MVP Franchise Decades Draft R1 - Dr Positivity vs ardee*

[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.**

[Dr Positivity]

PG: Russell Westbrook (2016: 18.1 FGA)
SG: Khris Middleton (2019: 14.9 FGA)
SF: Lebron James (2013: 17.8 FGA)
PF: Aaron Gordon (2024: 9.8 FGA)
C: Kevin Love (2018: 12.4 FGA)

PG: Matthew Dellavedova (2015: 4.6 FGA)
SF: Kyle Korver (2012: 6.3 FGA)
C: Andrew Bogut (2016: 4.0 FGA)

87.9 / 88

PG: Russell Westbrook (38) / Matthew Dellavedova (10)
SG: Khris Middelton (38) / Matthew Dellavedova (4) / Kyle Korver (6)
SF: Lebron James (30) / Kyle Korver (18)
PF: Aaron Gordon (30) / Kevin Love (10) / Lebron James (8)
C: Kevin Love (28) / Andrew Bogut (20)

Defensive matchups: Middleton on Harden, Russ on Bowen, Lebron on Johnson, Gordon on Durant, Love on Lopez. While we don't have perfect Harden D he also doesn't have the perimeter defenders to guard both Russ and Lebron unless he starts Beverley giving him relatively limited offensive lineup outside of Harden and Durant. Gordon is great to play Durant.

- I believe our Love at C lineup will cause some issues for him as Lopez going out to 3pt nullifies his biggest asset on D and he is not fast enough to guard Gordon (also this is slightly older version of Lopez). Gordon is better fitting defensive big for this matchup.

- Our team is a nightmare in transition taking advantage of the before mentioned slower Lopez and Harden lack of effort in transition D. Overall our team is more athletic and puts a lot of pressure on him.

- Harden and Durant don't necessarily have better chemistry than the actual good version of Westbrook and Lebron.

- The benches are close in talent but he is playing Adams for 10 minutes at PF and is riding Lopez for 38.

[ardee]

2017 Kevin Durant: 16.5 FGA
2018 James Harden: 20.1 FGA
2023 Brook Lopez: 11.5 FGA
2003 Bruce Bowen: 5.8 FGA
2005 Joe Johnson: 14.4 FGA
2017 Patrick Beverly: 8.1 FGA
2016 Steven Adams: 5.3 FGA
2020 Wesley Matthews: 6.3 FGA

Total: 88.0/88.0 FGA

Harden (38)/Beverly (10)
Johnson (36)/Beverly (10)
Bowen (36)/Matthews (12)
Durant (38)/Adams (10)
Lopez (38)/Adams (10)

-Our offense is again, pretty simple but deadly. We have the most efficient scorer of the 2010s and the best volume scorer of the 2010s playing together. In the previous thread people questioned their chemistry, yet when they played together IRL when both were already past their primes they were extremely effective. Can very easily expect 70-75 from Harden/Durant combined on any given night.

-The top two are surrounded by ridiculous shooting and an overqualified third option in Johnson. Additionally, Dr P mentioned that Love takes Lopez away from the rim, depriving me of rim protection. Well... He doesn't have any rim protection in the first place. Love is no interior defender and he will be guarding Lopez on the perimeter ANYWAY, meaning Harden can get layups at will when he gets screens from Durant.

-Defensively, we will put Johnson/Beverly on Russ, Harden on Middleton, Bowen on LeBron, KD on Love and Lopez on Gordon. Gordon has no real jumper and isn't a threat from range (29% from 3 in the chosen season), therefore it makes much more sense to assign Brook to him to allow him to stay near the rim.

-LeBron is LeBron obviously, but Bowen is as good a perimeter defender as any in the pool, and I don't think this is a team that is really setup to take advantage of Bron's strengths. The fit with Russ is very wonky as both make most of their impact on the ball. Obviously LeBron is gonna dominate the ball (as he rightly would regardless), leaving Russ standing around. I really love Russ, peak Russ in particular, but he's not a great off-ball player.

-On top of that, he's running a lineup with two non-shooters + LeBron. You can probably get away with one, but two? Yeah that's not gonna be conducive to efficient LeBron-ball.

-On the whole, I think we are relatively close talent-wise, but the fit is just much better for my team and that wins it.

[Fadeaway_J]

Not really feeling the coherence of Dr P's team honestly. LeBron-Russ is clearly meant to trigger Laker fans, but then you also have the spacing benefit of Love at the 5 being reduced by pairing him with Gordon. Ardee has comparable talent with a much clearer theory on both ends.

Vote: ardee

[durantbird]

Agree with Fade. I think Love at C makes the offensive fit better but hurts rim protection, though I get it in this matchup. I think Harden is up for a great series against Love as rim protector and Middleton as non ideal defender.

Vote ardee

[JimmyPlopper]

I think the talent differential combined with the faced paced nature of Dr. P's team is too much to withstand for a Durant/Harden combo that has been bounced in the first round. Too short on talent on ardee's side - vote Dr P

[Fadeaway_J]

[durantbird]

Can you help here?

[Snakebites]

I don’t think Lebron is maximized here. Gordon doesn’t feel like he has a clear role here either.

Ardee matches up fairly well here and I like his team better synergistically.

Vote ardee

[MadNESS]

Can you help here?

Looks like Snake did.

Both teams are very strange. One is too clunky with Bron at the 3, with Aaron Gordon. One team is too spacey with Brook and KD as the bigs, and Harden at point.

I’ll give the edge to the team who would succeed better in today’s NBA, even though they’re both off/odd.

Ardee!

[Snakebites]

Can you help here?

Looks like Snake did.

Both teams are very strange. One is too clunky with Bron at the 3, with Aaron Gordon. One team is too spacey with Brook and KD as the bigs, and Harden at point.

I’ll give the edge to the team who would succeed better in today’s NBA, even though they’re both off/odd.

Ardee!

Too spacey? That’s not a thing.

[durantbird]

ardee advances