RealGM

First round of the playoffs. Each team will face one other team, and can write about how they are going to beat their opponent. I am putting some limits on how long they will be, because we have had some long ones in the past, and this way we can get things done faster.

Writeup Limits:

-500 words max
-A max of 1 rebuttal, max of 200 words (quoting words your opponent says doesn't count against word count)
-Any pics/charts included that have words on them will be counted and added to total word count
-Numbers count as words
-Rotations/minutes, pics without words, messages before the writeups not regarding basketball will all not be counted towards the word count.

To put in perspective, this entire post is 200 words. The deadline will be 6/20, at 10 PM EST. I know that only gives about a day and a half, but with a 500 word limit, the writeups shouldn't take very long. If we can't get everyone in by then, we may extend it 12 hours or something.

Now for the matchups. They were randomly generated using random integers, and this is what it came out to:

East:
TMACFORMVP vs. RR9
SamBone vs. MJallday59

West:
RiotPunch vs. -Kees-
VintaGe36 vs. poopdamoop

Kyrie Irving 30 / Goran Dragic 18
Nic Batum 16 / Tyreke Evans 32 / JR Smith 0
Danny Granger 32 / [Nic Batum 16] / Caron Butler 0
LaMarcus Aldridge 36 / Taj Gibson 12
Marc Gasol 30 / Nikola Pekovic 18 / Marcus Camby 0

VS


Rotation / Minutes:
PG - Derrick Rose (38) / George Hill (10)
SG - Iman Shumpert (16) / Kevin Martin (22) / Rodney Stuckey (10)
SF - Gerald Wallace (36) / Dorell Wright (12)
PF - Chris Bosh (36) / Elton Brand (8) / Nenê (4)
Ce - Nenê (26) / DeAndre Jordan (22)

Good luck to Riot, he's put together a solid team, but just not quite as good as mine

Writeup starts here:

LMA and Gasol have size advantages over their opponents, which we will use. The biggest being Nene at 6'11, 250, Gasol at 7'1, 265. Our starting offense will run through these two. Gasol is bigger and more skilled than Nene, and will shoot over him or draw fouls. LMA also has the advantage. Bosh posts 0.81 PPP on D against the post up, 119th in the league, where LMA puts up 0.96 PPP on offensive post ups, 19th in the league. LMA is elite down in the post, and Bosh is not one to stop him.

If either of those two get doubled, Riot’s team will pay. My starting perimeter unit shoots 38.8% from beyond the 3PT line, so if Riot decides to double, we get, and hit, open threes. If not, LMA and Gasol are happy to beat Nene and Bosh in the post. It's also noteworthy that Gasol is an elite passing C, best in the league, and that every single one of my starters is very unselfish with the ball.

If we fall into trouble with our bigs (unlikely), we are confident Irving, Batum or Granger will hurt Riot with the drive and dish. Wallace is much worse this year on D, posting worse numbers in DRB%, BLK%, DRTG and DWS. And although a small sample size, Batum is 2nd in iso PPP on O (1.35), and Irving ranks 7th (with larger sample).

My 2nd unit will run through Pek, Dragic and Evans. Evans at rim: 7.0 FGA (leads all guards), 4.6 FGM, 65%. Martin: horrid defender, defending Evans 69% of the time Evans is on the floor. Pek’s 30lb size advantage and league-leading 15.8 ORB% will dominate Jordan, who is a poor man-to-man defender and Drebounder.

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

On D we will put Batum on Rose and LMA on Bosh to defend the P&R. After watching Batum yesterday on synergy, I found out he tends to go under screens in the P&R, forcing guys to shoot. With Rose being a below average mid-range shooter, we expect this to work very well, because Batum will give a bit more space for the shot, but not let Rose near the rim. LMA is elite guarding the P&R, ranking 19th in the league for DPPP (0.75) on the P&R roll man. We expect this will slow down their main offense.

Kyrie will sit on the SG and not have a problem because it will be a 4th/5th option. Wallace is not nearly as good on O this year as previous years, only posting 13.8 PPG on 54 TS%, despite being the 2nd option on both teams he was on. Granger can handle him with ease.

