Sigmund vs. Torque Team Sigmund PG: Gary Payton SG: Kevin Durant SF: James Worthy PF: Willis Reed C: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Bench: SG/PG: Manu Ginobili SF/PF: Robert Horry PF/C: Shawn Kemp Team Torque PG Steve Nash / Deron Williams SG Dwayne Wade SF Julius Erving / Billy Cunningham PF Moses Malone / Tom Heinsohn C Alonzo Mourning Thanks. Let the judging begin!
Team Sigmund PG: Gary Payton SG: Kevin Durant SF: James Worthy PF: Willis Reed C: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Bench: SG/PG: Manu Ginobili SF/PF: Robert Horry PF/C: Shawn Kemp Team Torque PG Steve Nash / Deron Williams SG Dwayne Wade SF Julius Erving / Billy Cunningham PF Moses Malone / Tom Heinsohn C Alonzo Mourning At PG, I like Team Torque's combo to gain the advantage over The Glove. Prime Payton can play a lot of minutes, but going against two guys like Nash and deron would wear anyone down. For SG, ever so slight edge to Wade, as I think Durant is a little out of position here and Wade is better than Ginobilli. I like Worthy on this team, but he's up against the Doctor, the man who merged two leagues and ushered in the modern era of basketball. Plus, the Afro. At PF, I like Moses even though he's playing out of position. He's bigger, stronger, and more skilled than Willis. Jabbar has a huge edge here at the 5. Advice to Torque: In this league, you better have your best center playing, you know, center. There are too many all-time greats at the 5 and not that many at the 4. If you have to play someone out of position, make it a 4. Team Torque Bench: As noted above, Deron is a great backup PG in this league. I like Cunningham's flexibillity and D. Not wild about Heinsohn. I know he's in the HOF, but does he belong in this league? Team Sigmund Bench: Manu helps a little on Wade. Horry doesn't seem to matchup well against Torque's team as he would be on Dr. J or Cunningham most of the time which doesn't really afford him a mismatch opportunity like other players would. Still, a D of Payton, Durant, Worthy, and Horry backed by Jabbar would make it tough to find passing lanes. The big advantage in this matchup is Kemp, as none of Torque's benchplayers can match up. You'd have to go Alonzo on Kemp I suppose. Regardless, large edge to Sigmund. Based on Kareem and the bench, I'm calling it for Team Sigmund. I would have gone with Torque if he had Moses at the 5 and would have picked a legit 4 instead of Heinsohn for the bench... maybe a Kevin Willis type... because you need more than Moses and Alonzo down low.
For the semi's a new format for my judging... Backcourt vs Backcourt Frontcourt vs Frontcout Best team defence Best team offence Best team bench Inside scoring Outside scoring Backcourt Payton Durant /Manu vs Nash Wade /Deron I give the edge here to the Payton & Durant. Payton's defence and Durants length would be just too much for the Nash & Wade team to handle. Not saying it wouldn't be close, but Durant is the X-Factor here. Sigmund Frontcourt Here is where it gets interesting. We have Kareem, Reed & Worthy vs DrJ, Moses and Zo. The best of the Bunch is Kareem, but as a group the Fo,Fo,Fo team up of DrJ & Moses, along with Zo is better, both offensively and on defence. Torque Team on defence This very close. Too close to call in fact... I was leaning towards Torque but overall Sigmund's team is better on defence as a team. Sigmund Team offence Again very close. The Nash pick'n'roll with Malone & Zo, DrJ in the open court versus the uptempo running game of Payton, Durant, worthy & Kareem! I have to lean towards Kareem's team. Just. Was going to call it a tie, but advantage... Sigmund Bench The Rainman is the king of the bench wars here. Robert Horry and Manu also bring championship winning experience. Sigmund Inside scoring Kareem, Kareem, Kareem! Reed, Reed, Reed! But on the other side we also have Moses, Zo and DrJ with Wade who can Lay it down... But advantage Sigmund Outside scoring No contest...Wade can't shoot the 3 consistently enough to give Durant worries. Sigmund As much as I love Moses Malone, ( I still have an autographed game sneaker) Kareem,Reed, worthy, Kemp, Durant & Payton (Seattle connection..nice) are just too much. Sigmund wins
