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Current NBA Draft Final Four: Cunning Linguist vs. Eminence

Who would win in a 7 game series?


  • Total voters
    20
  • Poll closed .

Elizah Huge

Respect All, Fear None
Contributor
2024 Award Winner
Team Cunning Linguist:

PG - Mike Conley / Reggie Jackson
SG - Bradley Beal / Lance Stephenson
SF - Gordon Hayward / Joe Johnson
PF - Tim Duncan / Boris Diaw
C - Joakim Noah / Tiago Splitter

Team Eminence:

PG - Stephen Curry / D'Angelo Russell
SG - Wes Matthews / Tony Allen
SF - Harrison Barnes / Corey Brewer
PF - Paul Millsap / John Henson
C - Al Horford / Meyers Leonard



Cunning Linguist's Case:

n/a

Eminence's Case:

Wes returns to the starting lineup!

General thoughts on my team: Wes will likely take a step back from his injury, but I don’t think it will hurt his shooting or ball movement skills too much which is what I drafted him for. Leonard/Barnes/Henson are all young, and I expect both Barnes and Leonard to continue to see more chances and improve this season. Nobody so old as to expect anybody to fall off a cliff.

The main philosophy for Team Eminence is good ball movement combined with good spacing. For this matchup our main bench guys will be Allen/Leonard/Russell, with Henson and Brewer not seeing much of the court.

Offense obviously based around Curry outside with Millsap/Horford doing work down low. Going through my main offensive options:

Horford- Yeah, Noah seems pretty much done, Horford will get buckets.

Millsap- Timmy D is great, but he's slowing down and would have trouble keeping up with Paul on the perimeter. The goal will be to run poor ol' Tim into the ground.

Barnes/Matthews- Will space the offense great, both shoot around 40% from deep and will get open looks from all our passers.

Curry- Conley is a solid defender, but that series with GSW was done when Allen got injured, Conley just can't keep up with the MVP. Curry will power our offense and keep us running at a high level.

Bench-Leonard will probably be our main offensive option off the bench, nobody on his team can bother his shot from the perimeter.

Going over his main offensive options and how we will defend them. Honestly he doesn't have much of an offense(for this type of competition) none of his starters are capable of carrying a high level offense and Noah was a negative on the offensive end last season.

Gordon- Barnes is a solid defender and he'll see some of Allen from the bench as well. Gordon will get some, but he rarely takes the game over.

Duncan- Our biggest defensive challenge, Duncan can still score from the post. Horford will probably cover him most of the time to give us a bit more size on him. Best defense will be to force him to defend on the perimeter and in transition to wear him down.

Bench- CL has a very solid bench, wouldn't trust Lance, but the other four are very solid off the bench. I expect Jackson/Johnson/Diaw to get his bench points.

Overall summary: I think CL has the bench advantage, but his starters just can't keep pace with mine. Curry is easily the best player in this series and it will show. Across the rest of his lineup his team is good at lots of things, but great at nothing and they just won't be able to keep up with our elite offense. I don't think this series is particularly close, his bench steals one, 4-1 Team Eminence.
 
Cunning linguist and its not even close
 
Cunning linguist and its not even close

May I ask why you think so? I believe I would be running out a GOAT level offense(clear upgrade on this years Warriors who had the leagues #2 offense), while he has a what exactly? A Gordon Hayward led offense and a deep bench to pair with some aging interior defenders(No disrespect to Gordon, I love him)?

To the better than Warriors offense point: Curry is Curry, Barnes should make small improvements(he's only 23, not expecting anything huge, but small improvement is likely), Millsap is better than Green offensively, and Horford is a huge upgrade over Bogut offensively. Meanwhile Matthews is a solid step back from Klay. Overall I think it adds up to a clear improvement.
 
^ not sure the offense is better than what GS ran. They were very efficient and defense lead to easy points and your defense is much worse than GS. Missing Klay and you forgot the finals MVP in that equation.
 
^ not sure the offense is better than what GS ran. They were very efficient and defense lead to easy points and your defense is much worse than GS. Missing Klay and you forgot the finals MVP in that equation.

The Finals MVP had the best series of his life, and I still don't think he deserved it over Curry or Lebron. Over the course of the season he was never a major part of their offense.

Already addressed Klay, I've downgraded at the two(solidly), but the 3(slightly)/4(solidly)/5(hugely) are all better offensively. The offense will absolutely be better than GS's. Overall, with defense... I think GS would be better, but that's no slight, GS was a top 10 all time team.
 
Wes returns to the starting lineup???

Is this guy serious?

I win and it's not even close. Beal and Hayward >>>>>>>Wheelchair Wes and Barnes who shouldn't be sniffing a start in this.

Duncan and Noah >> Millsap and Horford. They're winners, lead and have a lot of length that would cause these two fits.

Also, his bench sucks. My bench would outscore his about 35-10 each game.
 
Milsap and Horford are tissue paper. Duncan and Noah would destroy them. Destroy. D. E. S. T. R. O. Y.
 
My team should have beat both these teams, easy.
I think the suckiness of your team is what held you back
 
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