Eminence's Team
Steph Curry / DeAngelo Russell
Wes Matthews / Tony Allen
Harrison Barnes / Corey Brewer
Paul Millsap / John Henson
Al Horford / Meyers Leonard
vs.
Cy's Team
George Hill / Brandon Jennings
James Harden / CJ McCollum
Rodney Hood / Tyreke Evans
Draymond Green / Joe Ingles
Hassan Whiteside / Karl Anthony Towns
Cy's Case:
Why My Team Wins
Offense
My team can play a 4 out/1 in offense with the games most dominant driver, James Harden. Hood, Hill, and Green all provide great spacing, spacing that is far superior to anything Harden has had in Houston (and he drives and scores just fine other there). James Harden is going to get buckets and no one on the other team can stop him. Matthews would be a good defender, but he is coming off an Achilles injury, at best he is probably going to be half of good as he was last year.
Rodney Hood and George Hill both provide good secondary playmakers to take the load off Harden and prevent the TO problems that can plague Harden in Houston (because he has to do everything in Houston). Hood shot 42% from deep when he got healthy and started playing regular minutes after the All-Star break. George Hill is a 37% career 3pt shooter. Both these players can play off or on ball and have showed success in both roles. George Hill is an average passer at the PG position while Rodney Hood is an above average passing wing.
Draymond Green provides a lot of intangibles on offense. He is an excellent passer and is a very creative player. He might not be the best shooter, but he should be in the 34% from deep ballpark again, if not potentially higher, which is well above average for a PF. Green is the type of player who is capable of putting a triple double and could potentially get the elusive 5x5 stat line in his career one day. I won't need him to score that much, but he should be able to match or exceed his output from his Golden State days.
Hassan Whiteside is a emerging dominant big man, much like our Rudy Gobert. Difference is Whiteside is actually a better offensive player. Whiteside is an elite finisher around the rim and has post moves that show a great deal of promise. In the last month of the season he averaged 17 ppg on 68% shooting.
Just an example of Whiteside's post game potential:
/cdn0.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/2926088/whiteside1.0.gif)
So obviously is more than just a DeAndre-type finisher. He can do that and flash some touch and moves around the paint. Surrounded by 4 shooters and 2 exceptional passers, he will be devastating in my offense.
Defense
My team is pretty solid defensively, anchored by Hassan Whiteside's disgusting rim protecting ability and Green's fierce competitiveness and tenacity. Whiteside is one of the better rim protectors, managing to be a top 10 player in rim protection FG% despite playing next to Chris Bosh. Next to Green he will elevate his rim protection capabilities.
James Harden and Rodney Hood aren't the best defenders, but they are far from bad. Harden worked on his defensive game this past year and is no longer the joke he use to be. He is now a solid defender. Hood is also a solid defender. They won't be locking anyone down, but there aren't any wings on the opposing team who really need to be locked down. Hood showed the playing in front of a rim protector he can play on a top defense in the NBA, same goes with Harden when he was able to play with a healthy Dwight.
George Hill is a very good, big defensive PG who will manage to at least contest Curry's shots. In Head to Head matchups, Hill has played well defensively against Curry. https://www.basketball-reference.com/play-index/h2h_finder.cgi?request=1&p1=hillge01&p2=curryst01
As you can see, Hill has been able to limit Curry's trips to the FT line and ability to get his team involved while forcing Curry into more TO's than usual. Conversely, Hill has manged to get buckets efficiently against Curry. George Hill's team also own a 9-2 record over Curry teams.
Draymond Green. If you don't know what this dude does on D, you probably aren't qualified to vote.
Bench
I have a very talented bench, potentially the most talented in all the draft. The "fit" might not be the best, but with creative lineup matching, I can put together good lineups to spell my starters.
Brandon Jennings is a microwave with his scoring ability and is a pretty talented passer who is low on TO's. I
CJ McCollum provides some extra bench shooting. He showed towards the later half of the year and in the playoffs that he can legitimately score and shoot at a very high level in the NBA.
Tyreke Evans is one of the most physically imposing wings in the NBA. Jazz fans know first hand the destruction he can cause by driving to the rim. Evans will be my 6th man, spelling Harden or Hood when I need a physical wing presence. Evans is also a top isolation defender, so he could also be used to guard Stephen Curry on ball if needed.
