] - Johnson (36) - Dumars (12)
[SG] - Dumars (24) - Petrovic (24)
[SF] - Wilkins (36) - Christie (12)
[PF] - Perkins (24) - Robinson (24)
[Cc] - O'neal (38) - Seikaly (10)

As always Tmac built a great team. Any time you matchup against him in these games it is a struggle, so here goes. I like my squad and the fit and like how I am built around the league MVP Karl Malone, hopefully you do as well

DEFENSE
Well, here is my plan…..

After watching a lot of tape of the 1997 playoffs (Mailman’s selected MVP and All Defensive 1st team season), I have decided to switch up my assignments and use Karl Malone to guard Shaq the bulk of the time just like he did in the playoffs that season (Jazz won the series). Karl was so much physically stronger that he actually pushed Shaq off the block (and that Shaq was an older bigger Shaq then the Shaq tmac is using). This will leave my C on Perkins or Uncle Cliffy, and the others will match up with there position counterpart (Hardaway and Ray Allen are both solid defenders and Chris Mullin was great at creating turnovers). This allows Camby to do what he does best and be a great help defender and weakside shot blocker when he is on the court. When Elie (great hard nosed defender) is on the court he will be guarding Joe D, Barry (also a long solid athletic defender that guarded 3 positions well) on Drozen and Big Dog on Doug Christie.

OFFENSE
This is where I take control of the series……

This team will run offensively a lot like those Utah Jazz teams did. I will get out and run a lot, and think I have great pieces to do so. In the half court set, imagine this. Tim Hardaway running the pick and roll with Karl Malone, while having Chris Mullin and Ray Allen on either wing. Everyone in that grouping is solid passers and all are great shooters and very efficient. Mullin, Allen and Hardaway were all great 3 point shooters and the spacing that I have is unreal. All 3 also could create for them selves and get past there defenders which makes guarding this unit very difficult. My C position will be a rotation for the most part, but all 3 of my bigs are great offensive rebounders (Jayson led the league with 443 and in OREB% with 20.5%, Olden was 9th in OREB% at 13.4%, and Camby even had 203 OREB and was 17th in OREB% with 10.9), which basically is there only job on offense. Whoever is in the C spot will most likely be camped out at the top away from the action (mostly to drawl Shaq away from the paint) and would then crash the boards after the shot.

Also note that my team gets to the foul line very often and shoots rather well when they are there, and BIG SHAQ at this stage was very foul prone and often would get himself in foul trouble trying to block every shot that was taken (again look at the ’97 playoffs against Mailman and the Jazz when every single game Shaq was in foul trouble, especially when he got caught in the pick and roll with Mailman)

My reserves will be mixed in and offer me even more deadly shooting. Mr CLUTCH, Mario Elie will lead my 2nd unit with the BIG DOG and Mr do everything Brent Barry.

Who on TMAC’s team will slow down the MVP Karl Malone? Can they stop the pick and roll? Will Nique be able to defend the All NBA (1st team) Chris Mullin? Can they defend the great 3 point shooting my team brings?

I believe the answer to all of those questions is NO!

And when the game is on the line, just remember what this version of Mario Elie did in the 1995 NBA Finals with his game winning 3 point shooting! I believe with 1 offensive possession left a lineup of Tim Hardaway, Mario Elie, Ray Allen and Chris Mullin with Karl Malone is almost impossible for anyone to defend!


SUMMARY
My team is more efficient, has better shooting and a lot more range, I have better rebounding and am a much better cohesive unit on both ends of the court. TMac has some great names and great one on one players (except Joe D who is a great team guy that does it all). I am not sure how a ball dominant KJ with a ball dominant volume scorer in Nique would play with a ball dominant post player who is getting pushed off the block. I just think my unit will run much, much more smoothly. That is why I believe you should all VOTE FOR THE BONE!

[lukekarts]

vs. CellarDoor

Jason Kidd [38] / Derek Harper [10]
Glen Rice [38] / Byron Scott [10] /
James Worthy [36] / Rolando Blackman [12]
Rasheed Wallace [28] / Derrick Coleman [20]
Patrick Ewing [38] / Shareef Abdur-Rahim [10]

Should be in an interesting matchup with Cellar here - May the best man win (me) :p

Defensively, assignments will be pretty straighforward. I will put Kidd on Hardaway, Rice on Hawkins and Worthy on Hill, Wallace on Nance and Ewing on Hakeem. The great thing about this matchup is my weakest defender, Rice, is matched up against a poor offensive player in Hawkins, so I don't have to worry about being exploited.

What's interesting - and this is something I've touched on before, is that whilst Ewing isn't quite as good as Hakeem, he is one of the few players capable of 'limiting' him slightly during his prime - probably the one person from the same era you'd put most faith in doing a job. Indeed, in Ewing's selected year, he held Hakeem to 19.5 points, 13.5 rebounds on 50% shooting, whilst putting up 21.5 points himself. His individual rebounding numbers weren't so good but he did have Oakley pulling down 10 rebounds per game alongside.

If we get past the Center matchup, where I can concede Hakeem will have the edge on Ewing (though perhaps smiliar to the 2pt 2rebound advantage he had over 28 career matchups - where both share 14 victories over the other); this matchup gets very interesting.

Cellar's Weaknesses

Offensively I feel Cellar's biggest weakness is 3-point shooting. Hill was never a good outside shooter - shooting 30% in the selected year but only 0.3 attempts per game; Hardaway barely shot over 30% at any point in his career. This puts all the focus on Hawkins for spacing, but to be honest with 4 players trying to work nearer to the basket, I don't think it's enough. Hawkins wasn't really a go to guy even in his prime, and by 96-97, although his efficiency had improved his overall volume of shooting had declined - he was simply a bit part role player.

Conversely, whilst I'm not gonna portray Kidd as an elite shooter, he offers much more floor spacing than his counterpart; whilst Rice during 1996 had arguably the best shooting season of the 90s, hitting 2.6 of 5.6 attempts for 47% shooting. That efficiency at that volume was incredible. Not sure how CellarDoor will contain that, as he will get a lot of open looks. Adding to that, Rasheed Wallace's outside shot will help draw out Nance (presumably) to the perimeter and really open up the interior for Ewing to avoid double teams, and for Worthy to work his post game. Rice too had some good post moves, so my whole team should benefit far more from floor spacing.

Perimeter Defense

Cellar's challenge for this matchup is how he contains my guys on the perimeter. Penny was never a great defender, he was average at best, but that came later in his career when he matured as a player. In his earlier years he was not a liability, but his defensive footwork was far inferior to what he showed offensively. Hawkins was effectiive, but will struggle for size against either of Worthy or Rice; notably in their selected seasons Rice dumped 24 and 22 points on Hawkins, shooting 80% and 44% from 3 respectively. Rice's size advantage over both Hardaway and Hawkins may see Cellar flip around assignments, but realistically one of Worthy or Rice will see an inferior/incapable defender assigned due to the size advantage, and have the opportunity exploit that matchup.

At the other end, I should have no issues limiting Cellar on the perimeter. Kidd is/was arguably the second best PG defender of all time, and even at a relatively early stage of his career, he was being acknowledged for his defensive ability (a year later making consecutive defensive teams...) Kidd won't control Penny, but he will limit his effectiveness, as Kidd is pretty much the perfect guy to deal with a combo guard, as he was routinely assigned to the best perimeter player. Worthy on Hill will end up being a pretty even matchup; both will have very similar all round numbers I think; whilst Rice will have little containing to do with Hawkins. Sheed and Nance should match up nicely.

