When I mentioned that
Thunder Dan's team and my team are very similar, he agreed, so I think there's not really that much to be added to his description.
My team is also led my a great defensive center (Alonzo) who can score 20 PPG on very good efficiency, but his advantage over Dwight is the fact that he could knock down 15 footers fairly consistently, and he's a significantly better FT shooter. Both guys were really poor as passers, so that's a weakness that can potentially be exploited, but it's not really that big of an issue, because you can just limit their touches, or limit how many times they pass out of the low post, so they wouldn't have the opportunity to make a bad pass. Instead, they can attack the rim and try to draw fouls, or even finish and-1's, because both are so strong that it's hard not to let them overpower you under the basket.
Our leaders are also similar in terms of the caliber of player they were - Bird and Kobe are both among the most skilled offensive players ever, and both were crazy competitors who would do anything in order to win. I'd really like it if Kobe could cut down on his FGAs, 16-18 FGA per game would be the number of shots from the field that I'd like him to take. That's already less than Kobe has ever taken in his prime. There's no reason for him to shoot more, because I also have two others 25 PPG scorers - Alex English and Chris Mullin. I went with 2007-09 Kobe, and by 2007, he was already so frustrated by playing with scrubs (except Odom), that after the 2007 playoffs ended for the Lakers, he said that he would rather play on Pluto than with them.
I'm sure he'd appreciate having such talented teammates like English, Mullin or Zo. Both guys (Mully and English) were really unselfish and proved that they could coexist with other high-octane scorers (English played with Kiki Vandeweghe in the three seasons that I selected - 1982-84, and Mullin obviously played for the Warriors during the Run TMC era, with Mitch Richmond and Tim Hardaway), so I'm sure they'd be fine with less FGA. I'd like both to take 14-16 shots per game. The reason I selected 1982-84 English, even though it might not have been his peak just yet, is because who was a lower USG% player than he'd eventually become later on in his career. He was still good enough to be chosen to the All-NBA Second Team twice during this stretch, and when you consider what kind of opposition he had to play against at the SF spot, that's very impressive.
English also averaged well over one steal and one block per game during that timespan, and he was a very good athlete capable of making chasedown blocks and disrupting opponents' offensive schemes because he could jump into the passing lanes and use his very long arms pretty well in this situation.
Chauncey Billups is just a perfect complement for these guys, because he could be very effective without dominating the ball. He had excellent post game and moved without the ball very well. He was also an All-Defensive caliber player, and was actually chosen to the All-D 2nd Team twice, one of them was in 2006, so that's a year which is a part of the stretch that I chose.
Buck Williams should be a great complement for Zo because he was a very athletic, relentless, tenacious rebounder and an excellent defender.
Lamar Odom was an amazingly versatile player, capable of everything from running a team as a point forward, rebounding and playing good man defense, to knocking down jumpshots. He's a PERFECT player for a fantasy draft team.
Brad Miller was an excellent passing bigman, solid defensive rebounder, and a very good shooter with excellent range (he could even knock down an occasional 3 pointer)
Darrell Armstrong and Doug Christie were two bulldogs on defense, and also really capable of being useful and productive on offense. Christie was an elite man defender, one of the toughest opponents Kobe ever faced (well, now he won't have to worry about guarding Bryant
). He was an excellent passer and a really solid shooter (37% from the 3 point land on almost 3 attempts per game, and 85% from the FT line!!!). I think he was a better player than Shane Battier and Bruce Bowen, so I'm really happy about nabbing him.
My second unit (Miller, Odom, Mullin, Christie, Armstrong) is tailor made for playing the Princeton offense, so I'm sure I'll try to take advantage of that quite a bit. Mullin could also easily beat his man off the dribble, or create a high percentage midrange shot by throwing him off balance. Mullin/Odom pick and rolls and pick & pops are something that I'm really looking forward to run.
I want to always have two of my top 3 wing players (Kobe, English, Mullin) on the floor, so one of them will be resting on the bench, while the other two will take care of my offense. This way I won't lose anything in terms of my offensive efficiency and productivity (Kobe and English are 57+ TS% scorers, and Mullin was over 60%TS, so good luck leaving any of them uncovered on the perimeter
).
*copied from the old discussion thread, just like you ordered
Hibachi. It's absolutely not a complete strategy breakdown, as you can see, but you can get a clue how my team looks.
that's insane. Add Manu and a reliable midrange-shot from Grant.
And I'm not hating on you, not in the slighest.
