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, you may post a vote by commenting to this post (notice we will not be using a poll) - all participants of the draft are invited and encouraged to post a vote, so as other regular participants of the games in the forum. You are not required to explain your vote, but you are welcome to do so if you want.
The team with the most votes after 24 hours will advance / win championship (depending on round). If a team gets 4 votes before 24 hours, then the first one to do that auto advances. If the votes are tied, we will decide the matchup via AI vote.
Minimum of two human votes to decide a matchup.
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).
Rotations C - Jokic (38), Wallace (10) PF - Wallace (28), Diaw (20) SF - Butler (38), Miller (10) SG - Miller (28), Lee (10), VanVleet (10) PG - Lowry (37), VanVleet (11)
FGA Per Player
Spoiler:
Nikola Jokic - 14.8 Jimmy Butler - 13.1 Reggie Miller - 12.9 Kyle Lowry - 11.4 Rasheed Wallace - 14.3 Fred VanVleet - 9.4 Boris Diaw - 4.4 Courtney Lee - 7.0
Total: 87.3/88.0
We flank Jokic with a star-studded cast that can complement his unique set of skills. Butler's mix of off-the-dribble chops and smart cutting allow him and Jokic to run a variety of actions. Reggie will be devastating running defenders around screens to get on the end of Jokic passes. Lowry can run high pick-and-roll with Jokic as well as spot up off the ball. Sheed can play the stretch 4 role but also gets to post up weaker defenders with Jokic and Butler drawing most of the attention. FVV and Lee provide spacing off the bench, while Diaw can function almost as a mini-Jokic with his playmaking out of the high post. Defensively, Sheed and Butler do the heavy lifting in the frontcourt, while Lowry and FVV apply relentless pressure at the point of attack.
Matchup - Defensively, we'll go Butler-Luka, Lowry-Bridges, Reggie-OG, Sheed-Dirk, Jokic-Chandler. The Luka-Dirk two-man game will be a big challenge but we are able to deploy our two best defenders to deal with it. Sheed's mobility and smarts will be crucial here. - While Chandler and Bogut are excellent defenders, we feel like Jokic can attack both in different ways. His sheer size and strength in the post will be too much for the slender Chandler, and he can take Bogut out of his comfort zone with his perimeter game (particularly when interacting with Butler, Reggie, or Lowry). - Luka faces a tough defensive series as our perimeter trio forces him to guard at all times. He can't really defend PGs - Lowry would be able to beat him off the dribble fairly easily - chasing Reggie around is equally untenable, and he's hardly someone you would want trying to deal with Butler. There's simply no rest for him on the defensive end. - As great as Luka and Dirk are as a combo, we simply have a deeper offensive arsenal. In addition to Jokic, Butler and Reggie were #1 options on finals teams, while Lowry and Sheed are overqualified fourth and fifth options. Additionally, I think it's significant that Luka doesn't have another high-level off-the-dribble creator like he did on his most successful teams; he's shouldering that burden pretty much on his own, which seems like it could lead to him getting worn down by the end of the series (this was the case in 2021 against the Clippers). OG can help to some degree but he's more of a dependent secondary scorer, while Bridges and Chandler are strictly role players.
I think my team has the type of spread pick and roll offense that Jokic doesn't particularly like defending against, and I also think my two MVP guys are both well suited to do well here.
Rasheed is on paper a good defender for Dirk, but I never got the impression Dirk really underperformed against us. He occasionally got tripped up when teams would try smaller defenders on him, but the reality is in general that he and Luka aren't really players that defense can reliably stop. While I have fewer all stars than Fade, I'd argue that all of my guys are well suited to the role and load they're being asked to carry.
OG proved himself to be a viable first and at times even second option in the playoffs this season, and I think he slides into that role behind Dirk and Luka very effectively. Bridges is perfectly suited as a 4th option, with the ability as a shooter and also as a cutter, both of which will be extremely useful in the offense I have set up. And Chandler? I reliable roll man, enough of a threat as a rim runner to keep the defense honest.
Defensively I think we match up well position by position, whereas Fade is stuck with a mismatch of Reggie on OG- which means OG should have a major series here.
I think my balanced attack around my 2 MVP level guys is enough to carry the day here against Jokic and the admittedly impressive group around him.
Vote Fade, both teams are strong but I think his starting 5 all stars is a bit more complete, and prefer bench with Lowry FVV to Korver who could compound some D issues
I was concerned early on but I didn't expect Reggie or Sheed to fall to me.
GG
And yeah. I figured that Dirk/Luka would carry me far but I think a finals loss was the ceiling given I didn’t get a third star, particularly here where I squared off against a team with 5 of them.
Luka and Dirk, both from a fit and FGA standpoint, kinda locked me into role players. And I got great ones. But it wasn’t enough.