Playmaking & Ball Handling

Cellar's other weakness is playmaking. Cellar is relying on two guys (Penny & Hill) who were very effectively a poor mans Wade & LeBron, to share ball handling duties. Whilst it has it's strengths, neither plays like a true point guard - both are good passers, but often the passing is forced late in the shot clock rather than it being true playmaking. It's what the current Miami miss, and it's what I feel Cellar really lacks in this matchup. I don't think you could make a case that Penny will 'make his team-mates better' like great point guards such as Nash, Kidd, Paul etc achieved. There's also the issue that three of Cellar's players were Ball-dominant; I don't mean that in the sense of Allan Iverson, but in terms of them not being catch and shoot players. This normally works when there's just one guy who works in isolation, but it will lessen the effectiveness of one or both of Hill and Hardaway, in this scenario.

For my D-team, Kidd gives a real floor general and great passer/playmaker to run the team. And he compliments it really well. In particular, I think running the fast-break with Worthy will replicate some of the chemistry from the showtime Lakers; whilst Rice will really benefit from a good playmaker feeding him open looks; as will Rasheed. And for the first time, Ewing will really benefit from playing with a true playmaker like Kidd, as all big men do. Effectively, my team will be far superior working without the ball, with much better movement and ultimately more high percentage shots. With the exception of at Center, I feel my team will be more efficient in scoring in every position.

Summary

Whilst I concede that Hakeem will get his, I have arguably the best defensive anchor covering him; my team will be more impactful on both help and man defense, where I probably match up with Cellar better than any other; I will create more efficient shots and far more floor spacing offensively, which should allow everyone to thrive. Cellar's limitations will come on the perimeter, where he has a distinct lack of shooting and an overlap of similar talent; his offense will be less fluid and less efficient, with fewer high percentage shots created. It will be a tough series no doubt...

[lukekarts]

vs. Blackice

Jason Kidd [38] / Derek Harper [10]
Glen Rice [24] / Byron Scott [24] / Rolando Blackman [0]
James Worthy [36] / Glen Rice [12]
Rasheed Wallace [38] / Derrick Coleman [10]
Patrick Ewing [38] / Shareef Abdur-Rahim [10]

This matchup is interesting, Cellar thinks he's gonna sweep BI but I'm not so sure, the team is pretty talented. Good luck BI.

In terms of matchups, I'll put Kidd on Richmond, Worthy on Bird, Sheed on Webber and Ewing can roam. I'm not sure whether Rice will be assigned to Marbury or whether I should just let Marbury do damage on his own.

Superior Defense

First of all, I am confident my team is better defensively than Blackice.

No disrespect to Blackice but I think Marbury and Webber were poor defenders, particularly the latter at this moment in time. This was highlighted when I looked it up his H2H stats with Rasheed, who upped his averages considerably vs Webber. In 97/98 (selected for both) Rasheed scored 22 points on 71.4% past Webber (vs Webbers 20 points on 4 more shots). This trait is continued throughout their career, where Sheed's career average is strangely +6ppg and +2rpg when he faced Webber. With that in mind I go into this matchup confident that Rasheed will have great games against Chris.

As I mentioned about Marbury, I'm not worried about him containing Kidd, he was never a good defender and spent much of his time gambling. The bonus here is that Kidd should be able to control the tempo of the game and work the ball into the bigs effectively. Bird presumably will be on Worthy which along with Kidd is another matchup I should be able to exploit. With Kidd running the fast-break Worthy will easily outpace old-man Bird, and Webber's lack of help defence and Mutombo's lack of quickness should lead to easy baskets in transition. Worthy won't easily be exploited by Bird at this stage, at the other end.

I can't fault Mutombo's defence but it comes at the expense of an offensive game. Ewing was hampered a little by Mutombo but still outperformed him significantly. In Ewings selected season he averaged 25 pts on 50% shooting, also edging the battle for rebounds slightly. In Mutombo's selected DPOY season, Ewing scored 22 pts on 45%, compared to Dikembe's 7.5 ppg. The matchup is one sided.

Towards the perimeter, I can't fault Richmond as a defender but I'm not sure how he will handle Rice (assuming that's his matchup). Rice was much bigger than Mitch and had a great shooting stroke, and an a range of post moves to work with. I'll call it equal. Kidd meanwhile is very much capable of doing a job on Mitch. He will likely grab more boards than BI's backcourt combined, and will make life difficult hastling Mitch's every move. As I already mentioned, I'm happy to allow Marbury some space as he will only run into the roaming defence of Ewing if he attacks the basket, which is the freedom I'm allowed as Mutombo takes little defensive focus.

Offensive Exectution

I'll avoid picking apart Marbury (too easy), he was a good scorer but found little team success for whatever reason. What I will say is that he was certainly not the floor general that Kidd is, an inferior playmaker and possessed less shooting range. Richmond was a great player who along with Bird will stretch the floor for Blackice, but it has to be considered that for everything BI throws at me in the backcourt, I can match. Scoring wise and shooting wise, there's very little to set Bird, Worthy, Richmond and Rice apart in their respective matchups. And that's where the big men come in...

Blackice game is likely to involve feeding Webber on the interior., since Mutombo offers little more than garbage buckets. If this was prime Webber, I'd likely have issues, but it's not - and although Chris was a number one option in '98, he had some key weaknesses. Firstly, his awful foul drawing rate - just 4.7 FTA, which is reflected in his TS% of 52.3% (vs. 48.2% FG%). He was not very efficient and less so vs Sheed. This meant he was taking 19 shots to score 22 points. Comparatively, Ewing - who was also not known for efficiency, put up 24 pts on 18.5 shots in his selected year (56% TS%). With Ewing having the advantage inside, it's fair to say that Rasheed's better efficiency and scoring ability, as well as complimentary interior defence, sets this matchup nicely for me.

Summary

Blackice's subpar interior threat and point guard play win this match up for me. Although we match up evenly on the perimeter, Rasheed is surpisingly good against Webber and I'll have more defensive freedom in the paint making life very difficult for Blackice. My team should be less exploitable defensively and I've got more options offensively to control this series.

[MJallday59]

MJallday59 vs Sambone


Mark Price(93) / John Starks(93) /
Latrell Sprewell (93) /Ricky Pierce (98)
Steve Smith(94) / Detleff Schrempf(95)
Charles Barkley(93) / Charles Oakley(94
Alonzo Mourning (95)/




Strategy:

Great job by SB! He put together a really solid team that compliments Karl Malone perfectly.

With SB's team being built solely around Karl, our primary goal would be to frustrate Malone on both sides of the floor. We'll use the 3 headed defensive monster: Barkley, Mourning and Oakley along with our skilled offensive big men: Barkley, Zo and do it all big man Detlef Schrempf.

Backcourt matchup:

Mark Price(93), Latrell Sprewell(93) vs Tim Hardaway(97), Ray Allen (98)

This matchup boils down to efficiency. If SB's game plan is to run the ball through Malone, this would make Tim Hardaway or Ray Allen play the role of spot up shooter. I'm assuming Ray Allen would play that role. If that's the case, then we'll play Latrell Sprewell [NBA 1st team defense] on the already inefficient Hardaway (40% FG) and allow Mark Price and John Starks [NBA Defensive 2nd team] to switch off on sophomore year Ray Allen.

