ATF ROUND 1: BrianFromWA / Entity / Huevonkiller

[J_Ray]

DEBATE TOPIC:

Manu Ginobili, Jason Terry, Andrei Kirilenko.....these are just a big few name players that give their respective teams sparks off the bench. As seen this year while they were injured, missing games, their teams struggled significantly without contributions. My question is, who is the most important bench player to his teams success that not many people give notice to?

Remember to abide by the rules, and debate about the topic avoiding any personal attacks. Let's get it on!

Debate Rules:

We will start with randomly selected groups. A topic to debate will be posted, and you will have 24 hours to make your first statement.

After everyone posts their opening statement or after 24 hours, it becomes an open debate topic between all of the group members.

After posting, you have to wait 2 posts or 3 hours, whichever comes first, in order to post again. This is to prevent this from becoming a 2 person discussion, only because they happen to be on at the same time while no one else is.

The debate will go on for 3 days, then, if you want, you'll have another 24 hours to make a closing statement.

 

[Entity]

Who is the most important bench player to his team's success that not many people give notice to?

I looked through a great deal of players, looking for criteria I could use to argue what makes a great bench player. I used the Sixth Man Award's rules to call a player a bench player, namely:

Players eligible for the Sixth Man Award must come off of the bench in as many or more games than he starts.

I decided that they needed to play at least 20 minutes a game. I thought that they should have contributed a certain number of Win Shares to their team, not necessarily the total because some teams are good and some teams are terrible, but where they ranked on their team. I had to factor in how often their teammates played, who was injured, who became starters as a result of injured players.

I found that most players that stepped up for guys like Elton Brand and Gilbert Arenas didn't make that much of an impact. For other injured players like Jameer Nelson, some teams traded for starters to replace them like Rafer Alston.

This is the list I made based off of those factors, not leaving out players that might be thought of as "noticed" by people at large:

CHA- DJ Augustin
CHI- Brad Miller and Kirk Hinrich
DAL- Jason Terry
DEN- JR Smith and Chris Andersen
DET- Antonio McDyess (now with the Spurs)
GSW- Corey Maggette, Ronny Turiaf, CJ Watson, and Anthony Morrow
HOU- Carl Landry
IND- Jeff Foster
LAC- Fred Jones
LAL- Lamar Odom and Trevor Ariza (now with the Rockets)
MEM- Hakim Warrick (now with the Bucks)
MIL- Ramon Sessions
MIN- Kevin Love
NJN- Keyon Dooling
NOH- James Posey
NYK- Nate Robinson
PHX- Leandro Barbosa
POR- Rudy Fernandez and Travis Outlaw
SAS- Manu Ginobili
UTA- Paul Millsap, Andrei Kirilenko, and Kyle Korver

Keep in mind that this question is concerning players who are most important to their team's success. Now I have to decide who is noticed. Terry was the Sixth Man of the year, and Ginobili and Barbosa have each won one in the past, so I'm taking them out. I think Miller, Hinrich, McDyess, Maggette, Odom, Ariza, Sessions, Posey, Robinson, Outlaw, Millsap, Kirilenko, Korver, Smith, and Andersen are well thought of for bench players. I have to choose only one Golden State player, so I'm picking Turiaf and dumping Morrow and Watson.

Some of the players I have left might be well thought of, but I have to draw the line somewhere. None of these remaining players were even in consideration for the Sixth Man Award. Warrick got one vote, but I'm attributing that to some homer Memphis beat writer. This is what I have left:

CHA- DJ Augustin
GSW- Ronny Turiaf
HOU- Carl Landry
IND- Jeff Foster
LAC- Fred Jones
MEM- Hakim Warrick
MIN- Kevin Love
NJN- Keyon Dooling
POR- Rudy Fernandez

I want to narrow this list down a little further. I'm going to take the bench players that finished in the top three of their respective teams in overall win shares. Drop Dooling, Jones, Foster, and Fernandez. Love, in fact, finished first among players on his team despite coming off the bench more than he started, but Al Jefferson was injured for 32 games and would have overtaken him easily had he played the same number of games. Warrick no longer plays for Memphis, so I'm also going to drop him because it's too difficult to predict how he'll fit in with Milwaukee. We're now looking at:

CHA- DJ Augustin
GSW- Ronny Turiaf
HOU- Carl Landry
MIN- Kevin Love

Kevin Love is the best rebounder. Ronny Turiaf is the best defender. DJ Augustin is the best shooter. But among these four, I am going to choose Carl Landry, especially now. His team is the only one among the four that had any success last season, and without Yao Ming and Dikembe Mutombo this coming season, his contributions are going to be much more needed. As it stands, the Rockets have no one at center. If the Rockets don't make a trade, 6'9" Luis Scola and 6'6" Chuck Hayes (who averaged 12.1 minutes during the regular season last year) will be starting at C and PF, and they'll be looking at 6'9" Landry to come in and play both positions for them off the bench. The rest of these players have guys like Raymond Felton (assuming Charlotte retains him), Andris Biedrins, and Al Jefferson to share time with at their positions.

So that's my opening statement, Carl Landry, the most important underrated bench player to his team going into 2009-10. I look forward to discussing this with both of you.

 

[Entity]

So...

Since I didn't get any arguments, I sort of rested my case rather than added to the wall-talking.

 

[J_Ray]

So...

Since I didn't get any arguments, I sort of rested my case rather than added to the wall-talking.

lol Yeah, Huevon had something come up from what I understand and I don't know what happened to BrianFromWA. Sorry we didn't find anyone to step in, but congrats on advancing to the Finals

 

[NJNetz]

Best debate ever!

 

[Entity]

I can be intimidating...