HCRT FINALS: Can we get one more judge at least??

[bringbackhoffa]

Goodluck

[CellarDoor]

Williams(36)/Mayo(12)
Jackson(14)/Mayo(10)/Afflalo(24)
James(26)/Jackson(22)
Boozer(34)/James(14)
Perkins(36)/Hibbert(12)

[SamBone]

Good luck CD, I too will do my best to get something up in the next day or so.

most likely here will be my rotation

PG: Billups ( 33 ), D.Collison ( 15 )
SG: KOBE ( 38 ), Iguodala ( 10 ), R.Fernandez
SF: Iguodala ( 23 ), J.Green ( 25 )
PF: A.Horford ( 20 ), K.Love ( 28 )
C : B.Lopez ( 33 ), A.Horford ( 15 ), B.Wallace

[SamBone]

PG: Williams(36)/Mayo(12)
SG: Jackson(14)/Mayo(10)/Afflalo(24)
SF: James(26)/Jackson(22)
PF: Boozer(34)/James(14)
C : Perkins(36)/Hibbert(12)

Vs

PG: Billups ( 33 ), D.Collison ( 15 )
SG: KOBE ( 38 ), Iguodala ( 10 ), R.Fernandez
SF: Iguodala ( 22 ), J.Green ( 26 )
PF: A.Horford ( 20 ), K.Love ( 28 )
C : B.Lopez ( 33 ), A.Horford ( 15 ), B.Wallace

CellarDoor
I would like to wish CD luck and congratulate him for once again building a great team. I really respect his skills and wisdom. He is one of the vet GM’s for these games that has taught me a lot about playing these types of games. He is very knowledgeable and always builds great TEAMS that play well and always do very well in these games. Thanks a lot for all the input and advice you have given me in this and other RealGM games (and CN).

Head to Head matchups
Billups vs D.Williams
Two of the absolute best floor generals in the entire NBA. Both of these guys are great leaders and have the ability to do it themselves when needed, but both always look to get their teammates involved first. Both of these guys play both ends of the court, but I have to give the slight advantage here to Billups, who is a proven WINNER, and one of the most clutch players in the NBA today.

KOBE vs Jax/ Mayo/ Affalo
I like none of Capt Jack, Mayo, nor Affalo can stop KOBE. Mayo has gotten crushed by Kobe this season, so I am pretty sure his minutes will come against Iggy. Jax is having a great season as the main man on an offensively challenged Bobcats team. He is carrying them on offense, but he will have a much different role here. He is a very good defender against bigger players (like Dirk), but guarding SG’s is not his strength, but he will only be guarding Kobe for 14 minutes so I guess the main matchup is Kobe vs Afflalo.

Iggy/Green vs LeBron
LeBron is a STUD, no argument there. He has speed, size and strength and is starting to be able to do it all on the court. But I think I have guys that can contain him from going off. He will still get his, but I do not see him having a career day. Iggy has PLAYED decent against LeBron the past 2 seasons, never getting torn apart and actually scoring pretty well himself while being guarded by The King. Jeff Green has the length, height and speed to at least hang with LeBron and make him work for everything he gets.

Iggy has matched up against LeBron 4 times over the past 2 seasons (once this year)
- LeBron has gone for 30 ppg (basically his average), but shot 45.3% (he is shooting .497 against everyone else) and has averaged 4.75 assts and 7.25 reb (also lower then his 2 year averages of 7.8 assts and 7.6 reb against everyone else)
- Iggy in those games has averaged 23.8 ppg (18.09 ppg is his 2 year average), while shooting 60.7% (45.1% against rest of league).

Horford/Love vs Boozer
This to me is another well balanced great matchup. My guys will be splitting the PF minutes and both can play with Boozer. All 3 players are pretty equally talented and do a lot of the same things on the court (with the exception of Horford being the only one that plays very solid defense)

Lopez vs Perkins
Lopez is enjoying a break out season, were Perk has struggled this season (only averaging 10 points and 7.6 reb). While still being a solid post defender, he has had trouble staying on the court this season (he is only averaging 27.8 minutes per this season not the 36 he is asked to play here. His rebounding and shot blocking have dropped from his great previous seasons.