Our 2nd unit is filled with top defenders, from Gibson to Dragic (great PG defender) as well as Evans being able to pressure the ball, and Pek being immovable in the post.

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

Our offense has too much spacing and talent in the 1-on-1 to be slowed down by an average defensive team. We put our best defenders on Rose/Bosh to shut down their main scoring source, and their other players (Jordan/Wallace/Shump/Stuckey/Hill) aren't talented enough to score on our D consistently.


Damn 500 words is hard. I may change that a tad in the future.

PG - Derrick Rose (38) / George Hill (10)
SG - Iman Shumpert (16) / Kevin Martin (22) / Rodney Stuckey (10)
SF - Gerald Wallace (36) / Dorell Wright (12)
PF - Chris Bosh (36) / Elton Brand (8) / Nenê (4)
Ce - Nenê (26) / DeAndre Jordan (22)
vs. Reaganization
PG - Kyrie Irving (30) / Goran Dragic (18)
SG - Nic Batum (16) / Tyreke Evans (32)
SF - Danny Granger (32) / Nic Batum (16)
PF - LaMarcus Aldridge (36) / Taj Gibson (12)
Ce - Marc Gasol (30) / Nikola Pekovic (18)

First and foremost, great job assembling this team Kees-- it is extremely talented and balanced. This is a really fun match-up! Good luck, pal.

Gameplan:
Our gameplan reflects our philosophy, as we will base our offense around Rose and Bosh. They will work the pick and roll/pop game early and often, making Irving and Aldridge work hard on D. They should both be able to score at will. One beneficiary of this pick and roll offense will be Nenê, as Gasol will likely have to help on defense, leaving him wide open to put up some points. Martin will also be in the game quite often with Rose as a drive and dish target.

Defensively, we are going to come at them hard with suffocation defense. We will have Rose pressuring Irving hard, Shumpert getting in Batum's grill and Wallace locking down Granger while our bigs go at it in an epic battle. Overall, we feel as though we can significantly limit their backcourt scoring and at least slow down their frontcourt.

vs.
Kyrie is a rookie and Derrick is the reigning league MVP. We believe that Rose's dynamic style of play and explosiveness to the basket will make this a long night for Kyrie. Rose is a seasoned megastar with playoff experience and closing ability. He is a terror on offense, on defense and on the fastbreak-- all of this will be on full display in this series. Dragic is a nice player, but doesn't make up the difference here, especially since we feel that Hill is nearly as effective anyway.
vs.
We will be using a platoon of Martin and Shumpert on Batum, while using Shumpert/Stuckey on 'Reke. We feel like Shumpert can really frustrate Batum and get into his head, and Stuckey is a great match-up against Evans. Martin will be focusing on offense when in the game, being our lone liability, but he will get his points with ease.
vs.
Granger doesn't scare us. We feel as though he is overrated. We will assign Crash to shut him down the best he can, which he has had success doing in the past. Wallace will also guard some on Batum, but Wright will be seeing his fair share against him as well. Bottom line is they expect a lot of production from Granger, but I'm confident they are not going to get it.
vs.
A match-up of epic proportions. We think that some peoples' views of LMA as a superstar are misguided. He is a great offensive player, but he puts up the numbers he does with high usage rates, 36+ MPG and not a lot of scoring talent around him. Bosh is right there close with him in all meaningful offensive stats and he is the better defender. We expect Bosh to score against LMA but for LMA to have to work hard for his buckets.
vs.
Nenê is a very solid defender and he has the girth to bang with Gasol in the post. These two should be in for a dogfight on both ends of the floor. Gasol has the upper hand here, but it's closer than you think. We will be giving DeAndre a good chunk of minutes to come in and defend both Marc and Pek. Should be a total war.

Bottom line is they don't have the defense to hang with our offense, but our defense can slow them down-- which is what will lead to our victory. Having a guy named Rose to close it out for us doesn't hurt anything either.

