2020 Historic Draft: How’s My Team Look: Conference Finals winners announced!!

[RPGenerate]

My Denver Nuggets!!!
-Starter:
PG: Gary Payton (1999-2000)
SG: Richard Hamilton (2005-2006)
SF: Carmelo Anthony (2012-2013)
PF: Draymond Green (2015-2016)
C: Tim Duncan (2001-2002)

-Second String:
PG: Kyrie Irving (2017-2018)
SG: Raja Bell (2006-2007)
SF: Glenn Robinson (2000-2001)
PF: Anthony Mason (2000-2001)
C: DeMarcus Cousins (2016-2017)

-Deep Bench:
PG: Steve Francis (2000-2001)
SG: Danny Green (2014-2015)
SF: Robert Covington (2018-2019)
C: Zydrunas Ilgauska (2005-2006)

I'm gonna post this one more time before the trade deadline, just to see if anyone has a final roster critiques for me.

My only thought is whether you need a big stopper at the 5. You obviously have Duncan and Draymond, but I think they both excel (and prefer) playing at the 4. Cousins is more of a question-mark as a true stopper, as is Big Z.

You have a wealth of depth, which is somewhat redundant - Danny Green and Raja Bell, for instance, are similar players. Kyrie and Steve Francis. Would you be able to find a partner who needs a creator scorer at the 1 or bona fide 3 and D wing in exchange for a Marcus Camby type? That might yield some flexibility for when the big centers in this league come to town.

Hmm, I see. My only problem is that getting this hypothetical center is that it would push Boogie either out of rotation, or into the 4 spot, which I don't think is optimal. I do agree with some of the redundancy on the roster; I did that so I could possibly do exactly what you suggested: get some trade partners. I've tried, with little success lol.

Yup, I meant more for a situational third stringer who can come in and bang with the big boys. Camby, Perk, etc. Not necessary for every game because Cousins is too valuable but I think you have a strong overall roster and was nit-picking. I'm assuming Big Z, Green, and Francis are rarely going to be used so you might as well have another unique specialist in that third string.

Trading is easier said than done, though.

That's fair, and thank you for your input. You may think you're nitpicking, but this type scrutiny is how you learn to improve your team.

[Donoghus]

Since we shut down the other thread. I'll repost.

If people have suggestions on what my starting 5 should be, I'm all ears. Been back & forth on a few ideas.

Would appreciate the feedback.

[Jvalin]

Dallas Mavericks - Jvalin

Kawhi Leonard (2018-2019)
Klay Thompson (2015-2016)
Luka Doncic (2019-2020)
LaMarcus Aldridge (2014-2015)
Dikembe Mutombo (2000-2001)
Karl-Anthony Towns (2017-2018)
Ben Simmons (2019-2020)
Bruce Bowen (2002-2003)
Kyle Korver (2009-2010)
Zion Williamson (2019-2020)
Tony Allen (2012-2013)
Robert Horry (2001-2002)
Myles Turner (2018-2019)
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (2019-2020)


TPs to RPGenerate, Roy H. and Yoki for the advice on LaMarcus!

[Roy H.]

f people have suggestions on what my starting 5 should be, I'm all ears. Been back & forth on a few ideas.

Would appreciate the feedback.

In my mind, teams should play to their strengths.  While your base half-court line up is good, I think where your team really excels against most teams is in terms of pace.

I’d be very tempted to start

AI / McGrady / Marion / Griffin / Davis

Obviously you don’t start Davis at center against the biggest teams, but you’d get by with him at C against probably 9 or 10 teams.

[RPGenerate]

f people have suggestions on what my starting 5 should be, I'm all ears. Been back & forth on a few ideas.

Would appreciate the feedback.

In my mind, teams should play to their strengths.  While your base half-court line up is good, I think where your team really excels against most teams is in terms of pace.

I’d be very tempted to start

AI / McGrady / Marion / Griffin / Davis

Obviously you don’t start Davis at center against the biggest teams, but you’d get by with him at C against probably 9 or 10 teams.

