25' Top 8 Clubs Draft - Play in - Snakebites vs wackbone*

Moderators: Snakebites, MadNESS, Fadeaway_J

Which team wins?

Poll ended at Fri Jul 11, 2025 5:38 pm

Snakebites
5
45%
wackbone
6
55%
 
Total votes: 11

durantbird
General Manager
Posts: 8,603
And1: 1,768
Joined: Nov 30, 2019

25' Top 8 Clubs Draft - Play in - Snakebites vs wackbone* 

Post#1 » by durantbird » Wed Jul 9, 2025 7:48 pm

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. Once the writeups are posted, I will add a poll, and the team with the most votes after 24 hours will advance. EACH MANAGER SHOULD ALSO VOTE FOR THEIR OWN TEAM IN THE POLL - IF YOU FAIL TO DO THIS, YOU ARE SIMPLY GIVING AWAY A VOTE. If the votes are tied, we will decide the matchup via AI vote.

You are not required to state or explain your vote, but you are free to comment in the thread if you want to.

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).

Snakebites wrote:

wackbone wrote:
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Snakebites
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Re: 25' Top 8 Clubs Draft - Play in - Snakebites vs wackbone 

Post#2 » by Snakebites » Thu Jul 10, 2025 3:53 pm

C: Karl Anthony Towns 24-25 16.9 FGA
All NBA Third

PF: Evan Mobley 24-25 12.8 FGA-l
All NBA 2nd, DPOY

SF: Kevin Durant 16-17 16.5 FGA
FMVP, All NBA 2nd

SG: Lu Dort 24-25 8.4 FGA
All Defensive First

PG: Gary Payton 95-96 15.8 FGA
All NBA 2nd, All Defensive First

B: Alex Caruso 24-25 5.8 FGA
Defensive stopper
B: Andrew Bogut 15-16 4.0 FGA
Defensive big
B: Kyle Korver 16-17 7.7 FGA
Sharpshooter

KAT (37)/Bogut (11)
Mobley (36)/Durant (12)
Durant (25)/Korver (23)
Dort (35)/Caruso (13)
Payton (37)/Caruso (11)

Alrighty lets do this. I've built an extremely strong two way team here. The front court of KAT, Mobley (with his freshly developed three point shot), and Durant are here to stretch defenses to their breaking point, while Payton provides reliable pick and roll ball handling and slashing which should be extremely effective in this well spaced out offense. My bench is also first rate, with all 3 players having clearly defined spots in the rotation.

My perimeter defense with Payton, Dort and Caruso is probably the strongest in this game, and should effectively match up with my opponents. I also have size to go up against Jokic, with Ibaka being the weak link in this offense.

Offensively, Jokic struggles to defend in space, and I think I've got the ideal offense to push him out of his comfort zone on that end of the floor.
wackbone
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Re: 25' Top 8 Clubs Draft - Play in - Snakebites vs wackbone 

Post#3 » by wackbone » Thu Jul 10, 2025 5:11 pm

Donovan Mitchell - 2025 - 18.6 FGA - 1st Team All-NBA, 36.8 3P% on 8.9 att, 1st Place in the East
Nikola Jokic - 2023 - 14.8 FGA - 2nd in MVP, 38.3 3P% on 2.2 att, NBA Champion
Andrew Wiggins - 2022 - 14.0 FGA - All-Star, 39.3 3P% on 5.5 att, NBA Champion
Derrick White - 2024 - 11.5 FGA - 2nd Team All-Defense, 39.6 3P% on 6.8 att, NBA Champion
Jaden McDaniels - 2023 - 9.1 FGA - 39.8 3P% on 3.4 att
Aaron Nesmith - 2025 - 8.4 FGA - 43.1 3P% on 4.3 att, NBA Finalist
Serge Ibaka - 2012 - 7.4 FGA - 2nd in DPOY, NBA Finalist
Nick Collison - 2013 - 3.7 FGA - Highest WS/48 of Career
Total: 87.5/88 FGA

Rotations:
Derrick White (36) / Donovan Mitchell (12)
Donovan Mitchell (26) / Aaron Nesmith (22)
Andrew Wiggins (36) / Jaden McDaniels (8) / Aaron Nesmith (4)
Serge Ibaka (30) / Jaden McDaniels (18)
Nikola Jokic (40) / Nick Collison (8)

Writeup:

Helluva team as always Snake, best of luck.

Defensively we will start with Jokic on KAT, Ibaka on Mobley, Wiggins on KD, Mitchell on Dort, and White on Payton. Nesmith and McDaniels are key defenders for my team off the bench to guard Payton (Nesmith) and KD (Nesmith and McDaniels) for some time.

Snake has a very well built team without a doubt. Snake has a significant edge in individual talent with his 3rd and 4th guys (KAT and Mobley) over my 3rd and 4th guys (White and Wiggins), but I'd say both in individual talent and in how well they work off of each other I have the edge with my 1st and 2nd guys (Jokic and Mitchell) over his 1st and 2nd guys (KD and Payton). Both teams have comparable depth (4-8), no real edge for either of us.

I think my main edge here is with how much Jokic elevates a team compared to anyone on Snake's team, as well as how devastating the Mitchell-Jokic two man game would be. Jokic makes the whole team better. And here he has a significant upgrade over Murray in Mitchell as well as a ton of shooting to space the floor. The Murray-Jokic two man game has been nigh-impossible to stop at times in the playoffs the past few years, keeping them in games/series where the Nuggets had a noticeable talent disadvantage. Hell, they brought OKC to 7 games this year!

TLDR - Mitchell-Jokic is the best two man game in the matchup and Jokic elevates our team more than anyone does for Snake.
durantbird
General Manager
Posts: 8,603
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Re: 25' Top 8 Clubs Draft - Play in - Snakebites vs wackbone 

Post#4 » by durantbird » Thu Jul 10, 2025 5:39 pm

MadNess wrote:...

wackbone wrote:...

Snakebites wrote:...

ReggiesKnicks wrote:...

Larry_Russell wrote:...

durantbird wrote:...

Fadeaway_J wrote:...

Dr Positivity wrote:...

GeorgeMarcus wrote:...

Laimbeer wrote:...
voting is open, Snake and wackbone please vote for yourself
durantbird
General Manager
Posts: 8,603
And1: 1,768
Joined: Nov 30, 2019

Re: 25' Top 8 Clubs Draft - Play in - Snakebites vs wackbone 

Post#5 » by durantbird » Fri Jul 11, 2025 10:05 pm

wackbone advances

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