Franchise Draft History Game: Round One- Square* vs durantbird

[Snakebites]

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).

[durantbird]

Cleveland Cavaliers / Toronto Raptors / Brooklyn Nets



PG: Kyrie Irving 15' - 16.5 - Cavs (Category 3)
SG: Tracy McGrady 02' - 20.9 - Toronto (Category 2)
SF: Danny Green 17' - 6.6 - Cavs (Category 4)
PF: LeBron James 13' - 17.8 - Cavs (Category 1)
C: Brook Lopez 21' - 9.1 - Brooklyn (Category 3)

Bench: Delon Wright 22' - 3.5 - Toronto (Category 4)
Bench: OG Anunoby 20' - 8.2 - Toronto (Category 4)
Bench: PJ Tucker 19' - 5.4 - Toronto (Category 4)

88/88

PG: Kyrie Irving 38 / Delon Wright 10
SG: Tracy McGrady 38 / Danny Green 8 / OG Anunoby 2
SF: Danny Green 22 / OG Anunoby 26
PF: LeBron James 38 / PJ Tucker 10
C: Brook Lopez 38 / PJ Tucker 10

Vs

G Curry 38 / Mann 8 / Miller 2
G Klay 38 / Miller 10
F Gordon 34 / Miller 14
F Draymond 24 / Odom 24
C Dwight 36 / Draymond 12

Matchup
- Defensive assignments: Green vs Curry, LeBron vs Draymond, McGrady vs Klay, Kyrie vs Gordon, Lopez vs Dwight.
- We match up well here. Danny Green is our primary Curry defender — he has the elite tools and discipline to disrupt and contest him — and McGrady has the size and agility to track Klay off the ball. Anunoby, Wright, Tucker, and even LeBron can rotate onto their guards and wings to give different looks. LeBron as a roaming help defender is our secret weapon: guarding Draymond lets him sag off, cheat into driving lanes, protect the rim from the weak side, and blow up actions early. Lopez holds his own against Dwight, with LeBron always lurking to assist.
- Offensively, we can play true five-out at all times with Lopez stretching to the perimeter, surrounding LeBron, Kyrie, and McGrady with full spacing. That pulls Dwight away from the rim and opens clean driving lanes for our creators. LeBron and T-Mac run the offense as primary initiators, Kyrie gives us elite isolation scoring and shotmaking, and our shooters (Green, Lopez, OG, PJ) are ready to punish any help. With five-out spacing every possession, LeBron’s passing and McGrady’s shot creation become even more dangerous, as we keep the paint empty and force constant rotations.
- Even though Square has the splash brothers, the rest of the squad leaves a lot to be desired spacing wise. Gordon Draymond Dwight clog the paint for each other, as compared to a true give out scheme on our part.

[Square]

Team Square

Roster
G Steph Curry '17: 25/5/7 on 47/41/90 (Playoffs 28/6/7, 48/42/90, +10 BPM), #1 in RAPM, his peak season per PC board, All-NBA 2nd, NBA Champ
G Terance Mann '21: 14/7/3 per 36 on 51/42/83 shooting, 60 TS%
G Klay Thompson '15: 22/3/3 on 46/44/88 shooting, #7 in NBA in RAPM, All-NBA 3rd, NBA Champ
G/F Mike Miller '05: 13/4/3 on 51/43 shooting, 61 TS%, #15 in NBA in RAPM, +3 BPM
F Aaron Gordon '25: 15/5/3 on 53/44/81 shooting, 65 TS%
F Draymond Green '17: 10/8/7/2/1, #6 in NBA in RAPM, All-NBA 3rd, DPOY, NBA Champ
F Lamar Odom '09: 11/8/3/1/1 on 49/32, #2 in NBA in RAPM, NBA Champ
C Dwight Howard '10: 18/13/2/3/1 on 61 FG%, All-NBA 1st, DPOY

Picks, FGA, etc.:

Spoiler:

Round 1: Golden State (Curry 18.3, Klay 16.9, Draymond 8.6)
Round 2: Orlando (Dwight 10.2, Miller 10.1, Gordon 9.7)
Round 3: LA Clippers (Odom 9.0, Mann 5.2)

Category 1: Steph
Category 2: Dwight
Category 3: Klay, Draymond
Category 4: Mann, Gordon, Miller, Odom

Total FGA: 88.0

Rotation:
G Curry 38 / Mann 8 / Miller 2
G Klay 38 / Miller 10
F Gordon 34 / Miller 14
F Draymond 24 / Odom 24
C Dwight 36 / Draymond 12


About Team Square
We take the core of the champion, 73-win Warriors squad and add to it the rim-running, vertical presence they never had in Dwight. We spice that up with a trio of big forwards that defend, pass, rebound, and shoot.

