2013 CB Draft: Eastern First Round: Cleveland(3) vs Orlando(6)

[airbelinelli]

The Nuggets where a team that had so many different scorers.

Lawson 16.7 PPG
Gallo 16.2 PPG
Chandler 13.0 PPG
Iguodala 13.0 PPG
Brewer 12.1 PPG
Faried 11.5 PPG

Also George Hill is fine playing off the ball.

Exactly what I'm saying, the other scorers on that team weren't players that really could create their own offense, it went through lawson. Our offense will have the ball in Lawson's hand a good amount, but there will be others that can score more then any of those other Nuggets players.

Iguodala and Gallo would also run the offense it wasn't just ran by Lawson. I can see Horford scoring, but definitely not Crawford or if he does he will be scoring but shooting under .400 FG%.
[/quote]
I know that shooting percentage for crawford is a good buzz statistic, but as AB said earlier, he also isn't playing with the suffocating post players of jordan and griffin. He will be able to attack and get to the rim and hit an open jumper.

[ronaldo943]

I know that shooting percentage for crawford is a good buzz statistic, but as AB said earlier, he also isn't playing with the suffocating post players of jordan and griffin. He will be able to attack and get to the rim and hit an open jumper.

Well Crawford shot 38.8 FG% against Kobe, shot 38.7 in Playoffs this year, playoff career average of 38.0 FG% in 29 games, has WS/48 of .052 in the Playoffs.(WS/48 of .021 in last season's playoffs) I mean I like Crawford in the regular season, but come Playoffs he becomes a chucker and that is definitely a problem as all he does is shoot the ball.

I would also like to point out that in his 2 other playoffs appearance (09-10, 10-11) he had Smith and Horford which I would say is offensively similar to KG and Horford and he still didn't shoot well.

[ronaldo943]

To be honest I can care less if Cleveland wins, (which really they have a 99.9% chance of winning) but I don't want them to win because they have KG and Orlando has Kobe. I've presented you some of the head2head facts and personally I think that Cavs might be a better regular season team, but I think Orlando matches up great against them.

[AB_Celtic]

To be honest I can care less if Cleveland wins, (which really they have a 99.9% chance of winning) but I don't want them to win because they have KG and Orlando has Kobe. I've presented you all the facts and personally I think that Cavs might be a better regular season team, but I think Orlando matches up great against them.

If you truly believe Orlando is the better team, then I have no problem with the arguments you've been making. I might wholeheartedly disagree with them, but at least they're your honest arguments.

If you're dragging in your personal vendetta against the blog's love of KG and that's swaying your decision (as I've seen it do once before... see below), then I think that's extremely unfair.

Yes, I am a Celtics fan just that it ticks me off how people praise KG and Rondo, but don't do the same for guys like Pierce and Ray.

So, to combat that, you downgrade the best PG the Celtics have had in at least 25 years and a top-two defensive player of his generation?

Yes.

[fairweatherfan]

Championship and Playoff Experience: The Cavs seem to think this is an advantage for them - and against some teams it might be. But not when facing Orlando.  Kobe, of course, has more rings than the entire Cleveland roster. 

But in addition, we also have far more players who have made deep playoff runs.

Going along for the ride in the playoffs is not the same as leading the team there. KG's experience in winning is more substantial than any of your players' experience save for Kobe and maybe the always-injured Amar'e.

All 8 of those guys were rotation players who contributed to their teams' success. 

Perimeter defense:  With most of the Cavs' top players up front, it's essential that Ty Lawson play well to create opportunities.  Unfortunately, Lawson is known for struggling against longer PGs, and Hill is no exception.  Head-to-head with Hill Lawson has only scored 9 pts on 39% shooting with 4 assists.  Only twice has Lawson scored 15 or more pts vs Hill.

A lot of these games (the first 5) were when Lawson was not yet starting and played insignificant minutes, likely with the bench mob. After that, you're going off of just three games, in two of which (throwing away one awful game) Lawson actually shot 42%, put up 15 ppg, 7 apg, and 4.5 rpg. Oh, and in one of those games (when Lawson and Hill played 40 minutes each - so there's actual overlap there) Lawson had 5 steals. Who do you think those 5 steals came against?

So, head-to-head samples are too small to matter, unless you throw out all Lawson's bad games and focus on one single good game?  Making the sample size even smaller does not improve the quality of the evidence. 

And Lawson dropped 35 and 10 in one game with Stephen Curry covering him, not George Hill.  And his team lost the game, and the series. 

"Tony Allen, Kobe-stopper" is a myth: In 10 playoff matchups, Kobe has outscored TA 26.4-3, with 7 reb, 4 ast and 2.5 stl.  Not exactly getting shut down there.   Now, you may be saying "That's not fair!  Tony barely played in a lot of those games!"  But that's precisely the point.  TA didn't play because his defense on Kobe wasn't nearly enough to overcome his offensive deficiencies.

See, you mention "intangibles" in your opener, but then you go off of a bunch of stats that don't paint the whole picture, when the intangibles actually do. Kobe himself said that Tony Allen played better defense on him than anyone else. In an article I included in my first post, the author explained that Kobe shot 5-14 when Allen was covering him in one particular game and had seven turnovers. I just don't know how you can ignore these.

Again, this is a criticism of small samples followed by a counterargument that focuses on an even smaller one.  I don't think voters are going to fall for that.

All I'm saying is that, if TA is so good at defending Kobe, why doesn't it come out in the numbers?  And why didn't the Celtics exploit that "advantage" when we played the Lakers twice in the Finals?  It's so intangible that it's apparently invisible.

I respect your team and have said so throughout.  But when so many points hinge on pointing to a single game while hand-waving away a dozen, it doesn't really provide a lot of support for your team being better.

[ronaldo943]

To be honest I can care less if Cleveland wins, (which really they have a 99.9% chance of winning) but I don't want them to win because they have KG and Orlando has Kobe. I've presented you all the facts and personally I think that Cavs might be a better regular season team, but I think Orlando matches up great against them.

If you truly believe Orlando is the better team, then I have no problem with the arguments you've been making. I might wholeheartedly disagree with them, but at least they're your honest arguments.

If you're dragging in your personal vendetta against the blog's love of KG and that's swaying your decision (as I've seen it do once before... see below), then I think that's extremely unfair.

Yes, I am a Celtics fan just that it ticks me off how people praise KG and Rondo, but don't do the same for guys like Pierce and Ray.

So, to combat that, you downgrade the best PG the Celtics have had in at least 25 years and a top-two defensive player of his generation?

Yes.

Lol when I said yes I was just kidding as I thought it was a funny answer, but clearly everyone took it seriously. Like I've said before KG didn't impress me in the Playoffs offensively, the only thing that popped out to me was his rebounding, but that had more to do with his teammates lack of rebounding. Also when it comes down to championship experience it's pretty clear that Orlando wins.


I mean you are fighting an uphill battle when Hill outplays Ty and Crawford goes into hiding come playoff time.

[fairweatherfan]

My last long post discussed our advantages on defense and in playoff and championship experience.  This post will deal with how we will attack Cleveland offensively.


Offensive strategy:

I realized this one was misplaced in the defensive section, and it seems to be a common misconception, so it bears repeating:  "Tony Allen, Kobe-stopper" is a myth: We all like TA better than Kobe and respect his D, but practically, there's little evidence that TA is particularly effective defending Kobe. 

In fact, in the 2010 Finals, Boston eventually gave up TA defending Kobe, simply because he wasn't slowing him down and was a negative offensively.  TA averaged a little over 16 mpg over the first 6 games, and averaged a whopping 3.6 ppg, while Kobe dropped an average of 29.5, shooting over 45% 4 separate times.  In game 7, where TA barely played, Ray Allen gave Kobe far more trouble on D than TA ever did.  It's just not a plus for Cleveland, no matter how much our green-tinted goggles want it to be.

Offensive versatility to exploit mismatches: Cleveland has exactly 3 high-end defenders: KG (who can't play big minutes anymore), Horford, and TA (who can't guard Kobe).  Wallace is still above-average but has slipped significantly in recent years.  Meanwhile, Orlando has 3 bench players (Amar'e, Jack, MWP) who scored 12+ ppg last season and can play multiple positions.  We can easily slide these players into our lineups to exploit Cleveland at their weakest spots. 

Our big guards will use their size to overwhelm Lawson.   Amar'e will take advantage of Landry down low, or force KG to exert more and more energy keeping pace with him.  The Cavs have Steve Blake slated for 10 minutes per - that's going to be a very good 10 minutes for Hill or Jack.  And anyone Cleveland tries to hide Crawford on will be seeing the ball quite a bit.

3-guard lineups:
We expect to frequently use 3-guard lineups against the Cavs' D, and think they may want to do so as well - with George Hill on Lawson, he will struggle to effectively initiate the offense.  We expect Cleveland may want to  put Crawford at the 2 for some desperately needed offensive punch, and leave TA in to work mediocre "magic" on Kobe.  With Crawford and Lawson both being poor perimeter defenders, this will be a huge advantage for us on O - either we go small as well and let Jack feast on Crawford, or stay big and force the Cavs to try and hide Crawford on Vince Carter.  And even if they don't go small, we can easily keep Kobe checking Butler or Wallace for limited periods while exploiting the shaky D of Cleveland's other guards.  Again, our offensive versatility gives us an advantage.

Down low: While Omer Asik isn't the most gifted scorer, he helps the offense in other ways - as our buddy Tommy Thibs states:

"I thought he did a lot here for us offensively that wasn't recognized. His teammates recognized how valuable he was and certainly the coaches. He's a great screener. He's a great offensive rebounder. He's a great passer. He finishes strong around the basket. He's making his free throws more now. He's a terrific player."

However, we expect to heavily utilize Amar'e off the bench to add more of a direct scoring punch to the equation.  We will frequently use Amar'e/Millsap lineups, especially when Cleveland pairs Landry with KG.  This will force Cleveland to either rely on Landry's shaky D on Amar'e, or put yet another burden on KG's aging shoulders.

KG isn't KG anymore: Sad but true. Check out these two player's per-36 lines:

FG%   0.496   0.49
3P%   0.125   0.333
FT%     0.786   0.742
TRB   9.4     8.4
AST   2.8     3
STL   1.4     1.5
BLK   1.1     1.2
TOV   2       2.1
PTS   17.9   17.2
PER   19.2   19.8
OWS             1.8     4.8
DWS             3.8     2.9
WS/48           .133   .154

Pretty close, right?  But you'd have to say the 2nd guy gets the edge by virtue of better efficiency, and by having a far bigger offensive edge than the 1st player can claim defensively.  Well, that's KG in slot #1 and Millsap in #2.  And KG can't play the minutes Millsap can.  KG is a far greater all-time player, and a much bigger name, but Millsap has the advantage at this stage in their careers.  When the first starting big comes out, Cleveland faces tough decisions against an Amar'e/Millsap frontline - either play the defensively limited Landry or the offensively limited and increasingly slowing KG. 

Coaching: Spoelstra gets short shrift sometimes for having so much talent, but followers of the NBA know he has revolutionized the Heat's offense while still maintaining an elite defense and racking up titles.  Check out this Zach Lowe article on Spoelstra maximizing the Heat's offensive talents.  We expect Eric to similarly revamp our offense, over the course of the regular season and this playoff series.  With a constant wave of fresh, talented offensive players and versatile offensive sets, Cleveland will struggle to adjust.

Meanwhile, Hollins, while a solid defensive coach, struggles to implement successful offenses - Memphis was a below-average offensive team last year despite plenty of talent, and it ultimately became their undoing in the playoffs. 

Coaching gets ignored sometimes, but if we're playing this out like a real season it is vitally important, especially when it comes to staying ahead of your opponents for a 7 game series. Spoelstra is far more capable of adjusting our offense to Cleveland's D than Hollins to Orlando.  Another major advantage for the Magic.


The Big Picture

Ultimately, we have greater versatility, a better bench, a better coach who allows us to make better adjustments, our top defenders are able to play more minutes, and Cleveland matches up poorly against us at key positions, especially PG.  If voters want to dock us for injuries they imagine will happen, there's nothing I can do to change that.  All we (me + my bestie Kobe) ask is that you look at the numbers.  Our team is full of guys who fill a stat sheet without making SportsCenter.  Together, we have what it takes, from starters to bench, from offense to defense, and from savvy gameplanning to playoff execution, to grind Cleveland down and send them home. 

Thanks to anybody that actually read all of this; I hope you'll take it into consideration when voting.

[AB_Celtic]

I realized this one was misplaced in the defensive section, and it seems to be a common misconception, so it bears repeating:  "Tony Allen, Kobe-stopper" is a myth: We all like TA better than Kobe and respect his D, but practically, there's little evidence that TA is particularly effective defending Kobe. In fact, in the 2010 Finals, Boston eventually gave up TA defending Kobe, simply because he wasn't slowing him down and was a negative offensively.

Incorrect. At least about TA not slowing Kobe down. While it may be true that he wasn't effective offensively, Allen absolutely shut Kobe down during the Finals in 2010.

But how can I know this?

Defense is one of the hardest things to quantify in the NBA. Steals and blocks can help somewhat, but they never tell the whole story, especially on the wings. There are statistics that try to quantify defense, like DRTG and DWS, but these can be skewed by many factors. Many people look to head-to-head statistics and see whether player A held player B to below his season averages. But I think that's flawed, because you'll never know who was actually covering who when each shot was taken (at least if you go by basketball-reference's system).

So really, the only way to see whether a player is a good defender is to see whether he's a good defender. That is, to watch him defend. So, last night, I spent roughly 3 hours poring through game film of the 2010 NBA finals (only did games 1-4, as I think I made my point). If you don't wanna watch 'em all, watch the ones labeled "personal favorite," and you'll get the gist.

GAME 1

http://youtu.be/9f0zqaUKD_A?t=9m26s
Kobe tries to back Allen down and misses a tightly-contested floater.

http://youtu.be/N3m1rDYWeCg?t=1m51s
Allen gets a steal while covering Kobe.

http://youtu.be/MlJtjRZ-BZw?t=8m58s
Allen (along with KG) forces an errant pass from Kobe that leads to a turnover.

http://youtu.be/Ar9Hgi74XnA
Personal favorite. Kobe gets stuffed from behind by Allen.

http://youtu.be/Ar9Hgi74XnA?t=2m12s
After Kobe blows by him, Allen recovers to force the missed shot.

http://youtu.be/Ar9Hgi74XnA?t=7m4s
Allen fights through a screen to stay with Kobe and force the pass.

http://youtu.be/Ar9Hgi74XnA?t=9m40s
Allen whistled for the foul (with both his hands straight up in the air - tsk).

GAME 2

http://youtu.be/kPvFK9Pgvlo
Allen forces Kobe to commit a travel.

http://youtu.be/kwCyDeWOqlI?t=6m22s
Allen forces a miss by Kobe with pressure from behind.

GAME 3

http://youtu.be/MXTITgVmwDg?t=5m48s
Allen forces Kobe to turn the ball over.

http://youtu.be/D68sPsEcXl8?t=6m45s
Allen hangs with Kobe and forces a missed jumper.

http://youtu.be/D68sPsEcXl8?t=9m18s
Allen forces a missed jumper after Kobe tries to post up.

http://youtu.be/7YuLDK7QCpk?t=8m35s
Personal favorite. Kobe tries a couple pump fakes and is embarrassed by Allen.

http://youtu.be/6tSR3wCzH6k?t=26s
Allen fights through a screen to contest a last-second Kobe three pointer.

GAME 4

http://youtu.be/g-6VcQ0ngZI?t=2m5s
Allen defends a Kobe three pointer.

http://youtu.be/g-6VcQ0ngZI?t=8m40s
Allen forces a terrible three point attempt by Kobe.

http://youtu.be/-VSVvvrfEuE?t=21s
Personal favorite. Allen strips the ball from Kobe.

So I think I proved Allen shut Kobe down. The question remains as to whether he's an offensive liability. Fact is, we don't know how TA will play this year IRL. But we do know that we are willing to bite the bullet of his offensive struggles, as he will spend most of his time alongside Lawson, Crawford, Horford, and Garnett, all of whom will be able to score. Any offense TA gives us is found money.

Oh, and go ahead and make the argument that TA has lost a step. Kobe has too.

(For the record, I didn't look for the only good plays from TA when covering Kobe. He was pretty much just this good. Kobe hit a few ridiculous shots over him, but other than that, this is how the series went down in terms of TA vs Kobe.)


Obligatory:

And of course, who knows who defends Kobe better than Phil Jackson and Kobe Bryant.

"I think [Allen] steps on [Bryant's] right hand really well, makes him go left and keeps on the floor instead of getting up in the pump fakes. He does a good job of that." - Phil Jackson
“Tony Allen. He’s not the biggest guy, but he knows how to guard you.” - Kobe Bryant, when asked to name who defends him the best

[AB_Celtic]

Offensive versatility to exploit mismatches: Cleveland has exactly 3 high-end defenders: KG (who can't play big minutes anymore), Horford, and TA (who can't guard Kobe).  Wallace is still above-average but has slipped significantly in recent years.  Meanwhile, Orlando has 3 bench players (Amar'e, Jack, MWP) who scored 12+ ppg last season and can play multiple positions.  We can easily slide these players into our lineups to exploit Cleveland at their weakest spots.

Wallace has not slipped in terms of defense. He's lost his shooting stroke but his defense is still "high-end." Amar'e's health is in question to begin with, but even if he is healthy, one of Horford and KG is guaranteed to be on the floor at all times. Jack will be covered by Allen, and if Kobe is on the floor as well (I believe this covers your 3-guard plan), then Wallace will pick him up. MWP can score a few points, but Wallace can contain him. The only way these three guys would be left guarded by a "weak" defender is if your lineup was Hill-Jack-Kobe-MWP-Asik, in which case expect Horford to go to town on MWP.

Our big guards will use their size to overwhelm Lawson.  Amar'e will take advantage of Landry down low, or force KG to exert more and more energy keeping pace with him.  The Cavs have Steve Blake slated for 10 minutes per - that's going to be a very good 10 minutes for Hill or Jack.  And anyone Cleveland tries to hide Crawford on will be seeing the ball quite a bit.

Ty is small, but incredibly quick. He will stay in front of these "bigger guards" no problem, and if he does get overpowered we have two defensive anchors waiting at the rim. At the other end, he'll be able to speed by them, even if they are bigger and can therefore "defend him better." I addressed the Amar'e issue in my previous reply. KG and Horford can handle him. Blake will not see the court during crunch minutes. And Crawford will likely be against Carter, MWP, or Jack in some cases. He can certainly keep up with all three in terms of quickness, but if any of them get by, once again KG and Horford will be waiting.

3-guard lineups:
We expect to frequently use 3-guard lineups against the Cavs' D, and think they may want to do so as well - with George Hill on Lawson, he will struggle to effectively initiate the offense.  We expect Cleveland may want to  put Crawford at the 2 for some desperately needed offensive punch, and leave TA in to work mediocre "magic" on Kobe.  With Crawford and Lawson both being poor perimeter defenders, this will be a huge advantage for us on O - either we go small as well and let Jack feast on Crawford, or stay big and force the Cavs to try and hide Crawford on Vince Carter.  And even if they don't go small, we can easily keep Kobe checking Butler or Wallace for limited periods while exploiting the shaky D of Cleveland's other guards.  Again, our offensive versatility gives us an advantage.

I addressed all of this. Jack can't "feast" on Crawford any less than Crawford can feast on Jack. Vince can overpower him but guess who's waiting. Lawson will not struggle to initiate the offense; he'll blow right by Hill or hit one of his all-star big men with a pass.

Down low: While Omer Asik isn't the most gifted scorer, he helps the offense in other ways - as our buddy Tommy Thibs states:

"I thought he did a lot here for us offensively that wasn't recognized. His teammates recognized how valuable he was and certainly the coaches. He's a great screener. He's a great offensive rebounder. He's a great passer. He finishes strong around the basket. He's making his free throws more now. He's a terrific player."

However, we expect to heavily utilize Amar'e off the bench to add more of a direct scoring punch to the equation.  We will frequently use Amar'e/Millsap lineups, especially when Cleveland pairs Landry with KG.  This will force Cleveland to either rely on Landry's shaky D on Amar'e, or put yet another burden on KG's aging shoulders.

Landry isn't shaky on D. 2 DWS in just 23 minutes per game last year. And this issue of KG's health is being overblown. We're at the playoffs now, he's fully rested (actually better rested than ever before) and he's ready to play 35 mpg like he did last year. Also, what about the burden on Amar'e? Dude isn't exactly healthy.

KG isn't KG anymore: Sad but true. Check out these two player's per-36 lines:

<stats>

Pretty close, right?  But you'd have to say the 2nd guy gets the edge by virtue of better efficiency, and by having a far bigger offensive edge than the 1st player can claim defensively.  Well, that's KG in slot #1 and Millsap in #2.  And KG can't play the minutes Millsap can.  KG is a far greater all-time player, and a much bigger name, but Millsap has the advantage at this stage in their careers.  When the first starting big comes out, Cleveland faces tough decisions against an Amar'e/Millsap frontline - either play the defensively limited Landry or the offensively limited and increasingly slowing KG. 

We don't expect KG to be old KG. We expect him to be a defensive anchor and rebounder. This was stated in my first post in this thread. And KG will play the minutes Millsap plays. KG will play 34 minutes. This is the playoffs, not the regular season. No tough decisions, either. Landry can handle his own. KG is fully rested so he won't be "slowing". Jeez I feel like a broken record here.

Coaching:

Yes, I'll give you this one. You picked your coach before ours, so he's better.

The Big Picture
Ultimately, we have greater versatility, a better bench, a better coach who allows us to make better adjustments, our top defenders are able to play more minutes, and Cleveland matches up poorly against us at key positions, especially PG.  If voters want to dock us for injuries they imagine will happen, there's nothing I can do to change that.  All we (me + my bestie Kobe) ask is that you look at the numbers.  Our team is full of guys who fill a stat sheet without making SportsCenter.  Together, we have what it takes, from starters to bench, from offense to defense, and from savvy gameplanning to playoff execution, to grind Cleveland down and send them home. 

In closing, we do not match up poorly. We match up favorably.

Oh, and everyone please direct your attention to the Tony Allen defense on Kobe Bryant post, if you haven't already.

Time for me to pack up to go back to school tomorrow. Thank goodness.

[Who]

I am not optimistic about Kobe Bryant's level of play next season coming off an achilles injury but, even with a sub-par Kobe Bryant, I think Orlando will be a very difficult out for Cleveland.

Cavs don't have a lot of top tier talent especially in terms of offensive firepower. Makes them vulnerable to lesser teams and Orlando are one of those very well built well rounded teams with a large number of contributors.

I think the Magic will push the Cavs very hard and make this a long series.

[Rondo2287]

Honestly, I think this is kind of a dream matchup for Cleveland.  I can see TA and the interior Defense for Cleveland turning Kobe into a serious low efficiency scorer in this series. 

[fairweatherfan]

Honestly, I think this is kind of a dream matchup for Cleveland.  I can see TA and the interior Defense for Cleveland turning Kobe into a serious low efficiency scorer in this series. 

Well, I think that needs to be looked at from both directions.  Cleveland has only two above-average scorers in their starting lineup, and they're matched directly with our best defenders.  Lawson's going to struggle to get space against Hill, and while Asik can't blanket Horford all over the court, he can force him out of the post and clamp down on pick+rolls, leaving him with contested midrange jumpers.  Take away Lawson's high-percentage looks and make Horford a jumpshooter and Cleveland's offense gets real ugly real fast.  Bring Crawford in and you might make a few more contested deep jumpers, but there's now a major defensive issue, and the ball movement gets even worse.

Meanwhile, we have 1 elite scorer flanked by 3 competent, effective scorers in the starting lineup, and one efficient garbage man in Asik who's also gotten high praise from his coaches for the shots he frees up for others in the offense.  Plus Jack and Amar'e, among the most offensively effective bench guards and bigs in the league, coming in for an additional punch, and a championship-caliber coach who can run circles around Hollins on strategy and adjustments to boot. 

This series will be a defensive struggle, both teams have strong defenders at multiple positions.  Points will come dearly for both teams.  But as Who pointed out, Cleveland just doesn't have enough offensive weapons, and we do.  They'll have a lot more trouble scoring on us than we will on them.

[KGs Knee]

Man, this series really is about dead even in my book.  Gonna need some time to think on it.

[AB_Celtic]

Cleveland has only two above-average scorers in their starting lineup, and they're matched directly with our best defenders.

Meanwhile, we have 1 elite scorer flanked by 3 competent, effective scorers in the starting lineup... plus Jack and Amar'e

Guess where one of our best defenders is? On that elite scorer. If you can simply negate our two best scorers because you have good defenders on them, then we can negate yours. Kobe's the best scorer of Kobe, Lawson, Horford, but I'd take TA as a defender over Hill and Asik.

And are you calling KG and Butler incompetent scorers? Both put up more than 10ppg last year and were very effective in doing so. Jack and Crawford both do the same thing, but edge Crawford in my book. And again, you don't even know if Amar'e will be healthy, but Landry will be, and he's also an excellent scorer, efficiency-wise.

[Who]

I think Millsap will play Garnett even in this series.

I think Horford gives CLE an advantage over Asik due to his ability to move into the high post and hit jump-shots at a high clip + is a strong high post passer. Neither of which Asik can do.

I think V.Carter and C.Butler will play each other even. Ditto for Artest and G.Wallace.

I love Carl Landry's game as sixth man + first big off the bench + post-scorer in a second unit and one of the main bench scorers. I think he is a very effective player in that role. But as good as Carl Landry is in that role, Amare is better.