Interesting facts: In the given year, Tim Hardaway averaged 17 FGA per game on (40%) shooting as the primary option on offense.


Frontcourt matchup:

Steve Smith(94), Charles Barkley(93), Alonzo Mourning(95), Charles Oakley(94)

vs

Chris Mullin(97), Karl Malone(97), Jayson Williams(98), Marcus Camby(98)


Outside of the Malone, SB's front court lacks the talent to match up. Mullin in this matchup is a spot up shooter and Jayson Williams, while talented can't guard Mourning. Steve Smith's versatility would give the declining Mullin fits, With Malone guarding Barkley, Williams would be forced to defend Alonzo Mourning 1-1.


Overall: SB did a great job assembling his team. They're just not strong enough to eliminate us from the playoffs.

[bryant08]

vs. RR9

David Robinson 95 (36) - Zydrunas Ilgauskas 98 (12)
Horace Grant 94 (34) - Anthony Mason 97 (8) - Derrick McKey 95 (6)
Larry Johnson 93 (34) - Anthony Mason 97 (8) - Dan Majerle 92 (6)
Reggie Miller 95 (36) - Dan Majerle 92 (12)
John Stockton 91 (36) - Scott Skiles 93 (12)

*both Smits/Ceballos are dropped, apologies to both guys I'm going up against as I did not clarify this earlier, nor did I get my rotation up

vs.

Terry Porter/Hornacek/Cassell
Clyde Drexler/Kobe
Mashburn
Mchale/Divac
Ben Wallace

I believe this matchup is an extremely interesting one. Even if RR9 is getting ready for the next era, he has some really nice pieces in this one with Drex/McHale/Hornacek/etc. I feel the matchup will be dictated by a few key factors:

1. David Robinson
- Ben Wallace is a beast in the next era defensively, but a total unknown in this one. Relying on him and Divac to stop Robinson in his MVP season is a tall order and when you consider how much the floor opens up with Miller/Stockton at the guard spots, I'm not sure RR9 can make up enough of the difference through Drexler and McHale to win this series.

2. Depth
- I think my depth across the board gives me a siginficant advantage here, with great defensive players and all around producers in their selected years in guys like Mason/Majerle/Skiles

3. Rebounding
- My squad is full of guys that crash both the offensive and defensive rebounds starting with our anchor in Robinson and continuing through the roster with Horace Grant, Anthony Mason, Larry Johnson and Majerle/Skiles

4. Post defense
- My post defense is pretty elite and I feel without the inside game RR9 will have to rely on Mash/Drexler/Porter too significantly, and with defenders like Mason/Majerle coming into the game in different situations, they'll have a hard time putting up points

In know Porter is one of the few guards who has given Stockton a really hard time over his career, but it's clear that RR9 doesn't have the pieces to go out and win this era (especially with my other advantages), however he's well placed to be competitive now and very competitive heading forward with Kobe/Divac/Cassell/Ben Wallace.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

vs. Miller4ever

David Robinson 95 (36) - Zydrunas Ilgauskas 98 (12)
Horace Grant 94 (34) - Anthony Mason 97 (8) - Derrick McKey 95 (6)
Larry Johnson 93 (34) - Dan Majerle 92 (14)
Reggie Miller 95 (36) - Dan Majerle 92 (12)
John Stockton 91 (36) - Scott Skiles 93 (12)

vs.

QB Mookie Blaylock '97 (30)/Terrell Brandon '96 (18)
Wing Michael Jordan '91 (40)/Nick Anderson '95 (8)
Wing Kevin Garnett '98 (33)/Sean Elliott '95 (15)
Big Buck Williams '91 (30)/Otis Thorpe '91 (18)
Big Arvydas Sabonis '96 (28)/Robert Parish '91 (20)

I'm going to start off by saying this is an awesome matchup and any time you can go up against the GOAT in a series it's always going to be a tough one. However, I feel I have a few distinct advantages here and will definitely be able to win this series.

I'm going to start off by saying I really admire Sabonis and Parish as a duo at center, but Sabonis doesn't stand a chance at keeping up with Robinson in this series. Let's go back to 96, the selected year for Sabonis and close to the season I selected for Robinson. Here are Robinson's stats head-to-head:

DRob:
20 points, 21 rebounds, 8 blocks, 2 assists, 2 steals (8-21 shooting, 4-10 FT)
39 points, 9 rebounds, 8 blocks, 3 assists, 3 steals (17-31 shooting, 5-7 FT)
25 points, 13 rebounds, 2 steals, 2 blocks (5-10 shooting, 15-19 FT)

Sabonis:
11 points, 10 rebounds (3-14 shooting)
16 points, 7 rebounds, 3 assists (5-8 shooting)
22 points, 9 rebounds, 3 assists (7-10 shooting)

As you can see, Sabonis in his prime gets pretty close to his regular production, but Robinson had 3 very beastly performances against Sabonis this year. I believe Robinson's athleticism, quickness and defensive intensity with leave Sabonis overmatched.

I also want to bring attention to the fact Miller claims Buck Williams is a better defender than Horace Grant. I disagree with this claim and think that at this point of their careers (even if Williams was all defensive 1st team), Grant is a slightly more impactful player on both ends of the floor. In the 91 Bulls Championship season Grant did 11/9/3 over the entire course of the playoffs (rebounding leader of the playoffs) and when Buck Williams and the Blazers went head-to-head with the Bulls in the FInals, Williams only produced 7 points/7 boards a game.

Larry Johnson was a monster in the selected season and I don't feel Kevin Garnett will have the strength to deal with Johnson's power game. Not only did LJ have that ability to get into the lane and wreak havoc, he could handle the ball and was a skilled passer, as well as an elite rebounder. Similary, I need to be focused on KG's quickness and athleticism offensively, which is why I plan to throw different defenders on him and MJ. Majerle/McKey/Mason are all utility guys that can defend either the SG/SF or the SF/PF spots with great effectiveness.

Miller knows all about Reggie and how he turns it up in the playoffs, having John Stockton and him in the backcourt only adds to my ability to space the floor and hit big shots. Mookie Blaylock for his career is just a 40% shooter when playing against John Stockton and although he serves his purpose as a knockdown shooter and solid defender, Stockton got the best out of him almost every time they met (even though their primes don't match up closely at all). Stockton averaged 14/10/2.5 against Mookie, with an impressive line of 55/44/80 (again the majority of these games were past Stockton's prime).

And I'm not going to go into too much detail regarding the Miller/Jordan matchup, just that I'm one of the few teams that has a guy with the nuts to go toe-to-toe with MJ and not look foolish. He's done it before, taking the Pacers to the finals against Jordan's Bulls and produces magnificently under pressure. Having someone that can also create problems for Jordan by constantly utilizing screens and causing Jordan to have to work greatly on defense is very valuable.

Dan Majerle has guarded MJ before with minor success, but I still believe in his prime there are few guys who could make MJ work more than him. I'm relying on Miller big time for his offense and ability to step-up in big moments, so the majority of my faith is placed on my ability to win this series through my offense. However, Jordan can obviously carry Miller's team, so using Majerle/Mason/McKey for different looks can help contain Jordan to some extent.

At the end of the day Miller has Jordan so that always was going to give him a chance and he's surrounded him with great talent. But I feel Robinson/Miller/Stockton is a nasty trio and when you consider that having LJ opens up even more opportunities for me, my offense has to scare most teams this era. Then with players who are elite defenders in Grant/Majerle/McKey/Mason who know their role, I think I have plenty of options to throw out there to get the job done collectively.

