RealGM

Conference 1:

AB:
Miller4ever (-Moncrief) VS bastillon (-McGrady)

CD:
TMACFORMVP (-Dumars) VS David Stern (-Rodman)


Conference 2:

EF:
BlackIce (-Deron) VS dockingshed (-Wade)

GH:
lukekarts (-Dirk) VS RiotPunch (-Thurmond)

Writeup vs bast

Porter(36)/Price(12)
Roy(36)/Majerle(12)
Hill(36)/Granger(12)
Cowens(36)/Unseld(12)
Abdul-Jabbar(36)/Unseld(12)

Offense:
With 5 good or better distributors lined up, there are going to be many open players found and a lot of unselfish play. The offense will be spaced by the backcourt and locked down inside by Kareem. Hill and Cowens are forwards with great touch on their jumpers and good at drawing fouls. This team can and will overwhelm bast's defense with a lot of efficient scoring from anywhere on the court.

Defense:
Given that the inside is locked up with Cowens, Kareem, and Unseld, it comes down to how well the perimeter gets defended. Pressey is a distributor, and not the most prolific scorer, and Porter does not give up a lot of size in this mismatch (2 inches). Iguodala is also not a productive or efficient go-to option. Hill, an underrated defender in his early years, will take on the responsibility of guarding Durant. The plan is to keep the ball out of Durant's hands and make Pressey and Iguodala try and beat my backcourt. We like McAdoo playing 30 minutes because Cowens can take the guy that used to be his backup.

Rebounding:
My team has the better rebounding. In the starting lineup, Pressey and Iggy tip it in favor of bast, but the frontcourt of Hill, Cowens, and Kareem rebounds at a high enough rate to not only match but take the advantage away from the backcourt. From the bench, McAdoo and Bogut and Dawkins will be at the very least matched by Unseld. Even Danny Granger can outrebound Worthy. My team is full of guys who prove that length is only a portion of the rebounding battle.

RiotPunch
Isiah Thomas (38) / Jerry West (10)
Jerry West (30) / Manu Ginobili (10) / Eddie Jones (8)
Andrei Kirilenko (22) / Manu Ginobili (26)
Karl Malone (30) / Andrei Kirilenko (12) / Chris Bosh (6)
Yao Ming (32) / Karl Malone (10) / Chris Bosh (6)

vs.

lukekarts
Billups [38] / Greer [10]
Kobe [38] / Greer [10]
Johnson [34] / English [14]
Daugherty [34] / Oakley [14]
Zo [36] / Bynum [12]

OFFENSE:
Our plan of attack will be a variety of pick and rolls and pick and pops between Isiah Thomas and Karl Malone. We feel like this will be an unstoppable force to defend, but in the case of this not working, Jerry West will be lurking in the corner ready for a kick out, spot up 3. We also plan on getting Yao going early, hopefully demanding a double team to leave The Mailman some serious room to operate.

DEFENSE:
Defensively, we will show off our versatility, playing West, Kirilenko, Malone, Ginobili and Bosh all at multiple positions. This allows Bryant, Johnson and English to always have one of West, AK47, Ginobili or Jones in their grill for all 48 minutes. We specifically like having West/Manu/Jones taking turns giving Kobe all they have defensively, and with offensive production mostly coming fro Thomas / Malone / Yao, this allows said players to really put a lot of energy into their defense. We also have Malone playing backup center minutes to match up with some of luke's muscle.

CONCLUSION:
We respect luke's team, and he has put together a very talented one, but we think our squad is just too much for him to handle on defense. Pair an elite passing PG with elite quickness with Karl Malone, and you have a recipe for an unstoppable pick and roll. Add a clutch shooter to that recipe and it is even more scary. We recognize that luke has some potent scorers on his squad, but we built our team to be able to weather storms like this and with the personnel of AK47, Manu, West, Malone and Jones, we feel good about holding his players in check.

GL, luke!

Lineup

Tim Hardaway(24)/Kirk Hinrich(24)
Clyde Drexler(38)/Kirk Hinrich(10)
Ron Artest(36)/Dominique Wilkins(12)
Charles Barkley(40)/Dan Roundfield(8)
Bill Russell(40)/Mark Eaton(8)


Dockingsced has built a great team. GL and may the best team win.


Defense:

We will completely lockdown the opposing team. Hardaway and Hinrich will be responsible for slowing down CP3. Hardaway has the quicks to at least try and stay in front of Paul and make him work on the other end. Hinrich is a defensive specialist that will make Paul's life hell. He has the combination of size, strength and speed to contest Paul's shots and make it tougher for him to make those legendary passes.

Drexler is a strong defender as well. He will be covering Rice in all likelyhood. Battier preferably. I think the SG role on the opposing team will be used to spread the floor. Drexler will take away the 3 and force Battier/Rice to put the ball on the floor. Russell will be waiting in the post.

Our strongest perimeter defender and DPY will shut down Melo.



