Official Discuss your CB Draft team

[Evantime34]

Let me know what you think of my new team
1. Deron Williams
2. Roddy Beaubois
3. Josh Howard
4. Josh Smith/ Brandon Bass
5. Brandon Haywood/ Javale McGee

How did you get Smith? Was there a trade? Haven't seen any confirmation.

Curious to know what the winning bid was for Smith, as I had been in discussions for him.

Fafnir hasn't oked it yet so I won't post the details.

[Evantime34]

Alright, guess its time to throw it out there.  Rip away.

Utah Jazz

Coach:  Gregg Popovich

PG: Jose Calderon
SG: Omri Casspi / Danilo Gallinari
SF: Luc Richard Mbah a Moute / Wesley Johnson
PF: Pau Gasol / Craig Smith
C:  Yao Ming / Robin Lopez

Gallinari will be moved around between the 2,3, and a bit of the 4.

Great team, I think it's between you and me for our division crown. I plan to beat you by running the entire game. Pressuring Calderon, Casspi and Mbah a Moute to get you out of your post sets, because those should be especially deadly.

[indeedproceed]

Alright, guess its time to throw it out there.  Rip away.

Utah Jazz

Coach:  Gregg Popovich

PG: Jose Calderon
SG: Omri Casspi / Danilo Gallinari
SF: Luc Richard Mbah a Moute / Wesley Johnson
PF: Pau Gasol / Craig Smith
C:  Yao Ming / Robin Lopez

Gallinari will be moved around between the 2,3, and a bit of the 4.

I think its almost worth exploring Johnson's upside at the 3 over playing Mbah A Moute as a consistent starter. Mbah A Moute played a lot worse at the 3 than he did at the 4 last season. I'd say bench Smith indefinitly and limit Yao's minutes significantly, playing Mbah A Moute around 25-30 mins per game, with a 80-20 split between the PF and SF positions, with Johnson starting at the 3 and Gallo picking up the pieces between the 2 and the 3.

Lots of a talent on the team there. Your 2,3,4 are all interchangeable. Very youra-peein.

[Evantime34]

Alright, guess its time to throw it out there.  Rip away.

Utah Jazz

Coach:  Gregg Popovich

PG: Jose Calderon
SG: Omri Casspi / Danilo Gallinari
SF: Luc Richard Mbah a Moute / Wesley Johnson
PF: Pau Gasol / Craig Smith
C:  Yao Ming / Robin Lopez

Gallinari will be moved around between the 2,3, and a bit of the 4.

I think its almost worth exploring Johnson's upside at the 3 over playing Mbah A Moute as a consistent starter. Mbah A Moute played a lot worse at the 3 than he did at the 4 last season. I'd say bench Smith indefinitly and limit Yao's minutes significantly, playing Mbah A Moute around 25-30 mins per game, with a 80-20 split between the PF and SF positions, with Johnson starting at the 3 and Gallo picking up the pieces between the 2 and the 3.

Lots of a talent on the team there. Your 2,3,4 are all interchangeable. Very youra-peein.

I think that putting Mbah a Moute in for Yao takes his team from being gigantic and great to being small and ok.

[indeedproceed]

Alright, guess its time to throw it out there.  Rip away.

Utah Jazz

Coach:  Gregg Popovich

PG: Jose Calderon
SG: Omri Casspi / Danilo Gallinari
SF: Luc Richard Mbah a Moute / Wesley Johnson
PF: Pau Gasol / Craig Smith
C:  Yao Ming / Robin Lopez

Gallinari will be moved around between the 2,3, and a bit of the 4.

I think its almost worth exploring Johnson's upside at the 3 over playing Mbah A Moute as a consistent starter. Mbah A Moute played a lot worse at the 3 than he did at the 4 last season. I'd say bench Smith indefinitly and limit Yao's minutes significantly, playing Mbah A Moute around 25-30 mins per game, with a 80-20 split between the PF and SF positions, with Johnson starting at the 3 and Gallo picking up the pieces between the 2 and the 3.

Lots of a talent on the team there. Your 2,3,4 are all interchangeable. Very youra-peein.

