RealGM

This is the thread for the match up of seeds 2 and 6 in the Eastern Conference of the All-Time Fantasy League.

General Discussion in this thread: viewtopic.php?f=64&t=1293300
Draft was in this thread: viewtopic.php?f=64&t=1294562
Playoff results in this thread: viewtopic.php?f=64&t=1299878

Eastern Conference SemiFinals: (2) Narigo vs. (6) Notanoob

(2) Narigo
1. Michael Jordan (90-92)
2. Marques Johnson (80-82)
3. Jack Sikma (82-84)
4. Bobby Jones (80-82)
5. Ben Wallace (02-04)
6. Michael Cooper (86-88)
7. LaMarcus Aldridge (12-14)
8. Kyle Korver (12-14)
9. Bryon Scott (87-89)
10. Kirk Hinrich (05-07)

(6) Notanoob
1. Hakeem Olajuwon (93-95)
2. Paul Pierce (08-10)
3. Dennis Rodman (90-92)
4. Chris Bosh (08-10)
5. Vince Carter (99-01)
6. Mookie Blaylock (95-97)
7. Arron Afflalo (12-14)
8. Jason Terry (05-07)
9. Ron Artest (09-11)
10. Tree Rollins (82-84)

Judges
bastillon
TMACFORMVP
penbeast0: Notanoob
ronnymac2: Notanoob
Doctor MJ
SideshowBob
Texas Chuck: Narigo
therealbig3: Notanoob
whitehops: Notanoob
Quotatious: Notanoob
john248: Notanoob
MisterHibachi: Notanoob

In each match up, GMs will offer their preliminary strategy for beating the other team and reasons for why their team is stronger. GMs will also have the opportunity to respond to the opponent's strategy. Judges will offer any comments and questions they have of the GMs and finally will cast their vote for whichever team they think is stronger simply by saying 'Team A wins this matchup' or 'Team B wins this matchup'. Whoever gets more votes moves on.

Good luck!

Nagiro put together a cool team around Jordan, but it's a flawed one that I can defeat here.

First problem: no shooting. There are 3 guys on his team who can shoot 3's, and only 2 are ever going to be sharing the floor. And if he doesn't want Korver getting jail-sexed by Pierce, then he's only gonig to have 1 3 point shooter on the floor at most. After that he's got some guys with mid-range J's, but not with the kind of range you'd want to properly space the floor, especially in the modern NBA, which is the setting we're working with here.

Second problem: ballhandling. Scott really wasn't a guy who could initiate the offense for you, he was really a spot up shooter. Johnson has a reputation as a point-forward, but only averaged 4.2APG per36 over the course of the years selected- in contrast, a real point-forward like Scottie, who Johnson is supposed to be imitating here, was averaging around 6APG. Besides, Johnson only 'invented' the point forward position during the '84 playoffs, which was not included in the years selected here. Jordan wasn't initiator in the triangle usually; ballhandling just wasn't his strength as a player. So who is starting the offense? I feel like I can pressure them into TOs.

Third problem: offense collapses as soon as the bench comes on. Cooper, Jones and Wallace have no offensive game to speak of, and replace vital passers and mid-range shooters that keep the offense functional. Sikma can't handle Hakeem, so Wallace is going to have to come in, but then you're playing 4 on 5 on offense. This team will have an atrocious offense when the bench has to play, and especially when Jordan is resting. He can't play a full 48 minutes for you every game, so there will be some periods where the offense is complete garbage.


Nagiro's team is basically going to be jump-shooting all day. Jordan could distribute the ball, but he was a bit of a hero-baller. Johnson had an ego and would not fit Scottie's role as well as Scottie did emotionally (not to mention being inferior to Scottie in all thing but being a first option). LMA similarly will start to whine if he feels like he isn't getting sufficient love, and we've seen his comments kicking up trade rumors. Both Johnson and LMA will get passive in this game because of this, and settle for jumpers. This is a bad habit of LMA's anyways, really. Scott is just a spot-up shooter, but he's the only one in the starting lineup. Sikma will be neutralized by Hakeem. As a result of all of this, even if you dismiss the potential chemistry issues, it's basically going to be the Jordan show all day for Nagiro's offense.

