2020s Draft - R1 - durantbird vs wackbone*

[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. 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).

[wackbone]

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander - 2025 - 21.8 FGA - MVP, All-NBA 1st, All-Star, 10th in DPOY (led league in DWS), 37.5 3P% on 5.7 att
Jayson Tatum - 2024 - 19.3 FGA - 6th in MVP, All-NBA 1st, All-Star, 37.6 3P% on 8.2 att
Bam Adebayo - 2021 - 12.5 FGA - 4th in DPOY, All-Def 2nd, Best Advanced Stats of Career
Lu Dort - 2025 - 8.4 FGA - 4th in DPOY, All-Def 1st, 41.2 3P% on 5.8 att
Joe Ingles - 2021 - 8.4 FGA - 2nd in 6MOY, 45.1 3P% on 6.1 att
Austin Reaves - 2023 - 7.7 FGA - 7th in 6MOY, 39.8 3P% on 3.4 att
Draymond Green - 2022 - 5.6 FGA - All-Star, 10th in DPOY, All-Def 2nd, Best Advanced Stats since 2020
Luke Kornet - 2025 - 3.8 FGA - .246 WS/48, 19.6 PER
Total: 87.5/88 FGA

Rotation:
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (38) / Austin Reaves (10)
Lu Dort (30) / Austin Reaves (18)
Jayson Tatum (38) / Joe Ingles (10)
Draymond Green (30) / Joe Ingles (18)
Bam Adebayo (38) / Luke Kornet (10)

Writeup:
Helluva team as always, db. Best of luck!

Defensively we will start with Dort on Luka, SGA on Jrue, Tatum on JDub, Draymond on AD, and Bam on Brook.

I think we match up really well defensively. Dort+Draymond is a damn-near ideal defensive pairing to guard the Luka+AD two-man game, which will obviously be the focal point of db's offense. Both guys have the defensive ability/IQ to deal with the PNR and make sound judgements. Bam will primarily stay in/near the paint as Brook was not a great 3 point shooter in the chosen season so I highly doubt his ability to beat us. Brook shot 33.8% in the regular season and 31.9% in the playoffs. Having Dort+Draymond as the primary defenders and Bam as the elite backstop will heavily impact the effectiveness of the Luka+AD two-man game, which will heavily impact db's offensive efficiency as a whole.

Both teams feature two MVP-level talents (SGA/Tatum vs Luka/AD) as well an overqualified third banana (Bam vs JDub).
Both teams have good-elite defenders for those main weapons (Dort/Draymond/Tatum vs Jrue/JDub/Brook).
Both teams have an elite defender (Bam vs AD) to help off of lesser offensive threats (Draymond vs Brook).

db has elite defenders but if there is a weakness in his team defensively it is that several of his players are relatively slow-footed. We are going to use a run-and-gun style offense to try to take advantage of this. There is going to be a lot of ball movement throughout the lineup. All of our primary offensive weapons/playmakers are well-suited for these tasks. SGA leads the break with Tatum as the 1B. Bam runs toward the basket to try to get there before Brook is in position. Dort/Ingles are trailing 3-point threats. Draymond/Reaves offer additional playmaking. Reaves offers an additional scoring threat. Again, we are going to look to take advantage of guys like Luka/Brook being out of position.

db has high-level defenders off of the bench but none of them offer much offensive value whatsoever. Comparatively I have both Reaves and Ingles coming off the bench, who both offer much more offensive value.

[durantbird]

PG: Luka Doncic 21' - 20.5
SG: Jrue Holiday 24' - 10.0
SF: Jalen Williams 25' - 16.9
PF: Anthony Davis 20' - 17.7
C: Brook Lopez 21' - 9.1

PG: Gary Payton II 22' - 4.8
SG: PJ Tucker 21' - 3.4
SF: Jonathan Isaac 24' - 4.9

87.3/88

PG: Luka Doncic 38 / Jrue Holiday 10
SG: Jrue Holiday 28 / Gary Payton II 16 / Jalen Williams 4
SF: Jalen Williams 34 / PJ Tucker 14
PF: Anthony Davis 25 / Jonathan Isaac 16 / PJ Tucker 7
C: Brook Lopez 35 / Anthony Davis 13

Vs

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (38) / Austin Reaves (10)
Lu Dort (30) / Austin Reaves (18)
Jayson Tatum (38) / Joe Ingles (10)
Draymond Green (30) / Joe Ingles (18)
Bam Adebayo (38) / Luke Kornet (10)

Matchup
- Defensive assignments: Holiday vs SGA, Luka vs Dort, JDub vs Tatum, Davis vs Draymond, Lopez vs Bam.
- We built an absolute defensive juggernaut around Luka. Defensive assignments are perfect with Payton, Tucker, Issac all providing additional great options off the bench to throw at either SGA or Tatum.
- We have three core defensive pieces for Bucks 21' with Holiday Lopez Tucker, only with Davis instead of Giannis, but then instead of Middleton you have Luka JDub, some kind of super charged OKC style offensive duo.
- Our defensive depth is just out of this world, while wack has great defense as well, we keep up the intensity all 48 minutes with no dropoffs off the bench, and we can run insane versatile lineups like Payton Holiday JDub Issac Davis that still keep up the offensive rhythm.
- Luka Davis are a seamless fit and one of the most unstoppable duos in the draft, with better cohesion than SGA Tatum. Lopez dragging Bam away from the rim makes it even harder to stop. Then we feature Jalen Williams as a massively overqualified third option who is just a do it all guy who fits great next to them, and is a much better third option in this matchup compared to Bam. Then Holiday and Lopez are just better two way contributors than Dort and old Draymond.

[durantbird]

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Voting is open. Team owners please vote for your own team

[durantbird]

wackbone advances