I think that putting Mbah a Moute in for Yao takes his team from being gigantic and great to being small and ok.

You'd move Gasol over and go small, or play Robin Lopez there instead of Yao. Mbah A Moute is no center.

[Evantime34]

Alright, guess its time to throw it out there.  Rip away.

Utah Jazz

Coach:  Gregg Popovich

PG: Jose Calderon
SG: Omri Casspi / Danilo Gallinari
SF: Luc Richard Mbah a Moute / Wesley Johnson
PF: Pau Gasol / Craig Smith
C:  Yao Ming / Robin Lopez

Gallinari will be moved around between the 2,3, and a bit of the 4.

I think its almost worth exploring Johnson's upside at the 3 over playing Mbah A Moute as a consistent starter. Mbah A Moute played a lot worse at the 3 than he did at the 4 last season. I'd say bench Smith indefinitly and limit Yao's minutes significantly, playing Mbah A Moute around 25-30 mins per game, with a 80-20 split between the PF and SF positions, with Johnson starting at the 3 and Gallo picking up the pieces between the 2 and the 3.

Lots of a talent on the team there. Your 2,3,4 are all interchangeable. Very youra-peein.

I think that putting Mbah a Moute in for Yao takes his team from being gigantic and great to being small and ok.

You'd move Gasol over and go small, or play Robin Lopez there instead of Yao. Mbah A Moute is no center.

I understood that. I'm saying Mbah A Moute at the 4 takes away the best part of that team.

[The Walker Wiggle]

So, rounded out my nine man rotation this morning.

Coach Stan Van Gundy

PF Al Horford/
SF Gerald Wallace/ Linas Kleiza
C DeMarcus Cousins/ Antonio McDyess
SG Eric Gordon/ Raja Bell
PG Jrue Holiday/ Beno Udrih

NOLA Bucs - not to be confused with our Eastern Conference rivals, the Milwaukee Bucks - are still claiming to be the best rebounding team in the league. With a pair of 10 rpg forwards flanking the best rebounder in college basketball.

The quartet of Mssrs. Okafor, Stoudamire, Griffin and Blair beg to differ.

They can disagree loudly and at length while NOLA is crashing the glass and guarding the rim. Please note I said "best rebounding" not "highest scoring." (And might've added "best defensive.")

While Stoudemire is far and away the most gifted scorer in this discussion, he's been a defensive liability and unreliable rebounder his entire career. My small forward will outrebound him. Hell, my 35-year-old back-up center just outrebounded him in a 2010 playoffs series.

Okafor - your best defender - rebounds and has a nice, if workman-like, back to the basket game, but he's slow footed and his Hornets team last season gave up the league's worst FG% at the rim. Horford - my second best defender - was asked to do everything in Mike Woodson's switching defense, and was voted an All-Star reserve by NBA Coaches for his pains.

And who of that quartet has the job of keeping Gerald Wallace - who finished third place in Defensive Player of the Year voting - off the boards? Unless you plan to squeeze Blake Griffin into the 3 spot for long stretches?

Speaking of - in the battle among ROY candidate big men, obviously Cousins lacks Griffin's maturity. But he's bigger, is the better rebounder (the trend here), and if he can cut down on fouls is otherwise the better defender.

Gauntlet thrown.

[Rondo2287]

Milwaukee Bucks

PG: Jason Kidd/Jarret Jack
Sg:Rip Hamilton/CJ Miles
SF: Tayshaun Prince/Matt Barnes
PF: Dirk Nowitzki
C: Marcin Gortat/Ronny Turiaf

Im loving my team so far.  And the second unit is starting to come together quite nicely with 4 players that Made significant starting contributions this season and will do so in the future.

[KCattheStripe]

Thoughts on the new Roster?

Guards: Duhon Gay, Stuckey
Forwards: Amar'e, Battier, Tolliver
Centerss: Okafor , Blair.


Gay will play a lot of 2 next to battier on the wing, but I haven't decided if he'll start there.

[indeedproceed]

Alright, guess its time to throw it out there.  Rip away.