Yuck, yuck, yuck! Both teams should lose. Why in the world would you want to see four, count 'em four centers banging around on one another. Slow, yucky game. This would be like watching a football game. I know you got perimeter guys but there's no way anybody can drive to the bucket, I don't care how spectacular Dr. J., Wade, and Manu are. You got a ton of beef all cluttered up in there. And if you move those guys outside, they are all totally useless. Kareem, Reed, Mourning, and Moses.....the only guy that can shoot outside of 5 feet is Kareem throwing up the sky hook. Sorry guys, I would not pay to see this. Both of you did a terrible job of constructing your teams. These two teams wouldn't win anything. Willis Reed is all of 6'9". While a good player for his generation, he would get mauled in the paint by Moses and Mourning. He had no range and was a subpar shooter with his little 15 footer. He would be totally useless trying to play the 4 with Kareem. This team shouldn't be here. They would have lost in the first round. But you've got them here. So, the way I see it, this game would come down to who can shoot the best from distance since you got 4 bigs mauling one another down low. And to make matters worse you got two very poor shooters at the SF spots. Both guys (Dr. J/Worthy) are slashers/finishers. Crazy. Don't want to see either one launching 18 footers. so we get down to the backcourts. Durant is the superior shooter to Wade. But Nash and Deron are far superior to Payton. So if I were coaching Team Torque, I'd start both guys in my backcourt, I'd put Wade at 3, Dr. J at the 4, and start Moses against Kareem. Moses always gave Kareem fits with the physicality. I'd force the other team to either spread out and attempt to play my smaller quicker guys with Moses being in the low post and I'd go uptempo and run that garbage out of the building. Sigmund would have to respond by taking out Reed, bringing on Kemp (who should be starting over Reed anyways), take out Worthy and put Durant at the 3 where he belongs, and start Manu alongside Payton. Now you've got some decent matchups. Payton vs. Nash, DWill vs. Manu, Durant vs. Wade, Kemp vs. Dr. J, and Kareem vs. Moses with Mourning coming in against Reed. And I'm going to take ...... Team Torque....because it's Thursday night. Tomorrow is Friday, I take Sigmund on Friday. Team Torque simply because both coaches don't have enough sense to even know who to start and Sigmund already won one. Heinsohn??? Are you kidding me? This would one ugly, ugly game. Team Torque. Sorry fellas.
He can't play them together while I can. Also, Payton could make a three. However, you are acting like in-game adjustments doesn't exist. Is my starting 5 the best possible against this team? Does every team in NBA start with best five players? And if some role bench player play better defence against opponents best player, he might finish game instead of someone who usually does.
Team Sigmund. He has spacing (I know it's debatable, given his bigs), a dominant perimeter player, dominant Center, and some tough D. With Torque, he has great players as well, but his bench isn't as good, and I would wonder if D-Will, Nash, and Wade could all work together, while still feeding the bigs. It really helps to have an off the ball kinda guy like Durant for Sigmund.
PG: I like Payton out of all 3 players, but the versatility that comes with Nash and D-Will sets this matchup apart for me. Sure, Manu can take some PG minutes, but he would be slightly out of position and I think that Nash and D-will would compliment each other well, and would benefit from having several other options to get the ball to. Torque SG: Durant at the SG position would be a nightmare for Wade. Durant has the speed to keep up with Wade, and also has the length by a good margin. Durant is the better shooter, and they both can finish very well. Durant is also the better FT shooter. Sigmund SF: Both of these guys are awesome offensive players, but I feel that Erving is the more well-rounded of the 2. Both have tremendous size, but Erving would have the advantage on the boards as well as an advantage on D. Torque PF: Both of these players are great offensive players and phenomenal rebounders, but I am going with Sigmund simply because I like the way that his PF options mesh together. Kemp would be able to be a beast defensively and Horry would space the floor pretty well camping out in the corner, Battier style. C: Kareem takes this matchup everytime, to me. I think this is the matchup that sets these two teams apart. What has happened to Mourning throughout his career is regrettable, but he would not have what it takes to matchup against Kareem even though a healthy Zo was great. Matchup goes to Sigmund