As you can see, Artest has always played Melo well. In his DPY season he shutdown guys like T-Mac and Kobe so Melo shouldn't be a huge factor in this series.. and with Wade out...

Russell on KG. I sacrifice a bit of help defense but gain an alltime man defender to throw on KG, who is in a first option role. Russell is long and springy enough to stay with KG and smart enough to not fall for his fakes.

Barkely on Mutombo. Mutumbo isn't a huge factor offensely. I can hide Barkley on him. Sure Barkley gives up about half a foot but Mutombo has no consistent go to post moves. He is a decent finisher but I'm not too worried about my opponents C.

Offense:

My opponent has a formidable frontcourt defensively. I will attack in by putting Drexler in iso situations and letting him handle the ball. Drexler/Barkley pick and roll/pop and Hardaway/Artest as spot up shooters. Hinrich is a corner 3 guy. Russell can handle the ball a bit and we will take advantage of his GOAT passing.


-we have elite rebounding as well

Conference 1:

AB:
Miller4ever (-Moncrief) VS bastillon (-McGrady)

CD:
TMACFORMVP (-Dumars) VS David Stern (-Rodman)


Conference 2:

EF:
BlackIce (-Deron) VS dockingshed (-Wade)

GH:
lukekarts (-Dirk) VS RiotPunch (-Thurmond)

lukekarts vs RiotPunch

Lineup (may be subject to change)

Billups [38] / Greer [10]
Kobe [38] / Greer [10]
Johnson [34] / English [14]
Daugherty [34] / Oakley [14]
Zo [36] / Bynum [12]

Snake reminded me I forgot to put a deadline on this...

Writeups for Round 2 are due Monday, Dec 26th at 12 PM EST (noon)

Miller4ever wrote:Reserved vs bast

Porter(36)/Price(12)
Roy(36)/Majerle(12)
Hill(36)/Granger(12)
Cowens(36)/Unseld(12)
Abdul-Jabbar(36)/Unseld(12)

Miller4ever wrote:Reserved vs bast

Porter(36)/Price(12)
Roy(36)/Majerle(12)
Hill(36)/Granger(12)
Cowens(36)/Unseld(12)
Abdul-Jabbar(36)/Unseld(12)

wow. for the first time in ATL I feel like I'm playing against an opponent that doesn't have an obvious weakness. IMO that team is way better than the one you put up in Round 1. Cowens makes a huge difference here because of his excellent fit and Roy works better than Moncrief because of his outside abilities which Moncrief doesn't really possess. defensively KAJ even though overrated is still above average and Cowens is a defensive anchor (73 Celtics were all-timers defensively, about as good as Riley Knicks or Pop's Spurs). great job.

first of all, my line-up:

Duncan 36/Bogut/Dawkins
Sheed 18/McAdoo 30
Iguodala 18/Worthy 30
Durant 36/Iguodala 12
Pressey 30/Blaylock 18

offense
run as much as possible. my opponent doesn't have a team that gets back on defense well. neither Unseld nor Kareem were noted for their transition defense and bigs are crucial in terms of transition defense. McAdoo was particularly amazing in transition, dude was basically PF playing like SG, think of Marion but with great jumpshot. other than him, Iguodala, Durant, Worthy and Pressey are all proven qualities in transition. with that kind of athleticism from my swingmen I'll take my chances against Miller's defenders of whom only Hill was strong defender. I feel like my team has the advantage in the open court against Miller's defenders.

if there's not shot, set up HCO:
-Iguodala and Pressey (primary point forward) will handle the ball, set screens and cut to the basket
-off ball screens for Durant and McAdoo
-set up Duncan in the low post against Kareem. Duncan was always good at drawing fouls so there's always a possibility of Kareem's foul trouble, though I'm not counting on it.
-Iguodala and Pressey will run some pick and pops with McAdoo/Sheed and pick and rolls with Duncan
-post up for Worthy
-Dawkins, Duncan, Bogut attacking offensive glass
-Sheed, Blaylock spotting up from 3, but Iguodala and Durant also have 3pt range and McAdoo/Worthy are very potent midrange shooters. spacing isn't going to be an issue. only Pressey isn't a great shooter but he'll handle the ball and be distrubutor and he can hit midrange shots anyway.

as you can see, lots of options. I feel like they can produce enough offense between Durant, Duncan, McAdoo and Worthy. all of them were efficient 25 ppg scorers in the playoffs and are now asked to deliver points at much lower volume. unlike my opponent I have multiple guys who can explode offensively.

defense
key defensive matchups:
Kareem - different looks with Duncan/Sheed/Bogut/Dawkins and PF doubling hard off Unseld or roaming off Cowens
Porter - guarded by Durant, so I'm changing defensive matchups here with Pressey in the game
Hill - Pressey
Roy - Iguodala

with Price in the game, Blaylock will guard him so usual coverage SG-SG, SF-SF.

Kareem is going to get double teamed consistently and his man will often front him when Unseld is in the game with help coming off of Unseld. I'll try to make Kareem catch it further away from the basket and trap him if possible.