Yeah on Griffin starting, nay on AI starting. I don't think T-Mac and AI fit together at all.

[Donoghus]

f people have suggestions on what my starting 5 should be, I'm all ears. Been back & forth on a few ideas.

Would appreciate the feedback.

In my mind, teams should play to their strengths.  While your base half-court line up is good, I think where your team really excels against most teams is in terms of pace.

I’d be very tempted to start

AI / McGrady / Marion / Griffin / Davis

Obviously you don’t start Davis at center against the biggest teams, but you’d get by with him at C against probably 9 or 10 teams.

Leaning that way, 2-5.  PG is the biggest question.  Do I start AI or Miller at PG?  I chose a latter AI thinking he could be a good microwave off bench but also see the pros of starting him.

[RodyTur10]

f people have suggestions on what my starting 5 should be, I'm all ears. Been back & forth on a few ideas.

Would appreciate the feedback.

In my mind, teams should play to their strengths.  While your base half-court line up is good, I think where your team really excels against most teams is in terms of pace.

I’d be very tempted to start

AI / McGrady / Marion / Griffin / Davis

Obviously you don’t start Davis at center against the biggest teams, but you’d get by with him at C against probably 9 or 10 teams.

Leaning that way, 2-5.  PG is the biggest question.  Do I start AI or Miller at PG?  I chose a latter AI thinking he could be a good microwave off bench but also see the pros of starting him.

I think pairing André Miller with Yao Ming would be a good way to utilize their offensive strengths (either as starters or on the second unit).

But I don't know how you should surround McGrady. Assuming he has the ball in his hand and drives to the basket, who's going to provide spacing to avoid the defense to collapse the paint? At the same time Miller and Iverson isn't a viable combination either.

So playing uptempo with McGrady and Davis is probably your best calling card (as Roy suggested).

[Jvalin]

f people have suggestions on what my starting 5 should be, I'm all ears. Been back & forth on a few ideas.

Would appreciate the feedback.

In my mind, teams should play to their strengths.  While your base half-court line up is good, I think where your team really excels against most teams is in terms of pace.

I’d be very tempted to start

AI / McGrady / Marion / Griffin / Davis

Obviously you don’t start Davis at center against the biggest teams, but you’d get by with him at C against probably 9 or 10 teams.

Leaning that way, 2-5.  PG is the biggest question.  Do I start AI or Miller at PG?  I chose a latter AI thinking he could be a good microwave off bench but also see the pros of starting him.

Imo, you should definitely bring AI off the bench. There is too much talent in the starting lineup. Why would you want AI taking shots away from T-Mac, Yao and AD?

Miller was a heady PG. Him and Yao were at their best when playing 5-on-5 at half court. Imo, if you start Miller, you gotta start Yao as well.

PG: Miller
SG: T-Mac
SF: Marion
PF: AD
C: Yao

This would be my starting 5.

[Roy H.]

f people have suggestions on what my starting 5 should be, I'm all ears. Been back & forth on a few ideas.

Would appreciate the feedback.

In my mind, teams should play to their strengths.  While your base half-court line up is good, I think where your team really excels against most teams is in terms of pace.

I’d be very tempted to start

AI / McGrady / Marion / Griffin / Davis

Obviously you don’t start Davis at center against the biggest teams, but you’d get by with him at C against probably 9 or 10 teams.

Leaning that way, 2-5.  PG is the biggest question.  Do I start AI or Miller at PG?  I chose a latter AI thinking he could be a good microwave off bench but also see the pros of starting him.

Imo, you should definitely bring AI off the bench. There is too much talent in the starting lineup. Why would you want AI taking shots away from T-Mac, Yao and AD?

Miller was a heady PG. Him and Yao were at their best when playing 5-on-5 at half court. Imo, if you start Miller, you gotta start Yao as well.

PG: Miller
SG: T-Mac
SF: Marion
PF: AD
C: Yao

This would be my starting 5.

I expect that the bench will be highly integrated in with the starters, no matter who starts. I’m sure we will be seeing plenty of half court sets with Yao and Miller.