(sorry if I went a little over words-wise)

Just want to post a few things here. First, I edited the OP because I forgot that you can post some things without having it on the word count, so check that out. Also, please post rotations as soon as you can because then the other person can work off of those to do writeups. Good luck!

The Professors




Rubio(24)/Jrue(24)
Pierce(10)/Thabo(28)/Ray(10)
Gay(28)/Pierce(16)/Young(4)
Smith(20)/Lopez(18)/Monroe(8)/Stoudemire(2)
Hibbert(28)/Monroe(16)/Lopez(4)

will "school"

PG - Lawson(34)/Miller(10)/Wade(4)
SG - Wade(34)/Redick(14)
SF - Marion(30)/Dudley(18)
PF - Nowitzki(37)/Millsap(11)
Cc - Varejao(32)/Millsap(16)

Yeah, TMAC pulled out some randomly interesting stats. That's now how my team'd beat his. Rather, we win with our incredible depth and I’ll show you why with the minute rotation I chose.

PG: Rubio and Holiday are both great starting point guards that have proven they can direct an offense. Throwing both of them at Ty for an even amount of time, I optimize their freshness and will tire Ty out due to his heavier minutes. Rubio's quickly become one of the best passers and creators in the league with his crafty and unconventional distribution style. He will be very tough to guard. Jrue will be tough to guard due to his super fast quickness.

SG: Wade as shown in these Finals has had his effect reduced SIGNIFICANTLY when Thabo is guarding him (thus me putting a majority of SG minutes on him). Thabo will clamp on Wade defensively while Pierce and Allen will tire Wade offensively (PP by size/post up, Ray by running around A LOT lol)

SF:Rudy Gay is one of the most athletic wings in the game. Marion will defend decently but Rudy's got quite the edge here in offensive effectiveness (I'd esp win this matchup with Pierce playing backup SF)

PF:I will be throwing 20 minutes of rugged defense by smith on dirk and 20 minutes of fast cutting on offense (dirk will not be able to keep up with smith's athleticism and quickness). Dirk is too tall? Fine, I throw 28 minutes of 7'0 and 6'11 PFS to defend dirk and make him work on defending them too (lopez and monroe's young athleticism won't be stoppable by dirk or even varejao for that matter)

C: Hibbert has proven to be one of the best centers in the league throughout these playoffs. He's a great rim protector and has SO MUCH length (7'2, with 8' wingspan!!! EIGHTFEET!). Monroe will also be playing backup minutes and has shown to be a very efficient player on both ends of the court. Varejao and esp Millsap will be no match to our front court's height and offensive prowess.

Overall, my team has so much more depth and that fits the Spurs' winning formula (except my players are all younger and more athletic) of EVERY man on the 12-roster can play and be effective. Furthermore, my front court of hibbert/smith/monroe/lopez will dominate dirk/varejao/millsap. My team is just too athletic and has great leadership in paul pierce. We can distribute, shoot from deep (Jrue, Ray, Thabo, Pierce, Gay all from 3, Lopez/Monroe for 15 fters), POST UP/rebound/block shots (see front court), alley oop (rubio/jrue lobbing to gay, smith, monroe, hibbert), and play team ball - i haven't drafted one selfish player (maybe just smith a bit for a bad shot every now and then, but he's still a great passer and knows how to find ppl!).

v. RR9.

Best of luck RR9, may the best team win.

Rubio (24)/Jrue(24)
Pierce(10)/Thabo(28)/Ray(10)
Gay(28)/Pierce(16)/Young(4)
Smith(20)/Lopez(18)/Monroe(8)/Stoudemire(2)
Hibbert(28)/Monroe(16)/Lopez(4)

v.

