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I wish Snake the best of luck. He's one of the posters I talk to the most on a daily basis, and he's helped me alot with the team I've constructed in this competition. He's one of the most knowledgeable posters on RGM, and I look forward to the challenge that's been presented. Honestly may the best team win, which I fully intend to do so.

I'm gonna go kind of straight to the point. I kinda prolonged on doing a writeup, and will be busy later on during the day. So, unfortunately, it won't be as long, nor detailed as the rest of my writeups.

Perimeter Defense: The obvious attacking point will be Steve Nash. Admittedly we concede Nash is not a threat defensively, but we knew this when drafting him as well. In this competition, he will be put on Ray Allen. While Allen, will, and undoubtedly have his way, in the scheme of things, he's a spot up shooter. We feel this gets negated however, with whomever Allen will defend in our backcourt.

To clarify more, my opponent must put Allen on either Nash, or Wade. While Allen isn't a terrible defender, in a competition of this much talent, whomever Allen is on, whether it'd be on Nash, or Wade, they will have as big a series as Allen does, if not larger, considering both are more capable of impacting a series than Allen can. That's not a slight at Allen, who's a fine player, but just not as good as both the starters in the backcourt that I post.

Conversely, we will put Wade, on Payton. Our reasons for doing this would be because of Payton's bread and butter offensive game, comes from his superior post game. In this scenario, Wade has both the size, strength, and athleticism to take away Payton's post game, and force him out to the perimeter. While I'm unsure of the years my opponent has chosen for Payton, regardless it's proven Payton, at best is streaky from the perimeter, and much less effective. Payton, being camped out on the perimeter is a good thing for our team, make no mistake about it.

I'd assume Payton would be on Wade, partly because, Wade is more capable of exploding in a series. We'll concede Payton is an all-time great defender, and should certainly affect his game to an extent, but just like in the Bird versus our perimeter defenders matchup, the superstars will have their way.

Larry Bird, what can I say about him. He's one of the greatest to have ever played the game. We certainly won't stop him, much like Snakes team not being able to stop Wade, but we feel we're more equipped to defend a Bird, than any other team in this competition.

I won't go into great statistics, but Rodman has experienced success against Bird in their careers, and Artest's biggest knock is his lateral quickness, in this case, Bird beats his opponents using his smarts. Artest will be able to put a body on Bird at all times, as will Rodman, and both have the length and strength to contest Bird's shot on the perimeter or in the post. Again, Bird, is Bird, but ultimately, we're better equipped than any other team to take on that challenge.

In short, Allen can't defend Nash, nor can Nash defend Allen. Who would I personally fear more? It'd be Nash, the worst case scenario being roughly equal. Then it comes down to the Payton, and Wade matchup, in which I can comfortably say, when taking into account the dominating of a series, all around offensive game, and efficiency, that Wade would take the cake there.

Bird will get the best of Rodman/Artest, most certainly, but I don't feel it's enough an advantage to overtake the edge in the back-court, and most importantly the advantage upfront which will be addressed later.

Interior Defense: This is where we feel we take the advantage, on both ends of the floor. Buck Williams, and Alonzo Mourning are nice, but we've never been on the Mourning bandwagon, as he consistently under performs against C's, whom are deemed as the same class as them. I remember, a few competitions ago, I had Ewing, and was facing a Zo led interior ranked team.

My opponent claimed that they were on the same level, and Zo's "edge," defensively would in turn make Ewing look worse offensively, thus equalizing their difference in scoring. So, I remember checking the stats, and notice, that Ewing did not only play well against Zo, but he absolutely torched him. The same case scenario, with David Robinson. Kareem isn't a Ewing, or Robinson, certainly not, he's CONSIDERABLY better.

