Summer 2012 Auction Game - Round 2 (Finished)

[-Kees-]

Second round of the playoffs. Each team will face one other team, and can write about how they are going to beat their opponent. I am putting some limits on how long they will be, because we have had some long ones in the past, and this way we can get things done faster.

Writeup Limits:

-700 words max
-A max of 1 rebuttal, max of 300 words (quoting words your opponent says doesn't count against word count)
-Any pics/charts included that have words on them will be counted and added to total word count
-Numbers count as words
-Rotations/minutes, pics without words, messages before the writeups not regarding basketball will all not be counted towards the word count.

The deadline will be 6/24, at 8 PM EST. I know that only gives about a day and a half, but with a 700 word limit, the writeups shouldn't take very long. If we can't get everyone in by then, we may extend it 12 hours or something.

East:
TMACFORMVP vs. SamBone

West:
-Kees- vs. poopdamoop

[-Kees-]

The Reaganization

Kyrie Irving 30 / Goran Dragic 18
Nic Batum 24 / Tyreke Evans 24 / JR Smith 0
Danny Granger 32 / [Nic Batum 8] / Caron Butler 8
LaMarcus Aldridge 34 / Taj Gibson 14
Marc Gasol 34 / Nikola Pekovic 14 / Marcus Camby 0

VS poopdamoop

Steve Nash(32)/Mike Conley(16)
Arron Afflalo(28)/Joe Johnson(20)
Carmelo Anthony(36)/Joe Johnson(12)
Al Horford(24)/Zach Randolph(24)
Marcin Gortat(30)/Al Horford(8)/Samuel Dalembert(10)

Writeup:

Offense:

Once again, we will run the offense through the bigs. Horford is a PF, not a combo big, and will struggle down in the post against the massive size and length of my bigs. LMA is taller ans stronger than Horford, and is much more polished on the offensive end of the floor. As I mentioned in my last writeup, LMA was 19th in the league in PPP in the post up, very hard to beat. Horford, however, on post up D ranked 73rd (10/11, bigger sample). Once again, Aldridge has an offensive advantage over his opponent. At center, Gasol is ranked 33rd for PPP on post up offense (0.93), whereas Gortat ranks 79th (0.76) on post up defense. As you can see by the stats, both Gasol and LMA have significant advantages in the post up offense, which is why we are running it through them. Plus, our starting perimeter shoots a combined 38.8% from beyond the arc, very impressive.

Poopdamoop wants to put Afflalo on Irving, which we love. Irving is crafty, a good shooter (57 TS%), and can carry a team by passing (36.5 AST%) or scoring (22 PPG PER36). A huge advantage we will use if our bigs can't get going is Irving VS Afflalo, on the P&R and iso situations. Irving is a terrific iso player, ranking 7th in the league in PPP (1.03), whereas Afflalo ranks 214th (0.86) on iso plays on D, and that's against slower players! On the P&R, Irving ranks 58th as a ball handler (0.82), and that's with mediocre pick setters, not elite guys like LMA, Taj and Marc. Afflalo only posts a 0.93 on the ball handler on D, good for 189th in the league, for another significant advantage for Irving.

Overall, their team is filled with holes in their defense. Sure, Afflalo, Gortat and Horford are good, but Nash, Melo, JJ, and Zbo are all below average on defense. If they have to go to a zone or trapping defense, they will struggle because they just don't have the consistetly strong defensive players that I do. There are a lot of holes in their defense, and we believe our one-on-one matchups will dominate, and the lack of team defense will prevent them from stopping us.

Defense:

We will put Batum on Melo, Irving on Nash, Evans/Granger/Butler on Afflalo/Johnson, and the bigs will match up. We aren't expecting to stop this offense, but slow it down. One of our main advantages is that we have no holes on the defensive end, and are able to play multiple types of defenses based on what we see. Johnson should have a small impact on this game. For the most part, he will be guarded by bigger defenders (Granger, Butler) and have a hard time to get his shot off clean. He isn't a guy who will get to the rim much (2.1 FGA at rim per game, 3.1 FTA PER36), so guys like Granger, who have good length, can really frustrate him.

We will throw multiple people at Nash, and try to get him out of his rhythm by playing him physically. Any time he drives to the rim to try and score, and we are forced to foul, we will foul hard. Any time he has open shots and we try to contest, we will knock him off his spots and force him to move. Anything to get him out of his rhythm and force him to commit turnovers and miss shots.

Final Word:

We don't have the flashiest team, maybe not the most talented, but our players fit together better and play better as a team. All players are unselfish, are good to great passers, and have good offensive advantages over poop's team. Our defense is good enough to slow down Nash and Melo enough, so that our offense can take over late in the game and we can pull out the victory.

[poopdamoop]

Steve Nash(32)/Mike Conley(16)
Arron Afflalo(28)/Joe Johnson(20)
Carmelo Anthony(36)/Joe Johnson(12)
Al Horford(24)/Zach Randolph(24)
Marcin Gortat(30)/Al Horford(8)/Samuel Dalembert(10)

vs

Kyrie Irving 30 / Goran Dragic 18
Nic Batum 24 / Tyreke Evans 24 / JR Smith 0
Danny Granger 32 / [Nic Batum 8] / Caron Butler 8
LaMarcus Aldridge 34 / Taj Gibson 14
Marc Gasol 34 / Nikola Pekovic 14 / Marcus Camby 0

Thanks to Kees for putting this together, should be a good matchup.

