CAT Round 2- Dcash4 advances by default

[Sports Arsenal]

Welcome to the second round of the CAT game.
This will be the thread for the matchup between Dcash4 and Mascot
Good luck to both teams

[dockingsched]

nash, allen, crawford, jamison, randolph, lee....where do i begin my offensive attack...

[dockingsched]

ellis/calderon/chalmers
battier/ginobili
granger/nocioni
scola/camby/thomas
yao/bynum

offense: i believe i have various ways to exploit my opponent. while their best defender is occupied by a very potent offensive threat in danny granger, i will have a clear advantage at every position. monta ellis will get to the rim at will against steve nash. ginobil will be able to get by allen or crawford quite easily, scola will be able to score in the paint against jamison or lee, and yao will take it to big z. my opponent's help defense will also leave a lot to be desired with players like crawford, nash, randolph, etc on the court. with big men who can nail the mid range (yao, scola, thomas, camby), i believe a combo of attacking the rim with pick and rolls/pops and a healthy dose of yao in the paint will get me plenty of points

defense: the focus will obviously be on lebron, which is something i anticipated with very capable defenders on the wing. battier/granger will get the most time on lebron, with players like manu and nocioni able to switch on incase of a mismatch. nash will be relegated to jumpshooter like he was this yr, a season that saw him not even make the all star team. baron davis as a backup pg is a terrible fit imo, especially baron of this yr who couldn't shoot worth a lick. my opponent will be able to spread the floor elsewhere, but unlike the cavs of real life, the players that surround lebron here can not really create their own shots. if they can, it'll be player i want taking handling the ball, like crawford/davis or zbo.

[Sports Arsenal]

Well Mascot definitely knew that if you don't post your write up, you lose. See Rd.1

Cash advances by default

[Mascot]

lol i did my writeup yesterday and fell asleep before i posted it


ahh well

here it is if anyone cares

Weiteup for The LeBrons

The LeBrons
Head Coach - Phil Jackson
Assistant Coach - Clifford Ray
Assistant Coach - Mike Budenholzer

Roster
PG: Steve Nash(35)/Baron Davis(13)
SG: Ray Allen(35)/Jamal Crawford(13)
SF: LeBron James(38)/Anthony Parker(10)
PF: Antawn Jamison(28)/David Lee(20)/Zach Randolph(0)
Cc: Zydrunus Ilgauskas(24)/Anderson Varejao(24)


Approach
This team is created to spread the floor for LeBron to work his magic. While the judges are supposed to not let the LeBron factor ruin the game (which I agree with). I have placed Steve Nash and Ray Allen alongside one of the greatest penetraitors that the game has ever seen, not to mention that Steve Nash is a constant threat off the dribble as well as Ray Allen.

Steve Nash will carry the ball up the court for most of the game and will look to immediately penetrate off the dribble or pull up for a quick three if its open. Since Nash is the best point guard in the NBA for a running team as he as demonstrated in Phoenix the team will run and run a 10 man roster.

Once Nash either penetrates or takes a shot, he will dish to LeBron or the rest of the team crashes the boards. He then will slide down low to the botom Left Corner and Ray Allen will slide to the top of the arc. This will draw Nash's man to that side and allow Lebron to Penetrate from the wing. Once the Ball goes to LeBron he will Look to drive by his man and either get the easy 2 and 1 or dish it to a waiting Nash or Ray Allen for the three ball, which is why i paid 18.5 million for him in Free Agency. While this is going on Jamison has Drawn his man over to the Left side as well out around the 15 foot area and Big Z has Drawn his man out from the basket on the Low post as well. This leaves a nice land on the right side for LeBron to work his magic. Since its LeBron hes going to be double teamed and the closest guy (Shane Battier) who is guarding Ray Allen at the top of the Arc, once he leaves Ray Allen and LeBron Drives, Ray is wide open for a three which he rarely misses, or many more options open up as Yao will leave big Z to try and Block the shot. LeBron can than either Dish to Big Z who loves the baseline jumper or draw the foul and go to the line, or Dunk it.



The Matchups

Coaches
Head Coach - Phil Jackson
Assistant Coach - Mike Budenholzer
Assistant Coach - Clifford Ray
vs
Head Coach - Byron Scott
Assistant Coach - Jeff Van Gundy
Assistant Coach - Jim O'Brien

At first glance it looks like an even matchup from the coaching perspective.
Phil Jackson and Byron Scott may be on par with each other but Byron still has yet to accomplish himself as the head Coach that Phil Jackson is in the NBA.

Mike Budenholzer is probably one of the most unknown coachs in the NBA for what he does, while JVG is no slouch to have as a backup I feel that the years spent under Greg Popovich would put Budenholzer on par with JVG.

Jim O'Brien may win the actual coaching experience vs Ray, but I took Ray so that he could help with my post defense as the guys I have there are somewhat weaker than my opposition.