All the best to Miller and I'd like to apologize again for not getting my writeup in earlier, been an extremely hectic week.

[CellarDoor]

Defensively, assignments will be pretty straighforward. I will put Kidd on Hardaway, Rice on Hawkins and Worthy on Hill, Wallace on Nance and Ewing on Hakeem. The great thing about this matchup is my weakest defender, Rice, is matched up against a poor offensive player in Hawkins, so I don't have to worry about being exploited.

Except by Hill, Hakeem, and the rest.

What's interesting - and this is something I've touched on before, is that whilst Ewing isn't quite as
good as Hakeem, he is one of the few players capable of 'limiting' him slightly during his prime - probably the one person from the same era you'd put most faith in doing a job. Indeed, in Ewing's selected year, he held Hakeem to 19.5 points, 13.5 rebounds on 50% shooting, whilst putting up 21.5 points himself. His individual rebounding numbers weren't so good but he did have Oakley pulling down 10 rebounds per game alongside.

Which would be great if we weren't talking about a playoff atmosphere where Hakeem domainated Ewing. Two years later doesn't add or subtract much of anything for Ewing, but it makes the Dream pretty frightening. See my write-up for more

Offensively I feel Cellar's biggest weakness is 3-point shooting. Hill was never a good outside shooter - shooting 30% in the selected year but only 0.3 attempts per game; Hardaway barely shot over 30% at any point in his career. This puts all the focus on Hawkins for spacing, but to be honest with 4 players trying to work nearer to the basket, I don't think it's enough. Hawkins wasn't really a go to guy even in his prime, and by 96-97, although his efficiency had improved his overall volume of shooting had declined - he was simply a bit part role player.

No argument on Hill except this: PLEASE help with Worthy. When he tries to close out on Hill, he'll drive right past him with speed and that deadly first step. Should he catch it in the midrange, he'll drain it. Also, Penny and Hill don't work near the basket. They may end up there, but they don't start there, and if you help off of them you'll find yourself in foul trouble. Quickly.

Conversely, whilst I'm not gonna portray Kidd as an elite shooter, he offers much more floor spacing than his counterpart;

lol...take that to the PC board. Seriously, I want some sig material. 90s Kidd who scored 12 points on awful efficiency isn't spacing the floor for anyone.

whilst Rice during 1996 had arguably the best shooting season of the 90s, hitting 2.6 of 5.6 attempts for 47% shooting. That efficiency at that volume was incredible. Not sure how CellarDoor will contain that, as he will get a lot of open looks. Adding to that, Rasheed Wallace's outside shot will help draw out Nance (presumably) to the perimeter and really open up the interior for Ewing to avoid double teams, and for Worthy to work his post game. Rice too had some good post moves, so my whole team should benefit far more from floor spacing.

See my write-up for Rice. Hill will limit the crap out of him and make him miss. He'll be contained, and we'll do it without a lot of doubles. On Wallace...he doesn't have an outside shot. this isn't Det Rasheed. He's got a midrange jumper, and a pretty reliable one at that. Nance will be in his vicinity, but he's got the speed to recover anytime he is helping. Ewing's post game will be limited by Hakeem, Worthy's post game isn't efficient at this stage anyways, but Penny will be on him, and if Rice is in the post Hill will limit him. And besides, who's going to space the floor? Kidd and Worthy? lol...

Cellar's challenge for this matchup is how he contains my guys on the perimeter. Penny was never a great defender, he was average at best, but that came later in his career when he matured as a player. In his earlier years he was not a liability, but his defensive footwork was far inferior to what he showed offensively. Hawkins was effectiive, but will struggle for size against either of Worthy or Rice; notably in their selected seasons Rice dumped 24 and 22 points on Hawkins, shooting 80% and 44% from 3 respectively. Rice's size advantage over both Hardaway and Hawkins may see Cellar flip around assignments, but realistically one of Worthy or Rice will see an inferior/incapable defender assigned due to the size advantage, and have the opportunity exploit that matchup.

This has been covered ad nauseum now. Hawkins won't be on either of your big guys. He'll be on the guy averaging less than everyone on my team except Dale Davis. Rice will be limited, Worthy will be out of his element without Magic drawing doubles and hitting him on his cuts. There won't be doubles here and he won't have seams to cut into.

At the other end, I should have no issues limiting Cellar on the perimeter. Kidd is/was arguably the second best PG defender of all time, and even at a relatively early stage of his career, he was being acknowledged for his defensive ability (a year later making consecutive defensive teams...) Kidd won't control Penny, but he will limit his effectiveness, as Kidd is pretty much the perfect guy to deal with a combo guard, as he was routinely assigned to the best perimeter player. Worthy on Hill will end up being a pretty even matchup; both will have very similar all round numbers I think; whilst Rice will have little containing to do with Hawkins. Sheed and Nance should match up nicely.

Limiting my team is more difficult than you think. Every perimeter player can take advantage if their guy doubles one way or another, I've got three shooters (Hawkins, Smith, and Kukoc) only one shooting liability from 3 (hill, great midrange and amazing penetration), and size advantages everywhere. Penny will be limited a bit. I'll actually give you that. Not a whole ton, but he'll be working harder. Hill has the slower Worthy who was never a defensive stalwart on him. And since you said they produced similarly, let me hilight the differences for you:
Hill took 3 less shots, shot better from the field, shot better from 3 (both low volume), got to the line 2 more times a game, outrebounded and assisted the crap out of James, was +2% on TS, had a higher ORTG, lower DRTG, was +7 in PER, and wasn't playing next to Magic Johnson on a finals worthy (no punn intended) team. The box score points may end up similar, but Hill will dominate the match-up.

Cellar's other weakness is playmaking. Cellar is relying on two guys (Penny & Hill) who were very effectively a poor mans Wade & LeBron, to share ball handling duties. Whilst it has it's strengths, neither plays like a true point guard - both are good passers, but often the passing is forced late in the shot clock rather than it being true playmaking. It's what the current Miami miss, and it's what I feel Cellar really lacks in this matchup. I don't think you could make a case that Penny will 'make his team-mates better' like great point guards such as Nash, Kidd, Paul etc achieved. There's also the issue that three of Cellar's players were Ball-dominant; I don't mean that in the sense of Allan Iverson, but in terms of them not being catch and shoot players. This normally works when there's just one guy who works in isolation, but it will lessen the effectiveness of one or both of Hill and Hardaway, in this scenario.

27, 27, 25
26, 28, 30
That's the 3 highest usage rates one each team (Rice, Ewing, Worthy for Luke). You know what the difference is between those three guys? My three are all terrific passers and unselfish when they get doubled. Penny played point guard, not combo (unless you think Nick Anderson was initiating the offense) and picked his spots with Shaq on his team. He'll do the same here.

By the way. As much as I hate them, the Heat got to the finals. And I don't think anyone will argue that Penny or Hill are anywhere near the egos of Lebron and Wade.

For my D-team, Kidd gives a real floor general and great passer/playmaker to run the team. And he compliments it really well. In particular, I think running the fast-break with Worthy will replicate some of the chemistry from the showtime Lakers; whilst Rice will really benefit from a good playmaker feeding him open looks; as will Rasheed. And for the first time, Ewing will really benefit from playing with a true playmaker like Kidd, as all big men do. Effectively, my team will be far superior working without the ball, with much better movement and ultimately more high percentage shots.