(Horford vs Hibbert)
My opponent somehow believes Perk can play close to 10 minutes more then he averages in real life, which I can not see being possible, so I will include the backups. Roy is a great shot blocker, and has shown glimpses of being an offense force, but has not been consistend and is a chop artist who piles up a ton of fouls with keeps him off the court. Al has grown into a great all around BIG (who I personally think is a lot like Tim Duncan)

I think the C position will hurt him here because there is no way Perkens can be asked to play 10 min a game more then he really does in real life and Hibbert can not be counted on to defend either or my C’s.

Offensive game plan

As usual, my guards will lead the way. Billups will be running the show and be used as a shooter (for spacing) when he plays off the ball, which will prevent DWill from doubling. Kobe will be isolated a lot with Jax since I do not thing Jax (or Mayo or Afflalo) can stop Kobe one on one and will take advantage of that. Iggy will be moving off the ball and cutting to the hoop a lot, and working off of double screens. Our goal here is to not allow LeBron to rest on the defensive end and cause him to run into some contact running after Iggy. We also plan to try and take advantage of LeBron super aggressive help defense and hope that the great passing Kobe can find Iggy cutting to the hoop if LeBron trys to double. I will continue to utilize Iggy’s playmaking ability and passing to have him run the point on some possessions. This will allow both Kobe and Billups to come off screens and hit many jumpers (and 3’s). The great passing skills of Billups, Kobe and Iggy should allow me to take advantage of the very good (and reliable) mid-range game that Horford, Lopez and Love all posses.

Defensive Plan

I pretty much will be going straight man on man on D. And hope that my duo of Iggy and Green can containe LeBron from going off. I can’t see any other matchup were CD will have much of an advantage. My players all play very good individual defense as well are strong team defenders as well. I think my BIGS are strong enough to keep Boozer away from the post and forcing them to shoot jumpers. I am pretty strong on the boards and should keep them from getting extra possessions. And since Perkins is no offensive threat at all, Lopez will be a pretty nice weak side shot blocker and help defender if needed.

Summary

I think this will be a great Finals series. I think the main advantages in the matchup is my BIG depth. Perkins can not be asked to play 10 minutes more then he actually does, plus Perk and Hibbert get out rebounded greatly in that matchup, especially since Cellar plans on playing small with LeBron logging 14 minutes at the 4 which will make my rebounding advantage even bigger. These 2 teams each have one of the 2 best players in the game (one has a few rings and the other has none), Both have 2 of the best PG’s in the game (one has a ring and the other has never gotten to the dance). Both of these teams have a great supporting cast of team players and solid defenders, I just think my experience and clutch play is too much for CD to handle. This will be a well played series that will be very entertaining, I just see my guys victorious at the end of a great battle.

And if the series is as close as many would think, who do you want with the series and CHAMPIONSHIP on the line. The Boned Samuels featuring Kobe (4 rings and a Finals MVP award) and Billups (1 ring with his Finals MVP award) or Cellar’s with LeBron?

[CellarDoor]

Good luck to Sam. I'm diggin the fact that the two best teams (I feel) made it to the final round this time.

This match-up is actually incredibly interesting. Two of the biggest strongest and best point guards, the two best wings against two of the top wing defenders, one elite big and one above average big against two good bigs...It should be a great match-up.

Addressing concerns: the defense of Kobe Bryant. No one is diluting themselves into thinking Sam's team is doing anything but going as Kobe Bryant goes. He's the best player by a fair margin, the best scorer, and one of two clutch guys he's got. Kobe will be defended by Afflalo and SJax for the most part. At times, especially in the clutch if he's trying to go to the post, he'll see Lebron. Sam pointed me to an interesting site...one that I'd never heard of actually. Hoopstats.com we were discussing whether or not Iggy guarded Lebron last year, and this site has match-ups for each game and whether players "win" or "lose" them. Interestingly, Kobe has only lost 20% of his match-ups (11/55). One of those 11 was his only match-up against SJax this season. He also BARELY outplayed Aaron Afflalo in their match-ups. I bring this up not because I think my guards will be outplaying Kobe, but to show that this site is pretty arbitrary. That not withstanding, Afflalo and Jax will force Kobe to work. A lot. He'll likely shoot a low percentage most games except the obligatory hot game. He'll score, but it's not going to be efficiently.

Offense:
Same as always, I'll be running with the three headed monster of Lebron, Deron and Boozer. Deron and Boozer's PnR doesn't get stopped in real games, I don't expect it to here. Adding Lebron into the PnR game just makes it more deadly and gives another wrinkle. Perkins is our garbage man, Jax and Mayo will space the floor and run the break. One key factor to keep in mind is this: either Kevin Love or Al Horford will be guarding Lebron James for stretches. Neither has enough offensive game to take advantage of this, but Lebron will annihilate them.