Ewing: 24.1 points per game, 10.8 rebounds on .495 from the field
Mourning: 20.9 points, 10.5 rebounds on .462 from the field

That was his primary argument, but when you look deeper into those stats, and see, that those head to head stats run into 2002, a time in which from 98-02, where Ewing had fallen off the map, and Alonzo was still an above average C, including his peak years, Ewing was near 28 points per game, with multiple 30+ point games, including one over 40 points.

The same is the case with Robinson. Kareem will thoroughly take care of this matchup. He'll score efficiently, he'll score in large volumes, he'll dish out assists, and do of everything that was envisioned when drafting him. After having gone through Robinson, and Hakeem in the first round, and Shaq in the last round, Kareem will be, in a sense, relieved.

On the flip side, Zo was a good scorer, but not elite. And, since Kareem isn't far off defensively, if not equal, both offensively, and defensively - Kareem has the large edge.

The same can be said about the McHale, and Buck matchup. They're comparable defensively, but McHale was on another level offensively. Buck should do an admirable job, but no matter how one may try to spin it, McHale will outproduce Buck's production, all while doing it more efficiently on both ends.

21.6 points per game on 55% from the floor.

That's McHale's stats in 22 games against Buck.

Conclusion

Larry Bird is a great player, one of the top five/six players to have played the game. I don't have a problem saying it, because everyone knows that already. In order to beat a team led by his squad, with the supporting cast Snake has put around him, a team must have:

a.) Elite defenders to make sure Bird doesn't GO OFF.
Check: We have Ron Artest, and Dennis Rodman. Artest one of the better perimeter defenders, and Rodman, one of the greatest of ALL TIME.

b.) A large frontcourt edge
Check: As mentioned, Buck, and Zo, are nice, but both Kareem and McHale are all time greats. They should have the considerable edge over their counterparts.

c.) Equalize the backcourt
With Nash/Allen, in a sense being squared off. Neither will stop the each other, but Nash is the better player. The worst case scenario, considering team roles is that there's a roughly equal matchup, but slight edge for Nash. Then it comes down to Wade, and Payton. Payton is a fine player, but we feel Payton is easier to guard, especially by putting a bigger guard on him, and Wade is a special player offensively. I feel, we not only equal the backcourt prowess, but have the slight edge.

d.) Stay with Snake on the boards
We had all the calculations done before we lost it yesterday. The goal wasn't to prove we were a better rebounding team, but one that was equivalent to his, and ultimately a factor that wouldn't determine the fate of the series. It's importatnt to note this, as most would assume, with Zo, and Buck, and rebounding SF's like Bird, and PG's like Lever, and Payton that he'd have the edge on paper. But edge elsewhere, and with Rodman off the bench playing 30 minutes, being by far the best rebounder in this series, the numbers equaled out to roughly 52 adjusted rebounds for Snake, and 51 for my team.

I'll bring them up later, if the situation comes up. Kind of lazy right now.

Overall, that's why we'll feel we win. Snakebites team wins by their rebounding, their normal edge in their backcourt, a sound frontcourt all led by Larry Bird. In this case, we have the defenders to make sure Bird doesn't go over his season averages, a team just as potent on the boards, a slight edge in terms of matchups in the backcourt, and a large enough frontcourt advantage to help us win this series.

Best of luck Snake.

Insert standard classy introduction here.

Defensively: As ever, we quite firmly believe we have the best defense in this competition, particularly when it comes to the starting lineup, with 4 All-NBA level defenders (including two DPOY winners) in the starting lineup. As ever in these leagues, superstars will generally get their points no matter what defense you throw at them, but our defense can make it as difficult as humanly possible for superstars to do that, and greatly hinder the effectiveness of the supporting cast of characters.