How exactly do you see your team getting fast break opporunities again? And to key back in on this...this Worthy wasn't near the devastator in the open floor anyhow.
Rice wasn't used to having a playmaker. His shots came off his own creation in general on those Hornet's teams. And to point this out again: not a single person on your team deserves a double team. There's no reason for anyone to be open.
Summary

With the exception of at Center, I feel my team will be more efficient in scoring in every position.

Penny owns a 10% TS advantage on Kidd in these years, hill a 2%, Nance and Rasheed are similar. And if Rice has similar problems with Hill, Hawkins will have him. Your team will in no way shape or form be more efficient.

Whilst I concede that Hakeem will get his, I have arguably the best defensive anchor covering him; my team will be more impactful on both help and man defense, where I probably match up with Cellar better than any other;

Where's this help D coming from? Ewing's on Hakeem. Rasheed isn't an elite help guy, and no one else on your team is either actually.

I will create more efficient shots and far more floor spacing offensively, which should allow everyone to thrive. Cellar's limitations will come on the perimeter, where he has a distinct lack of shooting and an overlap of similar talent;

Okay. You keep mentioning the shooting. Lets throw these out there.

Kidd and Penny~ Similar minutes. Penny will have more open looks and is a better shooter at this stage in Kidd's career. He can also do more with the ball moving towards the basket in terms of scoring.
Rice and Hawkins + Smith~ a few more minutes to my duo. Rice is the better shooter, but these two will burn you about as much. Kenny made a habit of hitting 3s in the playoffs.
Worthy and Hill~ similar minutes. Neither will be shooting much from the perimeter, but Hill with the ball in his hands on the perimeter is actually dangerous. Worthy has to swing it.
Scott and Kukoc~ more minutes to Scott, Scott was more effective in the selected seasons (btw, are you really planning on Having Scott guarding Penny and/or Hill when they're at SG? That's going to be a massacre.

[lukekarts]

I've addressed most of your points but I'm in a rush so please excuse mistakes / typos.

Kidd: Simply put, he’s not a scoring threat. He managed 12 points… lol...take that to the PC board. Seriously, I want some sig material. 90s Kidd who scored 12 points on awful efficiency isn't spacing the floor for anyone.

You're not doing Kidd justice here. He's not a go-to scorer, but he's not as bad as you'd like to portray. For instance, in 1995-96 he scored 16.6 points per game (34% from 3, 4.6 attempts); in 97 his scoring reduced but he was part of a 56 win team and shot 37% from 3 (3 attempts) He's very adaptive to team needs and it's something we've also seen later in his career at Dallas and NJ. He certainly hadn't regressed by 98, I simply picked the season where his game was most refined.

Now I’m not suggesting Rice is going to average 35% on the series, but he’ll be made to work.

I'm not sure either, up to 97 Rice shot 42% against Hill and 45% for his career; Hill's numbers vs Rice were not too dissimilar. Across the same period he had pretty numbers like 9 on 28% and 16 on 36% also; 16ppg on 45% average.

There’s a few problems with that for this series: a lot of his scoring comes at the basket off of passes

I don't see an issue with that. Kidd is being guarded by a less nimble shooting guard and will have plenty of opportunity to feed the ball to Worthy. Given that Kidd is a great rebounder (6.2 selected season) he'll be first man on the ball plenty of times, creating plenty of fast break opportunities. There don't need to be many clear cuts, just 2 or 3 and these guys will punish.

Worthy was pretty solid at defending old school SFs. Your big guys like Bird, your elite scorers like King. Hill is part of a new Breed along with Pippen offensively… PLEASE help with Worthy. When he tries to close out on Hill, he'll drive right past him with speed and that deadly first step

This new breed including Pippen… I remember Worthy playing pretty well against Pippen, even not too shabby in this selected year (averaged 20pts on 48% in the Finals). Meanwhile he held Pippen to 18 points on 44% shooting. What is perhaps most telling is when Worthy missed game 5, Pippen went off for 32 points… You're definitely underrating Worthy defensively here, he wasn't flash at it but he got the job done as an excellent team player.

Worthy's post game isn't efficient at this stage anyways, but Penny will be on him

Why have you put Penny on Worthy? Worthy is bigger and stronger, Penny was never a good defender, let alone good enough to limit Worthy, who over the prime of his career was never limited by anyone.

size advantages everywhere

Not for you. Kidd = Hawkins. Worthy = Hill. Rice > Penny. Rasheed = Nance. Ewing = Hakeem.

usage rates

Doesn't really work. Usage rates measure how the possession ended, my point has nothing to do with that - it's how good the players were at catch & shoot situations that I was referring to. Good passing out of isolation situations only goes so far, normally it's a rush towards the end of the shot clock.

are you really planning on Having Scott guarding Penny and/or Hill

Nope. I can manage minutes so that I always have Kidd or Worthy on the court to handle the better of the two. For the limited minutes he plays, former defensive team player Derek Harper will take Penny.

Summary

You seem to be overrating Hill and Penny somewhat I feel, judging them by what you think they could've been and not what they were. Yes they were good two way players but they did never reach that peak, they never topped out their potential, coming short or in fact never coming close as was the case with Hill. Hakeem is unquestionably the best player in this series, Ewing second, with guys like Hill, Worthy, Penny and Kidd very close. Hill won't abuse Worthy, and Penny won't have the impact he had against smaller guards, when he faces Kidd.

[Miller4ever]

Lineup against RR9:

QB Mookie Blaylock '97 (30)/Terrell Brandon '96 (18)
Wing Michael Jordan '91 (40)/Nick Anderson '95 (8)
Wing Kevin Garnett '98 (33)/Sean Elliott '95 (15)
Big Buck Williams '91 (30)/Otis Thorpe '91 (18)
Big Arvydas Sabonis '96 (28)/Robert Parish '91 (20)

I don't know what the rotation of my opponent is so I'm just going to go over the same key points without doing the math, because without minutes, the math is pointless.

The Formula:

BETTER DEFENSE + BETTER REBOUNDING = MORE POSSESSIONS
BETTER PLAYMAKING + BETTER SHOOTING = MORE EFFICIENCY
MORE POSSESSIONS + MORE EFFICIENCY = WINNING

BETTER DEFENSE

This is an easy one. The best defender in RR9's lineup is Kevin McHale, and he's in the twilight of his career. Buck Williams, meanwhile, has already supplanted him on the all-D teams. Arvydas is better than Divac by Divac's own admittance. Jordan is the greatest SG defender in the 90's, and Hornacek is a good defender, but could not dominate defensively like Jordan could. Drexler is good, but Garnett at this stage in his career is like what we saw out of prime Kirilenko or Crash. He was already getting nearly 2 blocks and 2 steals a game, along with quickness and size that allowed him to defend literally any spot on the court. Then there's Mookie Blaylock, who's the 2nd best PG defender in the whole competition, edging out Terry Porter. Off the bench we have Thorpe and Parish returning to solidify the rotation and

BETTER REBOUNDING

Just looking at the numbers on what I assume are the chosen years for my opponent...

Blaylock > Porter
Jordan > Hornacek
Garnett > Drexler
Williams > McHale
Sabonis > Divac

So, it's really no contest. Of course, the usual excuses will be made for McHale, but that'll just make my backup center look better, whereas he's fielding Rasheed Wallace, who boards worse than my SF.