PG - Lawson (34) - Miller (10) - Wade (4)
SG - Wade (34) - Redick (14)
SF - Marion (30) - Dudley (18)
PF - Nowitzki (37) - Millsap (11)
Cc - Varejao (32) - Millsap (16)


Before any scoff at the idea of Millsap at C; we'd like to point out
a.) the centers in this game.

b.) many other teams employing such strategies. Hell, the Heat are in the Finals playing predominately a Bosh/Battier, Battier/Haslem, or Bosh/Haslem frontcourt; and they still maintain an elite defense overall. The Mavericks were the 8th best defensive team in the league this past season, and played people like Mahinimi, Haywood, and Wright next to Dirk. We have an aggressive perimeter defense w/ Wade and Marion, and Varejao/Millsap are both very good defenders as well. Dirk has also become a good defender too; in fact, the Mavericks are a MUCH better defensive team w/ him on the floor.

The first thing RR9 plans to employ is size. However; as tall as players like Lopez, Amar'e might be, they are not players whom I'd classify to be as big man. There are two things that come w/ the advantage of being a "bigger team." That's
a.) rebounding
b.) ability to punish in the paint

Neither of those things RR9's team is able to do.

To give a better idea of why these two things will not happen, below is RR9's team's TRB% of his players, divided by 100, and multiplied by the number of minutes they are playing.

Rubio (1.608) / Holiday (1.296)
Pierce (2.34) / Sefolosha (2.24) / Allen (0.53)
Gay (2.828) / Young (0.412)
Smith (3.18) / Lopez (1.694) / Stoudemire (0.274)
Hibbert (4.648) / Monroe (4.392)

Total: 25.442
(note, this is not how many rebounds the team would grab, rather a "rebound score").
*and these numbers factor in players mins at other positions as well.

My team on the other hand:

Lawson (2.108) / Miller (0.71)
Wade (3.306) / Redick (0.686)
Marion (4.08) / Dudley (1.512)
Nowitzki (4.181) / Millsap (4.158)
Varejao (6.656)

Total: 27.397

Our team actually has an edge on the boards.

And, RR9's team can't punish us in the paint, simply because his team is far too inefficient.

And, we feel very comfortable w/ sticking Varejao on Hibbert (a guy who had a huge size advantage against the Heat and only did 12 PPG on 47% in the ECSF). And w/ Dirk or Millsap taking turns on their bigs.

Check out the individual TS% of the players on RR9's team:

Rubio - .476%, Pierce - .567%, Gay - .521%, Smith - .499%, Hibbert - .539%

In the starting lineup, only Pierce is efficient, the rest are considerably below average.

Holiday - .496%, Sefolosha - .584%, Thad - .532%, Lopez - .527%, Monroe - .563%, Allen - .607%, and Stoudemire - .541%.

On the bench, I'd count three efficient players. Sefolosha, who is only a 4 PPG scorer, Allen (plays 10 minutes), and Monroe.

So, the main scorers to worry about are Monroe and Pierce, w/ Allen for 10 minutes.

An interesting tidbit: Thabo Sefolosha leads this team in minutes.

Far more efficient. Better D matchups. Better rebounding. Better minutes rotation.

STAR POWER.

500 WORDS.

Edit - Pierce can't check Wade, Monroe's defensive impact is below average (look at OFF/ON), and Lopez and Amare are horrible. He's also played well against Smoove, who is also only playing 20 minutes. Millsap creates more matchup problems, especially when he's a much better rebounder and defender than Lopez.

Reserved.


EDIT: Poop hasn't posted his full roster yet, is there a way I can get a hold of that information.

PG: Curry (30) / Bradley (18) / Billups
SG: Harden (33) / W.Matthews (15)
SF: Iguodala (33) / (W.Matthews) (15) / Battier
PF: DMC (25) / D.Lee (23) / Faried
C : Bogut (30) / Perkins (13) / (DMC) (5)

vs. mj

Deron Williams | Monta Ellis | Kirk Hinrich
Grant Hill | Paul George |
Tayshaun Prince | Wilson Chandler
Pau Gasol | Luis Scola
Joakim Noah | Emeka Okafor | Andrea Bargnani

* My rotation may change once I see mj's rotation!

