The field has been trimmed from 4 to 2. In this final round, the team that receives the most votes will win the competition and the bragging rights. Review the rosters, then vote for the team which you believe is BETTER, crowning our champion dharocks PG - Steve Nash SG - Kirk Hinrich / Ben Gordon SF - Caron Butler / J.R. Smith PF - Taj Gibson / Ryan Anderson C - Dwight Howard 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
Okay I have decided that the deadline will be 10PM Central time on Thursday or unless one person is winning by like 30+ votes then maybe we can crown him.
Check the matchup history between Dwight and Lopez. Lopez is a better man defender than people realize. Many 7 footers can defend Howard as he doesn't have the best post game. Dwight outscored Brook in 6 out of the 10 games they've met. I really don't think it would be domination in the post. I would put Courtney Lee on Nash, and let Rose guard Hinrich. I would play Love at the 5 and Beasley at the 4 for stretches. Remember, Love used to play Center for the TWolves. That would force Dwight out of the paint being matched up with Love, as he can space out to the 3 point line. This would give more space for Rose to penetrate. Beasley would have a field day against Taj. Rose>Nash(Nash is great, Rose is the MVP of the League) Courtney Lee=Kirk Hinrich (both would play solid defense and be effective spot up shooters) Michael Beasley>Caron Butler(Coming back from an injury like his, I am hesitant as to how effective he would be. On the flip side Beasley had a terrific year) Kevin Love>Taj Gibson(horrible mismatch, don't need to go any further) Brook Lopez<Dwight Howard(again, check the matchup history. I feel Love and Lopez would put a lot of offensive pressure on him) I also have two very good defenders on my bench in Martin, and Mbah a Moute. Dwight's rebounding is negated by Kevin Loves rebounding. I think my bigs are better as a whole. (Hate to say it but Kevin Love, Brook Lopez>Dwight Howard, Taj Gibson) My Small forward is better. My backcourt is better. Looking forward to the matchup. Good luck to you DH.
Brook Lopez<Dwight Howard(Not to a debilitating amount. Again, check the matchup history. I feel Love and Lopez would put a lot of offensive pressure on Howard)
As much as I love D Howard, I have to go with Spooner on this one. The more I look at the matchups 1-4, the more I like this team. Also not convinced about Butler's health. I know he's working his way back to exhibition shape, but a torn patella tendon is some serious stuff. Azubuike's injury happened back when he was with Golden State, and whether he will ever return to his old form remains to be seen. Taj at the 4? Against Love? Bad mismatch. Nash — Love the guy's game more than any point other than Rose. I'll take D Rose on this one. Hinrich and Lee are both nice players. Both are good defenders, above average all around game. I'll go with Lee here. He's bigger and considerably more athletic. Again, Howard is awesome, but he's yet to win a ring by himself. That being said, Lopez is in the discussion of top 5 centers. The biggest knock on him is rebounding, but pairing him with Love in the front court is ideal to offset that and help maximize his assets. Loads of talent on the floor here. Tough choice, but I'll go with the better overall team. Spooner it is.
Spooner's team doesn't have enough fire power to win a 7 game series against dharocks' team. I like both teams, but there's enough floor spacing balance on dharocks' team to offset any weird lineup. Want to put Love at the 5 and Beas at the 4, that's fine, but that would get toasted inside. Spooner's analysis is okay, but he essentially says every part of his team is equal or better than every part of the other team, and he has a better team overall. That is a little silly. Love and Beas play major roles on one of the worst teams in the NBA last year, and Lopez is a star on one of the worst teams in the NBA the last 3 years. They're stat fillers, but not necessarily integral pieces to a great team. The only proven leader/winner on the court for Spooner is Rose, and he's done it one year, and had a horrible WCF too (but he's still awesome). Dharock's team is full of guys who have not only excelled individually, but also in a team environment. If you add up the playoff experience, Dharocks' team probably blows Spooner's out of the water. And it's not over-the-hill old legs either. There are young contributors like Gibson, J.R. Smith, and Ben Gorden. Overall, the experience, the winning playoff games, and the fire-power would be too much for Spooner's team to overcome in a 7-game series. Playoff Stats (better competition, tougher environment, higher stakes) Nash 118 games, 17.3 ppg, 8.9 apg, 3.6 reb, 49%FG, 43% 3pt, 3 conference finals Hinrich 40 games, 14.6 ppg, 5.3 apg, 3.5 reb, 43% FG, 41% 3pt Butler 31 games, 16.4 ppg, 7.8 reb, 1.9 stl, 42% FG Gibson 21 games, 6.3 ppg, 4.8 reb, 52% FG Howard 57 games, 19.9 ppg, 14.3 reb, 2.8 blk, 60% FG, 1 nba finals Gordon 29 games, 20.2 ppg, 3.2 apg, 3.2 reb, 38% 3pt JR Smith 35 games, 12.7 ppg, 2.9 reb, 34% 3pt, 1 conference finals vs Rose 28 games, 25.3 ppg, 7.3 apg, 4.9 reb, 43% FG, 24% 3pt, 1 conference finals Lee 21 games, 8 ppg, 44% FG, 27% 3pt, 1 nba finals Beasley 12 games, 11.4 ppg, 6.7 reb, 41% FG, 33% 3pt Love, no playoffs Lopez, no playoffs Crawford, no playoffs KMart, 89 games, 14.9 ppg, 7.6 reb, 46% FG, 2 nba finals, 3 conference finals There's not enough 3pt shooting, winning experience, and scoring depth on this second team.