Blazers vs Lakers game 7 00
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ftYCBrObR98 ...3:00 look how Sheed is right next to Shaq
this is going to happen. consistent double teams, swarming the paint with defenders, recovering and contesting shooters.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pEGvKVNoJ8E ... 16:25 look how fast Olajuwon is trapped. this is what I'm talking about. the way Blazers defended Shaq and Sonics defended Hakeem, I'm going to use the same trapping scheme on Kareem.

now compare that to defenses Kareem faced:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nTMEtNM44n8 Kareem's 43 pts vs Warriors
uncontested entry passes, horrible man defense from Parish/Ray - letting Kareem catch it 5 feet from the basket and doesn't even put his hands up. this is unacceptable. Kareem doesn't even have a right to put the ball on the floor with THOSE teammates. they should've tripled Kareem right on the catch like Blazers and Sonics did. Kareem never played against that trapping scheme because coaching wasn't as developed.

if anyone wants to beat me, it won't be Kareem but his teammates. I'll try to help and recover as much as I can and make them shoot outside jumpshots anyway. to perform that trapping scheme you need athletic line-up and high IQ bigs who know how to rotate defensively. I also have incredible length giving me ability to swarm passing lanes and still contest shots. Durant is taller than Perkins when they're standing together and he has a wingspan of 7'5 (like a big center). Iguodala is 6'9 with long arms. Pressey and Worthy were long too, often guarding PFs in their time. this much length will bother any team because everyone covers so much space with their reach. and even if Kareem is shooting it's gonna be against great man defenders: Duncan, Rasheed, Dawkins and Bogut. contested shot over outstretched arms is the best he will see in this defensive series.

so I'm not that worried about the other guys. I'm matching up well defensively and so my main focus is to trap Kareem or deny him the ball. the rest of the guys aren't that much of a threat against elite defense and Miller's best offensive weapons outside of Kareem are being guarded by Iguodala and Pressey. if I can contain Kareem reasonably well, I don't know if the other guys provide enough firepower to beat my team.

one point I'd like to emphasize in particular is bench offense. with Kareem on the bench Miller's team is left with... completely inefficient big men (Unseld and Cowens) and perimeter players playing against elite defensive counterparts... with bigs helping because Unseld and Cowens aren't great scoring threats. it's really hard to create a good offense without scoring contributions from the bigs.

summary
Miller's built a great team. I'm hoping to swarm Kareem and make other guys beat me and with the length of my team (seriously that's big ball, Blaylock aside everyone is over 6'7 and mostly with badass wingspan too) I think trapping can be succesful. Kareem will be alone offensively though because his teammates aren't explosive playoff scorers. contrary to one-man show on Miller's team, 4 top offensive players are ~25 ppg playoff scorers at their best (Worthy, McAdoo, Duncan, Durant). you never know who's going to explode. in game 1 Worthy might put up 35 pts on 60% FG. in game 2 Worthy might be quiet but Durant will make up for him with 30 pts. in game 3 my perimeter scorers will play poorly but Duncan and McAdoo come up big. I want to win as a TEAM, and even though Miller has the best player in the series he'll be fighting top notch defenders without another potent scorer on the team, and against 4 explosive scorers on the other team. Kareem vs the world can be exciting and I see this matchup close, but with advantages in balance, in transition and on the bench I'm hoping to win in 6.

lukekarts

Billups [38] / Greer [10]
Kobe [38] / Greer [10]
Johnson [34] / English [14]
Daugherty [34] / Oakley [14]
Zo [36] / Bynum [12]

vs

RiotPunch

Isiah Thomas (38) / Jerry West (10)
Jerry West (30) / Manu Ginobili (10) / Eddie Jones (8)
Andrei Kirilenko (22) / Manu Ginobili (26)
Karl Malone (30) / Andrei Kirilenko (12) / Chris Bosh (6)
Yao Ming (32) / Karl Malone (10) / Chris Bosh (6)

First time matchup with Riot. Good luck & let's have a good series.

Defensive assignments: Zo splitting time between Yao and Malone, Daugherty mainly focused on Yao if Malone is on a hot streak. Marques on AK/Manu., Kobe on West, Chauncey on Isiah.

The key improvement in my team for this round is the addition of Marques to strengthen my perimeter defence. He was the best player on the 1981 60-win Bucks team, as best player, leading scorer and rebounder. He was effectively Pippen-lite, playing with Moncrief instead of Jordan. Whilst his individual assignment is only AK, he has the versatility to switch onto either Malone or West if needed.

For those who don't know Marques too well, there's a great article here: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1123934/1/index.htm from 1980. A quick snippet:

If Marques Johnson is not generally conceded to be the best all-round basketball player in the game today, it is only because comparing players at different positions is as difficult as comparing pitchers with hitters..."Marques is closer to Elgin than Doc because of his great strength and defense. He not only has the quickest first step of anyone I've ever seen, but once he makes it he's way up above everybody. Put those two things together and he can get anywhere he wants"

.