I want to thank kees for putting toigether this game, it was fun even with me dropping the ball during the draft. Good luck mj, but

Writeup starts here:

I'll post my 1, 200 word rebuttal now. I don't quite agree with everything Riot has to say

First I want to mention that Kyrie will not be covering Rose, Batum will, which is not something Riot wrote about. So although it seems like Rose VS Irving will be his advantage, it won't be as good as he thinks, as LMA/Batum will significantly slow down the Bosh/Rose P&R.

Martin will be focusing on offense when in the game, being our lone liability, but he will get his points with ease.

Martin only put up 17 points on 55 TS% this year (on a losing team), which is nothing we are scared of. We seem him as an average offensive player who doesn't work on D, which Evans will destroy.

We think that some peoples' views of LMA as a superstar are misguided. He is a great offensive player, but he puts up the numbers he does with high usage rates, 36+ MPG and not a lot of scoring talent around him. Bosh is right there close with him in all meaningful offensive stats and he is the better defender.

Stat/Bosh/LMA
FG%/.487/.512
TS%/.551/.560
eFG%/.493/.513
AST%/9.1/13.2
ORB%/5.8/8.6
On-Off/+9.9/+12.6

So LMA has higher USG%, the defense more focused on him, and without posting a single stat based on minutes played, LMA has the clear offensive advantage.

Defense is even bigger advantage:

On-Off Defense:

Bosh (100.8-102.2 = -1.3)
LMA (104.7-112.5 = -7.8)

We salivate at the thought of Batum trying to stay in front of Derrick Rose. If Batum throws a wrench into the pick and roll gameplan, we will happily adapt and simply iso Rose to expose Batum. Rose is perfectly capable of driving to the basket without the pick and we have bigs who will be open to knock down mid range shots as well as Martin or George to knock down perimeter shots. There's no way Batum can handle this assignment.

Batum iso DPPP - 0.69 (73 in league)
Rose iso OPPP - 0.82 (72 in league)

Not nearly as big of threat as claimed.

Bosh has a better defensive rating (100 points per 100 possessions) than Aldridge (106 points per 100 possessions). He also had 3.3 defensive win shares in 2011-2012 compared to Aldridge's 1.6. Bosh has a slightly higher BLK% and they are dead even on STL%. Bosh has averaged 22.4 PPG, 8.3 RPG and 1 BPG against Aldridge over his career.

On-Off is better than DRTG cus it show what happens when the player isn't there. LBJ and Wade have a huge part of that 100 DRTG.

Also, LMA hasn't been good until recently, last two games between LMA/Bosh (Bosh in MIA):

LMA - 28.5/9/4/1/1/53FG%
Bosh - 12.5/6/0/1/1/43FG%

2008Bosh>2008LMA, but not now.

Sorry for the delay, just moved to a different city. I'll have my roster updated and writeup posted later tonight, if that's ok.

Rebuttal

-Kees- wrote:On D we will put Batum on Rose and LMA on Bosh to defend the P&R. After watching Batum yesterday on synergy, I found out he tends to go under screens in the P&R, forcing guys to shoot. With Rose being a below average mid-range shooter, we expect this to work very well, because Batum will give a bit more space for the shot, but not let Rose near the rim. LMA is elite guarding the P&R, ranking 19th in the league for DPPP (0.75) on the P&R roll man. We expect this will slow down their main offense.

We salivate at the thought of Batum trying to stay in front of Derrick Rose. If Batum throws a wrench into the pick and roll gameplan, we will happily adapt and simply iso Rose to expose Batum. Rose is perfectly capable of driving to the basket without the pick and we have bigs who will be open to knock down mid range shots as well as Martin or George to knock down perimeter shots. There's no way Batum can handle this assignment.

-Kees- wrote:

Martin will be focusing on offense when in the game, being our lone liability, but he will get his points with ease.

Martin only put up 17 points on 55 TS% this year (on a losing team), which is nothing we are scared of. We seem him as an average offensive player who doesn't work on D, which Evans will destroy.

