Rebuttal
bringbackhoffa wrote:Line Up:
Steve Nash(35)/Chalmers(13)
Kobe(38)/Martin(10)
Pierce(36)/Hedo(12)
Amare(20)/Hedo(13)/Haslem(15)
Biedrins(27)/Amare(12)/Kaman(9)
Im going with a 10 Man rotation and having the following players inactive for this series:
Allen Iverson
Eddie House
Jeff Foster
The first think I noticed when I saw this was Paul and Bosh are going to have an even easier time then I thought. Look at the frontline, there is no interior defense here. Is Amare the anchor? I am grateful that Kaman and Haslem aren't seeing signifigant minutes. Hedo playing at the 4 is a mistake IMO, he is also a very ball dominant guy, look at ORL he has the highests usage on the team. The best player on the Raptors bench, Martin is only playing 10 minutes, what impact can he make? He is a guy that is a pretty average defender. I see that A.I isn't playing and instead Chalmers is. We are going to attack the rookie, we saw in the MIA series that he isn't ready for the big stage quite yet, and even if he is a good defender Paul is wayyy to crafty for him.
Also look at the roster. The guys that see the most minutes are all ball dominant. Nash, Kobe, PP, Amare and Hedo. I've explained this before in my writeup but it is even more apparent with Kaman and Haslem seeing minimal minutes.
Back Court
Steve Nash/Kobe vs Chris Paul/Ray Allen
This is a great backcourt for both teams but when it come right down to it, Nash and Kobe have 3 MVPs and loads of playoff experience.
Allen doesn't have playoff experiance? Paul has less but thats just because he hasn't been in the league long and his team blows.
Some may say that Nash is regressing but have you looked at his numbers
Year Team G GS MPG FG% 3P% FT% OFF DEF RPG APG SPG BPG TO PF PPG
05-06 Not found 79 79 35.4 0.512 0.439 0.921 0.6 3.6 4.2 10.5 0.8 0.2 3.49 1.50 18.8
06-07 Not found 76 76 35.3 0.532 0.455 0.899 0.4 3.1 3.5 11.6 0.8 0.1 3.78 1.50 18.6
07-08 Not found 81 81 34.3 0.504 0.470 0.906 0.3 3.1 3.5 11.1 0.6 0.1 3.64 1.40 16.9
08-09 Not found 74 74 33.6 0.503 0.439 0.933 0.3 2.8 3.0 9.7 0.7 0.1 3.35 1.50 15.7
The main reason his numbers dropped in 2009 was because playing with Shaq was cramping his style, and with Amare playing minutes and both the PF/C it will bring him back to a style of play that he loves to play. With the addition of Pierce and Kobe he will probably always have one man open and Nash is amazing at finding the open man. Also with the defence focusing on Pierce and Kobe it will leave Nash with plenty of looks from the three point line where he shot 44% from last season.
How is Nash going to make Kobe, PP, Amare and Hedo all happy? How is he going to handle the ball with Kobe in the backcourt and PP starting?
Though on defence Nash may have a problem guarding the quicker Paul, but I don’t have a problem with Biedrins,Amare,Hedo, or Kaman committing the hard foul under the hoop to tell him whose “boss”.
If this is your explaination on how your going to stop Paul...first off Beans, Amare and Hedo aren't exactly enforcers and the most physical guy out of all of them, Kaman, is playing 9 minutes. Paul isn't being stopped in this series. You have no interior defense and his primary defender is Steve Nash.
Then what can I say about Kobe, he had a tough time in boston last year, but it was not ray allen guarding him it was paul pierce, and we all saw the piss poor performances that ray allen put in these playoffs, and if there is any one player that has digressed most in these playoffs it was him. In this years playoffs Kobe has matured more as a player and does not have a problem of giving the ball to someone else and letting them win the game aka Derek fisher hitting the game tying three in game four. I feel in a up tempo offence he will be tough to guard and will get plenty of good looks on the floor. I do not see Kobe having any problem guarding Ray allen as he is a spot up shooter on most positions.
Both Pierce and Allen shared time defending Kobe, and in this series Allen and Bell (still a top defender on the perimeter and one of the best defenders at the SG spot) will share time guarding Kobe, as well as Posey and Paul at times. We will double him when we need to as well. As to Kobe maturing who does he have at the SF spot in LA. Ariza a role player. PP will not put up with defering to a player who he thinks he is better than. Do you plan to use Nash in the Derek Fisher role? As a spot up shooter? There were many times when Gasol got frustrated with Kobe when he didn't get him the ball when Gasol had position in the post. What do you think Amare “I wanna be the man) is going to do? Gasol is a pretty chills guy who doesn't demand the spotlight or attention and is happy to defer. Amare not so much, You still haven't addressed this. Also to say that Ray Allen is simply a “spot up shooter” is disrespectful, Allen was the best player on the Celtics for most of the season and parts of the playoffs. We are happy he is going under the radar he will thrive in this role, with all the attention that Bosh and Paul demand it may end up being Allen who ends up winning me a game or two in this series. Like I said before Kobe is a solid defender but it is a tiring task guarding a player like Ray Allen.
Front-Court
Pierce/Amare VS Salmons/Bosh
With plenty of scoring options on this team you are thinking will Pierce get his teammates involved, I believe he will. Though Pierce is a ball dominant player he is not afraid of letting his team mates make the last second shot (aka Glen Davis), and is also not afraid to make a clutch shot which a great thing to have on a team. Pierce’s defence is really underrated and I feel he will not have a tough time guarding Salmons.
