Golden Era Auction Writeups - 2nd ROUND [DEADLINE FRIDAY]

[Warspite]

Bryant vs Snakebites

Its a classic offense vs defense matchup. Bryants team plays little defense and Snakes team struggles to score. The fastbreak of Bryants team is awsome and something I fear with Magic and Malone. The huskies are a well oiled machine that scores in bunches but again its defense is well... challenged.

Snakes team is that classic halfcourt grind it out team with a nice trio of GP, Allen and Bird to make clutch shots.

Tempo is a big factor here with the Huskies running and Snakes playing halfcourt. It realy is a contrast of styles.

C: Gilmore though eff is not a off threat with Zo gaurding him. I expect both to get limited touches in the low post but will get several open looks as there man leaves to play help def.
PF: Karl Malone is #1 option for the Huskies and he will get his 25ppg. Looking up ind matchups with Buck I see that K malone plays well vs Buck and he gets his production and in some cases playes better than avg. Buck is younger in this matchup and is a better rebounder but I expect Malone to get his and Buck to be in foul trouble.
SF: As long as Bird is not on the 3pt line Magic is big trouble trying to guard him. If Bird is going after Magic (and it should be #1 priority) and Magic picks up 2 early fouls the game is heavily swayed to the Snakes. I dont think Magic is going to stay on Bird and risk his mins being cut to 20mpg. I therefore see Bird playing against a rotation of players from Magic/Jones/VC. As long as hes staying with a 3 guard lineup hes most likely going to lose his rebounding edge and thus fast break pts can be curtailed. In the end The Snakes are going to lower the tempo. I can also see bird being gaurded by K Malone while VC or Jones are guarding Laimbeer. That however creates other mismatches. The Huskies cant hide Magic by putting him Bird. Magic on a GP that wants to post up IMHO is a much better matchup. I just dont like the Huskies taking the ball away from GP and giving it to Bird and making him be the guy who decides the game. My defense would be geared to keeping the ball away from Bird and not dareing him to beat me. The question now is asked if Bird will be slowed down by collapsing defense from Gilmore and will Zo be able to hit open shots??
I dont understand the roll of VC in this offense other than fast break/cherry picking. hes giving up so much size that I question his ability to stay on the court.
SG: Allen vs Dumars is kind of blah matchup as these guys are outlet catch and shoot players on ofense but they wont be guarding each other so I expect a few easy layups for either as they cant find each other in transistion.
PG: I cant think of any player I would rather have guarding Magic than GP. The Glove is the player thats going to hurt Magic more than anyone else. Magic will play well but I expect him to have a subpar series.

Im going to vote for Bryant simply because he has teh talnet adv and Magic/K malone is just too much firepower.

[ronnymac2]

TMAC vs. ALL In The Name........

Damn this is tough. These teams are built very well- there is great talent along with the all-important chemistry/fit. The teams remind me of a team I saw once that had Billups/Pierce/Barry/Cowens/Olajuwon as the starting five.......a decent team....

While I appreciate AITN's analysis of the USG of Wade and Nash, I don't buy that they won't be able to work together. Wade has more than proven that he knows how to work off of teammates, he can get his teammates going while getting his, he uses teammates well, and he is unselfish. I'm not talking about the Olympics either. I mean what he did with Shaq, and what he did with his young teammates last year allowing them to grow(I know, not in the year's listed, but still)...he's shown me he doesn't need the ball to be effective as hell. Nash is unselfish, is a great shooter, and is smart enough to give the ball to Wade when it's go time.

I also don't buy that AITN's team will have trouble closing things out. Shaq always brought it, did surprisingly well in the 4th quarter of a lot of the the playoff games in his 3-year window (and career in general), and like he always promised, he hit the ft's when they counted. I saw KG put up one of the GOAT 4th quarters in NBA history. Garnett literally caused a missed shot, grabbed a defensive board, took the ball down the court, passed to the wing, went to the post, caught the ball, and then made a play for his team. He did this multiple times in the 4th quarter. Manu is also a big-time 4th quarter player, and Grant Hill is dangerous as well.

