91-98 Keeper Playoffs (START JUDGING)

[Warspite]

I realy think Daugherty is being short changed here. They guy in his career season shot 57% from the field. In head to head matchups in this season he out rebounded Hakeem and outscored him. Hakeem on CDs team is a better scorer but a worse rebounder and worse defender. I expect Hakeem to limit Daugherty from 57% down to 54-51% but Hakeem is only shooting 52 himself. I then believe that Magic will get every player better looks and easier baskets. The other thing is that Daugherty gets to play with Nance guarding him 30% of the time because Hakeem is on the bench.

When CD brings in 3pt shooting he loses defense. Smiths 3pt shooting can not counter his bad post defense vs Magic. More importantly this is 90s NBA played by 90s rules. The 3pt shot is not the feature that it is today. The 3pt shot for CD and myself is a bailout shot used when the other team plays great defense. If Hawkins is hitting 3pters then Hill/Penny/Hakeem are having bad games or at least mediorce games. Likewise if Lewis, Magic and Phill are hitting 3s then my offense has broken down. I dont expect my offense to struggle so I dont think 3pters are a big factor.

Im ok with Hakeem getting 5 asts and Nance shooting 20fters. Conversly I am also ok with Daugherty getting 5 asts and Kemp getting 4 monster dunks. CDs team will kick out to shooters and my team will hit cutters and alley oop dunks. Since we control the paint and we have the size adv our open man will be closer to the hoop.

My team is built so that you cant double team because it has a legit 1st option 20ppg type player at every position. What that does is allow us to play the hot hand and exploit matchup and CD cant double because he wont and cant. My team can rotate defensively and with its height and length can disrupt passing lanes and shooters. Since CD does have some guys who are not true scorers and lacks a true PG hes limited more than me and I can gamble more. Since I have a huge rebounding adv I can play a little zone if need be while CD can never play zone because he has to have a body on all my guys to control the boards. My double teamers are Kemp and GP who run a trapping def. I also have Magic and GP to gamble and play passing lanes because I have the big bodies and the quicker more athletic team that can rotate.

I just think CDs offense is kind of stagnate with 3 ball hogs who all have too take turns sharing the ball and all want to get into the paint. While we can run a UCLA offense because he have finishers who take a dribble and shoot and are setup by our 3 very good passers (Magic, GP, Daugherty). No we arent making 20 ft passes to the 3pt line. We are making cross court passes and baseline passes to open guys on the weakside or cutters to the hoop. Yes CD will have Penny open on the 3pt line and yes we will have King open at the elbow. Im more confident in Kings ability at the elbow to score or get to the FT line than Penny dropping long range bombs.

If its a game of 3on3 CD would the floor with me. Because its 5on5 and because my bench is superior in many ways I believe I can win this series.

[Snakebites]

Vote Cellar in a close matchup:

While I'm not sure spacing is a large advantage for Cellar I do believe that War's team will be more harmed by their situation than Cellar's.

War's reliance on scoring 15 feet and inward brings Cellar's defense to the forefront in this matchup, and this is his teams' greatest strength. Cellar's team, on the other hand, will probably have more luck slashing and posting up given War's comparably weak interior defense.

I realize that Payton roundly outplayed and even stopped Penny at times, but I'm not sure that is enough to sway this matchup the other way. Others may disagree.

[Miller4ever]

I'm going to fall on the other side of the fence for rebounding and rotation reasons. Cellar has a very nice bench, and it complements his starting lineup, but I do take some issue with some of the minute distribution, personally. Warspite has a bench that has a little more moxie. The talent of Cellar might've been the best in the entire era.

I looked up 3 of the games that Daugherty and Olajuwon played against each other in. It is a prime Hakeem, one that across the regular season was just as good as championship Hakeem. Daugherty holds his own. They mitigate each other in most of the phases of big man play. I don't think Hakeem has that sizeable of an advantage over the underrated forgotten Daugherty. I buy into War's gameplan a little more as well. I do see issues with Hawkins at the 2 who is most effective as a scorer flanked by Grant Hill, Penny, and Hakeem. I feel like War's team does a better job of involving everyone and that backcourt he has is more flexible than the backcourt of Cellar.