Is it assumed players are injury free? You have to remember, caron butler was an allstar only a couple of years ago.
No. We agreed that previous injuries would play a part. At one point in the draft, I had the option of trading Jordan Crawford for Caron. You do the math.
I can see where you are coming from, but I don't like your thought process at all. Was Kevin Garnett a proven winner on the Twolves? Was Ray Allen a proven winner on terrible late sonics teams? Was Paul Peirce a proven winner on a record setting bad Celtics team? You would be hard pressed to find anyone who thinks they are anything but winners. I didn't say every part of my teams is equal or better. With the exception of Howard, my team is better at every position. There is no way to tell where Caron is physically, while Beasley put up very good numbers this year. You really think he wouldn't be effective as a 4th option? If Brook Lopez is my weak link I will take it. He is still a very good player. It's funny you mention the concept of winners through playoff experience. If you would look at your own writing, you would see that DH rocks has amassed a total of 4 Conference Finals appearances and 1 Finals appearance. My team has 4 Conference Finals appearnces and 3 Finals appearances. Technically there are more "winners" on my squad.
I don't understand why they put kirk hinrich over ben gordon. Ben gordon would be giving courtney lee trouble from the 3. line and all over the place too. Let's not forget the celtics series against the bulls. If you don't count his current injury caron butler is way better than michael beasley, I mean we all saw him fail with the heat. I just think because he is in the bad team that he's gonna do good he just 1 of those players. Lopez fell off this year amd Love has no defense or at least not enough to be guard D howard. He maybe able to rebound but that's about it. Rose>nash Honestly lee and smith would cancel out. Gordon is better than crawford. Love is just a better anderson Martin > Gibson but not by a lot. As age is a factor. Howard > Lopez by a lot.
A team with a line up of Brook Lopez, Michael Beasley,Kevin Love and Courtney Lee would only give you 25 wins, even with Rose, i don't think this team can be a championship contender.
Kevin Garnett won an MVP, was a multiple All-Star, and consistently lead his team into the playoffs most years, including a conference finals. Ray Allen was a multiple all-star, and lead his team to the playoffs for many years. Paul Pierce had similar success. Together, they took the next step. Look at the list. The only playoff contributors on your team are Lee, Martin and Rose, and in no way am I saying this is the only criteria. If that were the case, Martin would be higher ranked than Rose, and he is not. Rose is the best players on your team by far. You also have to look at roles. Martin was at best 2nd fiddle on his playoff teams (in NJ) and more recently a role player (Den). And I don't see how you can say your team is more experienced in the playoffs. The total is like 300+ games vs 150 games of experience (and mostly by KMart). Ultimately, while your team is talented, it lacks 1) winning experience -your counter was a flawed KG, Allen, and Pierce argument...honestly, are you saying that Love, Beasley and Lopez are equal to KG, Allen, and Pierce before the Celtics? It's not equivalent in results, nor in talent. And your guys aren't just on average teams, but they the top tier players of TERRIBLE TEAMS. Does that not carry any weight at all? Sure, Love can rebound as well as Dwight Howard, but can Love dominate the paint defensively like Howard? Can Lopez do that? 2) shooting -your team lacks it. We saw what happened to the Bulls in the playoffs when other players don't help out Rose. Rose is effective as a scorer and distributor. This means he also needs shooters for spacing. That's why the Bulls got Korver. Rose also elevated Deng's game this year. Your current team lacks shooters. Beas is streaky and doesn't play off ball as much as on ball. Lee is good, but not a great shooter (and not against good competition like in the playoffs). While Love can hit the 3pter, is he great at it? And are you saying that on offense, Love will just be parked at the 3pt line, negating his best asset of crashing the boards? -Nash shoots amazingly well in the regular season and the playoffs. He also distributes well. Even if Caron is not healthy, the dha team has Ben Gordon and JR Smith and Ryan Anderson...3 shooters off the bench. This team is built better in terms of floor balance. Between Dwight drawing double teams inside and crashing the boards inside, and Nash distributing everywhere, there's just too much fire power to compliment them. -check the shooting % and NBA Hotzones. I just don't see the proper floor spacing for Spooner's talented team to excel.
