Franchise Draft History Game Semifinals: Dr Positivity vs GeorgeMarcus

[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).

[Dr Positivity]

PG: Chauncey Billups (2008: 11.2 FGA) - category 3, Celtics
SG: Marcus Smart (2019: 7.1 FGA) - category 4, Celtics
SF: Paul Pierce (2008: 13.7 FGA) - category 3, Celtics
PF: Jayson Tatum (2024: 19.3 FGA) - category 2, Celtics
C: Hakeem Olajuwon (1993: 19.5 FGA) - category 1, Rockets

SG/SF: Amen Thompson (2025: 10.1 FGA) - category 4, Rockets
PF: Nicolas Batum (2025: 3.1 FGA) - category 4, Rockets
C: Kurt Thomas (2007: 3.9 FGA) - category 4, Heat

87.9 / 88

PG: Chauncey Billups (38) / Marcus Smart (10)
SG: Marcus Smart (24) / Amen Thompson (24)
SF: Paul Pierce (38) / Amen Thompson (8) / Jayson Tatum (2)
PF: Jayson Tatum (36) / Nicolas Batum (12)
C: Hakeem Olajuwon (38) / Kurt Thomas (10)

GL GeorgeMarcus

Defensive matchups: Smart on Brunson, Billups on Christie, Pierce on Schrempf, Tatum on Pippen, Hakeem on Kareem

- We have the stronger defensive team with Hakeem over 80 Kareem and stronger perimeter D, with Brunson as the outright weakest defender and Schrempf arguably next weakest and whoever he is on of Pierce/Tatum can have good series, while we will look for Brunson on switches. Amen is the X factor taking our D another level with our best defensive starters, and when him and young Smart play together the activity will be great. The matchups are great for us as we can put Smart on Brunson to physically bother him, have size on Pippen and elite Kareem defender.

- We're using Smart as our 3 and D guy in starting lineup and while you can cast some doubt his 36% 3pt this year, I don't think the difference between him and Christie's shooting is massive, the latter's 3pt career is a bit better but had some average shooting years half his prime years, and had to take lower volume. The rest of our starting lineup is better at shooting due to our wings vs Pippen's.

- McMillan and Perkins is a solid bench combo, however riding Perkins for that many minutes could be an issue for him on defense as he would get cooked by players like Tatum, Pierce or Amen if he had to guard one, plus this is with having to hide Brunson. Batum is not a useless 7th man as he played 25 minutes a game in the playoffs for a great team that had options. Thomas is tough vet and gives us a midrange shot Collison doesn't.

Overall Billups, Smart, Tatum, Hakeem can play Brunson, Christie, Pippen, Kareem close, the difference in talent having a 4th true star in Pierce instead of Schrempf, GM's team feels like a clear big 3. Our calling card is defense with an active team on that end while we play inside out with Hakeem and have a lot of skilled perimeter players who can finish games like Pierce, Billups, Tatum. Tatum is unselfish and can utilize his passing game in this series to find Hakeem and other shooters.

[GeorgeMarcus]

Starting Lineup
80 Kareem Abdul Jabbar ~ 16.9 FGA ~ MVP, DEF1, NBA Champion
95 Detlef Schrempf ~ 12.2 FGA ~ NBA3
96 Scottie Pippen ~ 15.8 ~ NBA1, DEF1, NBA Champion MVP-5, DPOY-2
03 Doug Christie ~ 7.0 FGA ~ DEF1, DPOY-5
25 Jalen Brunson ~ 18.5 FGA ~ NBA2, CPOY, MVP-10

Bench
13 Nick Collison ~ 3.7 FGA
97 Sam Perkins ~ 8.2 FGA ~ 6MOY-5
94 Nate McMillan ~ 5.4 FGA ~ DEF2, DPOY-7, 6MOY-2

87.7/88 FGA

Rotation
Kareem (38) / Collison (10)
Schrempf (20) / Perkins (28)
Pippen (33) / Schrempf (15)
Christie (35) / McMillan (8) / Pippen (5)
Brunson (38) / McMillan (10)

Write-Up
Starting Defensive Assignments:
Kareem --> Hakeem
Pippen --> Tatum
Schrempf --> Pierce
Brunson --> Smart
Christie --> Billups

Gotta make this quick. It's an interesting matchup for a number of reasons but I think our biggest advantage is reliable offensive output. Dr P's collection of talent, while impressive, is prone to higher levels of volatility on top of the assumption that Dream/Tatum/Pierce operate smoothly together.

GL Dr P and nice building

[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.

Dr Positivity and GM, please vote for yourselves. Everyone else please vote within the time frame.

[Fadeaway_J]

Dr P's defensive advantage is pretty substantial in this one.