This plays to my advantage though, because I can run Jordan ragged. His team will need him to do everything on offense, and then come down and check Carter on the other end of the floor. I'll tire Jordan out, and he'll have dead legs by the 4th quarter. Afflalo and Carter are going to be running around the court all game, and can bother him plenty. Afflalo more so defensively, but he can also post Jordan up and really make him work. Of course, on offense my team is going to ride Hakeem more heavily than in the last series. Sikma is not a scrub, but he can't stop Hakeem. He just isn't on his level. I'll be able to attack him mercilessly, because I've surrounded Hakeem with shooters, and doubling him means leaving a guy like Pierce open. Hakeem will have a field day, faking Sikma out of his sneakers or kicking the ball out and watching Truth and company make it rain.

I was hanging with you until the "(Afflalo) can also post Jordan up and really make him work" comment. Seriously?

Well, Afflalo does have a post game, not that I plan on featuring it much. I brought it up mostly because I think people don't realize that he's got one.

I'll admit it. I'm a bit of an Afflalo stan and I was talking up my team a bit much.

I do think that the rest of my points stand though.

I'm a judge since this round, so I'll say this right away - my initial vote goes to my much-esteemed former opponent Notanoob. I just don't see a way for Narigo to adjust in such a way that his team would win. I think that my team was better offensively than Narigo's, and I still lost unanimously.

Hibachi, please don't count my vote yet, because we have to wait for Narigo to give his gameplan, but I don't think that he can really do much to counter Notanoob effectively.

Sikma was actually an uncomfortable matchup for Hakeem because of his shooting range and passing ability from the high post, and he was also a smart defensive player. Him and Ben Wallace are about as good as you can hope for on defense against Olajuwon, but obviously the Dream has an edge over anyone not named Shaquille O'Neal.

I think that Notanoob exaggerates Narigo's lack of shooters (MJ, Scott, Cooper, Hinrich and Korver could all shoot very well, and Marques was money from 18 feet, kinda like Alex English) but he (Notanoob) still has a pretty good personnel to counter that. Artest on Marques would be a good defensive matchup for Notanoob, even if it's the older Artest (Metta World Peace, basically).

Carter would drop something on MJ, and don't let Mike beat him on a few trips, so it's also a somewhat decent matchup/

Yeah, I can see Notanoob taking this one.

Notanoob wrote:Nagiro's team is basically going to be jump-shooting all day. Jordan could distribute the ball, but he was a bit of a hero-baller. Johnson had an ego and would not fit Scottie's role as well as Scottie did emotionally (not to mention being inferior to Scottie in all thing but being a first option). LMA similarly will start to whine if he feels like he isn't getting sufficient love, and we've seen his comments kicking up trade rumors. Both Johnson and LMA will get passive in this game because of this, and settle for jumpers. This is a bad habit of LMA's anyways, really. Scott is just a spot-up shooter, but he's the only one in the starting lineup. Sikma will be neutralized by Hakeem. As a result of all of this, even if you dismiss the potential chemistry issues, it's basically going to be the Jordan show all day for Nagiro's offense.

This plays to my advantage though, because I can run Jordan ragged. His team will need him to do everything on offense, and then come down and check Carter on the other end of the floor. I'll tire Jordan out, and he'll have dead legs by the 4th quarter. Afflalo and Carter are going to be running around the court all game, and can bother him plenty. Afflalo more so defensively, but he can also post Jordan up and really make him work. Of course, on offense my team is going to ride Hakeem more heavily than in the last series. Sikma is not a scrub, but he can't stop Hakeem. He just isn't on his level. I'll be able to attack him mercilessly, because I've surrounded Hakeem with shooters, and doubling him means leaving a guy like Pierce open. Hakeem will have a field day, faking Sikma out of his sneakers or kicking the ball out and watching Truth and company make it rain.