Martin is one year removed from 60%TS and just under 40% 3P. He did have a down year, but now he is a third option offensive player, allowing him to pick his spots. Tyreke won't have much time to "abuse" Martin, since Shump/Stuckey defend him most of the game. If Martin does get into trouble defensively, we will increase Shump/Stuckey's minutes.

-Kees- wrote:Defense is even bigger advantage:

Bosh has a better defensive rating (100 points per 100 possessions) than Aldridge (106 points per 100 possessions). He also had 3.3 defensive win shares in 2011-2012 compared to Aldridge's 1.6. Bosh has a slightly higher BLK% and they are dead even on STL%. Bosh has averaged 22.4 PPG, 8.3 RPG and 1 BPG against Aldridge over his career.

-Kees- wrote:We put our best defenders on Rose/Bosh to shut down their main scoring source, and their other players (Jordan/Wallace/Shump/Stuckey/Hill) aren't talented enough to score on our D consistently.

Rose will destroy Batum in iso situations and Bosh has faired very well against LMA in their careers against eachother. You're not going to shut down these guys with Batum and Aldridge; it's not going to happen. Also, no mention of Brand, Martin or Wright in his example of my other scorers... guys who, with Hill and Stuck, will produce when in the game.

(200 words is pretty much impossible for a rebuttal-- just like 500 was low as well. You should probably enforce minimum word counts, not maximum word counts. Max's need to be higher.)

RiotPunch wrote:(200 words is pretty much impossible for a rebuttal-- just like 500 was low as well. You should probably enforce minimum word counts, not maximum word counts. Max's need to be higher.)

Yeah this was a trial run, it is a bit short. The main reason for the maximums is so that we all didn't have to read 2,000 word writeups for multiple teams (which has happened before, don't get me wrong). I had talked with a few people about it and we though 500 was a good number, but I may up that to 700 or 750 for next round maybe. 500 does seem a bit short. And for the rebuttals, we also didn't want to have to read through 6-7 posts of people arguing back and forth about their teams (I know I've done it before), but 200 is a bit short as well. Maybe 250 or 300 for that one.

This was somewhat a trial run, but I definitely think limits are needed. Not only can we limit the time over the overall game, but its less reading and less pressure to have to write a ton if you don't have as much time.

I think 700/350 would be about perfect. But yeah, understandable to have some limitations so you don't have to sift through 15 paragraphs.

I have work tonight, and won't meet the deadline. Am I SOL?

^When can you have it done by? Just get it done ASAP. If it drags out too long we will vote without your writeup, but if you can get it up later tonight or tomorrow maybe, I think we can wait on this matchup.

The following matchups can begin to be judged:

TMACFORMVP vs. RR9
RiotPunch vs. -Kees-

We are doing PRIVATE rankings this time. Please read all of the writeups and rebuttals before sending me your choices. Send them to keeslinator@gmail.com. You can send reasons why you chose each team that you did, as I will be posting the exact message I received once I get enough.

The other two matchups will start being judged tomorrow at 12 PM EST (noon). Since not everyone from those matchups has the writeups done, there will be a bit more time added on.

I have my writeup ready, but I'd prefer to wait until vintage is able to get his ready too, wouldn't be fair.

ROUND 1 MATCHUP

San Francisco Jeremy Lins vs. Poopdamoop

First allow me to introduce you to YOUR San Francisco Jeremy Lins!

Rotation:
Kyle Lowry/John Wall
Eric Gordon/Manu Ginoboli
Danilo Gallinari/Kawhi Leonard
Al Jefferson/Ryan Anderson
Tim Duncan/Tiago Splitter

& My Opponents team:

Nash/Conley/Jennings
Johnson/Afflalo
Anthony/Moute
Horford/Randolph/Ilyasova
Gortat/Dalembert

Let me first preface that since this is a playoff atmosphere, I will be shortening my rotation to the following:

Kyle Lowry(30)/Manu Ginoboli(18)
Eric Gordon(30)/Manu Ginoboli(18)
Danilo Gallinari(25)/Kawhi Leonard(23)
Al Jefferson(30)/Kawhi Leonard(5)/Tiago Splitter(13)
Tim Duncan(30)/Tiago Splitter(18)

Effectively running an 8 man rotation with spot minutes for my trio of verstaile Big Men when the opportunity presents itself (Collison, Haslem, Anderson).