Defense: I feel like I'm pretty well equipped to bother Sam's top 2 options. I've got two excellent defenders to throw at Kobe and one of the few PGs Billups won't be posting up on him. Iggy's lack of shooting also allows Lebron to sag into the lane and help on defense. Lopez has been very good this season (I should know, snagged him in my fantasy league), but he's still not terribly efficient, and I don't suspect he's going to get many touches around Kobe and Billups (think Artest/Bynum level of touches). Horford is capable, but not an overly impressive scorer and we again don't expect him to be getting many shots. Iguodala is shooting a career low from everywhere but the FT line this season, and his scoring has dropped off despite no noticeable additions to the team. Presumably he's Sam's third option (maybe Lopez?) At any rate, my 4th option has been a better scorer and as efficient of one this season as Iggy on a team equally devoid of offensive options: the Bobcats. To summarize, we'll play a soft zone off of Iggy and let Lebron roam some, throw our best wing defenders at Kobe, and keep Deron on Billups to slow him down. Neither Perkins nor Boozer should need any help with their men.


Rebuttal-ish:
On Perkins' minutes: he's never averaged many minutes in the regular season, but if you'll recall in the playoffs (what these are) he averaged, you guessed it, over 36mpg last season.
On the Deron v Billups match-up: Billups certainly has the hardware, but just an FYI: Deron's averaged over 20/10 each of the last two playoffs and averaged over 20/10 against the Lakers the season Boston won the chip. He's no slouch in the prime-time and at this juncture in their careers, he's a better player.
On the Kobe defense: see above
On Lebron's defenders: I sincerely hope you're not trying to use Jeff Green against Lebron. Though either way Love and Horford will have some shots at him too. None of those match-ups go well for you, and I'm pretty certain you know it.
On the PF match-up: Boozer's better in pretty much every facet this season except one against each (rebounding against Love, defense against Horford). I'd expect him to win this match-up.
On Hibbert: acknowledged that he's a weak spot. As I mentioned, Perk is more than capable of the minutes. Hibbert will see his time against Lopez who I feel is a better match-up for him (Horford's too quick). Against NJ this season, Hibbert's going for 17/8 on great percentages and almost 4 blocks a game.
On Lebron playing D: it should be noted Lebron won't be fighting over any screens to get to a sub 30% 3pt shooter and 43% FG shooter. He'll meet him in the lane if he gets the ball.
On keeping Boozer away from the post: that's not what you need to be concerned with. You need to be concerned with his rolls to the basket.

GL Sam, look forward to your rebuttal. Provided nothing in it is a complete misrepresentation, I'll cede the last rebuttal to my opponent.

[SamBone]

My rebuttal

Sam pointed me to an interesting site...one that I'd never heard of actually. Hoopstats.com we were discussing whether or not Iggy guarded Lebron last year, and this site has match-ups for each game and whether players "win" or "lose" them. Interestingly, Kobe has only lost 20% of his match-ups (11/55). One of those 11 was his only match-up against SJax this season. He also BARELY outplayed Aaron Afflalo in their match-ups. I bring this up not because I think my guards will be outplaying Kobe, but to show that this site is pretty arbitrary. That not withstanding, Afflalo and Jax will force Kobe to work. A lot. He'll likely shoot a low percentage most games except the obligatory hot game. He'll score, but it's not going to be efficiently.

The win/lose thing on the site is strictly using EFF (NBA Efficiency recap = ((Points + Rebounds + Assists + Steals + Blocks) - ((Field goals attempts - Field goals made) + (Free throws attempts - Free throws made) + Turnovers)). Yes this is not an exact science (which is why I did not use EFF in any statistical examples, especially when the other player does not take the same amount of shots. But the site does list the box scores so you can see what the players did in the games they matched up.

You claim Kobe “BARLEY” outplayed Afflalo and I ask you to look a little closer…

Kobe was a +23 in the 3 games against Afflalo, one of which came soon after the All Star game when Kobe was playing with a broken finger and hurt ankle. He did have a poor shooting night that game (shooting 3-17 and only getting 14 points) but still managed to grab 5 rebounds and dish out 12 assists, 3 steals and 2 blocks.