Our biggest advantage lies on the perimeter. We believe Nash and Melo are the two best players in this series, and should handily outplay their counterparts. Irving is a very talented rookie, but hasn't mastered the PG position like Nash, and will have trouble making sure all his teammates get touches while still finding his own offense. We assume Batum will be on Melo, but based on their head-to-head matchups Melo still shoots 46% against him and puts up very good numbers. Our bigs can spread the floor and draw Kees' bigs away from the paint, or act as strong roll options, so Aldridge and Gasol won't simply be waiting in the paint for us. Off the bench, Johnson and Randolph will wreak havoc again, as Tyreke is basically an inferior version of JJ, and doesn't have the size and defensive awareness to keep up with him. Randolph will have Gibson or Aldridge on him, both good defenders, but he can use his size to overpower Taj on the block or take Aldridge outside and face-up. And none of this takes into account Nash being able to carve up the D for easy buckets for everyone, since Irving is a very bad defender, notably being benched by his coach for not playing well on D.

On D, we have solid defenders on Kees' best scoring threats. Carmelo will be assigned to Granger, and is strong enough to body him up and make his catches uncomfortable. Horford and Gortat are great choices to match up on Aldridge and Gasol, and have the size and athleticism to keep them from going off. The main change we will make is putting Afflalo on Kyrie Irving, giving him a defender with size, length, and athleticism to really bother him. Nash will guard Batum, who isn't talented enough offensively to take advantage of that matchup. Our goal is to make Irving a jumpshooter and keep him out of the paint for drive and kicks and dumpoffs. Irving is a very good player, but if he's taking too many shots that means less touches for Granger, Aldridge, or Gasol, and Irving isn't a good enough passer to take advantage of this matchup. Tyreke Evans really isn't very good, especially if he doesn't have free reign to dominate the ball, so we are very confident that Joe Johnson will be able to outplay him.

Overall, though Kees has put together a good team, we believe we outmatch it. Our offense will not be able to be stopped, especially since Nash is being guarded by a rookie PG with poor defense. If Kees puts Batum or Granger on him, Nash can simply use his quickness to get by them, or take advantage of Gasol or Aldridge when they switch on pick and rolls. Carmelo can get his shot off on either Batum or Granger in the post, as well as off easy penetration from Nash. Horford and Gortat provide Nash, JJ, or Melo with great screens and versatile pickers, since both of them can either roll effectively, hit mid range shots, and crash the boards for putbacks. We've got great defenders on all of Kees' main offensive options, and even without matchups my opponent doesn't have the elite talent that I do, which will make crunch-time execution very difficult.

[-Kees-]

So the deadline is in about 40 minutes, but since only 2 people have posted, and none have finished their writeups, we will extend the deadline until tomorrow at 12 PM est. Hopefully we can all be done by then.

[TMACFORMVP]

vs. SamBone.

- We feel we have more firepower. No one on the roster can guard Dirk.
- The offense is heavily reliant on Curry and Harden to a huge bulk of the scoring, and if evidenced slightly by the Finals, w/ a good perimeter defense, and an increased expectancy in role, we can limit Harden enough to where he won't be able to maintain his normal level of efficiency.
- We also believe Lawson can hang in w/ Curry that their production won't be all too different (in terms of impact).
- The frontcourt of Cousins and Bogut boast very inefficient scoring.

Basically, we have the two best players in the series, w/ defensive matchups, and overall more firepower to come through in a tough series.

[-Kees-]

East:
TMACFORMVP vs. SamBone

West:
-Kees- vs. poopdamoop

Voting can now begin. Please send me who you chose at keeslinator@gmail.com. Other posters who got knocked out in the first round, please vote as well.

[SamBone]

sorry to be late, I was away for the weekend, I will not bore you with details

Tmac is a GOD in these games, so I will not be long winded. Good luck brotha

PG: Curry (30) / Bradley (18) / Billups
SG: Harden (33) / W.Matthews (15)
SF: Iguodala (33) / (W.Matthews) (15) / Battier
PF: DMC (25) / D.Lee (23) / Faried
C : Bogut (30) / Perkins (13) / (DMC) (5)

vs

PG - Lawson (34) - Miller (10) - Wade (4)
SG - Wade (34) - Redick (14)
SF - Marion (30) - Dudley (18)
PF - Nowitzki (37) - Millsap (11)
Cc - Varejao (32) - Millsap (16)

1. Tmac is selling that No One can guard Dirk, Dirk played against DMC 3 times this season

Dirk was 15/41 (.366 FG%) averaging 14.7ppg, 6.3 reb, .7 asst, .7 steals, 1.3 blks
DMC was 21/44 (.477 FG%) averaging 17.3 ppg, 10.7 reb, 2.7 asst, 3 steals, 1.3 blks

I will take that anyday of the week

2. Yes Harden struggled in the Finals, but I would say it was more of his injury then DWade limiting him

3. I have the better TEAM, the better fitting unit, Marion will bring nothing to this series

Thanks for reading, and again good luck to the trade games GOAT!

[-Kees-]

Round 2 has been decided:

TMAC wins over SamBone, 3-0

TMAC vs. SamBone
Again, the lethal duo of Wade/Dirk is too much to handle. TMAC advances. Jim put together a very solid team though.

im going with tmac over sambone. dont like harden and cousins as primary scorers, since harden struggled in the finals even before getting injured, and cousins is just super inefficient at this point in his career

East:
TMACFORMVP vs. SamBone

Kees wins over poopdamoop, 3-1

West:
-Kees- vs. poopdamoop

I pick Kees, better fit and can take advantage of the huge defensive holes poop has

kees
winner
better defense

Kees vs poopdamoop

-This is a very tight match-up, and this decision was not easy, but in the end I had to go with pdm. He's got bigs that can bang with yours in Horford/Gortat and then after that the star-power of Nash/Melo/JJ is too overwhelming.