Phil Jackson
Career highlights and awards
* 1x NBA All-Rookie First Team (1968)
* 11x NBA Champion (1970, 1973 as player), (1991-1993, 1996-98, 2000-2002 as coach)
* 1x NBA Coach of the Year (1996)
* 4x NBA All-Star Game Coach
* Top 10 Coaches in NBA History (1996)

Clifford Ray
Mentor to the big men
In his post-playing career, Ray has mentored many NBA big men, most notably Chris Webber and Ben Wallace. He has also worked with Roy Tarpley, Dwight Howard, Jayson Williams, Eric Dampier, P.J. Brown, Adonal Foyle, Etan Thomas, Marc Jackson, DeSagana Diop, Al Jefferson, Mario Kasun, and Michael Bradley. As an Orlando Magic assistant, he was responsible for the quick professional development of Dwight Howard. Ray's rebounding influence on Dwight Howard was so strong, it led Howard into surpassing Wilt Chamberlain as the youngest NBA player to reach 5,000 boards (March 30, 2009).

Mike Budenholzer
14th season with the Spurs and his 12th season as an assistant coach. Has enjoyed the longest tenure on the Spurs basketball operations staff (hired by Gregg Popovich in the summer of 1994)
Has won 4 titles as an assistant with the spurs. It has been said that he draws up the plays for the last two minutes of games and hands them to Greg Popovich.


PGs
Steve Nash 33 mpg, 16ppg, 50.3% fg, 43.9% 3pt, 9.7apg
Monta Ellis 36 mpg, 19ppg, 45.11% fg, 30.8% 3pt, 3.7apg


While Nash does not possess the ability to keep Ellis in front of him off the dribble if he is playing tight to him, with Ellis, Nash will not have to. Nash can lay back on Ellis and dare him to take the three since he shoots 28.7 % for his career. Ellis's game entirely relies on dribble penetration and getting to hoop. Since he is more of a scoring pg than he is a creator my defenses knows that he is looking for his first. This will allow them to back off their man a little more to fill the lane and cause the turnover or get an easy steal. Ellis, Battier, and even Granger are not good enough from three for me to worry about them too much, Both Battier (38.4%) and Granger (39.3%) rarely ever take threes at around 2 per game. Manu Also shoots 33.0% from three so he is not much of a threat. Ellis also does not have the skills to run the point for his team, whereas Nash has been running Phoenix really well with all the hungry mouths to feed there. Since I will be running a sort of pick and roll offense as shown above I believe that Nash will win this match up.


SGs
Ray Allen
Shane Battier/Manu Ginobili

Shane Battier has to be one of the most overrated players in the NBA for his defense, while he does do the little things that help by being there at the right time to double someone, he will not be able to guard Ray Allen straight up if he is off to the side doubling LeBron James. Same goes for Manu, while he is a grea defender, you cant guard Ray Allen while you are guarding LeBron James also, I paid 18.5 Million in Free Agency for Ray Allen for this purpose, Ray will be open most of the time, and leaving Ray Allen open behind the Arc is a death wish. Also Allen is no slouch on defense he does average 1.7 steals per game in the playoffs and 1.2 for his career while battier averages 0.5 in the playoffs and 1.1 for his career. Manu is having one of the worst seasons of his career since coming in to the league, not to mention he has been injured most of it, so is he really that healthy to be playing heavy minutes?

This matchup would normally go to the Battier and Manu camp in my books, but pairing Ray Allen alongside LeBron James means that the wing is going to have to leak off of Ray Allen. Along with Manu being injured most of the season and this game being based on this seasons performances I give this matchup to Ray Allen. He can defend them well enough, while being a constant offensive threat.

SFs
LeBron James
Danny Granger/Shane Battier

Neither can guard LeBron straight up, and even if they do manage to get the ball out of his hands, I still have so many more offensive weapons that the ball will go too. The most relied upon in this case will be the wide open Ray Allen outside the 3pt line. Of Course LeBron wins this matchup.

PFs
Antawn Jamison
Marcus Camby

This matchup is pretty much a wash, Camby can guard Antawn just fine and limit him, but Camby has no offensive game for Antawn to have to guard. No Clear Winner


Cs
Zydrunus Ilgauskas
Yao Ming

Yao's strengths are sorta like Ilgauskas. Big Z has always been one of the better shooting big men in the league, who also has a very good inside-midrange game and can shoot about 75-80% on FTs. He's never been a huge rebound guy tho, as he's never averaged 9 or more... but he's also had a knack for offensive rebounds. Gets some blocks here and there, decent passer as well. Although Big Z is older than Yao. I consider him as a poor man's Yao, but not that poor. Ilguaskas has a very similar game to Yao, but doesnt put up as high of numbers. He has averaged 5-10 points less, 2-3 rebounds less, .5-1.0 assists and blocks less, 5% less FT shooting, and about 5% less FG percentage as well.

You can argue that Yao gets more touches than Z, but early in his career, pre-Lebron James the Cavs really depended on Z to be their go-to guy. Even then, he only averaged 10-15 points, 5-8 rebounds, 1.5 blocks, on 45% shooting. Plus he was plagued with injuries.

So all in all, they have very similar games, but Yao is definitely better than Z.

[dockingsched]

i wouldn't mind having judges still vote. i didn't read his write up but judging by its length it looks like it has a lot of time put into it.

[Mascot]

nah its fine, i was late so its my fault. good luck in the next round my man.