BETTER PLAYMAKING

This is actually pretty even given that we both have distributors in the exact same spots, but the difference is in TO's. My team's overall TO% is slightly lower than RR9's.

BETTER SHOOTING

My opponent features better 3-point shooting, but with a strong advantage inside, on TS% and eFG% and points per shot attempt, the efficiency battle goes to me. And our three-point shooters are plenty adept enough to provide spacing, including our center, and solid midrange games out of some of our other bigs.

CLOSING NOTES

Overall, I'd say I have a decided advantage over a team that has some impressive name power but weak depth and subpar production out of McHale. I have the better euro center, the better wing, and the better backups. All games are at least a quarter played by backups, so it's a significant portion of the game that I control.

Also, do not forget that Jordan steps it up big time come playoff time. He has the extra gear he goes to and the tougher the opponent, the more fired up he gets.

[Miller4ever]

Lineup against bryant:

QB Mookie Blaylock '97 (30)/Terrell Brandon '96 (18)
Wing Michael Jordan '91 (40)/Nick Anderson '95 (8)
Wing Kevin Garnett '98 (33)/Sean Elliott '95 (15)
Big Buck Williams '91 (30)/Otis Thorpe '91 (18)
Big Arvydas Sabonis '96 (28)/Robert Parish '91 (20)

Working with no idea what years or rotations bryant is going with, even though he has what I consider to be the best SG in the entire league ever, so I'll do my best.

The Formula:

BETTER DEFENSE + BETTER REBOUNDING = MORE POSSESSIONS
BETTER PLAYMAKING + BETTER SHOOTING = MORE EFFICIENCY
MORE POSSESSIONS + MORE EFFICIENCY = WINNING

BETTER DEFENSE

Here is where the clear edge lies. Although he has a defensive anchor at center and Stockton, bryant loses out defensively in 4 out of 5 positions. Mookie may not be the consistent passing-lane hawk Stockton is, but he's a better man defender and a more tenacious defender. His trips to the 1st team to Stockton only ever cracking the 2nd team are both good accolades, but clearly Mookie in his prime was the better defender. Then Jordan has an obvious edge over Miller, and Garnett has an obvious edge over Larry Johnson. Then the matchup at PF is very similar to the PG matchup. Grant is good, but Buck is just better by that much. If Robinson's teammates can't help out, he will have a lot of difficulty against a myriad of offensive weapons who can pass.

BETTER REBOUNDING

In the frontcourt, the rebounding battle is a slight edge if atall to bryant (Arvydas and Parish are no slouches and can match Robinson in his rebound rates, Buck and Grant post about the same rebounding figures, and Garnett and Larry Johnson are dead even). However, the backcourt matchup will tip the scales in my favor, particularly given the strength of our box-out game. Mookie and Jordan grab rebounds at nearly twice the rate Stock and Miller do, and when you're talking about a 2-rebound advantage in the frontcourt to a 5-rebound advantage to my backcourt, it's an advantage. The rebounding off of my bench is also stronger with Thorpe and Parish.

BETTER PLAYMAKING

Bryant has a team that has good construction and a good system, but with Michael Jordan (8 assists a game in the playoffs) keying our offense against weaker defensive power (Stock, Miller, LJ, and even the okay McKey won't do much to stop him) and my floor-stretching bigs, David Robinson will be spending a lot of effort on defense. Meanwhile, one of our strongest defenders is on Stockton disrupting the point of attack and ballhawkers abound at the wings (Blaylock, Jordan, and Garnett combine for 8 steals a game), our defense will do more to disrupt their rhythm than their defense will disrupt ours, and ultimately, our playmaking will come naturally as this team has 4 distributors, 3 who don't need the ball.

BETTER SHOOTING

As efficient as bryant's players are on their own, this really goes back to the defense of my squad. The numbers are in bryant's favor, but when the playoffs roll around and my team cranks up its defense, I think we'll end up with better numbers behind our best player Michael Jordan, as opposed to the #1 player of bryant, David Robinson.

CLOSING NOTES

In addition to the above advantages, my team also owns a size advantage, which may play a factor in the defense and rebounding aspect of the game. While Miller is going to step it up in the playoffs (against a Michael Jordan who is the only player able to out-step-up Miller) Stock and DRob are going to either stay the same or be mitigated. Meanwhile, Arvydas stepped up to become a 24 and 10 player in the playoffs and KG, though not yet apparent, is a competitor.

Michael Jordan will go buck in a seven-game series against bryant's squad. If you are flip-flopping on this matchup, Jordan's ability to take over in the 4th quarter should be enough to sway you.

[CellarDoor]

Quick hitters:

Penny and Hill weren't in their prime. You're right. They were absolute freaks of nature and both can make arguments for being 2nd and 3rd in this series, and they're no worse than 3rd and 4th respectively.

Here's a quick and dirty breakdown of the advanced stats:

PER: Hill > Hakeem > Penny > Ewing > Worthy > Kidd. Ewings defensive anchor status closes the gap some, but I'm not sure how much. Worthy and Kidd aren't in that stratosphere.

Playoff PER: Hakeem > Penny > Ewing > Worthy. Hill beats all Luke's guys, but the sample size is very, very small.

I'll spare you the >'s and just say I've got the top 2 ORTGs, 2 of the top 3 DRTGs including the top, the 3 highest WS/48 by an order of magnitude, a large gap in TS, a large rebounding advantage, and a center with a higher assist rate than your small forward. I really don't think you've got any argument whatsoever than your three are going to come close to my three at this stage in their respective careers.

And as to Penny and being guarded by players with size, you're aware than half the time he was being guarded by the SG/SF either because they put their PG on Scott or on their sixth man Brian Shaw right?

[BlackIce]

PG: Stephon Marbury(38)/Mark Jackson(10)
SG Mitch Ritchmond(36)/Eddie Jones(12)/Jalen Rose
SF: Larry Bird(40)/Eddie Jones(8)/Jalen Rose
PF: Chris Webber(40)/Juwan Howard(8)
Cc: Dikembo Mutombo(40)/Shawn Bradley(8)

vs Luke
Jason Kidd [38] / Derek Harper [10]
Glen Rice [24] / Byron Scott [24] / Rolando Blackman [0]
James Worthy [36] / Glen Rice [12]
Rasheed Wallace [38] / Derrick Coleman [10]
Patrick Ewing [38] / Shareef Abdur-Rahim [10]

Pleasure facing Luke for the first time this game. May the best team win.

Offense: We have a well oiled machine offensively. Webber is still young but he is 22/10/4/1.6/1.7 this era. Still a force. He will get his vs Sheed Wallace who wasn't the defensive player he later became in Detroit. Mutombo is good for put backs and 2nd chance points, and if he is left alone he will make the other team pay. Bird will do well against Worthy, even with his back problems he is 19/9/7, a very well rounded offensive player that can do it all. His assist numbers in particular are astounding for a forward.

Ritchmond will get his against Kidd, who is a very good defender with the size to battle Ritchmond. Should be a fun match-up. Marbury will destroy Rice, simple as that. Luke seems to think Marbury isn't much of a threat because he played on losing teams but the numbers say otherwise.


Defense: We have one of the few C's who can contain Ewing and my weakest defender Marbury is on a weak offensive player in Kidd. Webber is on Sheed, and he'll have help from Bird. I don't think worthy can beat us tbh. Ritchmond will guard Rice.

We will count on some weakside help D from Mutombo but he will contentrate mostly on stopping Ewing. Where is the offense going to come from on Lukes side.