Anyway, on to the matchup.

The key advantage I feel I have over Riotpunch in this matchup, is interior D. Interior D isn't everything, but Zo in particular will have a much larger impact on help defence than Yao across this series, and for 16 minutes per game, Riot will be reliant upon either Malone or Bosh commanding the middle. This will massively open up the game for Kobe, Marques, Daugherty and Zo, whom are all in possession of good post games and capable of finishing with force around the basket.

There will also be times in this matchup when Riot plays a lineup of Malone/AK47/Manu/West/Isiah, which is incredibly undersized and underpowered. Manu will have no way of containing either Marques or English, who both have considerable size and strength advantages, whilst even with all starters on the court, Riot has little chance of containing Daugherty and Zo in the front court.

On to the perimeter, I feel I match up well. If we look at peak Kobe vs peak West, there is very little tangible difference between the two, with the exception of Kobe's defensive advantage. Isiah has the slight edge in talent on Billups, but will find it very hard to be as efficient offensively in the matchup when faced with an imposing front court, Billups offers more of a 3 point and free throw threat and will cause Isiah some problems in this regard. Marques I feel is a clearly superior player to Kirilenko, who despite being a great shot blocker, is not a great shooter or rebounder.

Offensive execution

The team's offence will be diverse, and will rely upon exploiting defensive assignments across the series. For the most part, Kobe and Chauncey will share the ball, each operating pick and roll or pick and pop scenarios with either Daugherty or Zo. Daugherty will see a lot of the ball when Malone is assigned to him, where he should be able to assert his size advantage and maintain his exellent (58%+) scoring averages. Marques will see a lot of the ball in transition, he was a remarkably efficient finisher (55%) and will feed of fast break opportunities created from defensive stops. For the most part, he can focus on his off-ball skills - defence, boxing out, rebounding, playing the passing lanes etc.

Summary

I feel the loss of Thurmond really hurts Riot here, considering he has no interior defence outside of Yao. Yao won't cope with more than the 32mpg, which puts increasing pressure on Riot's team to build up a lead during those 32 minutes when my squad inevitably outplays him for the other 16. But I don't think Riot has any sort of advantage for those 32 minutes. Malone will be tough to slow down, but I can't think of many better players to help on him than Zo. Billups/Kobe/Marques are a solid defensive trio on the perimter and will be disruptive to Riot's offensive flow; and as an overall offensive team I feel I have the advantage in both spacing and efficiency which in a tight series could be decisive factors.

pg: Chris Paul (38) / Baron Davis (10)
sg: Shane Battier (38) / Baron Davis (10)
sf: Carmelo Anthony (38) / Glen Rice (10)
pf: Kevin Garnett (38) / Blake Griffin (10)
c: Dikembe Mutombo (32) / Jermaine O'neal (16) / Elmore Smith (foultrouble)

vs.

Tim Hardaway(24)/Kirk Hinrich(24)
Clyde Drexler(38)/Kirk Hinrich(10)
Ron Artest(36)/Dominique Wilkins(12)
Charles Barkley(40)/Dan Roundfield(8)
Bill Russell(40)/Mark Eaton(8)

offense: chris paul will have the ball in his hands taking advantage of a roster full of players that can spread the floor for him and run up and down. KG will be the 2nd option, taking advantage of his height advantage over barkley.

defense: battier on drexler, cp3 on hardaway, kg, deke, and JO shutting down the middle. melo has the size to deal with bulldozing artest.

I was kinda hoping to see Stern's rotation before I started mine, but here it goes before Christmas eve night, and actual Christmas, lol.

like to say I really respect Stern as a poster, and look forward to a really good matchup (as I do with my previous opponent in poop, whom I failed to acknowledge in my last writeup, one of the best posters in these games w/out a doubt).

--> I don't think our offense can be stopped. I had a whole post observing every offensive play from the 75 Finals G3 Warriors v. Bullets..unfortunately, I lost it.

But, what I do remember was through three quarters of play, the Warriors had 72 offensive possessions -- Barry touched the ball 36 times (I mean touched, not held the ball). And, I'd seriously advise you all to watch it if you haven't, because Barry is not a BALL DOMINANT player, rather a more appropriate term would be was that he was SHOT DOMINANT. He did most of his work in that game by cutting to the rim, getting open using screens, picks, and initiating contact on quick hitting plays by getting to the line. On my count, before I lost it, there were roughly 8-9 plays where he held the ball, but also resulted in either a basket for himself, or another teammate.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSrJLP8trpw

^That's the game, but it's poor quality (was able to DVR on it my TV, so it was easier to observe things). Anyways my point is...that Barry fits in perfectly w/our offense, providing spacing, off the ball movement, and versatility offensively.