Write-up

Right off the bat, It's obvious that my team is one based on fundamental team defense, and one of the smoothest and a fluid offense.

Upgrades Galore!

I have effectively modeled this team around a Spurs team that did extremely well this year in the NBA.

Though downgrading from Tony Parker to Kyle Lowry hurts (though not as much as you might think), I have successfully upgraded everywhere else.

Eric Gordon gives me a much more potent offensive player than Danny Green.
Danilo Gallinari gives me a versatile SF with range
Al Jefferson gives me a low post presence to take the scoring pressure off of Duncan.

I've managed to do this while also keeping personnel that can play a smooth team defense.

My Opponent

A lot of times in games like this, teams built aren't realistic in real 5v5 Basketball. There is still only one Ball, and I don't know how my opponent's team will handle:


Joe Johnson - 24.9
Carmelo Anthony - 31.8
Zach Randolph - 25.0

Each have a high USG% and will demand the ball. Carmelo Anthony thrives in an iso-style offense where he gets the ball and works the clock (so do Joe Johnson & Z-Bo) Nash thrives in a fast-paced offense which doesn't mesh with Randolph(who is coming off the bench) and needs the ball in his hands to be effective. They offense simply doesn't flow.

On the flipside, nobody on my team has a USG% higher than 26, but more importantly, they don't rely on isolation to thrive and affect the game.

Lowry, Gordon and Ginoboli are my clear ball-handlers.

Jefferson is my low-post offensive threat.

Duncan is my defensive anchor and the glue to my roster.

Gordon and Gallinari are capable 3pt shooters (36% and 32% respectively)

Kawhi Leonard provides hustle, defense, and a solid 3pt shot as well.

Tiago Splitter gives me an unselfish hustle big capable of defense, hard screens, and the versatility to play with any of my other big men.

Why I should win

My team flows better than my opponents.

Though my opponent boast a very talented team, I have my doubts how they will work together. When Carmelo is playing "his game" Gortat & Nash's phenomenal PnR is nullified, as is Joe Johnson's iso ability. They are relegated to spectators to the Melo show. When Nash has it going, it almost nullifies Carmelo, since he's never been simply a "catch & shoot player"

Furthermore, my team defense is much better.

I posses solid to great defenders from all of my rotation players, where as my opponent either has terrible defensive players or limited defensive role players

Nash, Melo, Z-Bo, and Jennings are all pretty bad defensively.

LRMAM & Dalembert supply defense, but next to no offense.

When you factor in that Defense is half of the game for Basketball, it becomes pretty obvious that the Jeremy Lin's have the advantage in this match-up.

My team is one machine going in the same direction with pieces that fit. My opponent suffers from one heck of a talented identity crisis.

Steve Nash(32)/Mike Conley(16)
Arron Afflalo(28)/Joe Johnson(20)
Carmelo Anthony(36)/Joe Johnson(12)
Al Horford(24)/Zach Randolph(24)
Marcin Gortat(30)/Al Horford(8)/Samuel Dalembert(10)

vs

Kyle Lowry(30)/Manu Ginoboli(18)
Eric Gordon(30)/Manu Ginoboli(18)
Danilo Gallinari(25)/Kawhi Leonard(23)
Al Jefferson(30)/Kawhi Leonard(5)/Tiago Splitter(13)
Tim Duncan(30)/Tiago Splitter(18)

Offensively, we believe our team is the best in the league. Melo is our first option, and we believe playing with an elite PG will do wonders for his efficiency. His best seasons came when he was playing alongside Andre Miller or Chauncey Billups, and Nash is far better than either of them at creating great looks for his players. Both Al Horford and Marcin Gortat are versatile, athletic big men that can hit mid range jumpers or catch and finish in traffic, making them perfect P&R targets for Nash. Afflalo is the designated 3&D guy, and he does those two things better than most players in the league. Off the bench, we have two elite players in Joe Johnson and Zach Randolph. Both guys are capable of being first options, but also have experience playing alongside other offensive options (Nash/Marion/Stoudemire, Gay/Gasol/Conley). Though we have a lot of options, we believe Nash will be able to hold all of this together and make sure everyone gets their touches, and with the amount of talent we have, no defense would be able to stop us.