[action781]

f people have suggestions on what my starting 5 should be, I'm all ears. Been back & forth on a few ideas.

Would appreciate the feedback.

In my mind, teams should play to their strengths.  While your base half-court line up is good, I think where your team really excels against most teams is in terms of pace.

I’d be very tempted to start

AI / McGrady / Marion / Griffin / Davis

Obviously you don’t start Davis at center against the biggest teams, but you’d get by with him at C against probably 9 or 10 teams.

Leaning that way, 2-5.  PG is the biggest question.  Do I start AI or Miller at PG?  I chose a latter AI thinking he could be a good microwave off bench but also see the pros of starting him.

Imo, you should definitely bring AI off the bench. There is too much talent in the starting lineup. Why would you want AI taking shots away from T-Mac, Yao and AD?

Miller was a heady PG. Him and Yao were at their best when playing 5-on-5 at half court. Imo, if you start Miller, you gotta start Yao as well.

PG: Miller
SG: T-Mac
SF: Marion
PF: AD
C: Yao

This would be my starting 5.

I'm very confliced on Donoghus' team.

I want to agree with Jvalin's post.  I think it gets the most overall utility out of most of your players.

However the Iverson - TMac - Marion - Blake - AD lineup is intriguing.  I just think a few players wouldn't get a lot out of their potential.

Heck, go with the Iverson - TMac - Marion - Blake - AD lineup.  It makes my eyes go wide when I see it.  You can always adjust for certain matchups when needed.  Like against Shaq go with Iverson - TMac - Marion - AD - Yao.  Actually, you could use that as your normal starting lineup.  Let Andre Miller & Blake Griffin run some p&rs with the "second unit" (even if one doesn't exactly exist).

[Jvalin]

f people have suggestions on what my starting 5 should be, I'm all ears. Been back & forth on a few ideas.

Would appreciate the feedback.

In my mind, teams should play to their strengths.  While your base half-court line up is good, I think where your team really excels against most teams is in terms of pace.

I’d be very tempted to start

AI / McGrady / Marion / Griffin / Davis

Obviously you don’t start Davis at center against the biggest teams, but you’d get by with him at C against probably 9 or 10 teams.

Leaning that way, 2-5.  PG is the biggest question.  Do I start AI or Miller at PG?  I chose a latter AI thinking he could be a good microwave off bench but also see the pros of starting him.

Imo, you should definitely bring AI off the bench. There is too much talent in the starting lineup. Why would you want AI taking shots away from T-Mac, Yao and AD?

Miller was a heady PG. Him and Yao were at their best when playing 5-on-5 at half court. Imo, if you start Miller, you gotta start Yao as well.

PG: Miller
SG: T-Mac
SF: Marion
PF: AD
C: Yao

This would be my starting 5.

I expect that the bench will be highly integrated in with the starters, no matter who starts. I’m sure we will be seeing plenty of half court sets with Yao and Miller.

Yao is a 7'6'' behemoth. It goes without saying that whenever he's on the court, the team should be playing on a slow pace. Miller is hands down the best choice to run a slow paced offense. Imo, he should always be sharing the court with Yao.

Yao's career average was 32.5 minutes per game. Let's say he plays 30 minutes per game in order to keep him fresh as much as possible. This means that Miller plays 30 minutes per game as well. AI runs the point for the remaining 18 minutes. The rest of his minutes should come at the 2 instead of T-Mac.

This is what I'm thinking:

PG: Miller (30) - AI (18)
SG: T-Mac (30) - AI (18)
SF: Marion (36) - T-Mac (6) - Battier (6)
PF: AD (18) - Blake (30)
C: Yao (30) - AD (18)

That's a very tight 8-man playoff rotation. No need to play all the games like this. Obviously, Ratliff could be playing as well.

[action781]

f people have suggestions on what my starting 5 should be, I'm all ears. Been back & forth on a few ideas.

Would appreciate the feedback.

In my mind, teams should play to their strengths.  While your base half-court line up is good, I think where your team really excels against most teams is in terms of pace.