To conclude we have the playmaking edge, we are a better offensive team and we think we can take this series.

[Warspite]

Bone crushers:
Magic 34mpg/GP 34mpg/Phills 28mpg
King 32mpg/Lewis 16mpg
Daugherty 32mpg/Kemp 32mpg/Willis 32mpg

We are back again with seasoned cast ready to try for the title. Magic, Lewis, Willis and Daugherty are all back for a 2nd run and Bernard King is playing in his 3rd tourney and is the comeback player after a knee injury. He is our Gipper and we are rallying around him. We have the experience to win this tourney and most of all the talent and balance.

Offense: Magic is back to run the attack and he has the weapons. Daugherty is all NBA and at his peak with 58% FG. He can score on the block and spot up and is as good as 80s KAJ. King in his comeback yr is still undefendable. This yr he puts up almost 29ppg. The PF spot is the new guy Shawn Kemp who with his 20ppg 11rpg on .631TS. The other new guy is Gary Payton in his DPOY season. Our 6th man is Kevin Willis in his carreer season. Hes a nice option on the block and is athletic and big enough to back up either Kemp or Daugherty. We are playing inside out with King, Daugherty in the post and GP/Magic outside. Running a fast break offense with Magic/GP and finishers like Kemp, Willis, Daugherty, King and Lewis. Our outside shooting is respectable with Magic 32% Payton 33% and Phills 44% from 3pt line.

Defense: Size and length Magic/GP on the outside and Daugherty/Kemp/Willis guarding the rim. Willis in his 15rpg season (22.6reb%) and Kemp (20%) are there to scoop up the boards. GP is DPOY in his season and will be guarding the best guard on the other team. Phills is 2nd team all def in selected season and will be on the floor to spell GP and Magic. The stretch of the game that Magic gets a rest we will have our defense in full force with GP/Phills and be looking to lock down for a small stretch and then be ready to explode when Magic comes back and push the lead again. When we control the boards we will run and Showtime will be in effect.


Vs Snakebites

Snake is following the Houston Rockets book "How to Tank" and they are going down so fast and so hard that they wont even gain any experience and some players will be scarred for life.

Vs Kees

Defense:

We are going to put GP on AI and lock him down. We actualy want AI to score his 22ppg because we know it will be lower than his .535TS. With GP his FTs will be down and his .298 3pt % doesnt scare us at all. I just dont believe AI at 22 yrs old is mature enough to run a team that can even compete with what Magic can do and with GP on him every player on that team is going to be less eff. I think AI could be an effective 6th man and Strickland is a great PG in his yr. As long Rod is on the bench this team on offense is going to struggle.

Finley gets the assignment to guard and score on Magic. We look to reduce Finley to spot up shooter and will be able to rotate and help because we will be able to cheat to that side with GP on the other. The easiest way to guard Finley of course is for Magic to post him up and get him in foul trouble and yeah Magics going to try.

Pippen is going to play off others and look to be the guy that the defense loses. King and Lewis are going to be able to stay home on Pippen and I think that will reduce his eff. No MJ to play off of.

Rodman is the guy we can double off of and use his defender as our weakside guy. Also nice to know that the fouls are np because we can always keep a guy in the game and move him to Rodman. With Willis who had 15rpg to counter Rodman but also had 18ppg we feel that much of Rodmans adv that he brings to his team are muted and his weaknesses are magnified.

The Rookie Tim Duncan would actualy be the worst rebounding big in my rotation. He statisticly is a poor mans Brad Daughtery. The Rook will be welcomed facing Daugherty/Willis/Kemp who will all bring something differant that he just hasnt seen and with a steep learning curve and being guarded by a huge frontline we look to slow him down especialy if we can limit the guard play and in so limit his touches.

Offense:

Magic will be guarded by Finley who is voted "least likely player I would switch places with" Welcome 1st timer to the tourney your guarding the GOAT PG just after his last MVP season when Pippen and MJ struggled to contain him.

GP/Phills get to be guarded by the 2nd yr AI. Oh yeah they cant wait.

Bernard King in his 3rd tourney has more experience than the entire team and Pippen can do all he wants but King is getting his and no Pippen is double teamming and helping AI.

Kemp pretty much owns Rodman. Its a realy bad match up for Rodman with Kemp in his athletic prime and with Magic as his PG. Kemp playing with lesser teammates and playing against Rodman who had better defenders as teammates in 96 on the Bulls still put up 23ppg 10rpg on 55% shooting

Daugherty gets to score on the rookie and in his 58% yr hes got a full bag of tricks for the youngster.

In Conclusion:

My opponets best player is Tim Duncan which had an inferior season to Daugherty. Pippen who is a great 2nd option has to play off of AI who is a horrible 1st option player. My players dont have the famous names of the opponet but they were better players in this eras and we have experience of playing in mutiple eras. Our leaders are Magic Johnson and Bernard King and they can handle the adversity and trouble a series brings while my opponet has the loose cannons of AI and Rodman with only Pippen who is not a great leader to control them while TD is just a rookie. My team battled Bird and DrJ to a 7th game and that experience has them well prepared to handle this era.

[-Kees-]

Keeslinator

PG: Allen Iverson (34) | Rod Strickland (14)
SG: Michael Finley (30) | Alvin Robertson (18)
SF: Scottie Pippen (38) | Antoine Walker (0) | [Dennis Rodman] (10)
PF: Dennis Rodman (30) | PJ Brown (18)
Cc: Tim Duncan (36) | PJ Brown (6) | Bryant Reeves (6)

VS.

Warspite

Magic 34mpg/GP 34mpg/Phills 28mpg
King 32mpg/Lewis 16mpg
Daugherty 32mpg/Kemp 32mpg/Willis 32mpg


Offense:
We will run our offense though AI, Pippen and Duncan. Duncan is our post presence, he was 21/12 his rookie year. But everyone knows that Duncan goes much farther than stats. His energy and leadership really will help my young team. He also was extremely efficient for a player that plays some time on the perimeter. He shot a great .549 his rookie year. He also lead the league in DWS and had a 95 DRTG. Rodman was also very efficient the year I chose him, and also his the 3 ball at a 32% rate. PJ Brown is another one of my bigs that will get a lot of playing time, but he is mostly defensive. He is, however, very good at setting screens and also moving without the ball to find open dunks.

During the runs that the Bulls made in the 90's, Pippen did a lot of ball handling. He also played off-ball, but a lot of the times he was the one to set up Jordan. Both he and AI can ball handle for us. Finley was an excellent off-ball player, and will do that for us. AI, during the beginning of his career, was a more unselfish player, and was more willing to pass. He was always a good scorer, but at the beginning, he was more willing to pass. Strickland was a top PG in the year I chose, as he was 18/11/5 with decent efficiency.

Defense:
The matchups will look something like this:
AI on Payton
Pippen on Magic
Finley on King
Rodman on Kemp
Duncan on Daughtery
Brown on Willis
Robertson on Phills

We will let Payton go off for whatever he wants, with just Iverson guarding him. Even as bad as that sounds, AI slowed down Payton a lot in the head to head matchup. AI and Payton matched up 7 times before 2000 (both were selected before 2000), and the max points Payton ever went off for was 32, and twice he got less than 20, so AI matched up on him, could be a rough day for Payton.

Pippen can easily stop a last year Magic. Magic never had great quickness, and it just got worse as he got older. Pippen, being the best perimeter defender ever, will be able to shut him down to well below his averages. Finley has the size to guard King, but King will most likely be able to score pretty easily. However, King was not a very efficient player at all, and with so many offensive weapons, that could be an issue.

