CAT ROUND 1---Mascot advances by default

[Sports Arsenal]

This will be the thread for the round 1 matchup between Mascot and Cap.
Writeup's will be due Friday.
Once both write up's are in the three judges will vote.
The winners will move on to the next round.

[Mascot]

The LeBrons
Head Coach - Phil Jackson
Assistant Coach - Clifford Ray
Assistant Coach - Mike Budenholzer

Roster
PG: Steve Nash/Baron Davis
SG: Ray Allen/Jamal Crawford
SF: LeBron James/Anthony Parker
PF: Antawn Jamison/David Lee/Zach Randolph
Cc: Zydrunus Ilgauskas/Anderson Varejao

vs

The Barrack O'Ballas
Head Coach - Mike D'antoni $2mil
Assistant Coach - Jay Triano $500k
Assistant Coach - Ettore Messina $1mil

Depth Chart:
C - Chris Kaman/Andrea Bargnani/Erick Dampier
PF - Pau Gasol/Chris Andersen/Travis Outlaw
SF - Rudy Gay/Mike Miller/Jason Kapono
SG - Richard Hamilton/Mike Miller/Derrick Rose
PG - Derrick Rose/TJ Ford/Richard Hamilton

[Sports Arsenal]

Mins per player?
Offensive strategy?
Defensive stategy?

[Mascot]

thats just the matchup, you should have it in the first post

[Sports Arsenal]

Its a "write up". Just like in BaNT.

[Mascot]

In BaNT the rosters were posted in the first post...

[Sports Arsenal]

Mascot,
How do you plan on convincing Crawford to come off the bench, and not to disturb the locker room? Same with ZBo, third string? How do you plan on keeping your team chemistry to a managable level?
Also, I see alot of guys on your roster who have to have the ball in their hands. With the most obvious form of offense being Lebron, how do you plan on getting those guys involved?
One other thing, with a tandem of Gay/Rip at the wings, you will obviously guard Gay with Lebron, but who is going to catch Rip coming off the back cuts, being he is one of the best "on the move" shooters in the game.

[Mascot]

Weiteup for The LeBrons

The LeBrons
Head Coach - Phil Jackson
Assistant Coach - Clifford Ray
Assistant Coach - Mike Budenholzer

Roster
PG: Steve Nash(35)/Baron Davis(13)
SG: Ray Allen(35)/Jamal Crawford(13)
SF: LeBron James(38)/Anthony Parker(10)
PF: Antawn Jamison(28)/David Lee(20)/Zach Randolph(0)
Cc: Zydrunus Ilgauskas(24)/Anderson Varejao(24)


Approach
This team is created to spread the floor for LeBron to work his magic. While the judges are supposed to not let the LeBron factor ruin the game (which I agree with). I have placed Steve Nash and Ray Allen alongside one of the greatest perpetrators that the game has ever seen, not to mention that Steve Nash is a constant threat off the dribble as well as Ray Allen.

Steve Nash will carry the ball up the court for most of the game and will look to immediately penetrate off the dribble or pull up for a quick three if its open. Since Nash is the best point guard in the NBA for a running team as he as demonstrated in Phoenix the team will run and run a 10 man roster.

Once Nash either penetrates or takes a shot, he will dish to LeBron or the rest of the team crashes the boards. He then will slide down low to the botom Left Corner and Ray Allen will slide to the top of the arc. This will draw Nash's man to that side and allow Lebron to Penetrate from the wing. Once the Ball goes to LeBron he will Look to drive by his man and either get the easy 2 and 1 or dish it to a waiting Nash or Ray Allen for the three ball, which is why i paid 18.5 million for him in Free Agency. While this is going on Jamison has Drawn his man over to the Left side as well out around the 15 foot area and Big Z has Drawn his man out from the basket on the Low post as well. This leaves a nice land on the right side for LeBron to work his magic. Since its LeBron hes going to be double teamed and the closest guy (Ricahrd Hamilton) is guarding Ray Allen at the top of the Arc, once he leaves Ray Allen and LeBron Drives, Ray is wide open for a three which he rarely misses, or many more options open up as Kaman will leave big Z to try and Block the shot. LeBron can than either Dish to Big Z who loves the baseline jumper or draw the foul and go to the line, or Dunk it.

(drawing of the play, might not show up if imageshack is down, it has been a lot lately)
http://img10.imageshack.us/my.php?image=50941431.gif


The Matchups

Coaches
Head Coach - Phil Jackson
Assistant Coach - Clifford Ray
Assistant Coach - Mike Budenholzer
vs
Head Coach - Mike D'antoni
Assistant Coach - Jay Triano
Assistant Coach - Ettore Messina

Both teams are obviously built to be running teams, however, Phil Jackson is probably tied with only one other person for the Greatest Coach of All time honor.


Phil Jackson
Career highlights and awards
* 1x NBA All-Rookie First Team (1968)
* 11x NBA Champion (1970, 1973 as player), (1991-1993, 1996-98, 2000-2002 as coach)
* 1x NBA Coach of the Year (1996)
* 4x NBA All-Star Game Coach
* Top 10 Coaches in NBA History (1996)

Clifford Ray
Mentor to the big men
In his post-playing career, Ray has mentored many NBA big men, most notably Chris Webber and Ben Wallace. He has also worked with Roy Tarpley, Dwight Howard, Jayson Williams, Eric Dampier, P.J. Brown, Adonal Foyle, Etan Thomas, Marc Jackson, DeSagana Diop, Al Jefferson, Mario Kasun, and Michael Bradley. As an Orlando Magic assistant, he was responsible for the quick professional development of Dwight Howard. Ray's rebounding influence on Dwight Howard was so strong, it led Howard into surpassing Wilt Chamberlain as the youngest NBA player to reach 5,000 boards (March 30, 2009).

Mike Budenholzer
14th season with the Spurs and his 12th season as an assistant coach. Has enjoyed the longest tenure on the Spurs basketball operations staff (hired by Gregg Popovich in the summer of 1994)
Has won 4 titles as an assistant with the spurs. It has been said that he draws up the plays for the last two minutes of games and hands them to Greg Popovich.

PGs
Steve Nash 33 mpg, 16ppg, 50.3% fg, 43.9% from three
Derrick Rose 37 mpg, 17 ppg, 47.5%fg, 22.2% from three

While Nash does not possess the ability to keep Rose in front of him off the dribble if he is playing tight to him, with Rose Nash will not have to. Nash can lay back on Rose and dare him to take the three. Rose's game entirely relies on dribble penetration and getting to hoop. Since he is more of a scoring pg than he is a creator my defenses knows that he is looking for his first. This will allow them to back off their man a little more to fill the lane and cause the turnover or get an easy steal. Gay, Rose, and even Hamilton are not good enough from three for me to worry about them, Gay shoots 35% and Hamilton shoots 37% and rarely ever takes one. Since I will be running a sort of pick and roll offense as shown above I believe that Nash will win this matchup.

SGs
While Ray Allen is no doubt going to have trouble guarding Richard Hamilton my offensive plan allows for this. Ray Allen will be chasing Rip around on the defensive end trying to deny him his quick catch and shoot that he likes when he curls back around to the top of the key. With Rose controlling the ball ray will have to stay between him and his Rip to stop the dish. However, the catch here is that on the offensive end Rip Hamilton will be helping Rose to Guard LeBron, while Ray Allen will be allowed to rest a little since he does not have to facilitate the offense. That can be left up to Steve Nash and LeBron James.

SFs
Here I clearly have the advantage, LeBron James vs Rudy Gay. There is no way that gay can guard LeBron James on the offensive end one on one which means that there will need to be a second defender to help him. This is where having superb shooters in Ray Allen and Steve Nash come into play. Its a pick your poison Scenario, all of my players, even my bigs can step out and make a 15 footer with ease.

PFs
A very tough Matchup here, Antawn Jamison vs Pau Gasol. However, Gasol seems to struggle with a smaller help defender on him, this is where Nash, doubles when Gasol gets the ball. Since Rose is no threat from outside he can leak off a bit to try and stop Gasol from cutting to the middle and getting the small hook that he loves so much.