Defensively, we boast a very strong big man core. Horford and Gortat are both great defensive players, and can anchor the team, while Afflalo can take the opponent's best perimeter player. Nash and Melo are not known for their defense, but both have proven they can be part of a strong defensive unit. Though our defense is not as strong as our offense, it is still among the best in the league, especially our Horford/Gortat/Afflalo trio with Dalembert/Conley off the bench.

VS Vintage:

My opponent has a nice team, but is lacking in talent compared to me. The only good defensive player in his SL is Duncan, who is not the anchor he used to be. Jefferson is terrible defensively, and his perimeter players are nothing special on that end either. Leonard and Splitter are decent role players, but neither should be playing 30 minutes a game, they will be overmatched. On the perimeter, Nash and Melo will wreak havoc against Lowry, Leonard, or Gallinari, and none of those guys are strong enough offensively to attack us back. The two main threats are Gordon and Ginobili, but we will be able to throw Afflalo or Johnson (a very strong defender) on them to somewhat neutralize them.

In the post, Jefferson and Duncan will be guarded by Horford and Gortat, both very strong defenders. Duncan is not good enough to take over games anymore, and Jefferson is a black hole offensively, so a lot of touches for him means good things for us. Splitter, again, is a solid role player, but nothing to really worry about.

Overall, my team is just too talented. The only questions anyone should have about us is fit, and as I have made clear, there are certainly enough touches for everyone, especially with the best offensive PG in the league running the show. With Johnson and Randolph coming off the bench, as well as a starting 5 that excels in all areas, we should take this series.

VintaGe36 wrote:
A lot of times in games like this, teams built aren't realistic in real 5v5 Basketball. There is still only one Ball, and I don't know how my opponent's team will handle:


Joe Johnson - 24.9
Carmelo Anthony - 31.8
Zach Randolph - 25.0

Each have a high USG% and will demand the ball. Carmelo Anthony thrives in an iso-style offense where he gets the ball and works the clock (so do Joe Johnson & Z-Bo) Nash thrives in a fast-paced offense which doesn't mesh with Randolph(who is coming off the bench) and needs the ball in his hands to be effective. They offense simply doesn't flow.

Melo has excelled playing alongside true PG's like Andre Miller and Billups, and Nash is far better than either of them at creating for teammates. Johnson and Randolph are also great without the ball in their hands, either spotting up or crashing the glass, and since they are coming off the bench my rotations will be staggered. Everyone will get their chances, I've made sure of that.

Furthermore, my team defense is much better.

I posses solid to great defenders from all of my rotation players, where as my opponent either has terrible defensive players or limited defensive role players

Nash, Melo, Z-Bo, and Jennings are all pretty bad defensively.

LRMAM & Dalembert supply defense, but next to no offense.

When you factor in that Defense is half of the game for Basketball, it becomes pretty obvious that the Jeremy Lin's have the advantage in this match-up.

Jennings won't even be playing, so that does not matter. Z-Bo is actually pretty good defensively, as he's been a part of some strong Memphis defenses. Jefferson is the worst defensive player on either team, and Gallinari and Lowry are nothing special either. I find it amusing that my opponent says I only have two good defensive players, while failing to mention Afflalo, Horford, or Gortat (aka 3/5 of my SL). My team defense is actually better than vintage's, as Duncan is the only above average defensive player in his SL, and has noticeably declined these past few years. Zach Randolph tore him apart in the 2011 playoffs. My opponents perimeter starters are all fairly mediocre, and none of them boasts the defensive talents of Afflalo.