Utah Jazz

Coach:  Gregg Popovich

PG: Jose Calderon
SG: Omri Casspi / Danilo Gallinari
SF: Luc Richard Mbah a Moute / Wesley Johnson
PF: Pau Gasol / Craig Smith
C:  Yao Ming / Robin Lopez

Gallinari will be moved around between the 2,3, and a bit of the 4.

I think its almost worth exploring Johnson's upside at the 3 over playing Mbah A Moute as a consistent starter. Mbah A Moute played a lot worse at the 3 than he did at the 4 last season. I'd say bench Smith indefinitly and limit Yao's minutes significantly, playing Mbah A Moute around 25-30 mins per game, with a 80-20 split between the PF and SF positions, with Johnson starting at the 3 and Gallo picking up the pieces between the 2 and the 3.

Lots of a talent on the team there. Your 2,3,4 are all interchangeable. Very youra-peein.

I think that putting Mbah a Moute in for Yao takes his team from being gigantic and great to being small and ok.

You'd move Gasol over and go small, or play Robin Lopez there instead of Yao. Mbah A Moute is no center.

I understood that. I'm saying Mbah A Moute at the 4 takes away the best part of that team.

I disagree. Mbah A Moute was routinely outscored as a slow but strong 3 last season guarding faster players. He was much better playing as a mismatched 4 against slower players.

Gasol has to sit sometime, and so does Yao and Mbah A Moute is a way better 4 than Craig Smith.

Basically all I'm saying is give Johnson 28 minutes or so a night at the 3 as the starter, then give Mbah a Moute the backup 4 minutes when Pau is out or when Yao is resting.

Plus if Dons does see the team as a team that can go deep into the playoffs, there are definite times when he's going to want to give Yao 25-28 minutes tops a night. Pau and Robin Lopez splitting time will make that more bearable.

Mbah A Moute started half the season as the 4 for a strangely very efficient defensive team. He could fill the same role here, especially with the depth at the 3 Dons has, as Casspi, Gallo, and Johnson could all conceivably play the 2, 3, and 4 positions.

[The Walker Wiggle]

Thoughts on the new Roster?

Guards: Duhon Gay, Stuckey
Forwards: Amar'e, Battier, Tolliver
Centerss: Okafor , Blair.

Gay will play a lot of 2 next to battier on the wing, but I haven't decided if he'll start there.

What's with the trend of playing 3s as 2s out West?

Rudy Gay is far more a 4 than he is a 2 at this point. But Battier can play SG, even if he's better suited to small forward.

[KCattheStripe]

Thoughts on the new Roster?

Guards: Duhon Gay, Stuckey
Forwards: Amar'e, Battier, Tolliver
Centerss: Okafor , Blair.

Gay will play a lot of 2 next to battier on the wing, but I haven't decided if he'll start there.

What's with the trend of playing 3s as 2s out West? Rudy Gay is far more a 4 than he is a 2 at this point.

Gay can play either and he certainly can defend either, but he and Battier can overwhlem opposing wings with their size and Gay with his athleticism. If one has the handles to play SF in todays NBA they have the handles to play 2.

[indeedproceed]

Thoughts on the new Roster?

Guards: Duhon Gay, Stuckey
Forwards: Amar'e, Battier, Tolliver
Centerss: Okafor , Blair.

Gay will play a lot of 2 next to battier on the wing, but I haven't decided if he'll start there.

What's with the trend of playing 3s as 2s out West? Rudy Gay is far more a 4 than he is a 2 at this point.

Gay can play either and he certainly can defend either, but he and Battier can overwhlem opposing wings with their size and Gay with his athleticism. If one has the handles to play SF in todays NBA they have the handles to play 2.

You guys read this too?

    Kobe said the influence of international players in the NBA has helped create a “hybrid” culture, where players of all sizes possess skills in all areas and can conceiveably play any position on the floor.

    “That’s the one difference I’d like to see us kind of shift to,” Kobe said.

    This vision of five basketball players, devoid of traditional positional constraints, passing and cutting and posting and shooting and dribbling with equal aplomb, is near. The concept of players assuming a definite position on the floor and sticking to that role is fading away like one of Kobe’s jumpers, as a new age of hyrbids begin to take over the game.