In the 3 games this seasom Afflalo and Kobe matched up,

Kobe averaged 22 ppg, (only shot 37.5%), 5.7 reb, 4.7 asst (totaled a +54 EFF)
Afflalo averaged 11.7 ppg (shot 52%) with 2 reb, 1.3 asst (totaled a + 31 EFF)

And don’t forget the one matchup last year
Kobe: 30 points (55.6% shooting) 8 reb, 7 assts, 2 steals (+37 EFF)
Afflalo: 6 points (25% shooting), 3 reb, 1 assts, 1 steal (0 EFF)

you also said that you may slide LeBron onto Kobe so i wanted to give you this to watch

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IuIN7qiD ... re=related

and for more fun

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZPRQCqx ... re=related

I swear I did not make that video, I just found it and had to share!

On Perkins' minutes: he's never averaged many minutes in the regular season, but if you'll recall in the playoffs (what these are) he averaged, you guessed it, over 36mpg last season.

Perkins my have averaged the 36 min a game in last years playoffs that you want him to play here, but that was only because they played 7 OT periods in the Chicago series (he averaged (29.6 min in the non OT games of that series, 43.3 min in the 4 games that featured the 7 extra OT periods). So I guess if you think this series will go 7 with 7 OT periods I guess it is logical. Damn at that pace I guess you will be playing LeBron 55 minutes then!

On the Deron v Billups match-up: Billups certainly has the hardware, but just an FYI: Deron's averaged over 20/10 each of the last two playoffs and averaged over 20/10 against the Lakers the season Boston won the chip. He's no slouch in the prime-time and at this juncture in their careers, he's a better player.

Never said he was a slouch, always said he was a great player, the main thing I stressed in this matchup of 2 of the BEST PG’s in the game is, my guy wins. DWill had a great run in the playoffs which lead to a 1st round exit (his 20/10 equaled 1 win). My guy makes his team win! So I will take the guy that only averaged 20/7/4 and led his team to 10 wins (and the Western Conference Finals) over the 20/10 1st round exit.

One key factor to keep in mind is this: either Kevin Love or Al Horford will be guarding Lebron James for stretches. Neither has enough offensive game to take advantage of this, but Lebron will annihilate them.

Yes you plan on playing LeBron out of position for 14 minutes at PF. Not to say that LeBron doesn’t do this in real life, but NEVER does he play PF against BIGS. Unlike the NBA, I have ligit PF’s and C’s on my team. Yes Kevin Love will have a hard time guarding THE KING one on one and we would be forced to play a zone in that matchup making LeBron shot jumpers (the weakest part of his game). This like I stated earlier will give me a HUGE rebounding advantage and how will LeBron defend Love? He is strong but he can not body up with Love in the paint on defense AT ALL! This will be more of an advantage to me then it will be for LeBron.

On Hibbert: acknowledged that he's a weak spot. As I mentioned, Perk is more than capable of the minutes. Hibbert will see his time against Lopez who I feel is a better match-up for him (Horford's too quick). Against NJ this season, Hibbert's going for 17/8 on great percentages and almost 4 blocks a game.

in 3 games against Hibbert and Brook met this season
Hibbert: 17 ppg , 8.3 reb, 2 assts, 1 steal, 3.67 blocks
Brook: 26 ppg, 12.3 reb, 2.3 asst, 1.3 steal, 3 blocks

So yes Hibbert was 17/8 with almost 4 blocks but Lopez was an AWESOME 26 and 12!

Hibbert on the entire season is aveagiving 5.7 reb a game (in 25 minutes) with even less minutes played here, I will own the boards when he is in the game. Not to mention that I can feed my BIGS and watch them rack up the points.

And for laughs hear is the only video I could find of LeBron guarding Iggy (for laughs)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AA0BUPb43Jo

And to repeat what I stated earlier,

And if the series is as close as many would think, who do you want with the series and CHAMPIONSHIP on the line. The Boned Samuels featuring Kobe (4 rings and a Finals MVP award) and Billups (1 ring with his Finals MVP award) or Cellar’s with LeBron?

[CellarDoor]

Lebron AND Deron...

Regarding Perkins' minutes: he averaged 29 minutes because one of the only two non OT games was decided before the 4th quarter even started. A quick glance at the second round series tells me he averaged about 35 a game against the Magic guarding Dwight Howard, and his lowest minute game was a game in which he was in foul trouble. You can try and spin it anyway you like, but Perkins isn't going to drop off the face of the earth the last four minutes of each game in the series.