Are your rotations the same as the last round?

Saying LMA is going to whine isn't much of an argument. Will Pierce and Carter whine? See where I'm going with this? LMA has been far more content being on a winning team no different when we were also hearing Pierce wanting a trade in 2007 prior to acquiring KG and Allen.

Jordan is an iron man. The argument that he can't go 48 minutes makes sense given he's the biggest part of the offense on a team built like this, but the guy an go 42 minutes with plenty of clutch 4th quarter moments.

If you want for any stretch for Afflalo to be posting up Jordan, Narigo would take that any day of the week versus your other options.

My rotation won't be exactly the same. Hakeem will be getting heavier minutes for one, but I haven't worked out everything yet. Plus I'm on my phone.

LMA was feeling like he was getting disrespected back when it was all Oden and Roy. He was a distant third to those guys. He's happy now that he's considered by few to be an MVP candidate. He'll go back to being the 3rd man here, and I don't think that he'll be cool with it. I might be able to find the article where he articulates this.

Afflalo isn't going to be featured in my offense much really, except as a shooter. I was more of pointing out his post game because people don't know he has one. JET is going to be running the show wih the second unit.

Mike will be there in the 4th quarter, but for those 8-10minutes he isn't on the floor? His team won't score a single bucket. By the 4th quarter it'll already be over.

I like Narigo here.

In brief, this will be a clinic for Jordan offensively. Notanoob has terrific interior defenders but as we've seen against the Pistons Jordan can get 35 points on you just from his mid-range game. And Notanoob doesn't have the defenders on the perimeter at all. Old man Artest on Jordan is close to a joke. He was still a good player don't get me wrong but peak Jordan? Forget about it. Carter and Pierce would have no chance either. Jordan could pick and roll with LMA all night long and get tons of good looks.

I just like the matchups for Narigo defensively too. Jordan/Cooper on Carter, Jones/Marques on Pierce, Jones/LMA on Bosh, really the only guy he doesn't have an answer for his Hakeem. But with his advantages over the rest of the team should be able to do it.

Well, I did just face a Jordan-light with the same lack of options to contain him, and I still won that matchup. I think that even with the real deal version, I can come out ahead.

And do you really expect to see Artest on Jordan? Only if he's trying to start a fight. If anyone will see time on Jordan, it'll be Rodman. Afflalo will be spending good time on the floor trying to slow Jordan down too, and he is a bulldog.

Expect to see more of JET in this game too, since I don't have a real PG for Mookie to stop, nor can he be put on a large SG like Mike. JET helps open up my offense even more.

The argument about Jordan doesn't work here, because the same can be said about Hakeem. It evens out.

Oh, and I think that the best bet is to put a smaller, quicker and tenacious defender against MJ, not a bigger, but slower one. Guys like Dumars and Moncrief are about as good as you can hope for. Personally, I'd give Afflalo quite a few minutes on MJ, and would try Mookie for some possesions, too.

Does anyone remember how Rodman fared guarding Jordan in the playoffs? I'm certain that he did it, but I can't remember how it worked out.

Notanoob wrote:My rotation won't be exactly the same. Hakeem will be getting heavier minutes for one, but I haven't worked out everything yet. Plus I'm on my phone.

Cool. Anyways, looking forward to seeing the minutes, rotations, offensive, and defensive strategy of both teams.

So, uh, I guess I'll try and get the ball rolling again here.

Rotation:
PG: Mookie 25 minutes/Jason Terry 23 minutes
SG: Vince Carter 30 minutes/ Aaron Afflalo 18 minutes
SF: Paul Pierce 34 minutes/Rodman 7 minutes/Artest 7 minutes
PF: Chris Bosh 30 minutes/Rodman 28 minutes
C: Hakeem 38 minutes/Bosh 5 minutes/ Tree Rollins 5 minutes

The offensive game plan is to run things through Hakeem, and ride him hard. He played relatively light minutes his last series. During the years selected, he averaged over 40 minutes per game as he carried the Rockets in the playoffs, so he is used to handling this sort of workload. The reasoning here is simple; no one can stop Hakeem. Sikma is a good center, but he can't stop Hakeem, and while Wallace was great defensively, he can't stop Hakeem any more than he could stop Shaq. Additionally, I suspect that Wallace will not get heavy PT due to being a complete 0 on offense, which he cannot afford.