I’d be very tempted to start

AI / McGrady / Marion / Griffin / Davis

Obviously you don’t start Davis at center against the biggest teams, but you’d get by with him at C against probably 9 or 10 teams.

Leaning that way, 2-5.  PG is the biggest question.  Do I start AI or Miller at PG?  I chose a latter AI thinking he could be a good microwave off bench but also see the pros of starting him.

Imo, you should definitely bring AI off the bench. There is too much talent in the starting lineup. Why would you want AI taking shots away from T-Mac, Yao and AD?

Miller was a heady PG. Him and Yao were at their best when playing 5-on-5 at half court. Imo, if you start Miller, you gotta start Yao as well.

PG: Miller
SG: T-Mac
SF: Marion
PF: AD
C: Yao

This would be my starting 5.

I expect that the bench will be highly integrated in with the starters, no matter who starts. I’m sure we will be seeing plenty of half court sets with Yao and Miller.

Yao is a 7'6'' behemoth. It goes without saying that whenever he's on the court, the team should be playing on a slow pace. Miller is hands down the best choice to run a slow paced offense. Imo, he should always be sharing the court with Yao.

Yao's career average was 32.5 minutes per game. Let's say he plays 30 minutes per game in order to keep him fresh as much as possible. This means that Miller plays 30 minutes per game as well. AI runs the point for the remaining 18 minutes. The rest of his minutes should come at the 2 instead of T-Mac.

This is what I'm thinking:

PG: Miller (30) - AI (18)
SG: T-Mac (30) - AI (18)
SF: Marion (36) - T-Mac (6) - Battier (6)
PF: AD (18) - Blake (30)
C: Yao (30) - AD (18)

That's a very tight 8-man playoff rotation. No need to play all the games like this. Obviously, Ratliff could be playing as well.

I wouldn't be so prescriptive like this in this case.  8-man playoff rotation is fairly tight in a league where you have so much talent, esp where one of those 8 is only playing 6 minutes.  I also don't love the idea of 18/48 minutes of the game having an Andre Miller & AI backcourt duo.  I'd rather give CJ McCollum those backup SG minutes and split the PG minutes 50-50.  David West deserves some run too.

I do tend to like being very prescriptive sometimes, but I think with Don's team it might be best to leave it up to the imagination of the voters for them to see it as open-mindedly as they can.

[nickagneta]

ANNOUNCEMENT

Reminder to freshinthehouse, you must submit seasons for each player by midnight, EST, or in about 3.5 hours from this post. If you have not done so, I will choose for you.

Also, initial votes will need to be PMed to me by tomorrow night at 6:00PM EDT. You need to vote for the rankings of every team in the league, 1 thru 13(you can't vote for your own team, and then I need ranking per conference. So please use this format(assuming I am GM of EC1):

League

1. WC1
2. EC2
3. EC3
4. EC4
5. WC2
6. WC 3
7. EC5
8. WC4
9. WC 5
10. WC6
11. EC6
12. EC7
13. WC7

East
1. EC2
2. EC3
3. EC4
4. EC5
5. EC6
6. EC7

West
1. WC1
2. WC2
3. WC3
4. WC4
5. WC5
6. WC6
7. WC7

Please do not post your voting ballot in the HDMTL thread until after polls close at 6:00PM EDT tomorrow April, 6, 2020.

VOTES FROM NON-PARTICIPANTS ARE WELCOME AND ENCOURAGED IF YOU HAVE BEEN A REGULAR VIEWER AND/OR COMMENTATOR DURING THIS GAME.

Thanks. And good luck everyone.

[Jvalin]

Yao is a 7'6'' behemoth. It goes without saying that whenever he's on the court, the team should be playing on a slow pace. Miller is hands down the best choice to run a slow paced offense. Imo, he should always be sharing the court with Yao.

Yao's career average was 32.5 minutes per game. Let's say he plays 30 minutes per game in order to keep him fresh as much as possible. This means that Miller plays 30 minutes per game as well. AI runs the point for the remaining 18 minutes. The rest of his minutes should come at the 2 instead of T-Mac.

