Pretty simple, vote for the winner of this matchup. Winner advances to play the winner of the 2/7 series. Charlotte Bobcats - Denny Crane: PG: Allen Iverson / Brevin Knight SG: Ronnie Brewer / Matt Carroll / DJ Strawberry SF: Josh Howard / Ricky Davis PF: Kevin Garnett / Nick Collison / Glen Davis C: Erick Dampier / Mark Blount Atlanta Hawks - DynastYWarrioR6: PG: Russell Westbrook / Marko Jaric SG: Gilbert Arenas / Keith Bogans / Kareem Rush SF: Mike Miller / Wilson Chandler PF: Luis Scola / Jeff Green / Donte Greene C: Chris Kaman / David Harrison
Against the Bobcats, the Hawks will play a zone defense. Charlotte has no shooter outside of Matt Carroll as well as noone who really can bust a zone. A case can be made for Allen Iverson, but more often than not, its his own shot he's busting for. Josh Howard plays a midrange game, and Ronnie Brewer scores off his dunks and putbacks, which is why he shoots a high percentage, NOT because he is a good shooter. Kevin Garnett is a big time player, but a midrange shooter who gets sucked into that shooting trap. Dampier isn't gonna be shooting. Defensively, I have the players who can guard this team effectively. Westbrook is a great defensive player and playing a zone with his skills and speed is a piece of cake. The big men I have will also benefit from this zone. Offensively, Gilbert is a scoring machine and will be absolutely fine against a defender like Brewer, who in his own right is a good defender, but most stars have had their way with him. Westbrook isn't looked upon to score, but rather to keep the offense going and really to play defense. Miller is a deadly shooter with a few tricks up his sleeve. With Agent Zero getting alot of attention, combined with offensive post games of both Scola and Kaman (more on him later), Mike will get his fair share of open shots, as well as the ones he can create for himself. Now, Chris Kaman has done very well against Dampier in games where both started against one another. When we look at the benches, I want to play a faster game once my bench is in. My bench is younger, faster, and more talented than Charlotte's. Knight is old as hell, and looks and plays the part. Davis played poorly on a bad team last year with enough minutes to make him look good, but didn't. Blount is just an overall bad player, he cannot play defense, cannot play offense, and cannot rebound. Respectable players on that bench are Carroll, an amazing shooter, and Collison, a rising big man. But those two won't be enough. My bench has a rising scorer in Chandler, a solid PG in Jaric (also scored with his wife btw), a solid defender in Bogans, a rising big man in Green, and a big man in Harrison who has shown to be solid given the minutes. Donte will split time with Chandler if we keep the big man on the court, and will slide to the 4 or 5 (interchangeable) if we go small ball and keep Harrison on the bench. With all these factors in mind, I think my team can beat this Charlotte Bobcats team, and if when we are up in the series, KG will crack like he has shown he can do (and I mean crack mentally). Josh Howard will have a hard time maintaining a sane state of mind and may bust out with another confession (tsk tsk). On that note: Good luck Denny, and you are a respectable and worthy opponent.
The Bobcats are agoing to have severe identit y issues, primariliy starting at the PG spot. I like DW"s team, as the y see mal ike a a starting 5, and team, that is a more cohesive unit.
Did you drink? Or do you so strongly believe in my team that you typed too fast cause you were too eager?
I disagree. The Bobcats have 3 stars in AI, Garnett and Howard. Only one of them needs the ball to be effective and that's AI. Garnett and Howard work well without the ball and play solid D. I think AI and KG are a great pairing because AI will take the pressure shots and KG is a great defender and rebounder. Ricky Davis is a good option off the bench because he can score through creating his own shot and that's valuable for the 2nd unit AI is going to abuse a rookie like Westbrook who is NOT proven as a defensive player at this level. Good defenders in college often don't look so good initially in the NBA.
I don't think a Zone would entirely solve the KG/AI problem, since the zone would end up collapsing around KG when he posts up, leaving multiple players open on the outside. They could drive or shoot which should provide lots of easy buckets.