Hakeem will be surrounded by shooters pretty much the whole game. They'll space the floor well for him and make it difficult to double him. Any doubles thrown at him will result in the ball getting kicked out to some combination of Blaylock (36% 3 point shooter in the years selected), Carter (40%), Pierce (40%), JET (42%), Afflalo (37%), Artest (37%). I have only two non-shooters in the rotation, Rollins and Rodman, as Bosh is a solid mid-range jump shooter (43% outside 16 feet, inside the ark) like Hakeem.

Furthermore, the group is unselfish and full of willing passers who will swing the ball around and guys scramble to recover.

Afflalo will get a single post up against Jordan, just to prove to you guys he can do it.

Outside of Hakeem, no body is getting ridden too hard, so they'll be fresh to play defense with intensity late in the game.

Cater will see a lot fewer touches compared to the last game, because Jordan is simply not the guy I want to be challenging on a regular basis. Carter is a great player, and he'll hardly get ignored here, but I will not be running my offense through him. Again, Hakeem is the first option. Marquese is no scrub on defense either, but Pierce's array of moves should be enough to get past him, and of course he can always shoot the 3.

On defense, I detailed a lot of my thoughts above. He has only 3 point shooters on his team, two at point guard, and then Kyle Korver at one wing position. Whevener Korver comes on, I'm going to attack him mercilessly. He will be replacing either Jordan or Johnson, so I'll be countering with Pierce or Carter against him, and abuse him. He will not have a chance at stopping them. So for most of the game, he'll have a single 3 point shooter, who will not be a significant threat outside of his shooting, especially with Mookie guarding them. Mookie will not be playing heavy minutes, but that's mostly because I prefer having JET's offensive spark over Mookie shutting down spot up shooters.

Carter, Afflalo and Mookie will be splitting duties on Jordan. Afflalo is a bulldog on defense, and will not let him get his easily.

His lack of spacing will hurt the effectiveness of his passers in Sikma, Johnson and Jordan, as they'll all be trying to squeeze the ball through tight spaces. Johnson is also a bit overrated despite his rep as the first point forward, as I mentioned in my previous post. However, without these guys the offense is going to collapse. Nagiro's bench consists of Korver, Captain Kirk and 3 defensive specialists. None of Cooper, Jones or Wallace will do anything to help his offense, they'll just compress the floor with their lack of even solid jump shooting (Wallace and Jones<Sikma and LMA).

I'd also like to make a point of mentioning that we're working off of 3 year peaks, so don't consider LMA to be the MVP candidate he is this year, but take into account his previous two seasons. He's a solid offensive player, but he's not going to swing this series with Bosh and Rodman on him.

In any event, Jordan is going to have to carry this offense. He'll have to do it with jumpshots, since he'll have no space in the crowded lane. Jordan was great, but we all know that jumpshooting is a poor way to run your offense, especially when I'll be getting looks at the rim with Hakeem or tons of 3 point shots from excellent shooters.

Late in games we all know who the ball is going to, so Jordan will see doubles coming his way courtesy of Afflalo, Mookie, Rodman, and so on, and hard fouls if necessary. In very limited minutes, guys like Artest and Rollins will be happy to tackle him rather than give him a quality look. Jordan is going to be exhausted, playing heavy minutes, getting beat up, scrambling around the 3 point line all game trying to keep up with Carter, and he'll have heavy legs and more attention than you'd want to handle. That said, I don't think he'll get too many opportunities to be 'clutch'. I expect to win. In any event, when it comes down to it I've got proven closers on my team too.

I'll be honest, I was sort of waiting to see what Nagiro would post, because naturally my strategy will change a bit depending on how he plays his team.

Let's get some voting done guys, we've only at the conference semi-finals!