This is what I'm thinking:

PG: Miller (30) - AI (18)
SG: T-Mac (30) - AI (18)
SF: Marion (36) - T-Mac (6) - Battier (6)
PF: AD (18) - Blake (30)
C: Yao (30) - AD (18)

That's a very tight 8-man playoff rotation. No need to play all the games like this. Obviously, Ratliff could be playing as well.

I wouldn't be so prescriptive like this in this case.  8-man playoff rotation is fairly tight in a league where you have so much talent, esp where one of those 8 is only playing 6 minutes.  I also don't love the idea of 18/48 minutes of the game having an Andre Miller & AI backcourt duo.  I'd rather give CJ McCollum those backup SG minutes and split the PG minutes 50-50.  David West deserves some run too.

I do tend to like being very prescriptive sometimes, but I think with Don's team it might be best to leave it up to the imagination of the voters for them to see it as open-mindedly as they can.

Fair enough. I said it myself, it's a very tight rotation for tough playoff games when you need your best players to be on the court as much as possible. No need to play all the games like this.

I also don't love the idea of 18/48 minutes of the game having an Andre Miller & AI backcourt duo.  I'd rather give CJ McCollum those backup SG minutes and split the PG minutes 50-50.

This is the problem with guys like AI: Would he be willing to sacrifice his personal numbers for the good of the team? Would he be happy if he only played around 24 minutes a game? I mean, he was notorious for playing +40 minutes in every single game. His career average is 41.1 minutes per game for crying out loud! It's like he was Wilt Chamberlain!

[Jvalin]

PG: Luka (36) - Simmons (12) - SGA
SG: Klay (36) - Korver (12) - Tony Allen
SF: Kawhi (36) - Bruce Bowen (12)
PF: LMA (36) - Robert Horry (9) - Zion (3)
C: Mutombo (24) - KAT (24) - Myles Turner

Here's the game plan:

Offense
Luka runs the point and keeps everyone involved on offense. He is option 1A. Kawhi plays primarily off the ball, like he did most of his years in San Antonio. He is option 1B. Aldridge scores most of his points via Pick & Pop with Luka. He gets sporadic touches in the post whenever he plays next to KAT. He spaces the floor whenever he plays next to Mutombo. Klay is a catch-and-shoot specialist. I mean, the guy once scored 60 points in 11 dribbles! Mutombo feeds off of Luka, mostly via lobs. He also scores via putbacks/offensive rebounds.

Simmons never shares the court with Luka and Mutombo. He runs the point for the second unit. I tried my best to build the second unit around him:

Three catch-and-shoot specialists in Korver-Bowen-Horry, plus the best stretch 5 in today's game in KAT.

It would be pretty much the perfect situation for Simmons in order for him to thrive as a slasher.


Defense
We got 7 elite defenders in Kawhi, Klay, Mutombo, Simmons, Bruce Bowen, Tony Allen, Myles Tuner. Horry was a very good switchable defender as well.

26 All-Defensive Team selections in this group!
6 DPOY awards!
 
Mutombo is our defensive anchor. Top 3 rim protector of all time.

Shortest guy in the rotation is Klay at 6'6''! Luka switches every ball screen. Literally can't think of a better way to hide Luka on D.

Simmons plays at the 4 on defense. Bowen defends opposing Point Guards. Shortest guys in the second unit are Korver and Bowen at 6'7''! Again, we switch every ball screen. Only guy in the second unit who doesn't switch is KAT. 

Tony Allen is the shortest guy on the roster at 6'4''. He is our defensive specialist in case we need to defend a super explosive undersized guard.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A few words on Zion. He is the most tantalizing draft prospect since LeBron James. His main weakness is his conditioning. If he only plays 3-6 minutes off the bench, he's a nuclear weapon! I got him down for 3 minutes. He plays these minutes next to Luka+KAT. Good luck to anyone who's trying to stop the Luka-Zion Pick & Roll! If Zion is effective, I could see him playing up to 12 minutes (all of them next to Luka+KAT). If not, I give all of his minutes to Robert Horry.

Let's go Mavs!