Super defense vs. super offense

[ronnymac2]

russell, rodman, bruce bowen, jerry sloan, and gary payton vs. amare, barkley, gervin, iverson, and nash

I tried picking guys that are basically extremes. Also, try thinking that the gp is a young gp. I couldn't think of a seriously elite defensive pg with bad offense, but young gp didn't have extremely gaudy offensive numers yet, so i picked him.

So would the defense team have enough offense to win? Who you got?

[Alex_De_Large]

russell, rodman, bruce bowen, jerry sloan, and gary payton offense > amare, barkley, gervin, iverson, and nash defense? if so, i pick the defense!

[tmac4real]

normally I go defense > offense, but that russell's team offense is seriously weak. Even if they reduce the offensive's teams scoring by 30% I dobut they haev enough firepower to win it.

Defense is great and "defnese wins championships" and all taht, but u have to have SOME offense.

[Patterns]

Equal defense vs equal offense will always result in equal offense winning.

If you have ever played basketball in the park, you'll know that the team with the best scorers usually win, not the team with the hustle defense players.

[Relentless88]

Offense.

[zong]

personally I'd go with offense

[Wade2k6]

Offense.

[TheOUTLAW]

The defense team just can't score enough. But I'd love to watch the Iceman light up Sloan like a christmas tree.

[Harry Palmer]

One of the problems with this lineup vs. lineup is that most of the offensive guys could really defend when they wanted to...they just didn't often want to. But Barkley, AI, and the Iceman could pull it out if the situation required and, if not having to carry the load on offense so much, likely would pull it out more often.

Whereas the defensive guys mostly couldn't play top notch offense if their lives were on the line...other than Payton.

I'm still almost tempted to take the defensive line-up anyways, but if I didn't, the above would be why.

[penbeast0]

Never saw any sign that Barkley or Gervin had any defensive instincts (Iverson yes). Those skills take practice and focus too, both had athleticism but neither had the mental part of the game. Barkley could hold his man off in the post with his strength but didnt seem to know how to space from the offensive player on the perimeter or which way to look/turn in help defense. Gervin always gave too much space even to good shooters, and had weak lateral movement. Iverson, however, was a good defensive player at Georgetown under John Thompson. It was only when he came to the pros and decided that he was a star and didn't have to work defensively anymore that his game fell apart.

[penbeast0]

oh, and Sloan was a good offensive player too, though not the equal of Payton. Russell was at least competent and his and Rodman's rebounding should allow the defensive team to dominate this matchup despite the great shooting of the offense. You can't score if you don't have the ball and even Bowen was a scorer in college so the offensive instincts are stronger for the D team than the defensive ones are for the O team.

[Point forward]

I couldn't think of a seriously elite defensive pg with bad offense

KC Jones fits that bill perfectly. On topic, I think that team defense *just* has too little firepower. Team O reminds me a lot of those crazy Nellie Mavs with LaFrentz / Dirk / Finley / Van Exel / Nash, they could allow 120 points but still win 121-120.

[Warspite]

If you put 5 scoring champs together vs 5 DPOYs (assuming the level of defense of the Scoring champs is near = to the offensive game of the DPOY players) The Scorers will win 75% of the time IMHO.

Defense in basketball is not like defense on Hockey, Baseball, Football or soccer. Its more like a missile defense or filter. With the shotclock its just not possible to stop a team so all tou can realy do is l

1. limit possesions (run all 24 secs off the clock)
2. Limit your own TOs (since they result in easy baskets)

Those things are doen on your offensive end on defense you can do

1. Force TOs of the other team
2. Limit FGA
3. Limit offensive rebounds
4. Force worst player to shoot
5. make opponets shoot outside.

The biggest problem IMHO is that great players overcome defenses and that refs always favor the offensive player and especialy the offensive star.

[ronnymac2]

-= original quote snipped =-



KC Jones fits that bill perfectly. On topic, I think that team defense *just* has too little firepower. Team O reminds me a lot of those crazy Nellie Mavs with LaFrentz / Dirk / Finley / Van Exel / Nash, they could allow 120 points but still win 121-120.

Yeah, i did think of him before i selected young gp, but idk, i guess i was lookin for somebody with slightly better offense than k.c. jones, even if it was for the all defensive team lol.

My thinking is that if amare can help barkely grab defensive rebounds and keep russell off the offensive glass, the offensive team should win. They can get out and fast break with all 5 players. Amare is inconsistent on the defensive boards and defensive end in general, but he'd be a key to their d if he chose to be.

In the halfcourt, i think if they tried, they'd be able to hold down the defense team's offense, though the defense team does have very good passers. The no offense team also has terrible free throw shooters: rodman, russell, and bowen aren't exactly price, bird, reggie.

In the halfcourt, the d team could defend the offense team fairly well and dominate the defensive glass with rebounding beasts russell and rodman. I do think offense would win in this situation. Barkley too efficient, iceman and answer are 4-time scoring champs, nash leading the way and fastbreaking with this group, and amare's explosiveness (especially with nash and another low post scorer in barkely to take away double teams), and the offense team would come out on top.

[penbeast0]

Other great defensive PGs that were weak offensively . . . (other than KC Jones who admittedly is the worst) . . . Don Buse, Quinn Buckner, Eric Snow, Mookie Blaylock, arguably even Norm Van Lier and Jason Kidd (poor shooters, though if you count great playmaking as offense this doesn't qualify . . . on the other hand, then you should count great rebounding as defense, lol)

[sp6r=underrated]

Nate McMillan was also great defensively but weak on offense

[Reks]

I'd put eric snow on the defense team
I miss AI in college. Big East Defensive Player of the Year.

[Hendrix]

I'm going with offense, mostly because I think even as bad as some of thise offensive guys are defensivly they'd have no problem defending you defensive team.

[Batman1]

Give me the Super defense, the Super offense has worked in the past with teams like the 1980s Lakers, but its very rare. I'd rather go with the defense.