IF Narigo doesn't post, I will vote for Notanoob as having outcoached his opponent. I assume my fellow judges have been waiting for both sides to post as well.

Yeah, let's give Narigo one more day to submit his game plan. Otherwise, Notanoob moves on. Regardless, I think Notanoob has a stronger team, so I was leaning towards him at the beginning anyways.

PG: Cooper (30) Hinrich(18)
SG: Jordan(40) Scott(8)
SF: Johnson (34) Jones (10) Cooper(4)
PF: Aldridge (33) Jones(10) Wallace(5)
C: Sikma(34) Wallace(14)

I will defend Olajuwon one on one. What I really want to do is to shut down his perimeter game instead...

I will post the rest of my strategy tomorrow night

Uh oh, prime Hakeem 1 on 1

Narigo wrote:PG: Cooper (30) Hinrich(18)
SG: Jordan(40) Scott(8)
SF: Johnson (34) Jones (10) Cooper(4)
PF: Aldridge (33) Jones(10) Wallace(5)
C: Sikma(34) Wallace(14)

I will defend Olajuwon one on one. What I really want to do is to shut down his perimeter game instead...

I will post the rest of my strategy tomorrow night

I will vote tomorrow night then. Strategy or not, I'll have then assumed it's the same as the last round.

Minutes Distribution

PG: Cooper (30) Hinrich(18)
SG: Jordan(40) Scott(8)
SF: Johnson (34) Jones (10) Korver(4)
PF: Aldridge (33) Jones(10) Wallace(5)
C: Sikma(34) Wallace(14)

Cooper replaces Scott in the starting Lineup


Defense on Olajuwon

Notanoob’s strategy is predictable. His players will pound the ball to Hakeem in the low post. If I double team him, Hakeem will pass the ball to his shooters. There are two problems with this. His offense will mostly rely on isos on Hakeem and his perimeter guys will be standing around the three point line. There is not a lot of movement going on.

So, Im not going to double team Olajuwon at all. I am going to defend him one on one. But I will leak towards him but my players are going to make sure his shooters are not going to get the ball or cut to the lane. My goal is to stop his shooters and dribble penetration. Im going to force Hakeem to be a one man show on offense and shut down everyone else.

The only time I am going to double team Hakeem is when Rodman is in the game. Notanoob has him playing Small Forward. This will hurt his spacing because Rodman is not a good shooter.

Defense on perimeter

What I want to do is to make shut down his cutting game, dribble penetration, and force his players to take bad shots.

Notanoob is using peak Vince Carter but he is also using Rookie Carter. Carter will defended mostly by Cooper for the entire game. I want Cooper to slow down his dribble penetration game and force him to take bad shots. Notanoob is not going to use Carter that much and I think that is a mistake.

Notanoob also is using a slower version of Paul Pierce. This version of Paul Pierce is more reliant on his jumper but he is still good at getting to the lane by relying mostly on his strength. Johnson should do a great defending him because he is just as strong as Paul Pierce and more athletic. I know he will slowdown Pierce. Jones will also defend Pierce in the game when Johnson is not in the game.

Bosh is mostly going to be used as a spot up shooter at the elbow. I will make sure Aldridge, Wallace and Jones will tightly defend him as well forcing him to take bad shots.


Jordan is going to defend Blaylock. Blaylock is an average offensive player. His offense relies on mostly on three point shooting. Since I not doubling Olajuwon, Jordan should not have any problem with this.
If Terry is coming in to the game, I will send Hinrich out there to defend him.

Offense

The awesome thing about my starting lineup is that all of them can shoot the ball. So I want to spread the floor. I going to have either Jordan or Johnson penetrate to the lane to draw attention then either score or pass it to my shooters (Cooper, SIkma, and Aldridge).

Notanoob is underrating Cooper’s shooting ability. He shot 45% from the three point line in the playoffs for the years I chose him. You do not want to leave him wide open. Cooper is also pretty good ball handler too so I should be able to run my triangle offense

If Jordan leaves the floor, I will still have Johnson on the court so my offense won’t drop that much.
Sikma also does a pretty good job on Offense against Hakeem. He will be taking a lot of jumpers and will be operating in the high post.