Shooting won't be an option. Brewer and Howard shooting from the outside? Nope. Dampier? Next. Driving to the lane is a different story, however, a zone is supposed to force those other players to have to play big, and I don't think Howard, Brewer, and Dampier are the answers.
I think that would be the point of him employing a zone. I don't see anyone on Charlotte's team that could consistently hit from the outside to bust a zone that would be logging heavy minutes.
Matt Caroll Ricky Davis I've never seen a zone work for an entire game and with KG able to pop out an hit outside shots as well as AI, you could employ 4 ppl who could bust the zone. Carroll feeding KG in the post = double team-kick back-3 pointer.
Thinking that an offense can be run through KG without AI dominating the ball is naive. If you need to put Matt Carroll in the game for long stretches it works to the advantage of the other team though, as he's a HUGE defensive liability.
Iverson paired with former DPOY Mutombo lost in the NBA finals. The starting lineup was Iverson, Mutombo, Ratliff, McKie, and Snow. Iverson paired wtih KG and a far better cast at every position seems like a championship contender to me. The issue of 3pt shooting was raised after my first 5 picks. Matt Carroll and Ricky Davis both shot 40%+ from 3, and it wouldn't hurt my team to play one of them against a zone. It's not like my team would suffer from having 4 good defenders and a 3pt specialist on the court at the same time. Somehow Iverson got 7 APG and took 19 FGA/game. To say he's unwilling to share the ball (with Melo and others) makes no sense. Even without a 3pt shooter, the zone is a non-issue. Howard shot 68% of his shots outside, and Iverson took 83% of his shots outside. There's no rule that says you have to shoot 3 pointers to beat a zone, just that you can beat it by shooting over it. Shooting over it is trivial, because a high/low post combination of KG and Dampier/Collison will pack the zone (or dunk on it) leaving not very long shots available to shoot over the zone. Garnett shot 53% from the field, even though 72% of his shots were jumpers. He will be double teamed in the high post, even with a zone. At the defensive end, expect one shot by opponents with Garnett (9.2), Dampier (7.5), and Collison (9.4) around to grab the boards. Westbrook hasn't played an NBA game and is unlikely going to be close to an even match up with Iverson. Arenas hasn't played a full season in 2 years, and is currently injured.
I didn't vote, but are you saying Iverson is exactly the same player now as he was then? Also, look at the depth at PG the Sixers had. You have one backup and he is unlikely to stay healthy.
Iverson took 25.5 FGA/game then, but 19 last season. No, he's not the same player, but he probably would score more than he did then if he took another 6.5 FGA/game. He also took ~10 FTA/game, so he's going to get a guy like Westbrook in foul trouble. Iverson played 42 MPG for all 82 games last season. I only need 6 MPG at PG, so why do I need depth? Even if Iverson were to miss all 82 games, all my team needs is to be able to get the ball across half court and into KG's hands.
About everyone's arguement that Westbrook hasn't played one game: It's flawed reasoning in that EVERY rookie has yet to play oen game, and its an easy escape from an argument/debate to just say "oh they wont do diddly squat cause they haven't played". Then there would be no point in drafting rookies. I don't know how Arenas' injury, which is for the first 2 months of the season (which is why you say currently) is going to hinder him in April/May/June. Unless he gets injured again during the year, then I don't foresee his early season injury doing that. If that were the case, then every injured player that may be out for a week or two or even some months are in your mind, invalid picks. Address my players themselves. (Sidenote: After reading this, I kinda sound like a jerk, I don't mean to Denny )
DING DING DING DING DING DING. exactly WHY you shouldn't draft a rook to start on your team if you're trying to win now. As I said above, rookies are seldomly solid defenders in their first year or two. Sure they may get steals or big man may get blocks but fundamentally they're not that good yet. It's a big adjustment and a HUGE assumption to think they will make that adjustment in their first year.