Both teams aren't amazing shooting teams, but I do believe they each have enough spacing to be effective. I like the dynamic among the members of AINT's frontcourt. Shaq is inside, KG is speading the floor with his elite J, and Hill is slashing. I never believed in Shaq "clogging the paint". If Hill drives, what's Jabbar going to do? Is he going to leave Shaq so Hill, an excellent passer, can give him the ball. If Jabbar leaves Shaq, O'neal hits the offensive glass. Cooper, Manu, Bowen, Porter, and Terry are good enough from long-range to spread the rest of the floor out for those 3 to do their damage. BTW, Shaq/KG compliment each other perfectly on both ends of the floor.

On the other side, Artest is a good 3-point shooter when he's standing still. TMAC is using him like the Lakers are using Ron this year. When he has people creating for him, he IS a very good shooter from distance. Nash is obviously lights-out. Johnson and Hornacek are fine, and both Jabbar and Mchale have nice mid-range games. Wade's mid-range game back circa 06 was underrated to me. Rodman must always be accounted for on the offensive glass...a player must always stick with him, so that provides spacing, in its own weird way. Worm was also great at handing the ball off to a guy and then screening both his own defender and his teammate's defender out of the way. That'll work with a guy like Wade imo.

Rebounding....an edge to AITN's team. It's mainly because Mchale isn't a dominant rebounder and these aren't Jabbar's ABSOLUTE best years. I watched some Moses vs. KAJ recently, and what I saw was that Jabbar could score at will on Moses, but Moses owned him on the glass in a head-to-head comparison when they were on the court together. That's where Jabbar sort of struggles with physicality. I think Shaq will be able to put a body on him and not let Jabbar rule the glass. That leaves it up to 30 minutes of Rodman. Against Garnett and Hill (an excellent defensive rebounder)...I love Worm, but AITN has a nice edge on the glass.

I thought prime Artest was overrated defensively. This Artest imo will struggle against Hill's elite first step. Hill will get inside and cause havoc. Even with Rodman backing the frontcourt (and believe me, Rodman and Artest are one nasty foward combo), I believe AITN's team has a large frontcourt edge. Shaq's team will never get out-physicaled. Jabbar and Mchale will be able to score their points (Shaq can't stop Jabbar, and Mchale is too damn good in the post), but Shaq/KG/Hill is going to control the game from the inside. It won't just be their scoring. Shaq being bad on the P and R isn't bad when you have KG.

That would be enough to give them the edge overall, but it's so tough with Wade. Wade is one of the greatest playoff performers ever imo. It's not just the 06 finals either. What he did in the 05 playoffs and in 06 vs. Detroit....Cooper and Bowen, while great on defense, can't keep with D-Wade.

It comes down to the rebounding and overall interior strength of AITN's team vs. the inside-outside combo of KAJ/Wade and Wade's finishing ability. I'm going to give it to AITN's team by the slightlest of margins. I feel if you can control the paint, you can also not allow Wade to go off every single game. 7 game series though....tough as hell. Great matchup.

[CellarDoor]

Per TMac's request I'm throwing some votes out.

Bryant/Snakebites: Going Snakebites here. I'm a defensive guy, and when your defense is backed up by Bird, GP and Allen you're doing quite well for yourself.

TMAC and AitN's series is incredibly close...
First, I'm with Ronny, I don't buy the usage argument. I also think when looking at rebounding number you have to consider the context of teammates. I feel like when you consider McHales team, you've got to bump his numbers up a bit if he's not playing with Bird and Parish..I think it's a virtual wash from a statistical standpoint, but when you throw in Shaq's ability to keep Kareem off the glass, they get that edge back.
I think KG's being overrated in this offense. I saw a comment about his post entry passing skills...I'd really love to know who he was throwing the ball into the post for us to acquire the anecdotal evidence here...Mark Blount?

In the end, it comes down to whose defensive counters are more effective: Cooper/Bowen on Wade or Artest/Rodman on Hill...can Nash/McHale and those match-ups outperform their counterparts enough to bridge the gap between Shaq and Kareem? I think so...

Going with TMAC

[All In The Name]

Thanks to the judges for taking the time to read all that. Sucks to be eliminated, but TMAC was a more-than-worthy adversary. This sets up an awesome finals matchup (which I'd be willing to judge if any more help is needed).

This was really fun to be a part of. I learned a lot about some past and current players and definitely think I'll be better prepared the next time around.

[CellarDoor]

^Kind of a scary thought...haha

Good job AitN