By the way, Jones is not a bad shooter himself and he is a player where he doesn’t need any set plays to score. He is also a good passer himself. I might have him throw passes in the high post to a cutting Jordan, Cooper and Johnson

So my offense is mostly on going to rely on the traingle and spreading the floor

Other Lineups( when Jordan not in the Game)
PG: Hinrich
SG: Cooper or Scott
SF: Johnson
PF: Aldridge
C: SIkma

Narigo wrote:
Defense on Olajuwon

Notanoob’s strategy is predictable. His players will pound the ball to Hakeem in the low post. If I double team him, Hakeem will pass the ball to his shooters. There are two problems with this. His offense will mostly rely on isos on Hakeem and his perimeter guys will be standing around the three point line. There is not a lot of movement going on.

So, Im not going to double team Olajuwon at all. I am going to defend him one on one. But I will leak towards him but my players are going to make sure his shooters are not going to get the ball or cut to the lane. My goal is to stop his shooters and dribble penetration. Im going to force Hakeem to be a one man show on offense and shut down everyone else.

I see why you're doing this, but Hakeem has proven himself to be completely capable of carrying a team as a one man show on offense. Heck, back in the days when he was truly a one man show, with Sleepy Floyd and the Crackheads offering no spacing or help, he'd have absurd games along the line of 40/20. Now with spacing and one-on-one? He'll feast.

Narigo wrote:The only time I am going to double team Hakeem is when Rodman is in the game. Notanoob has him playing Small Forward. This will hurt his spacing because Rodman is not a good shooter.

Rodman is not seeing heavy minutes at SF, and in any event, when he is at SF, I'll still have 2 guys who can hit 3's and Bosh, who is a good mid-range shooter. If I'm going to have spacing problems with him on the floor, what about you?

Narigo wrote:Defense on perimeter

What I want to do is to make shut down his cutting game, dribble penetration, and force his players to take bad shots.

Notanoob is using peak Vince Carter but he is also using Rookie Carter. Carter will defended mostly by Cooper for the entire game. I want Cooper to slow down his dribble penetration game and force him to take bad shots. Notanoob is not going to use Carter that much and I think that is a mistake.

I sort of figured that you'd have Jordan defending Carter, which is why I planned on not using him as much. I know what Jordan can do when he feels challenged, and I didn't want Jordan getting pissed off like that, considering how he destroyed Drexler in the Finals. With Cooper on him, I'll go back to him more; Cooper is an excellent defender but he does not scare me quite the same way Jordan does.

Narigo wrote:Notanoob also is using a slower version of Paul Pierce. This version of Paul Pierce is more reliant on his jumper but he is still good at getting to the lane by relying mostly on his strength. Johnson should do a great defending him because he is just as strong as Paul Pierce and more athletic. I know he will slowdown Pierce. Jones will also defend Pierce in the game when Johnson is not in the game.

Pierce was never one to rely on athleticism much. His knock-down shooting will force Johnson to stick close to him, but his driving game and hesitation moves will allow him to get past him when he needs to. Pierce is not a brute who muscles his way to the rim, he's a crafty guy. Johnson is a good perimeter defender, but Pierce, even older Pierce, is a tough match up for anyone.

Narigo wrote:Bosh is mostly going to be used as a spot up shooter at the elbow. I will make sure Aldridge, Wallace and Jones will tightly defend him as well forcing him to take bad shots.

Just because he's spacing the floor does not mean that he won't be allowed to make use of his excellent face-up game. Bosh has always been a good face-up big and will be able to beat guys off the dribble. You do have an array of good defenders on him, but Bosh is practically my 4th option on offense.

Narigo wrote:Jordan is going to defend Blaylock. Blaylock is an average offensive player. His offense relies on mostly on three point shooting. Since I not doubling Olajuwon, Jordan should not have any problem with this.
If Terry is coming in to the game, I will send Hinrich out there to defend him.