Duncan/Daughtery will be an interesting matchup. Tim has the advantage for sure, statistically and overall play and leadership. Both will fight it out though, and I think this may be a draw in terms of talent.

Another HUGE point I want to mention is the lack of spacing War's team will have. Payton (my favorite all time player) was not a three point threat and actually was mostly used to playing with the ball in his hands. Magic also always was the main distributor, and had trouble playing off ball. King was a pure scorer, and could beat you, but needed iso plays, and in the year chosen, he lead the league in USG%. Not to mention that Daugherty used up a lot of possessions with his posting up. With all of these scorers, there will be no spacing, and no reason for us to stay on the perimeter. So we can pack our players in the paint and force them to hit outside shots, which most of their perimeter players can't. They also only have one ball, and really 4 players on their starting 5 that need a lot of possessions to be affective.

OVERALL I think that the teams are very similar in talent. He has Daugherty, Payton, Magic, King, Willis, Kemp ect, I have AI, Duncan, Rodman, Finley, Brown and Pippen. However, my team has much better spacing and offensive flow. They're team has problems with that, and 2 real PG's that aren't used to playing off ball.

[-Kees-]

REBUTTAL

We are going to put GP on AI and lock him down. We actualy want AI to score his 22ppg because we know it will be lower than his .535TS. With GP his FTs will be down and his .298 3pt % doesnt scare us at all. I just dont believe AI at 22 yrs old is mature enough to run a team that can even compete with what Magic can do and with GP on him every player on that team is going to be less eff. I think AI could be an effective 6th man and Strickland is a great PG in his yr. As long Rod is on the bench this team on offense is going to struggle.

AI and Payton matched up a few times during the mid 90's. Some of AI's best games include a 23/10 game while shooting 10/16 (.625), a 37/3/9 game while shooting 14/29 (.483) (3/5 from 3), and a 34/6/6 game while shooting 12/30 (.400), all before 2000. This clearly shows that AI can be effiecent and still score very well with GP covering him.

Pippen is going to play off others and look to be the guy that the defense loses. King and Lewis are going to be able to stay home on Pippen and I think that will reduce his eff. No MJ to play off of.

Pippen is one of the most athletic players ever, I don't see how he will just sit. A 34 year old King certainly won't be able to contain Pippen. He also was more of a ball handler than Jordan, so I don't see how not having Jordan will affect his game a lot.

The Rookie Tim Duncan would actualy be the worst rebounding big in my rotation. He statisticly is a poor mans Brad Daughtery. The Rook will be welcomed facing Daugherty/Willis/Kemp who will all bring something differant that he just hasnt seen and with a steep learning curve and being guarded by a huge frontline we look to slow him down especialy if we can limit the guard play and in so limit his touches.

Duncan: 21.1/11.9/2.7/2.5/0.7, .549 FG%
Daugherty: 21.6/10.9/3.3/0.6/1.0, .524 FG%

I really don't see how Duncan, statically, is a poor mans Daugherty. Duncan has him in FG%, BPG, RPG, Daugherty has PPG, APG and SPG. They seem near even statistically.

GP/Phills get to be guarded by the 2nd yr AI. Oh yeah they cant wait.

See above. AI can't wait either

Bernard King in his 3rd tourney has more experience than the entire team and Pippen can do all he wants but King is getting his and no Pippen is double teamming and helping AI.

Pippen will be able to stop a 34 year old King like nothing. Pippen is the best perimeter defender EVER, and you can't say that a worn down King can really beat him.

Kemp pretty much owns Rodman. Its a realy bad match up for Rodman with Kemp in his athletic prime and with Magic as his PG. Kemp playing with lesser teammates and playing against Rodman who had better defenders as teammates in 96 on the Bulls still put up 23ppg 10rpg on 55% shooting

I don't know where you are getting your stats, but Rodman owned Kemp when they matched up.

In 95/96, Kemp averaged 20/11, and in that year, Rodman and Kemp met 2 times. Kemp was 13/9 and 17/13, averaging 15/11. And that was a much worse Rodman than I had.

The year I chose Rodman, 91/92, they also met twice. First time Kemp was 8/13, second was 12/13, averaging 10/13, again, much lower than his averages.

If we take a season in between, say 93/94, the 2 times they matched up,, Kemp was 10/7 and 23/7, averaging 16.5/7.

So in 3 different samples, it shows that Kemp was below his averages consistently against Rodman. While from 91-98, Rodman had 8 15+ rebound games, including one 13/27 game in 1995.


In Conclusion:

My opponets best player is Tim Duncan which had an inferior season to Daugherty.

Pippen is clearly my best player, but we have a 3 headed offense in AI, Pippen and Duncan. See above on why Daugherty isn't "inferior" to Duncan.

[Warspite]

Rebuttal

1. Kemps stats are from the 1996 Finals in Kemps selected yr. 23.3ppg 10rpg .550FG
2. Daugherty in 1992 .570FG .777FT 10.4RPG 3.3APG 1.1BPG 21.3PPG
3. Magic in his last yr was still an MVP candidate who reached the Finals and vs The Bulls avg 18.6/8.0/12.4 including a 20 ast game. If thats washed up imagine how good he was in his prime.

92 Rodman is a SF who takes Aguirres starting job and plays with Salley and Laimbeer.

AIs selected yr he is a rookie and shoots 41% FG and takes 6 3pters a game. Now hes being guarded by the DPOY Payton.

Kees believes he has better spacing becasue he has Iverson shooting 6 3s a game at 34% leaving 4 long rebounds to be converted to dunks on the other end. Even if Kees gets 1 off reb that is still 3 dunks that we get and that is equal to making 6 of our baskets 3pters. Most importantly we have Bobby Phills who is playing 28mpg and shoots 41% from 3pt range.

Kees is starting 2 NBA rookies

Bernard King played on a 30 win team whos 2nd best scorer was Harvey Grant and 3rd Ledell Eackles. I dont know who Eackles is and Harvey is Horaces little brother. Furthermore this is Kings 3rd tourney. He has more experience in Keeper league games than any other player in this league. He fully knows when to take over a game and when to defer. He has Magic to run the offense and get him easy buckets. King is going from having Haywoode Workman (4.6apg) to Magic Johnson as his PG. I expect his EFF to increase regardless of whos guarding him. Talk about going from the out house to the penthouse.

In the selected yr (1991) vs the Bulls being guarded by Pippen
Nov3 King 44pts 8reb 6asts .467 Pippen 8pts 5rebs 2asts
Nov28 King 16pts 28mins in a 24pt blow out loss Pippen 15/5/5
Feb19 King 29pts 5rebs 6 asts .466 Pippen 16pts .438 (MJ scores40)

Pippen is held 25% below his scoring avg in this sample. Pippen avg 13ppg vs the lowly Bullets while King playing vs the 61 win Bulls avgs 29.6ppg. He puts up 29ppg on Pippen now imagine what hes doing to Finley and playing with Magic and Co.

Pippen in 91 was 2nd team all def. He held Magic to 19/8/12 and King to 29/5/5. More importantly Pippen scored 25% less and shot under 50% vs King in 91. Yes Pippen in 95 is better than 91. How much is for the judges to decide. Either way theres no free lunch for Pippen here. King welcomes being guarded by Finley and feels hes being disrespected by this move.