Off-ball he is a legitimately bad defender, but none of Em's wings are really off-ball dominant shooters, so Evans won't be hurt. Matthews is the only one I would worry about, but Matthews isn't going to be Matthews this upcoming year.
Joe Ingles people probably mocked this pick, but we are treating these teams like actual teams and Ingles brings team chemistry, proven fact. He also shown he can be a good 3pt shooter in the later half of the year. I would probably only play Ingles a max of 5 minutes per game to spell a starter at the end of a quarter. Ingles is a good enough and smart enough player that he won't hurt me by playing a short amount of time. Ingles finds a way to make a positive impact on the court with his passing and IQ.
Karl Anthony Towns we all know what Towns is capable of. He can hits jumpers. He can do post moves. He can rebound. He can defend. He can pass. He can do everything you would ever want out of a NBA center and then some. This is totally a judgement call, but I think he is going to have a great rookie year. I also think he would be even better on a team where he was coming off the bench. I see Towns as a 25-30 mpg player, playing both PF and C. Some may say that is crazy for a rookie in this competition, but the dude is that good and that mature. He can definitely contribute with his defense.
Preferred Minute Allotment
George Hill (36) / Jennings (8) McCollum (4)
Harden (40) / McCollum (8)
Hood (34) / Evans (14)
Green (35) / KAT (13)
Whiteside (33) / KAT (15)
Eminence's Case:
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 too old to expect anybody to fall off a cliff.
Lineup comparisons- Both teams have a an elite perimeter presence(Curry/Harden) with a pair of serviceable wing mates. Inside Millsap/Horford are better on offense, while Green/Whiteside are better defenders. To the bench, where Leonard/Henson offer more than KAT inside, outside team Cy has more offensive firepower, but Tony Allen is the single best bench player in this series.
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. Leonard/Russell will be coming in to keep up the spacing and high paced offense, while Allen will be brought in to disrupt Harden and really try to throw him off his game.
Our offense will be mostly perimeter oriented combined with Millsap and Horford attacking out of the high-post. In this setup Horford will be able to greatly hinder Whitesides effectiveness as a rim-protector and attack him to get him into foul trouble, a major problem for him last season. Green on Millsap should do a very good job on defending him and Millsap will probably be limited to hustle type plays and moving the ball on the offensive end. Barnes/Matthews will act mostly as floor spacing spot up shooters, Matthews was 39% on 7.4 attempts per game last season, while Barnes was 41% on 2.6 attempts. Russell and Leonard(42%) should come in and do their offensive jobs just fine, as they both can hit 3’s and pass. Finally, Curry, I expect Curry to carve up Cy’s defense, he doesn’t have a single above average perimeter defender and Curry will have an absolute field day raining down 3’s and finding other players for open shots.
Harden is fairly obviously the center of his offense and who we should focus our defense on. But going over the others quickly Hood/Green are fine secondary creators, but Barnes is a solid defender, while Millsaps defense (which is average) is best suited to covering a perimeter passer like Draymond instead of a post-up player. Whiteside is an efficient finisher down low, but is also an absolute black-hole on offense (6 assists all season) so I’ll be happy if the ball is in his hands. Back to Harden, an elite creator and individual scorer, he’ll be tough to stop. Cy has put some alright 3pt shooters around Harden, but nothing elite: Hill-36%, Hood-37%, Green-34%(collectively about the same as what he gets from Beverley(36)/Ariza(35)/Jones(35), so don’t believe Cy’s talk of elite 3pt shooting). Matthews is a solid defender, but will be working his way back into game-shape so for this matchup Tony Allen will see more time than usual. And what a defender to do it, Tony Allen is (along with Kawhi) the pinnacle of perimeter defense, and is the heart and soul of the Grizzlies defense. Some numbers if you don’t believe me:
Opponents offensive ratings(lower indicates better defense):
Tony Allen oncourt: 97.5
Tony Allen off: 105.8 (-8.3)
Marc Gasol on: 104.6
Gasol off: 97.8(+6.8)
Tony Allen is the reason the Grizzlies are perennially one of the best defenses in the league and his defense on Curry was the primary reason they were up 2-1 on GS before he tweaked his hamstring. By bringing in Allen to disrupt Harden we will greatly slow their offense.
Overall I think they have no chance of slowing our elite space and pace offense, while playing Allen increased time will let us disrupt them. Tough fought series, Harden goes off in 1 or 2, but our superior offensive balance gets the 4-2 series victory.