Though they do have a good 3 point shooting point guard in Nash, this is a team, for the most part, will need to rely on getting most of its points in the paint. Artest had a decent touch from beyong the arch as well, but I'd be much less concerned with him beating us out there. Wade has a decent mid range game, but his bread and butter plays involve driving into the lane for higher percentage shots. The same can be said for Kevin McHale, with post play inserted in place of slashing. As talented as his team is in this regard, the emphasis on slashing and post play that is generally seen here plays into my advantage, interior defense. Wade looks to be a very critical piece to the puzzle here, as the player best able to take over a series with explosive scoring outputs. He's in for the toughest matchup he's faced in these games, though. With a comparable in size and great all time defender hounding him every step of the way and a great interior defense waiting for him as he drives into the lane. Nash will be effective with Allen guarding him, though Allen does boast a considerable height advantage, but we may also switch other players onto him and use Payton on him from time to time, if Wade is either out of the game or generally having an off series. In general, we do feel Nash is slightly out of his element in a half court based offensive attack, but we don't expect this to render him entirely ineffective.

As much as I love Dennis Rodman and all of the great advantages he brings, he is by a fair margin the weakest offensive player in either rotation, and when he is on the court that leaves whoever he is being guarded by, whether it be Bird, Buck, or other, free to help out on other players down low. Furthermore, he'll be seeing a lot of time out there with Adrian Dantley, making Dantley's defensive issues much less glaring and leaving me free to take advantage of Dantley's highly productive scoring abilities off the bench. In tandem with Bird he can form a formidable offensive front court in their own right.

Kareem, like Bird, Magic, Jordan, Shaq, and a few others in this competition (pardon any omissions), will score, in part irrespective to any defensive plan thrown their way. We feel strongly about our interior defense given the physicality of our starting center hand his backup. Kareem will score, but he wasn't inassailable in selected years (losing in the first round and conference semis in the years flanking their NBA championship, in which Magic won the MVP), and we feel we have a strong enough team front court to compete here.

Offensively: This is the first time in this tournament where Larry Bird has had anything less than absolute free reign to use all of his offensive assets, with a duo like Artest and Rodman guarding him. Just the same, while Rodman did have some individual success against Bird, most of this success occured later in Bird's career as the Pistons themselves ascended into their brief but glorious status as beasts of the east. In the mid 80's (selected Bird years) the matchup clearly belonged to Larry Legend, who lead his teams to victories over Rodman and the great team defense surrounding him twice. Looking at overall career stats for Bird, his head to head numbers against him reveal that, his overall numbers don't appear to see a drastic drop off when compared to career numbers (particularly given a lot of this action was in the late 80s when Bird, while still great, was not as great as the version in this game). Though my opponent does get the benefit of superior outside shooting by using Ron Artest of the selected years, Artest, while still a solid defender, was living off a prior reputation in this regard by this stage in his career. While still good, this is not DPOY level Ron Artest.

Overall, in spite of the defenders, we feel Bird is still the player in this series most capable of gaining control of games when it matters most. In what we forsee to be a low scoring series, this will be very important. Between him and Payton, will like our overall playmaking abilities as well.

We also feel that our guards compare favorably to our opponent's. While on paper the individual values of the players are strikingly comparable, we feel that Payton and Ray Allen, while being the superior defensive pair, also work together offensively with greater synergy than their opponents. Ray Allen will have as many open looks from wherever on the court he wants them against this perimeter defense, and will cause more damage than any other perimeter shooter in this game, as he averaged over 2.5 makes at peak efficiency in selected years and well never be met with a formidable defender. This complements Payton's play making and inside abilities perfectly.

As ever, the front court serves a supplementary role in our offense, and with our overall rebounding and play making ability, they will still get high percentage opportunities inside, but we won't be relying on them to control the game.

Overall: We feel that a grind out, low scoring series (which a matchup between these two defensive teams figures to be) favors the team with the best overall player and clutch performer, and hope to rely on this fact and the great defense and synergy the rest of our team has together to carry the day.

Best of luck.

Both writeups were reasonable. There was nothing I didn't buy. This should be pretty straight foward.

I love that Payton-Allen-Bird combo. They all compliment each other perfectly. Just had to say that.

Who to put Payton on was a difficult decision. Do you disrupt Nash at the point of attack, or slow down Wade, the most dangerous wing player on the opposition? Putting him on Wade was a pretty good choice imo. He's the big weapon capable of dominating imo. You need to try and slow him down.

Jabbar faced them all. He faced Williams and Laimbeer when he was older. During these years, he went up against a physical force similar to Zo in Moses Malone. Alonzo was a better defender and worse rebounder than Moses. KAJ won't be held down on the glass like he was in the 83 finals and like I thought he was last round vs. Shaq. He should be able to score efficiently on Alonzo, too.

What interests me is when Bird moves to the 4 and Dantley plays with him. I find it interesting because of the matchup with Mchale. Mchale was known to have guarded the small fowards that Bird couldn't guard. So when it's Mchale and Rodman/Artest vs. Bird/Dantley, both teams are very evenly matched up. All 5 of those guys are good enough/big enough/phsyical enough to play each other on both ends (Dantley can hide on Rodman...though keeping him off the offensive glass is another story). Mchale will be guarding Bird at certain points in the game. I think Mchale will do a nice job, but there will be some awesome plays where Bird will let his old teammate have it- and then let him know about it, too. Haha

Bird won't be stopped, and his ability to come off screens will frustrate Artest. Artest gets burned that way, and Bird was great at it.

I don't think Wade will be stopped either vs. Payton. I see it this way. Wade is being used as a scorer/finisher because of the presence of Jabbar inside, and Nash controlling some of the offense. Mchale also can shoulder some offense. Gary Payton did a great job on the ball. If this were against Wade with his current heat team, he'd slow him down. But Wade is going to be all over the place, and in a role similar to 05 and 06 (Center inside, players to handle the ball, making him a finisher, etc.). These factors helping Wade out should make him a force throughout the series.

This is incredibly tough. I think I'm going to have to go with TMAC's team in the end. I don't think Zo and Williams can produce enough against KAJ and Mchale. The bigs will control the middle. I think the wings of Snakes' team have a small edge overall, but it's not quite enough to offset the advantage in the middle. I'm going with TMAC's team in a tough 7-game series. Great matchup guys.

Talk about a tough decision. On the one hand, you've got Bird, the best player in this series, surrounded with great defenders in the middle and at the point and (possibly) the greatest shooter ever. On the other, you've got a 1-2 punch of Wade-Kareem with great forward defenders and (possibly) the greatest shooter ever. Should be fun!

With so many talented players in the backcourt (and overall), I think Ray Allen might be getting somewhat overlooked. This was a guy who could light you up for 30+ when his shot was on (and his never seems to be off). Being guarded by Nash is a nice matchup for him, too. Due to his stature, Nash simply won't be able to disrupt Allen's shot. I expect Jesus Shuttlesworth to have some big scoring nights in this series.

While Wade is strong enough and skilled enough to contain The Glove, he also sometimes has a tendency to save some energy for offense. But that will be mitigated by the talent surrounding him, as Wade won't have to shoulder as much of the load. I suspect we will see a more defensively motivated Wade who will do a good job on Payton.

Bird will be constantly hounded by fantastic defenders. We all know how great Rodman was, and, as TMACFORMVP noted, Artest's defensive strengths match up well against a guy like Bird. Still, this is Larry Legend we're talking about, and, like Snakebites said, Artest is slightly past his defensive prime. Like usual, Bird will dominate the series and get everyone involved. He should create easy looks for his teammates, and Allen should really benefit from playing off of him.

I don't think Snakebites' bigs will have much of a scoring impact, especially considering who they are going up against. Still, it's not like Zo and Williams are scrubs; they should score a decent amount of points on very good efficiency and will cause problems when Bird gets into the paint, forcing Kareem to contest.

I also really like Dantley in this series. Let's not forget that he averaged over 30 PPG on almost 60% shooting in his prime. Not a bad piece off the bench...

I think McHale and Kareem should both have pretty good series offensively, but they're going to have to work for most of those points. Nothing comes easy against Snakebites' stellar interior defense.

Now, Nash is going to get some open looks, but, fortunately for Allen, his height also works to his advantage on this end. He works hard and will use this advantage to bother some shots that a shorter defender might not. But while Nash might be somewhat less effective in a half-court style of play, he still should easily be able to beat Allen off the dribble and find open teammates when the defense collapses. Fortunately for Snakebites, though, Nash doesn't have many 3-point threats to pass the ball to from this position.

Wade, though, does have some 3-point threats surrounding him (because Nash must now be factored into the equation). It's just a matter of how effective Payton can be in keeping him out of the lane. I think Payton will do about as well as anyone could. Wade will obviously get his, but he is also somewhat turnover-prone, and Payton could cause him to make a few mistakes.

I don't see TMACFORMVP's small forwards making much of an impact offensively (aside from the occasional Rodman offensive rebound or Artest three), due as much to number of touches as to ability. This allows Bird to utilize his terrific team defense and Dantley to see more playing time without being exploited.

Snakebites would dominate the glass if it weren't for Rodman, but The Worm is playing, so I don't see this being a big factor one way or the other.

Overall, I expect just about every game to be close. And when it comes down to the wire, both teams have great options. Again, as clutch as Bird is, this aspect is fairly even.

Ultimately, I think that Bird having an easier defensive matchup than any other starter (except for, perhaps, McHale, who should have a good series but is clearly not on Bird's level) allows him to maximize his offensive ability. I also like Allen's size advantage against Nash, and Dantley's bench scoring can't be matched. TMACFORMVP brought up a good point in regards to Zo struggling against top centers, but this isn't always the case. He did a decent job against Hakeem in the early to mid 90s, for example. Again, Kareem is going to do well, but he's not quite at his peak. TMACFORMVP also has better guard play, but, with the way the matchups are, I think this advantage is actually somewhat slim. And that cannot make up for Snakebites' overwhelming edge at SF.

Some great bids by both of you, and great writeups as well. But I'm going to have to go with Snakebites in an extremely hard-fought series.

There's really not a lot in this one. Most of the mathcups have been looked over already, so I won't waste too much time going into depth. Putting Nash on Allen will save Steve from being phsysically abused on defense which is a wise idea.

The general tools for restriction on Bird are there but as Snakebites mentioned it's not the DPOY Artest that is available here. He's still solid and of course a physical nightmare, but he has lost a a little step.

I still do have a little concern about Nash running that half court based offense.

Offensively I think TMACFORMVP has nore ooptions to utilize, where as defensively I think Snakebites gets the edge.

Only thing separating seems to be a few tidbits againts TMACFORMVP here.

vote: Snakebites.

another tight match up

Both teams have some nice offense/defense balance and clutch performers. T-Mac's team has the edge on offense to a degree but part of that edge is negated with half court play the rest of team is perfect for and their PG isn't. Snakebite's team has the edge on defense and has an offense that is perfect for half court play. They do not get the same manner of scoring and rebounding from the C and PF positions though in comparison to T-Mac's team.

This series goes the distance and almost into OT but Larry Bird makes some miraculous play at the end that will annoy the hell out of me and pull it out for the Snakes.

Snakebites in 7

and

great teams guys!

Didn't even notice this till now. Congrats Snake, big time props.

YAY!



Ewww....




Thanks to the judges, all of the opponents, and everyone who consulted with me as I built my team.

Congrats snakes. I really liked my team and thought I would do well in this game but having you in my brackets made me go home early. At least I lost to the BEST. Great job and great team!

Congrats!

Yeah, congrats Snake. Your players fit together perfectly. Awesome job.

Same to you TMAC. Killer team.

Good job, bryant08.

And Snake, you did alright.

It was a good matchup and it's nice to see that final voting was completed in less than a month.

Grrr.

Abuse of mod powers....

Congrats Snakebites and damn you Larry Bird!