Coach Pairs Draft - Semi - durantbird* vs Snakebites

[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**

[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

Harden (37)/Jackson (11)
Miller (32)/Green (16)
Bowen (32)/Green (16)
KG (26)/Tucker (22)
Porzingis (36)/KG (12)

- Defensive assignments: Kidd vs Harden, DFS vs Miller, Vince vs Bowen, Dirk vs Porzingis, Shaq vs Garnett.
- Kidd and DFS are great answers to Snake's backcourt. KG having to guard Dirk will take a way the basis for their defensive identity, forcing him to stick to man to man defense instead of roaming as an help defender. And I don't trust relatively skinny Porzingis to be able to handle Shaq. Dirk and Shaq may have their vulnerabilities defensively, but Shaq is still an elite rim protector with Dirk being an undervalued defender, and both match up nicely against KG KP who cannot overpower them size wise.
- 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 Harden and Miller.

[Snakebites]

PG: James Harden 17-18 20.1 FGA
SG: Reggie Miller 99-00 12.9 FGA
SF: Bruce Bowen 02-03 5.8 FGA
PF: Kevin Garnett 07-08 13.9 FGA
C: Kristaps Porzingis 23-24 13.2 FGA

B: Danny Green 14-15 9.1 FGA
B: Mark Jackson 99-00 7.0 FGA
B: PJ Tucker 17-18 5.4 FGA

Total: 87.4

Rotation:

Harden (37)/Jackson (11)
Miller (32)/Green (16)
Bowen (32)/Green (16)
KG (26)/Tucker (22)
Porzingis (36)/KG (12)

Alrighty, lets do this.

Again, I'll be up front here. DB is the talent juggernaut of this game- the anointed favorite of this game. That said, if anyone can beat him, I'd argue that my team can.

There's a couple of points here.

First and foremost, my offense is designed to exploit the defensive weakness of db's. Shaq/Dirk isn't an ideal fit defensively in the best of times, but it's particularly bad when faced with an offense like mine. Not only is my offense just really potent in general, but we operate in space constantly. James Harden can spam the spread pick and roll with KG given they are surrounded by shooting all of the time. Indeed, KG is the only player in my rotation I wouldn't consider at least something of an outside threat. This is a nightmare for a Shaq oriented defense, and Dirk isn't the right guy to pick up that slack. I think we will score at will.

I'd also argue that DB isn't all that well suited to exploit the defensive weaknesses of my team. I can put Bruce Bowen/Danny Green on Nets Vince Carter, and he doesn't have particularly effective scorers at either of the other two perimeter spots. Reggie can hide in the corner on DFS. Kidd's playmaking is an issue, but this version of Kidd hadn't become a consistent shooter yet, but also wasn't quite at his peak as a playmaker either. It's still a problem but I don't view it as an insurmountable one.

And once again, I think I've got three very effective bench pieces, a sizable gap in bench quality between these two teams. Over the course of a long series I think that matters.

Broadly my team is deeper and more poised to exploit the primary weakness DB has than vice versa.

If you still think DB wins, fine. But to me what's essentially being said there is that the talent is insurmountable in the general sense. I think a strong case can be made the matchup sways my way.

But hey, we'll see.

[Fadeaway_J]

Snake has set out his matchup advantages which I think will make this series competitive, but there are also some significant ones in durantbird's favour. First and foremost, Snake has no viable means of dealing with the Shaq-Dirk pairing; Porzingis can't guard either, and KG is a great counter for Dirk but not Shaq. Either way Shaq is drawing at least a double on most possessions, and that's just generally hard to deal with as a defense, to say nothing of what it opens up for Dirk and Vince. Second, while durantbird's bigs are going to have their own issues with spread pick-and-roll, he does have an excellent individual defender for Harden in Kidd, who will not only challenge Harden one-on-one but also won't be easy to screen.

The bench gap in favour of Snake is certainly a thing, but from a practical standpoint it isn't so overpowering given that Jackson is only playing 11 minutes.

If Snake had someone like Marc Gasol instead of Porzingis (I know he wasn't eligible, it's just a hypothetical), I'd might give him the edge here. As it is, the big man matchup is even more damaging in his direction than vice versa, while durantbird at least has strong perimeter defenders to deploy against Harden and Reggie.

Vote: durantbird

[Dr Positivity]

I don't think there is actually a big talent disparity here but I think Shaq eats too much in this between the Porzingis matchup and having Dirk spacing the floor for him. Vote durantbird.

[flaco]

While Shaq and Dirk are a formidable offensive pairing, they are both drop bigs who can be exposed if forced to defend in space. Snake's team is built to spam the spread PnR. Harden-KG should complement each other perfectly. Reggie, Zinger, Bowen, Danny Green and Tucker spread the floor. PnR is hands down the most efficient team move in basketball. With the right set of players it becomes even more effective than prime Shaq and Dirk. Leaning Snake cause I don't think it's sustainable defensively to start 2 drop bigs against an elite spread PnR team. Not to mention, Zinger would be a nightmare to defend in the PnP.

Vote: Snakebites

[wackbone]

Both teams have some sizeable matchup advantages here, with both teams having some notably weak defenders/defensive matchups, so I'm going to opt for the team with the higher offensive ceiling.

Vote: durantbird

[durantbird]

durantbird advances

[Snakebites]

GG DB.

Gave it the old college try.