Steph Curry / DeAngelo Russell
Wes Matthews / Tony Allen
Harrison Barnes / Corey Brewer
Paul Millsap / John Henson
Al Horford / Meyers Leonard
vs.
Cy's Team
George Hill / Brandon Jennings
James Harden / CJ McCollum
Rodney Hood / Tyreke Evans
Draymond Green / Joe Ingles
Hassan Whiteside / Karl Anthony Towns
Cy's Case:
Why My Team Wins
Offense
My team can play a 4 out/1 in offense with the games most dominant driver, James Harden. Hood, Hill, and Green all provide great spacing, spacing that is far superior to anything Harden has had in Houston (and he drives and scores just fine other there). James Harden is going to get buckets and no one on the other team can stop him. Matthews would be a good defender, but he is coming off an Achilles injury, at best he is probably going to be half of good as he was last year.
Rodney Hood and George Hill both provide good secondary playmakers to take the load off Harden and prevent the TO problems that can plague Harden in Houston (because he has to do everything in Houston). Hood shot 42% from deep when he got healthy and started playing regular minutes after the All-Star break. George Hill is a 37% career 3pt shooter. Both these players can play off or on ball and have showed success in both roles. George Hill is an average passer at the PG position while Rodney Hood is an above average passing wing.
Draymond Green provides a lot of intangibles on offense. He is an excellent passer and is a very creative player. He might not be the best shooter, but he should be in the 34% from deep ballpark again, if not potentially higher, which is well above average for a PF. Green is the type of player who is capable of putting a triple double and could potentially get the elusive 5x5 stat line in his career one day. I won't need him to score that much, but he should be able to match or exceed his output from his Golden State days.
Hassan Whiteside is a emerging dominant big man, much like our Rudy Gobert. Difference is Whiteside is actually a better offensive player. Whiteside is an elite finisher around the rim and has post moves that show a great deal of promise. In the last month of the season he averaged 17 ppg on 68% shooting.
Just an example of Whiteside's post game potential:
So obviously is more than just a DeAndre-type finisher. He can do that and flash some touch and moves around the paint. Surrounded by 4 shooters and 2 exceptional passers, he will be devastating in my offense.
Defense
My team is pretty solid defensively, anchored by Hassan Whiteside's disgusting rim protecting ability and Green's fierce competitiveness and tenacity. Whiteside is one of the better rim protectors, managing to be a top 10 player in rim protection FG% despite playing next to Chris Bosh. Next to Green he will elevate his rim protection capabilities.
James Harden and Rodney Hood aren't the best defenders, but they are far from bad. Harden worked on his defensive game this past year and is no longer the joke he use to be. He is now a solid defender. Hood is also a solid defender. They won't be locking anyone down, but there aren't any wings on the opposing team who really need to be locked down. Hood showed the playing in front of a rim protector he can play on a top defense in the NBA, same goes with Harden when he was able to play with a healthy Dwight.
George Hill is a very good, big defensive PG who will manage to at least contest Curry's shots. In Head to Head matchups, Hill has played well defensively against Curry. https://www.basketball-reference.com/play-index/h2h_finder.cgi?request=1&p1=hillge01&p2=curryst01
As you can see, Hill has been able to limit Curry's trips to the FT line and ability to get his team involved while forcing Curry into more TO's than usual. Conversely, Hill has manged to get buckets efficiently against Curry. George Hill's team also own a 9-2 record over Curry teams.
Draymond Green. If you don't know what this dude does on D, you probably aren't qualified to vote.
Bench
I have a very talented bench, potentially the most talented in all the draft. The "fit" might not be the best, but with creative lineup matching, I can put together good lineups to spell my starters.
Brandon Jennings is a microwave with his scoring ability and is a pretty talented passer who is low on TO's. I
CJ McCollum provides some extra bench shooting. He showed towards the later half of the year and in the playoffs that he can legitimately score and shoot at a very high level in the NBA.
Tyreke Evans is one of the most physically imposing wings in the NBA. Jazz fans know first hand the destruction he can cause by driving to the rim. Evans will be my 6th man, spelling Harden or Hood when I need a physical wing presence. Evans is also a top isolation defender, so he could also be used to guard Stephen Curry on ball if needed.
Off-ball he is a legitimately bad defender, but none of Em's wings are really off-ball dominant shooters, so Evans won't be hurt. Matthews is the only one I would worry about, but Matthews isn't going to be Matthews this upcoming year.