And that he won't be stopped by Pippen, Scottie will certainly make him work harder, but Barry will do what he's done his entire career. In 75, he faced the Bulls in the post-season who had defensive SF's in the mold of Sloan, Walker, and Love, with an older Thurmond in the paint -- so they were pretty damn good defensively; Barry in that series: 28.4 PPG, including a dominating 4th quarter in G7 (14 points) to send the Warriors to the NBA Finals and in G6 of that series (to tie the series), he had a 36/8/8 game, with 7 steals to win that one too.

That NBA Finals also had the best ranked defense in the Bullets, who had Riordan, and of course, Unseld/Hayes inside. He did roughly 30 PPG in that series on 44-45% as well. Dude was good.

Similarly, Penny was a matchup nightmare, I don't think it's possible to put Rose on him (his greatest strength, IMO, was being able to use his size), and it's a pick your poison sort thing w/ who to put Pippen on (whom Penny has had success on as well). The Magic went 17-5 in games w/out Shaq and Penny in those games did 26/5/7 on 63% TS (got to the line 11 times); he finished Top 3 in MVP Voting, and was first team All-NBA. They were still +2.5 in the lineup without Shaq, for references sake (thanks ElGee, again), in '97, w/ Penny in the lineup, they were +2.5 (Shaq had left for LA by this time), but w/out him, -7.5! That sort of offensive impact is ridiculous.

In '97, against the best ranked Heat defense, Penny poured in 31 PPG on 58% TS, in the final two games of that series, he did 42/8/3 on 64% TS. Check out that Magic team too, Penny was literally playing by himself and almost upset the Heat.

If Stern were to bring someone like Bowen off the bench to put on Penny, I think that does more harm than good, b/c of our ability to help a little defensively (we can close out quickly with quickness), while Penny should still be able to do his thing.

Our offensive mismatches, and versatility is too much to handle, and this isn't counting our biggest one...Shaquille O'neal. No one in the history of the league would really be able to contain '00 O'neal. Reed doesn't really have the size to do this either, IMO. I know he was OK against Wilt, but I think they're very different players, outside of their tremendous size; Wilt could be forced into shots outside of the paint, and his role on those Lakers team wasn't to be that BIG TIME scorer.

-----

We'll likely be starting Wise at the 2 (it kinda depends, minutes rotation), but since Warriorfan mentioned he didn't know who Wise was, I feel it might be important to expand on his ability. Sports Illustrated during the time called Wise the "best all round forward in basketball." He was an EXCEPTIONAL defender.

"Willie Wise was one of the toughest competitors I ever played against," said Erving. "He came to play every night. I really respected him. Willie was one of those players that the NBA fans never had a chance to see the best he had. That's because Willie was injured a lot when he played in the NBA. That was a shame. Willie Wise had game. A great game."

May be best defensive forward in league . . . Is quick enough to guard a guard when asked to. - Jim O'Brien.

"Willie came to play," explained former Indiana coach Bobby Leonard. "And that meant we had to play him. No one did the things he did on the court. He might have been the best two-way player the ABA ever had. By being a two-way player, I mean he came to play at both ends -- offensively and defensively. "I actually think he liked playing defense more than offense," added Leonard. "That's trait you don't acquire. That's just plain desire. You have to love the game to want to do that type of dirty work. But he did. His matchups against Roger Brown were some of the best the league ever had. I always loved Willie Wise. I wish he had played for me."

He shut down George McGinnis in the post-season (holding him to 9 points), to advance to the ABA Finals. He could literally guard SG's to PF's, and do it nearly as effectively. Read the article below:

http://www.remembertheaba.com/ABAArticl ... eWise.html

We're not going to stop Bird, he's going to do his thing (similar to how Barry will do his, but Bird to a greater extent, just cause he's better), but we could do worse than a guy like Wise on him.

I think with him, and Lucas's range (who's a terrific fit, dude had three point range, combined with elite defense), and Richmond with an expanded role off the bench w/out Dumars, we're looking at a team with terrific spacing, offensive mismatches, and one that is flat out more potent than Stern's despite Bird's offensive prowess.

Also, when Richmond is in the game, expect to see Buck in the game as well (he's likely splitting time w/ Lucas, if not getting more minutes). He's an awesome defender, that's a very good rebounder, and efficient scorer...

This also leads us to the belief of having better defensive versatility. Buck, Shaq, Wise, with good size (Penny), and even Lever all being two way sort guys, we can easily adjust and not miss too much a beat (this isn't the case w/ a guy like Bowen, who's less dimensional). Even Barry, was a big part of a very good Warriors defense, as he was a pest in the passing lanes.

Rose will be tough to stop, but we'd like to point out he settled ALOT in the past post-season from three (like to a point it was smh worthy). We think Penny, who has terrific quickness and athleticism can actually bother him in a similar way LeBron did (but Rose will still get his). We also have Lever off the bench, and can slide Penny to the two, or Lever there, and still maintain our core three of Barry/Penny/Shaq. The versatility is very good.

-----
I'd also like to point out w/ the loss of Rodman, the rebounding goes from very good to average at best. Reed was a solid rebounder, but not better than Shaq, and I'd like to point towards Connie Hawkins (who would presumably be the starter[?]), whose TRB% despite the raw #'s was not very good. Against Lucas, and Buck, whom were terrific rebounders, that's a big advantage. Bird is a tremendous rebounder, and certainly makes up some of the advantage, but Wise/Penny are terrific rebounders as well. Overall, rebounding should be an advantage as well.

----

I think our team creates too many offensive mismatches, and fits too well w/ spacing, post play, off the ball movement, and versatility. Consider that with better rebounding, and slightly greater defensive versatility, that should help us come out on top in what should be a tremendous series. Best of luck Stern.

Sorry for delay. I'll post my writeup soon (within 12-15 hours ;])

TMac
Penny (’96), Lever (’87)
Richmond (’96), Wise (’72)
Barry (’75), Wise
Jerry Lucas (’65), Buck Williams (’85)
Shaq (’00), Mel Daniels (’71)

Vs
Rose (’11), Hornacek (’92)
Bowen (’05), Pippen (’94)
Pippen (’94), Horry (’94)
Bird (’86), Connie (’68)
Reed (’70), Laimbeer (’90), Tyson Chandler (’11)

- Pippen on Penny, Rose on Richmond, Bowen on Barry, Bird on Lucas and Reed on Shaq

- Without Dumars TMac’s team is overrated in terms of spacing. The only real threat from 3pt line is Richmond. Penny in a season chosen by TMac (he send me PM with years, thx) shot only 31% from 3pts (and is 32% career 3P; overall he was as good/bad ;] shooter as LeBron, even their FT% is similar – in fact ’96 Penny is worse both: 3P and FT shooter than James) and it was during season with shortened line. Wise, Lever and Barry obviously didn’t have 3pt range - in his best ABA season Barry shot 31% with only 73 3PM; Wise never attempted more than 18 3pt shots in a season… so I don’t think argument “if only he has 3pt line during his time he would shot great” would work here. Despite I think we can’t play “what if” card here, because for example Barry was chosen relatively low because of lack of 3pt range – in other words: if we would treat Barry as 3pt shooter, he would be chosen sooner in our draft. Of course mid range game is also important to some extent, but 3P range is the most important thing in spacing. Also, mid range jumpers are the less effective shots.

- On the other hand my team have several players with 3pts range: Pippen, Rose or Horry are better 3P shooters than Penny ; Bowen and Laimbeer are very good; Hornacek and Bird are better than Richmond. So I think my teams spacing is definitely better.

- I had middle pick in our draft, so I know I wouldn’t have chance to chose one of these great centers like Shaq. So to have any chance against teams with GOAT center I decided to built team great defensively on the perimeter and with strong centers, who at least would make GOAT centers earn their points. I also wanted centers with range, because I want these great centers like Hakeem or KAJ to stay as much away from basket, as possible. That’s why I picked Reed (he had decent midrange jumper and was strong enough to effectively fight with the best centers of his generation – remember, in 1970 he was chosen to All D 1st Team over KAJ, Wilt or Thurmond), Laimbeer (great range, one of the smartest and the most annoying big defenders ever) and Chandler (no range, but excellent defender).

- So on offense I want to have Reed or Laimbeer (Chandler would only play if others Cs have foul trouble) away from the basket, Reed on midrange, Laimbeer behind three point line. Shaq can’t defend anyone else on my team, so he would have to step up to Reed/Laimbeer and paint would be unprotected, because Lucas was really poor defender (Buck Williams was much better, but he’s not in TMac’s S5 and I would talk about him later). So paint would be open to Rose’s, Bird’s, Pippen’s or Connie’s attacks.

- My primary offensive play would be pick and roll. I would attack Shaq as much as possible, because he always was bad p&r defender. Reed and Laimbeer with their shooting ability are obviously very good bigs to p&r or pick and pop. With the ball would be Rose or Pippen – no one from TMac’s S5 was very good perimeter defender (Wise was great, but his on the bench), Barry was smart team defender, but not too good individual, so I would attack Penny, Richmond or Barry (one of them would defend Bowen, I don’t know who, but obviously I wouldn’t play p&r with Bowen) and Shaq on p&r very often. That would be deadly weapon here 

- I mentioned Bowen, so I elaborate on him. On offense his role is just like during his years in San Antonio – corner three (and he was excellent at that) if he is leave open. On defense (in selected season he was 2nd in DPOY voting) his task is to shut down Barry or sometimes Richmond if he gets too hot. I want him to close Barry completely, take away passes to Barry, chase him through screens, contest every shot, be like his shadow, what should annoy Barry.

- Of course my main offensive weapon is Bird. Lucas is supposed to guard him, so as long as Lucas – very poor defender – is on the floor I simply give ball to Bird and allow him to create – he was great scorer and creator so something good would happen to my team. When Lucas is on the bench and Buck Williams is on I would use more p&r and attack Shaq, but Bird still would get his touches.

- On defense I’m fine with Larry on Lucas or Williams. Buck was very efficient, but not too offensive skilled (weak FT shooter – 62.5%), most of his points he scored from the paint, put backs, offensive rebounds, and so on. Bird is too smart to allow many such easy basket and he often guarded opposing teams PFs as McHale was guarding quicker small forwards. Lucas is better offensively, but not too dangerous from inside, he likes to shot long range jumpers, but wasn’t too quick, so I don’t think Bird would have many problems with him.

- I have very good, athletic perimeter players and defenders so I think that would create many transition offense opportunities. Non of TMac’s starters is know from his defense, so my fast break offense would be lethal here.

- Shaq. Yeah, that’s problem. I would double him only with players who guard Buck or Wise (both not threats from midrange), so with Pippen, Bowen and Bird – all smart and excellent team defenders. If double teaming isn’t possible Reed, Laimbeer or Tyson have to make Shaq work. I hope officiating would be fair in this game, so Shaq would be called for his offensive fouls ;] Laimbeer was great at drawing charges. Overall I know Shaq would score his points, but he can’t won alone. And I want to limit other TMac’s options and of course destroy him on offense as he have bad defenders to stop my team (p&r, Lucas on Bird).

- Rose on Richmond maybe seems as strange move, but Rose is strong enough to held on his own. According to synergysports Rose ranks 29 overall on defense (0.78 ppp), that’s very good result. What’s also important here is how good he is in defending the post up – ranks 7th in the NBA, however sample is very small (only 40 plays). Besides, I want you to play through Richmond as he is your the worst offensive player (in S5). So if you want postup Richmond against Rose I’m fine with that, because that means less ball in hands of Penny, Shaq and Barry.

- Pippen on Penny, because after very good game 1 in 1996 (15/21FG) Pippen shut down Penny: 6/15, 8/24 and 9/21 FG.

- Penny, Richmond, Wise and Barry to some extent – all of them need ball to be effective. And I don’t think Richmond was as good catch and shot shooter as he was when he could create for his own and keep in mind than under pressure he was significantly worse in playoffs (Lever also terrible in playoffs). Wise was very tournover prone – 3.4 tov with 3.4 apg.

- Also keep in mind that Barry is like LeBron in one aspect – he needs proper role players to be great. That’s why all work in GSW 1975. But with other stars on team he wouldn’t be so good. Besides I think chemistry problems would be issues here: Barry, Penny ’96 and Shaq ’00… that wouldn’t work so great as TMac would want to. So overall Barry would be less valuable here, because his usage would be lower, so his main strength - scoring is gone to some extent (besides he was inefficient scorer: 51TS%!). Sure, he was great as playmaker, but he needs ball to do so, and here is Penny who is better at that.

- I don’t have Rodman this round, but my team is still very good at boards, as good as TMac’s and that's why "resting" Rodman this round shouldn't hurt me much.


Numbers for Lucas and Reed are unknown, but I don’t think there’s much difference between them. So in S5 frontcourt TMac has advantage, but I have advantage on backcourt and in fact the worst rebounder of all players is on TMac’s team – Richmond. Benches are comparable, ABA numbers are inflated by lack of good big rebounders in ABA and Laimbeer’s or Horry numbers are lowered by competition on their own team.

summary
- offense: through Bird if Lucas is on the floor and p&r attacking Shaq as much as possible + fast break offense because TMac’s team don’t have great defenders (in S5, but Buck and Wise from the bench is too small). Reed and Laimbeer take Shaq away from the basket, so paint is open and Rose, Pippen, Coonie or even Horry and Bird are free to attack the rim.

- defense: shut down perimeter players, create transition opportunities, play passing lanes so entry pass to Shaq wouldn’t be so easy (Pippen or Horry with long arms are perfect to that task). No easy baskets for Shaq, if necessary foul him and let him shot FTs, I have three centers, so many fouls available. Reed and Laimbeer have to made Shaq work for his points, play smart, fundamental defense.

We have all of the writeups, so let the rankings begin.

Conference 1:

AB:
Miller4ever (-Moncrief) VS bastillon (-McGrady)

CD:
TMACFORMVP (-Dumars) VS David Stern (-Rodman)


Conference 2:

EF:
BlackIce (-Deron) VS dockingshed (-Wade)

GH:
lukekarts (-Dirk) VS RiotPunch (-Thurmond)

Reading over these today. Hope to have judgements in before work is done.

Miller/Bast: I'm a sucker for gimmick line-ups. People see me pulling all sorts of interesting moves and unconventional line-ups all the time, so I love Bast's team here for it's unconventional perimeter offense. Further, Miller's backcourt is lacking in any sort of real speed to hurt Bast's size. On the other end, Miller's front court completely outclasses Bast. Prime Duncan is a beast, but prime Kareem is a certified monster, and Kareem's biggest weakness was strong bruisers (see Gilmore, Artis) or which Bast has none. Cowens also clearly outclasses Sheed, and Hill is going to give Iggy all he can handle and more. The front court in the end is too much, Miller in 6.

Riot/Luke: I'd like to see West take a more prominent role in the offense, but that's the West fanatic in me. Riot has a TON of offensive weapons that he can beat you with, but that center depth could be an issue. Luke on the other hand has a bit more synergistic team and a deeper bench. Kobe's going to have game defenders on him, but he's obviously going to get his. IT was ridiculously "gritty" in terms of defense, so I think he can limit Billups' post up game, but when he gets free for 3s or gets to the basket it's still an issue. Daugherty in a Gasol like offensive role could be devastating with Kobe. I've went back and forth on this and I don't think RP's lack of a back-up C is going to hurt him as bad against Luke's line-up with Zo and the best Bynum we've seen so far, especially since Malone is no slouch as a post defender; meanwhile, Daugherty get's shredded by the Mailman. RP in 7

BI/Dock: Oddly enough these teams strengths and weaknesses almost universally play into one another. Melo's a weak defender put on the weaker offensive player in Artest, both teams are rebounding freaks, both teams have centers who will be in a position to roam, both teams have a penetrating wing or two...it's a tough match-up primarily because I find pretty much all of Dock's team to be overrated that's on the court currently, but I'm buying CP3's dominance over Hardaway/Hinrich who, btw, was never an absolutely defensive monster against the tiny PGs, more the big 1s/small 2s. Dock also has one of the few frontcourts to at least give BI some problems. BI's biggest problem though is that his offense is contained in too few players with two guys who aren't even on the ATL offensive radar and two more who aren't terribly strong, and another that's Artest. Dock in 7.

TMAC/Stern: First, kudos to Stern for calling Penny on the shortened line thing, something I always have slip my mind for some reason. I was initially looking TMAC in a landslide here, but as I looked closer that changed. First of all, Bird's going to embarrass Lucas. Badly. I wish I could see a minute's breakdown for Stern as I like Connie Hawkins as well, and if Bird was swinging to the 3 and Horry was maginalized that would further help. Barry has Pippen on him who I think will definitely get him off his game. The big problem here is that Stern criminally undersells TMAC's spacing, conversely I love Pippen being on Penny so he can try to use his length to come down and bother Shaq. That brings us to the 320lb Gorilla in the room...Shaq. He's probably the difference maker here. Rose is a great player and my favorite current one, but without a completely refined jumper on a team with two forwards excelling with the ball, I'm not sure how much of a role he has here. As much as it pains me to say it, between him and Bowen there's going to be too much an ability to double onto Bird and the series goes the other way. TMAC in 7

Bast vs Miller:

Bast is in a situation similar to the one I faced in the last round, and simply has the misfortune of facing what I feel is the best of all possible Miller teams (though the one without Hill might give it a run as well, I think this one's the best). It's simply too balanced both offensively and defensively. I also feel that getting out and running is going to prove difficult against Miller's team which boasts very strong rebounding and might make getting out on the break challenging, particularly when Cowens is matched up with Rasheed Wallace. Heck, Unseld doesn't offer much reprieve either. So, while I realize that Kareem and co. did have the reputation of not getting back on defense fast enough for a quicker pace, without a rebounding advantage I think Bast will have a very hard controlling the tempo.

Riot/Luke:

Tough matchup here for luke, another tough luck matchup with all of Riot's best players in the fold. THurmond's absence might negatively impact Riot, but not nearly as much as the loss of Dirk will hurt luke. I might buy Daugherty playing with another center offensively on some level, but defensively against a conventional (and deadly) power forward like Malone he probably would have been better served holding onto Dirk where at least he could make an argument from the perspective of "equal damage inflicted". Isiah/Malone is a nasty combination against which I really don't see a counter on luke's team, and Jerry West can match up with Kobe toe to toe with at worst only a slight disadvantage. I'll agree that I was a little surprised not to see a larger role for West in this offense, but even with that somewhat puzzling coaching decision I've got to give Riot the edge here.

BI/Dock

Both teams have disintictively defensive leanings with gaps in their offensive attack, but I see a general front court advantage for BI with the perimeters being fairly close with perhaps a slight edge to dock. I think that front court has everything one would want and gives BI the edge that I am looking to find in a matchup of very similar teams.

TMAC/DavidStern:

Honestly, I'm very confused here about what lineup TMAC is actually using because stern refers to one and TMAC refers to another, and their respective writeups are based on assumptions that might not even be true. Need to wait on this one.

Giving 34 minutes to Kirk Hinrich with this level of talent in the competition is not a great move in my opinion, but BI does fill in the other gaps well enough. Dock put together a very good team, and the wings synergize pretty well, but not well enough to erase their deficiencies against BI's. Slight edge to BI in a close one.

Riot has some unconventional things going on in his rotation, but it works against luke's team. I do not like Daugherty with Zo. I do not think that works. Zo can't pass, and neither of them are going to really be in their comfort zone against Karl Malone. I give this one to Riot.

i think i lost. been awhile.

You should be banned for "necrobumping".