I feel like you're wasting Jordan by putting him on Blaylock. The dude is in there essentially because he doesn't turn the ball over, can shoot and plays excellent defense. He's my 5th option. In any event, JET will see regular PT in this game.

Narigo wrote:Offense

The awesome thing about my starting lineup is that all of them can shoot the ball. So I want to spread the floor. I going to have either Jordan or Johnson penetrate to the lane to draw attention then either score or pass it to my shooters (Cooper, SIkma, and Aldridge).

Notanoob is underrating Cooper’s shooting ability. He shot 45% from the three point line in the playoffs for the years I chose him. You do not want to leave him wide open. Cooper is also pretty good ball handler too so I should be able to run my triangle offense.

You have guys who can shoot, but they're all mid-range shooters. That might have counted as good spacing in the 80s, but operating under modern rules that's practically cramped.

I suppose that I have underrated Cooper's shooting ability, but I guess it's not hard to do so for a guy who shot 34% on low volume for his career.

Narigo wrote:If Jordan leaves the floor, I will still have Johnson on the court so my offense won’t drop that much.
Sikma also does a pretty good job on Offense against Hakeem. He will be taking a lot of jumpers and will be operating in the high post.

Johnson is a solid player, but he's going to see Rodman and Artest guarding him when our bench units are facing off. Johnson is not some all-time great who can beat those two much.

Sikma is a good offensive player and all, but we're talking about Hakeem. Sikma is a good center, but the only guys who are match up problems for Hakeem on defense are Kareem and Shaq.

Narigo wrote:By the way, Jones is not a bad shooter himself and he is a player where he doesn’t need any set plays to score. He is also a good passer himself. I might have him throw passes in the high post to a cutting Jordan, Cooper and Johnson

Jones had a good FG% at the time, but this was because he was very careful about his shot selection. He developed as a passer precisely because of his reluctance to shoot the ball.


In light of Nagiro's strategy I'll have to adjust, naturally. He's got a solid write up here.

When the starting lineups face off, I'll have Mookie guarding Jordan and Carter guarding Cooper. Mookie is an extremely pesky defender who will harass Jordan well. Cooper is not a big offensive weapon who Carter will not struggle to handle. When Afflalo replaces Carter, he'll guard Jordan instead of Mookie.

Although the plan is to let Hakeem go to work on Sikma regularly, that isn't to say that I plan on just posting him up all day. You can expect to see PnRs and PnPs with Bosh and Olajuwon, who are both very effective mid-range shooters too. A Terry/Bosh pick-and-pop will be like the sort of thing he'd run with Dirk in Dallas, another big man who could shoot or drive. Carter will be seeing more touches as well. This isn't going to be like '62 Warriors offense when Wilt was scoring 50 a game and was the #1,2,3, and 4 option on offense. I've got a ton of guys to involve on offense at various points. Hakeem is simply the workhorse.

I also would like to contest Nagiro's claim about his offense. This is not a well-spaced, well-oiled machine. I may have underrated Cooper's shooting, but he's replacing the only guy who could shoot the 3 in his starting lineup anyways. Aside from when Scott and Korver get their spot minutes (a combined 12), he's got one guy who's really stretching the floor. Outside of that he's got mid-range jump shooters. Aldridge and Jordan in particular are good at this, but we all know that this is the least efficient way to score. Furthermore, when Jordan penetrates and find Hakeem in his way and decides to kick it out, he's not finding guys standing in the corner 30 feet away, he's finding Aldridge in no-man's land between the paint and the ark 10 feet away. I've got a lot of mobile, smart defenders on this team who will have no problem helping and recovering when everyone is operating that close together. They'll be able to constrict the passing lanes and force a lot of turnovers. I'm not going to be absurd here and claim that his offense will be a disaster; Jordan will make it work pretty much regardless of the guys on the floor with him, and it's not like he's got a bunch of minuses to play with here. But it'll be less effective than mine will be against him, and that's of course what matters.