Coach Pairs Draft R1 - durantbird* vs wackbone

[durantbird]

Here is a quick list of what you need in your writeup.

1. Specific years for each player on your team
2. Rotations and minutes for each player
3. Reasoning as to why your team will win and/or why people should vote for you.

Do not vote in this thread until both managers have submitted their writeups. Please ensure you give a rationale for your vote; votes with no explanation will not be counted.

If writeups aren't posted within 24 hours, we will vote solely based on the players they have drafted (and any rotations they have posted on their roster page).

**First to 3 votes advances**

[wackbone]

Kobe Bryant - 2008 - 20.6 FGA - MVP, All-Def 1st, 5th in DPOY, 36.1 3P% on 5.1 att
Derrick Rose - 2011 - 19.7 FGA - MVP, 33.2 3P% on 4.8 att
Klay Thompson - 2015 - 16.9 FGA - All-NBA 3rd, All-Star, 10th in MVP Voting, 43.9 3P% on 7.1 att
Brook Lopez - 2019 - 9.7 FGA - 36.5 3P% on 6.3 att
Kyle Korver - 2015 - 8.0 FGA - All-Star, 49.2 3P% on 6.0 att
James Posey - 2008 - 5.6 FGA - 38.0 3P% on 3.8 att
James Jones - 2005 - 4.2 FGA - 39.8 3P% on 2.2 att
Marcin Gortat - 2009 - 3.0 FGA - .202 WS/48

Total: 87.7/88 FGA

Derrick Rose (38) / Kobe Bryant (10)
Kobe Bryant (28) / Klay Thompson (20)
Klay Thompson (18) / Kyle Korver (30)
James Posey (32) / James Jones (10) / Kyle Korver (6)
Brook Lopez (34) / Marcin Gortat (14)

Writeup:

Helluva team db, best of luck.

I see this as a very polarizing matchup, very strong opinions will be shared on both teams.

Defensively we will start with Rose on DFS, Kobe on Kidd, Klay on VC, Posey on Dirk, and Brook on Shaq.

Let's start with the elephant in the room - the frontcourts. Obviously Posey and Brook don't hold a candle to the talent of Dirk and Shaq. However, Posey is a decent cover for Dirk both physically and with his defensive versatility. Brook has excellent post defense and should put up a decent fight against the interior-oriented Shaq. Gortat is a solid defender off the bench as well to get a few fouls on Shaq. On the other end of the floor, while neither Posey nor Brook are big scoring threats, both are very capable 3-point shooters that need to be respected out to the 3-point line. So while neither are big scoring threats, both Dirk and Shaq will be out of their element defending out to the 3-point line.

Offensively our gameplan is simple - We have two MVPs (Rose and Kobe) surrounded by oodles of 3 point shooting, including 2 of the best to ever shoot in Korver and Klay. Admittedly Rose and Kobe will have a bit of my turn your turn offense, but I think the very same could be said about Dirk/Shaq. Gortat is the only supporting player on our entire roster that is not a legitimate threat from deep. db has a relatively weak defensive team (Vince, Redick, Dirk, Shaq) that will get exposed by our high-level shooting and 2 perimeter MVPs. As I said before, both Dirk and Shaq are a bit too slow-footed to be both defending out to the 3-point line and also providing any resistance near the paint.

We clearly have less top-end talent, but I think we have better shooting, better defense, and a better fit (Rose+Kobe as heavy usage guys vs Kidd+Vince+Dirk+Shaq). So again, while Rose+Kobe will have the ole my turn your turn dynamic, so will db's team. Difference is Klay and Korver are elite off-ball players and we have oodles of shooting throughout the lineup. None of Livingston/Wallace/Shaq provide any outside shooting (72 minutes combined).

Benches:
17 Livingston vs 15 Korver - Massive edge to Korver
09 Redick vs 05 Jones - Edge to Redick
07 Wallace vs 09 Gortat - Edge to Wallace

[durantbird]

PG: Jason Kidd 06' - 11.3
SG: Vince Carter 07' - 19.5
SF: Dorian Finney Smith 20' - 7.4
PF: Dirk Nowitzki 11' - 16.2
C: Shaquille O'Neal 01' - 19.2

Bench - G: Shaun Livingston 17' - 4.2
Bench - G/F: JJ Redick 09' - 4.7
Bench - F/C: Ben Wallace 07' - 5.5

88/88

PG: Jason Kidd (38) .. Shaun Livingston (10) .. Vince Carter
SG: Vince Carter (20) .. JJ Redick (19) .. Shaun Livingston (9)
SF: Dorian Finney Smith (28) .. Vince Carter (20) .. Jason Kidd
PF: Dirk Nowitzki (38) .. Dorian Finney Smith (5) .. Ben Wallace (5)
C: Shaquille O'Neal (38) .. Ben Wallace (10) .. Dirk Nowitzki

vs

Derrick Rose (38) / Kobe Bryant (10)
Kobe Bryant (28) / Klay Thompson (20)
Klay Thompson (18) / Kyle Korver (30)
James Posey (26) / James Jones (16) / Kyle Korver (6)
Brook Lopez (34) / Marcin Gortat (14)

Matchup:
- Defensive assignments: Kidd vs Rose, Vince vs Klay, DFS vs Kobe, Dirk vs Posey, Shaq vs Lopez.
- We match up nicely here. Kidd and DFS can have an high impact defensive series against Rose and Kobe, and Dirk and Shaq have less intimidating assignments. I have a lot of respect to BroLo, but I'm not sure he can really handle Shaq, let alone the combination of Shaq AND Dirk.
- We have an insane offensive foundation. Dirk and Shaq complement each other games' perfectly, and extract an immense amount of pressure on the opposing defenses, with Vince as the perfect third guy. Kidd orchestrates everything, and he has proven chemistry with both Vince and Dirk. There's no way to double team Dirk or Shaq, or you'll be punished. Ben can give us another dimension of additional rim protection when needed, and he is still great in his Bulls iteration. Livingston as a backcourt defensive piece can also have high impact here against wack's backcourt oriented game.

[Fadeaway_J]

Sorry wack, but I don't think this one should be "polarising" at all. Terms like "high-usage" are being used way too cavalierly if we're trying argue Kobe-Rose is a better fit than Shaq-Dirk-Vince-Kidd, and the talent disparity isn't in dispute. Wack does have the shooting advantage which is where Lopez can give Shaq some problems, but the tradeoff is too steep in terms of defense and rebounding when you have Posey/Korver/Jones splitting the PF minutes.

Vote: durantbird

[flaco]

While Shaq and Dirk should be unstoppable on offense, they have questionable chemistry on defense. Both of them are drop bigs who'd be exposed against wack's shooting front court. I could have seen an argument for wack if he were running a 5-out offense. The Rose-Kobe pairing kinda negates the value of BroLo as a floor spacer. Shaq cannot follow BroLo on the perimeter, but he'd still be effective protecting the rim against Rose/Kobe slashing to the basket. Leaning db cause I think he has the advantage in both top-end talent and offensive fit.

Vote: durantbird

[Dr Positivity]

Wack did an admirable job building around Rose and Kobe but I think the frontcourt talent with strong enough backcourt is a bit too much for durantbird here. Vote durantbird.

[wackbone]

Yeah fair enough. Did my best to sell it, to no avail. The right winner is advancing. Best of luck db!

[durantbird]

durantbird advances