The field has been trimmed from 16 to 8. In this round, the team that receives the most votes will move on in the competition. Review the rosters, then vote for the team which you believe is BETTER Spooner PG - Derrick Rose SG - Courtney Lee / Jordan Crawford SF - Michael Beasley / Luc Richard Mbah a Moute PF - Kevin Love / Kenyon Martin C - Brook Lopez Vs. RedNation PG - Deron Williams SG - John Salmons / Tony Allen SF - Paul George / Martell Webster PF - Dirk Nowitzki C - Omer Asik / Jason Thompson
So... we're not going by the seeding that I had earlier this week? It's a shame that one of these teams will be eliminated in the top 8.
Gotta go with spooner on this one. His starting lineup is just much more balanced. It's a tough call, though, cause any team Dirk is on is a threat.
Spooner got my vote. As I doubt you find a better defender to Dirk than Luc + Martin. While players like Omar+George+Salmons does not give any spacing with their lack of range.
Salmons shoots well from deep. Omer is a center and dirk primarily plays from mid range postups. He will have all the space he needs.
I'm going with Spooner on this one. He's got an edge at every spot except the 4, and even there it's close. If Kevin Love is the weak link I'll take that; plus having depth in KMart at the 4 is hard to beat. Dirk would have to work his butt off in this match-up. At the 1, I love D Will's game, but Rose is the one Point Guard I would build around if I was starting a team. No question there. The sleeper in this might be Mbah a Moute. Not having seen him play that much, I did a little research and found this by Hollinger: Mbah a Moute remains the league's most underrated defender, not to mention its most versatile. Against Dallas last season, he guarded Dirk Nowitzki and Jason Terry in the same game; neither player did jack against him. Hollinger http://espn.go.com/nba/player/hollinger/_/id/3451/luc-richard-mbah-moute As others have said, it's a shame these two teams had to meet here. RedNation has a great team, but I think Spooner has the better point, better rebounding, and the potential to create much better spacing on the floor.
I would like to point out that Moute and Martin would spend a lot of time at the 4 guarding Dirk. Both would give him hell on defense. This would move Love to the 5 for stretches. If I lined Love at the 3 point line on offense, Asik would be forced to come out, leaving the paint WIDE OPEN for Derrick Rose. Then, Lopez would dominate Thompson, who is more of a tweener at this point in his career.... As a base starting 5 however, Love would force Dirk to work on defense. (There is a lot of offense there on both sides of the ball.) And still, Lopez>>>Asik Not really worried about him scoring on Lopez, pretty sure Lopez would be pretty effective against Asik. (given the fact he averages 20ppg against STARTING centers....)
Not really.... Salmons shoots 415% from the field. Thats Stephen Jackson type inefficiency. Not good. Paul George was under 300% from 3 this year thats not a sign of a good floor spacer at the 3. Tony Allen and Omer Asik have no shot. The only shooter is Martell, but with his back injury, he has gone from NBA defensive team mention on Portland, to an abysmal defender in Minnesota. That is horrible spacing. BTW "Asik is a center" doesn't mean he wouldn't contribute to the spacing problem. Many team's have a floor spacing center like...Brook Lopez(one of the best)
I had to go Spooner by a little sorry Red I dont like Asik playing Center and Kenyon martin coming off the bench to guard dirk gets my vote
Not counting guest votes, it is Spooner: 20, RedNation: 15. Shouldn't be this close imo, Spooner's team is head and shoulders above.