Cs
Zydrunus Ilgauskas/Anderson Varejao vs Chris Kaman
For my Center position I plan to spread the Minutes evenly here, both getting roughly 24 a piece. This allows energy and rebounding from Varejao off the bench and Big Z some rest time, he is rather old after all. But this setup is working right now for the Cavaliers with them both getting around 28 mpg. While Kaman may have the upper hand on Big Z in age he does not on Varejao in youth. Since Kaman likes to play around the rim he is also no threat on the offensive end on a team that is build for driving since the lanes can be closed off by my bigs and just let Kaman take 15 footers if he wants to all day.




Closing Statement
I feel that I have the stronger team and much more balanced in my starting lineup since I have Both guys who can Penetrate and who can hit the three or an outside shot while the team I am facing relies too much on the drive and cant hit the outside shot. The LeBrons in 5.

[bringbackhoffa]

I say both teams get DQ's since write up came after midnight on friday technically being Saturday...lol just kidding (Am i really since the winner of my match will face the winner of this match :S)

[Mascot]

Mascot,
How do you plan on convincing Crawford to come off the bench, and not to disturb the locker room? Same with ZBo, third string? How do you plan on keeping your team chemistry to a managable level?
Also, I see alot of guys on your roster who have to have the ball in their hands. With the most obvious form of offense being Lebron, how do you plan on getting those guys involved?
One other thing, with a tandem of Gay/Rip at the wings, you will obviously guard Gay with Lebron, but who is going to catch Rip coming off the back cuts, being he is one of the best "on the move" shooters in the game.

Crawford will assume his role because he knows that his trigger happy three jacking mentality will only get him put back on the bench on a team that has LeBron James as the Primary weapon. I dont feel he will disrupt the locker room at all with this role, in Golden State he has been benched for the likes of total scrubs just because Nelson dosent like him and he hasnt really complained about it. Hes getting his money and for the role he will be he is being paid very well.

ZBo will only get playing time in the chance of a Blowout or an injury, he may not like the role which he has but his lack of defense and defensive mentality will get him sitting on the bench all game when it come to the playoff crunch, I do however feel that if he does get a chance to get on the court he will want to prove himself as the should be starter and will assume a better defensive mentality in sparse minutes that he does get.

I dont see team Chemistry being very hard to maintain, Nash, Lebron, Jamison, Allen, Big Z will all get along fine and Baron with them as well even if he is playing backup. Crawford will just have to accept his role and that Ray Allen is the better threat to have on the floor if the team is going to win. Varejao and Lee will also be fine with their roles if they are contending for a championship since right now Varejao is fine with his role in Cleveland he would be playing the same on the LeBrons.

Yes, a lot of guys "need" the ball in their hands, mostly LeBron and Nash of course. The plan is that Nash will facilitate the offense and LeBron will facilitate the "second wave" or in other words, Nash decides if there is anything available and if there isnt he passes it off to LeBron to create.

Im not to worried about the bench guys needed in the ball much since the only one there who would like to control it is Davis and Crawford, they make a good pair off the bench is Davis is a strong penetrator and Crawford is a nice jumpshooter. Ray Allen dosent need the ball as much in his hands and either does Antawn Jamison.

I have addressed the Rip situation by having Allen chase him on defense, but allowing Allen to rest on offense and Rip not to since Rip will be the help defender on LeBron and Allen will be camping out behind the arc waiting for a spot up three.

[Mascot]

I say both teams get DQ's since write up came after midnight on friday technically being Saturday...lol just kidding (Am i really since the winner of my match will face the winner of this match :S)

well I usually get off work at 10, but had to stay till 12:30 tonight to get it done.

[Sports Arsenal]

Alright guys, the voting period has begun. Good luck to both. Votes will be in by Monday.

[Sports Arsenal]

Mascot in 4, due to the fact the other team has no plan.

[CellarDoor]

ditto...

[Sports Arsenal]

lock please