    And while the soon-to-be 32-year-old Bryant is among the closest representations to his own ideal (6-6 shooting guard who led his team in assists and has one of the most effective post-up games in the League), he also could have been describing LeBron James (6-8 with point guard skills), Kevin Durant, or a number of other younger stars.


The future of positional conformity has been an active topic of conversation this summer in certain quarters. As Rob Mahoney of Two Man Game writes, it's a discussion that becomes more relevant when a luminary like Bryant weighs in:

    A universe where all ballers can play in perfect harmony, stand as equals, and worry not over the endless criticism regarding their positional performance. That’s the endgame of all of this, and the fact that Kobe sees it too is a positive sign. Positions as we know them aren’t quite dead, but when one of the league’s pillars decrees them unworthy from atop his ring-and-trophy-adorned tower, people would be wise to listen.

    Bryant is far from infallible, but he’s one of the sport’s more active scholars. He knows where this game has been and where it’s headed, and he has an intimate look into the eye (or rather, an eye) of the storm, to boot. From Pau Gasol to Derek Fisher, Shannon Brown to Ron Artest, and Lamar Odom to Kobe himself, the Lakers have a lot of versatile talent that evades convention. The entire league has a lot of versatile talent that evades convention, and that’s something both you, I, and Kobe can agree on.


Mahoney's last remark speaks to an issue that hasn't been all that present in the salon:

Blurring the definitions and imperatives of basketball positions can be fully realized only if there are systems ready to accommodate that shift.

There's a reason the Lakers have "a lot of versatile talent that evades convention." It's because the team features an offense that de-emphasizes traditional positions in favor of function. In the triangle offense, Derek Fisher -- the nominal point guard -- acts as a spot-up shooter in the confines of the half court (particularly in corner sets) far more often than he does as a distributor. The wings in the triangle are often the trigger men, and the Lakers can maximize Bryant (their shooting guard) in the post without disrupting the sequential flow of the triangle.

The same holds true in Utah, where the Jazz's two and three man actions require every player on the floor to perform every conceivable offensive function. There's nothing new about the flex -- it's been around for decades -- but its bedrock principles demand that every player be able to screen, pass, shoot and cut. By the time the Jazz finish their "power swing" set, at least two perimeter players have set screens, at least one of the big men has cut from one side of the court to the other, and at least three or four different players have made passes off reads.

Orlando's sets rely on more traditional positional functions, but having a wing that can handle the ball in a screen-and-roll set and Rashard Lewis' long-range game are both crucial to the Magic's offensive success. Rick Adelman's system has traditionally broadened the positional functions of his big men (think Chris Webber). It also requires that every one else work in concert. Once a perimeter player has the ball, Luis Scola's responsibilities are virtually indistinguishable from Shane Battier's -- even if the latter has greater range. Everyone moves and everyone fills.

In short, pro basketball is ripe for a positional revolution -- but like every revolution, those challenging the status quo must be ready to govern once they take control.

[riah32]

thoughts on the new look celtics:

Pg: Rondo and Bynum
Sg: Rush and Smith
SF:Outlaw
PF:Landry
C:Bogut and Nazr Mohammad

[Evantime34]

Thoughts on the new Roster?

Guards: Duhon Gay, Stuckey
Forwards: Amar'e, Battier, Tolliver
Centerss: Okafor , Blair.

Gay will play a lot of 2 next to battier on the wing, but I haven't decided if he'll start there.

What's with the trend of playing 3s as 2s out West? Rudy Gay is far more a 4 than he is a 2 at this point.

Gay can play either and he certainly can defend either, but he and Battier can overwhlem opposing wings with their size and Gay with his athleticism. If one has the handles to play SF in todays NBA they have the handles to play 2.

It certainly creates mismatches. I'm almost positive Beaubois will consistently blow by Gay at the 2. However, Gay will shoot over Beaubois like he's not even there. Since in my opinion a shot going to the bucket is a better shot than a jumper I prefer to go with a combo guard at the 2 rather than a large 3. I know a large 3 will be able to post up Beaubois but I have Josh Smith and Haywood behind him to block the shot.