[BlackIce]

Cellar. Better interior defense, but ultimately I think Hakeem makes the difference here.

[TMACFORMVP]

Tough matchup. I read both writeups and I agreed with both of them. I think Magic and Payton will cause a lot of match up problems for Cellar -- the head2head #'s between Payton and Penny is pretty telling. I agree Daugherty is being underrated, and War's rebounding is an advantage as well. Saying this, Hakeem will still dominate Daugherty in a playoff setting, and Nance, while won't do ridiculously much to affect a peak Kemp, will still provide another shot blocking threat, which makes Cellar's overall defense considerably better, especially since they thrive defensively in the places where War's team wants to score. There are some questions about fit, but overall, I'd think Penny, Hill and Hakeem would make it work. Speaking of Hill, he should have a big impact in the series as well, I'm not sold War can stop his two main assets. I don't really care for the spacing of either team, and doesn't really decide the series either way (if I had to pick a team with better spacing, it might be a slight edge for Cellar).

Overall, I think the question I ask is how much better is War's team offensively? Magic should make everything work, and he has a very efficient frontcourt, and complimenting perimeter players next to him. He's also got the edge on the bench as well. On the flip side, Hakeem and Hill should have their way, Penny will be limited by Payton, but his impact should be felt, and while Nance/Hawkins aren't as explosive as their counterparts, I feel they play their role very well. Offensively, War's team is better, but I also think a lack of a true interior defender also makes Cellar's team a bit more potent offensively, while Cellar's team in the slightest of ways makes War's team a bit less efficient.

It's originally much tougher than I thought it'd be. I see the case for War's team being more potent and efficient offensively, but Cellar's team is similarly clearly better defensively with two big offensive advantages as well. Seriously flip flopping on this one...

Coming back to this, I still haven't made a decision yet. But considering I have to sooner or later; I see it like this. War has the overall rebounding advantage, and efficient offense, but Cellar's team has the interior defense to at least reduce that efficiency, while having two big offensive advantages in which War's team cannot stop. At the very least, Magic's post up game is a little negated with bodies in the paint, and the interior defense, and Kemp/Daugherty have very good defenders on them. Hill should also get the best of King both offensively and defensively - though King should still score some points. Payton has a reduced sort role offensively which makes him play more out to the perimeter, but his defense comes in very handy. Hawkins is a little underrated, but his role isn't too large in this offense, but he still accomplishes the goal of not being able to cheat off with his man considering he was a dangerous shooter with a solid defensive game. Willis is nice off the bench, so is Kukoc however.

At the moment, I'm feeling Cellar's better two way sort play defensively, along with a few mistmatches offensively will be just enough to squeak by in a seven game triple OT series.

Vote: Cellar

Gah, that was tough, still not even completely sure.

[lukekarts]

I've got little time to do a writeup, but what I will say is that it's a damn close matchup but decided by Hakeem.

Vote: Cellar

[bryant08]

Two very unique teams, I think War's team has been generally underrated for this era. Daugherty/Kemp in their primes were incredibly efficient and are tremendous fits with Payton/Magic in the backcourt. I think both teams lack great spacing, but I see this as more of an issue for Warspite. Not having major floor spacers allows Hakeem/Nance to stay at home and defend where they're most comfortable. Daugherty's all-around game especially his passing can be of minor assistance to pulling Hakeem out of the post, but I still feel Cellar's team has the overall defensive edge. Grant Hill will play a huge role in this series and as much as I respect Bernard King, he'll have his hands tied against Hill. Very tough call overall, but have to go with Cellar.

[TMACFORMVP]

I think that should wrap it up. Great finals, Cellar wins the era, War runner up.

[SamBone]

it is a very close series, but my vote goes with Cellar as well. Great job by both