Offensively, we know a core of Steph/Klay/Draymond is going to be elite offensively. Dwight is going to feast off that movement and finish ultra-efficiently at the rim. Draymond and Odom are going to suck opposing bigs outside because of the passing synergy; we all know that you have to guard any big at the arc that plays with the splash brothers. (This is why GSW always had elite offenses no matter what crappy non-shooting 5 was playing with these guys.) Miller and Gordon provide added shooting, ball-handling, and transition ferocity. (BTW if you think Aaron Gordon is not a good shooter, your NBA knowledge is out of date.) Finally, we’re huge and will feast on the offensive boards.

Defensively, this team is monstrous. Anchored by two of the most impactful modern DPOYs in Draymond and Dwight, surrounded by big, physical, switchable defenders in Gordon/Klay/Odom/Mann, and terrifying on the glass.

We’re also super deep – Miller and Odom are starter quality guys off the bench.

So overall, the case is pretty simple: Great offense built around the GOAT offensive backcourt, an elite interior finisher, and passing/shooting all around. Great defense built around 2 DPOYs and huge switchable forwards. Not much else to say.

Vs. durantbird

I think we match up really well here. (I also just flat disagree with some of my esteemed opponent’s remarks, and I’ll remark on those as well.)

On offense, you just can’t defend Curry and Klay with a drop big in Lopez. We’re a decade into this with Curry and we all know how it goes. Our shooters are absolutely going to feast. DB made some remarks about our spacing (ignoring the three 40% 3-point shooters besides Curry and Klay), but also the whole point of a Warriors-style offense is that opposing bigs have to stick to our screeners like Dray/Gordon/Odom/Dwight on the perimeter, because if they don’t then the two greatest shooters ever walk into open threes. Again, we’re a decade into this and we don’t have to pretend like we don’t understand it. Dwight screening for shooters and rolling to the rim in all that space, getting lobs from Dray or whatever, is going to be hell to deal with.


Notice also that he is forced to guard Aaron Gordon with Kyrie. Gordon isn't PJ Tucker -- he's a talented offensive player who knows how to use his body inside, and that gives easy buckets for us off cuts and quick seals.

(Also, I’m sorry but I chuckled at “McGrady has the size and agility to track Klay off the ball.” He may have the size and agility, but he was absolutely not someone who consistently tracked shooters on defense.) Overall, with Lopez as the only big, Lebron at the 4, and weak defenders in Kyrie, TMac playing big minutes guarding players they are poorly suited to guard, I don’t foresee us having a lot of trouble scoring on this team.

We’re also just bigger than DB’s team and are going to eat on the boards. Lopez is a weak rebounder vs. an all-time great rebounder in Dwight, and Lebron is at the 4 against true bigs. Gordon being guarded by Kyrie is going to vacuum up OREBS.

On defense, we have great answers for DB’s attack. We have more defenders than even the 73-win Warriors, so we can switch freely. Starting matchups are Klay on Kyrie, Curry on Green, Gordon on TMac, Draymond on Lebron, but we’re not scared to switch these around.


Overall, we’re just bigger, deeper, and stronger on the glass. We're much better defensively and we have cleaner matchups to exploint on offense. I think we can take this.

[Snakebites]

Voting is now open via poll, and will be for exactly 24 hours. You are more than welcome to post in this thread explaining why you voted the way you did, but it is not required and only poll votes will be counted.

Square and DB, please vote for yourselves. Everyone else please vote within the time frame.

[Dr Positivity]

Gordon at SF was a bold move but with his 3pt shooting improvement I guess it's ok, and Square having a stacked bench made a difference here.

[Snakebites]

At the end of the day I did not love the fit of Lebron/TMAC/Kyrie. Yeah I know 2 of those three figured out how to succeed together, but all three need the ball in their hands.

I also view 2015 Kyrie as a meaningful downgrade.

[durantbird]

I like we at least get feedback in this draft

[Square]

Good game durantbird. After all these years, I still never really know how the voting will go in these.

[Snakebites]

Square advances