Lets get to the Real Discussion
AMARE VS BOSH WHO IS BETTER
Well, Amare has always played great against the Raptors, for instance here is what he did in the past Season
Game1: Shot 60% and had 31 points and 6 rebounds, while only commiting 2 fouls, meaning he was always in front of his man and did not have to commit a foul
While Bosh had an alright night he put up 20 and 12, he did commit 5 fouls because he could not stay in front of his man.
In my opinion with Amare playing with a point guard that he has excelled playing with he will continue to dominate Bosh inside the paint. However Bosh will also benefit from a point guard that is better then calderon but he is a player that is too jump shot happy and if his jumper isn’t going in, he will not be having a great night.
Again you continue to derespect my players, PP is indeed a good defender but if you think that he will have no problem with Salmons you are mistaken. PP did a good job on Salmons in the CHI series but it took a toll, it tired him out and then Salmons did a great job on PP on the other end as well. I remember in game 6 Salmons had 35 points so lets not pretend he can't get it score and PP is going to have an easy time. Also you point to one play in which PP gave the last shot to Davis but you continue to ignore the ball dominance of most of your guys, who takes the last shot Kobe or PP? Hedo loves to take the last shot and isn't afraid to. Does Amare try to do it all himself?
Center:
Biedrins VS Perkins
Biedrins main assignment in this series is too grab rebounds and he has shown in his career he is great on the glass, his offensive ability is great but will not be needed in this series. He will have a tough defender on him in Perkins who has really stepped up his game in Boston. With help from Amare boxing out Bosh I feel as though Biedrins can ot rebound Perkins on any given day.
Beans is a great rebounder but who is his PF. Maggette? How about the fact that he plays on a really high paced team in GS and he is the only rebounder? His rebounding numbers are inflated. You don't mention defense as well, Perkins is one of the best defensive C's in the league and Beans is on the worst. But seeing as you said “Defense? What defense do I need with this offense” I understand why you didn't mention it, if you think your offense is so much better then mine then thats fine I'll leave it up to the judges to decide
Bench Main Players
Hedo/Chalmer/Martin/Haslem/Kaman VS Baron/Bell/Crawford/Posey/harrigton/varejao/Rasho
With Black Ice already informing me that Baron will not be competing in this series I will not consider him in this matchup(You better have not lied about that).
I feel that his primary player coming off the bench will be posey who is a great defender and bring with him an NBA championship which is great experience to bring off your bench. I counter that with Hedo a very versatile Player who can play the 1-4, but will be primarily be seeing time at the 3-4 in this series.
The other 2 player that I have playing a good shar of minues are Chalmers and Haslem. Chalmers though a rookie put together a great campaign in Miami this year, and will learn great insight in the game from Nash. I am assuming that Paul will be playing around 40 minutes a game so, he will have the tough assignment of guarding him at time, and may leave me a bit vulnerable.
Haslem an NBA champion brings some great championship experience and a great tough rebounder/defender. I wish I could play him more in this series but I could not allocate any more minutes that I did. He will be going up against a similar player in Varejao who I feel cancel each other out.
And the rest of the bench players are just fillers in my opinion as I don’t see Crapford or rasho or harrigton playing any major roles for my opponent.
The difference between Posey and Hedo is that Posey is an elite role player who gives me great defense , hustle, and does all the little things that win games while Hedo is a creater, a ball dominant scorer. Haslem isn't playing enough minutes to be effective or make any signifigant impact. Crawford and Rasho aren't playing. Harrington put up 20/7 this past season and will be playing a role on my team, so not sure why you are ignoring him but fair enough.
Offensive Strategy
I will be running an uptempo offence with Steve Nash as my anchor, who will be dishing the ball to whoever is open or is being guarded by Crawford,bell,allen. Also if Amare is not getting the double team I will have him going right at Bosh and if Salmons or Perkins steps in I don’t have Amare either posterizing them or dishing the ball out to the open man.
Crawford isn't playing and you want to target whoever Bell is guarding? Bell is a defensive ace so that plays right into what I want. Allen is a good defender as well. How effect is Amare going to be with his limited touchs? Or are you going to take away touchs for Kobe and PP. Again you haven't addressed this, and you fail to realize that Amare now is much more of a jump shooting big man just like Bosh. Bosh is going to be getting a lot of touchs, and Amare is going to be a 3rd to 4th option. How will he feel about this.
Defence
What defence? Do I even need defence with this offence. Well I believe I do have quality defenders in Kobe, Pierce,Amare, Hedo, and haslem. Chris Paul is a series threat to my team and good on black ice for pulling that trade but leaves his SF position really vulnerable.
Nuff said. Also Amare is a quality defender? You keep talking abou Haslem but he is only playing 9 minutes a game, and isn't exactly a defensive anchor why do you think MIA went after JO, even a broken down JO? Your best defenders are at the wing spots but most of my offense will be coming from the PG and PF spots.
I would have gotten more into the Number crunching but I just can’t see me not winning this series in 4 games, I believe I just have to much experience and leadership on this team not to.
We don't have experience? Leadership? You take my team lightly at your peril.
edit* Many spelling errors but I'm tired and am not going to edit it.