Regarding Kobe/Afflalo: Iggy and Lebron only squared off once this year, and you say he plays him tight, to give you an idea, if you assumed Lebron ONLY did as much damage as he did in that one game compared to Iggys, but for three games, he'd beat him by +18 efficiency. And Iggy's one of your top scoring options too while Afflalo is a shooter almost exclusively. Lebron's efficiency was 34 that game. Afflalo's was 17, 26, and 11. Any way you slice it, he can and does limit Kobe fairly well and what's more, he does a pretty good job of getting a decent night out of it himself. Using last year's match-up for anything is pretty disingenuous since it's pretty well known Afflalo's taken his steps this season and wasn't even starting last season.

Regarding Billups/Williams: funny thing about their playoffs and getting wins...they both lost to the same team. This match-up is a wash at best for you, especially with Deron's strides taken this season in shooting.

Lebron at PF: call me when Love has a post game to exploit Lebron with. Rebounding will be an issue for those 14 minutes, agreed, but I don't anticipate missing many shots on the offensive end in that time frame. For as bad of a jumpshooter and you think Lebron is, he's scoring 30 on 60% TS despite taking 5 3s...a feat that hasn't ever been accomplished. I'll take my chances.

Lopez v. Hibbert: you left off FG%...if you want 26 points at 41% shooting you should've drafted another guard...maybe Iverson?

[SamBone]

Regarding Perkins' minutes: he averaged 29 minutes because one of the only two non OT games was decided before the 4th quarter even started. A quick glance at the second round series tells me he averaged about 35 a game against the Magic guarding Dwight Howard, and his lowest minute game was a game in which he was in foul trouble.

Using last year's match-up for anything is pretty disingenuous since it's pretty well known Afflalo's taken his steps this season and wasn't even starting last season.

LOL, sorry I forgot you can only use last year as an example when it helps you!

And yes Afflalo did start that game and played over 30 minutes
http://www.hoopsstats.com/basketball/fa ... 3-26/09/13

Good luck buddy, let the judging begin.

[SamBone]

when is voting ?

[BlackIce]

Sorry I've been pretty busy. I'll keep this short, for me it didn't come down to any particular match-up really, but how well I think each team will be able to execute their game plan.

A Deron/Boozer P&R should be pretty effective and with the shooting around it, I like it even against a good defensive team which SamBone has. A style that UTA run's that P&R and LBJ as the primary cutter instead of AK or CJ Miles is pretty devastating.

Cellar did a very smart thing playing LBJ at PF for a substantial amount of time, and I agree with him in that Love won't be able to stop him. SamBone made a great adjustment with the zone, but LBJ will simply blow by Love and put the center in foul trouble, he won't have to settle for jumpers. Plus a zone will hurt in that it frees up shooters a bit, and LBJ's passing will kill you in that he'll find those holes in the zone and find a Mayo or a Jackson for the open 3 if you collapse on him.

On the other side I agree with SamBone that Lopez will get his and of course Kobe is Kobe, but I think that a combo of Affalo/Jackson will limit him more then a combo of Iggy/Green/Love will limit LBJ. I really like Lopez and the production up front will help SamBone quite a bit, especially in the playoffs where the game slows down and have a good offensive center really helps. Post offense, efficient post offense, is invaluable. That being said..

Close series and it most definitely goes 7, I take Cellar by a hair. Good job both of you, and it's nice to see the two best teams make it to the finals.

[Mascot]

Gotta go with Cellar in 5, Sambone just dosent have the team to stop him at all.

[Warspite]

I apologise if my vote is not needed but from the outside looking in I would pick

PG: Williams(36)/Mayo(12)
SG: Jackson(14)/Mayo(10)/Afflalo(24)
SF: James(26)/Jackson(22)
PF: Boozer(34)/James(14)
C : Perkins(36)/Hibbert(12)

Its my belief that this team wins the PG spot and has the better #1 and #2 and #3 options. Its defense isnt as good as the other team but its offensive EFF should still allow it to win games. I will agree that Perkins is not playing 36mpg but Hibbert IMHO can be very undderated and playing fewer mins could be a gem.

[CellarDoor]

Thanks Warspite. Just wanted a third from somewhere. If Sam's cool with it, we'll call it here as I'm up 3-0.