greenroom31 wrote:Forget about positions and just look at personnel and matchups. The top two teams in the East (at least on paper) are Milwaukee and Philly. The question is how do we match up against a lineup of:
Simmons / Richardson / Harris/ Horford / Embiid
Well, I don't think it's that bad. They are also going to have to guard the C's and that isn't going to be a cakewalk. On defense, the C's can match up...mostly...especially with Smart, and other reserves, mixed into the lineup.
In the past, Kanter actually matches up well with Embiid, both score a lot on the other. All in all they actually balance out.
Simmons can't shoot outside and only really scores on the break, if the C's break back, he's mostly neutralized. In the half-court I take Kemba/Smart/Brown to shut Simmons down.
The Wings, Richardson and Harris, aren't going to over match some combination of Brown, Tatum, and Hayward. In fact, I'd put my money on Brown, Tatum and Hayward over matching them.
Horford is a wildcard, true, but I don't think he's going to be that much of a difference maker. If the C's and 6'ers run, I think the C's have the advantage over Horford. In the half-court, I think a second big might have to be in to deal with Al, but the C's have Theis, Williams x 2, and even Semi might give Al some trouble.
We will have to see how the games play out, though.