Joe Ingles people probably mocked this pick, but we are treating these teams like actual teams and Ingles brings team chemistry, proven fact. He also shown he can be a good 3pt shooter in the later half of the year. I would probably only play Ingles a max of 5 minutes per game to spell a starter at the end of a quarter. Ingles is a good enough and smart enough player that he won't hurt me by playing a short amount of time. Ingles finds a way to make a positive impact on the court with his passing and IQ.
Karl Anthony Towns we all know what Towns is capable of. He can hits jumpers. He can do post moves. He can rebound. He can defend. He can pass. He can do everything you would ever want out of a NBA center and then some. This is totally a judgement call, but I think he is going to have a great rookie year. I also think he would be even better on a team where he was coming off the bench. I see Towns as a 25-30 mpg player, playing both PF and C. Some may say that is crazy for a rookie in this competition, but the dude is that good and that mature. He can definitely contribute with his defense.
Preferred Minute Allotment
George Hill (36) / Jennings (8) McCollum (4)
Harden (40) / McCollum (8)
Hood (34) / Evans (14)
Green (35) / KAT (13)
Whiteside (33) / KAT (15)
Eminence's Case:
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 too old to expect anybody to fall off a cliff.
Lineup comparisons- Both teams have a an elite perimeter presence(Curry/Harden) with a pair of serviceable wing mates. Inside Millsap/Horford are better on offense, while Green/Whiteside are better defenders. To the bench, where Leonard/Henson offer more than KAT inside, outside team Cy has more offensive firepower, but Tony Allen is the single best bench player in this series.
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. Leonard/Russell will be coming in to keep up the spacing and high paced offense, while Allen will be brought in to disrupt Harden and really try to throw him off his game.
Our offense will be mostly perimeter oriented combined with Millsap and Horford attacking out of the high-post. In this setup Horford will be able to greatly hinder Whitesides effectiveness as a rim-protector and attack him to get him into foul trouble, a major problem for him last season. Green on Millsap should do a very good job on defending him and Millsap will probably be limited to hustle type plays and moving the ball on the offensive end. Barnes/Matthews will act mostly as floor spacing spot up shooters, Matthews was 39% on 7.4 attempts per game last season, while Barnes was 41% on 2.6 attempts. Russell and Leonard(42%) should come in and do their offensive jobs just fine, as they both can hit 3’s and pass. Finally, Curry, I expect Curry to carve up Cy’s defense, he doesn’t have a single above average perimeter defender and Curry will have an absolute field day raining down 3’s and finding other players for open shots.
Harden is fairly obviously the center of his offense and who we should focus our defense on. But going over the others quickly Hood/Green are fine secondary creators, but Barnes is a solid defender, while Millsaps defense (which is average) is best suited to covering a perimeter passer like Draymond instead of a post-up player. Whiteside is an efficient finisher down low, but is also an absolute black-hole on offense (6 assists all season) so I’ll be happy if the ball is in his hands. Back to Harden, an elite creator and individual scorer, he’ll be tough to stop. Cy has put some alright 3pt shooters around Harden, but nothing elite: Hill-36%, Hood-37%, Green-34%(collectively about the same as what he gets from Beverley(36)/Ariza(35)/Jones(35), so don’t believe Cy’s talk of elite 3pt shooting). Matthews is a solid defender, but will be working his way back into game-shape so for this matchup Tony Allen will see more time than usual. And what a defender to do it, Tony Allen is (along with Kawhi) the pinnacle of perimeter defense, and is the heart and soul of the Grizzlies defense. Some numbers if you don’t believe me:
Opponents offensive ratings(lower indicates better defense):
Tony Allen oncourt: 97.5
Tony Allen off: 105.8 (-8.3)
Marc Gasol on: 104.6
Gasol off: 97.8(+6.8)
Tony Allen is the reason the Grizzlies are perennially one of the best defenses in the league and his defense on Curry was the primary reason they were up 2-1 on GS before he tweaked his hamstring. By bringing in Allen to disrupt Harden we will greatly slow their offense.
Overall I think they have no chance of slowing our elite space and pace offense, while playing Allen increased time will let us disrupt them. Tough fought series, Harden goes off in 1 or 2, but our superior offensive balance gets the 4-2 series victory.
Last edited:
