IP Ranks Your 'Pick 2' Team By Division (All 6 Divs now in!)

[Lucky17]

Houston came close to something great here, and don’t let that thought slip by you. They started out with a core of Tony Parker, Kevin Martin, and Luis Scola. That’s a JaVale McGee or some other 7ft defensive menace away from sure fire playoff status. But, they kept going BPA, and didn’t like any of the deals they got their hands on. Brandon Jennings for 2(12) or whatever…definitely better than anything on the board, but he already had Tony Parker. Next, round, Andre Miller was the BPA, and rather than pass on Andre Miller, he took him and wanted to flip him later. Unfortunately, like a realtor in 2009, (too soon?) Champ got stuck with a bunch of assets he didn’t want or need, and a team with huge holes. Jerebko is out for the year nearly after a pre-seaosn injury (and he’s better as a 4 anyways) and lo and behold, he’s starting Gerald Hendersen or Sasha Vujacic.

Houston has to start Martin at the small forward and then Parker at the shooting guard, there just isn't any way around it. Martin lacks the strength or length to defend the 3, but at least the move gets Houston's five most talented players out on the court together and somewhat alleviates the lack of frontcourt depth. And the actual Spurs have had success with a two point guard - Parker and Hill - line-up.

Luis Scola/ Yi Jianlian
Kevin Martin/ Gerald Henderson
Jason Thompson/ Mehmet Okur
Tony Parker/ Sasha Vujacic
Brandon Jennings/ Andre Miller

Houston struggles defensively at the 2,3 and 5, but conversely runs a high octane offense, and wins some games through a sheer talent advantage. Though it doesn't help that the team's only healthy reserve big man, Yi isn't the sort of power forward that will pick up any of the slack defensively or on the glass. Scola finds himself in Iverson territory. Can he play 45?

I was thinking

Parker
Jennings
Miller
Martin
Scola

and just telling our fans to "suck it" while our 3-PG starting lineup loses every game 160-155 on the season.

Yeah, things might not have gone as planned there...

Phoenix is standing by, ready to offer a roster-balancing trade for Scola.

Come on, Champ, let's do this!

[ChampKind]

Houston came close to something great here, and don’t let that thought slip by you. They started out with a core of Tony Parker, Kevin Martin, and Luis Scola. That’s a JaVale McGee or some other 7ft defensive menace away from sure fire playoff status. But, they kept going BPA, and didn’t like any of the deals they got their hands on. Brandon Jennings for 2(12) or whatever…definitely better than anything on the board, but he already had Tony Parker. Next, round, Andre Miller was the BPA, and rather than pass on Andre Miller, he took him and wanted to flip him later. Unfortunately, like a realtor in 2009, (too soon?) Champ got stuck with a bunch of assets he didn’t want or need, and a team with huge holes. Jerebko is out for the year nearly after a pre-seaosn injury (and he’s better as a 4 anyways) and lo and behold, he’s starting Gerald Hendersen or Sasha Vujacic.

Houston has to start Martin at the small forward and then Parker at the shooting guard, there just isn't any way around it. Martin lacks the strength or length to defend the 3, but at least the move gets Houston's five most talented players out on the court together and somewhat alleviates the lack of frontcourt depth. And the actual Spurs have had success with a two point guard - Parker and Hill - line-up.

Luis Scola/ Yi Jianlian
Kevin Martin/ Gerald Henderson
Jason Thompson/ Mehmet Okur
Tony Parker/ Sasha Vujacic
Brandon Jennings/ Andre Miller

Houston struggles defensively at the 2,3 and 5, but conversely runs a high octane offense, and wins some games through a sheer talent advantage. Though it doesn't help that the team's only healthy reserve big man, Yi isn't the sort of power forward that will pick up any of the slack defensively or on the glass. Scola finds himself in Iverson territory. Can he play 45?

I was thinking

Parker
Jennings
Miller
Martin
Scola

and just telling our fans to "suck it" while our 3-PG starting lineup loses every game 160-155 on the season.

Yeah, things might not have gone as planned there...

Phoenix is standing by, ready to offer a roster-balancing trade for Scola.

Come on, Champ, let's do this!

I have one solid, healthy, respectable big man on my roster! One!

I'll only trade him for 2 or more point guards.

[Lucky17]

Houston came close to something great here, and don’t let that thought slip by you. They started out with a core of Tony Parker, Kevin Martin, and Luis Scola. That’s a JaVale McGee or some other 7ft defensive menace away from sure fire playoff status. But, they kept going BPA, and didn’t like any of the deals they got their hands on. Brandon Jennings for 2(12) or whatever…definitely better than anything on the board, but he already had Tony Parker. Next, round, Andre Miller was the BPA, and rather than pass on Andre Miller, he took him and wanted to flip him later. Unfortunately, like a realtor in 2009, (too soon?) Champ got stuck with a bunch of assets he didn’t want or need, and a team with huge holes. Jerebko is out for the year nearly after a pre-seaosn injury (and he’s better as a 4 anyways) and lo and behold, he’s starting Gerald Hendersen or Sasha Vujacic.

Houston has to start Martin at the small forward and then Parker at the shooting guard, there just isn't any way around it. Martin lacks the strength or length to defend the 3, but at least the move gets Houston's five most talented players out on the court together and somewhat alleviates the lack of frontcourt depth. And the actual Spurs have had success with a two point guard - Parker and Hill - line-up.

Luis Scola/ Yi Jianlian
Kevin Martin/ Gerald Henderson
Jason Thompson/ Mehmet Okur
Tony Parker/ Sasha Vujacic
Brandon Jennings/ Andre Miller

Houston struggles defensively at the 2,3 and 5, but conversely runs a high octane offense, and wins some games through a sheer talent advantage. Though it doesn't help that the team's only healthy reserve big man, Yi isn't the sort of power forward that will pick up any of the slack defensively or on the glass. Scola finds himself in Iverson territory. Can he play 45?

I was thinking

Parker
Jennings
Miller
Martin
Scola

and just telling our fans to "suck it" while our 3-PG starting lineup loses every game 160-155 on the season.

Yeah, things might not have gone as planned there...

Phoenix is standing by, ready to offer a roster-balancing trade for Scola.

Come on, Champ, let's do this!

I have one solid, healthy, respectable big man on my roster! One!

I'll only trade him for 2 or more point guards.

Does OJ Mayo count?

[KCattheStripe]

What's this about Perimeter Play?

Love the talent, hate the fit.  While I think Deng and Gay can play with each other, I think it will make them less effective players.  

I think it just makes the team unbalanced, and you would have been better off trying to turn one of those guys into a stronger front-court player.  Gasol, Bass, and McGee are all decent players, but none of them can really dominate inside the way you would like for a team trying to make noise in the playoffs.  

To me, it just comes across as more of a keepers league fantasy team, than a real winning basketball team.  

I'm curious to hear what about their individual games makes you think that they'll make for an uneven wings. To me their abilities complement each other well.

As for needing different bigs to make noise in the playoffs, I think we're a ways from making noise, but I think we're a playoff team. In a few years, when Gasol has matured offensively and McGee has matured in general, that's when we'll make our run.

[indeedproceed]

As for needing different bigs to make noise in the playoffs, I think we're a ways from making noise, but I think we're a playoff team. In a few years, when Gasol has matured offensively and McGee has matured in general, that's when we'll make our run.

I'm not even sure you need anything. When you were unjustly, just throwing my team mercilessly under the bus, hurling racial slurs, making Landry Fields feel weird about his half-ro..I compared my team to yours. I've got Andrew Bogut, who is by and large acknowledged as one of the better defensive centers in the league. Gasol plays him pretty darn well. And behind Bogut who do I got? Asik? Gooden? Like Amundson can't guard Gooden?

Most teams will have one really top tier center, at best. Even then, 6 nights out of 10, their best center will be worse than your best center. And behind their best center, they're gonna have a poor 7fter, probably just a walking 6 fouls and rebounder, or an out of position PF. Well, you got McGee behind Gasol for whatever they got, and that's probably better too. against San Antoinio you can even put them together for when Chris Kaman starts wandering around the court trying to figure how to start fire and hunt mastodons.

Brandon Bass is the weak link..and he isn't maybe as good as he first looked when he was originally starting for Orlando..but I'd call him serviceable.

Like I said, you're a playoff team, I just kinda didn't look at the whole conference when i started arbitrarily anointing people. One of Minnesota, Sacramento, Memphis, or maybe even Phoenix (although I think Lucky did a pretty awesome job..I think Phoenix is a bit beyond reproach) will be sent home, because 1-9 the West is pretty stacked.

EDIT: and as far as contending without adding any pieces, I see the development of Eric Bledsoe, whether or not he can really be a guy you can count on to run a team, to be your biggest limiting factor.

[Roy H.]

Like I said, you're a playoff team, I just kinda didn't look at the whole conference when i started arbitrarily anointing people. One of Minnesota, Sacramento, Memphis, or maybe even Phoenix (although I think Lucky did a pretty awesome job..I think Phoenix is a bit beyond reproach) will be sent home, because 1-9 the West is pretty stacked.

I think Phoenix is the team left out.  I'm not as high on Nene as you are, and I don't think the other starters outside of Nash (McDyess, Ariza, Affalo) are strong enough to sustain a playoff run.  I'm also not necessarily willing to rely on Mayo, Villanueva, and Jordan to play big roles.

[indeedproceed]

Like I said, you're a playoff team, I just kinda didn't look at the whole conference when i started arbitrarily anointing people. One of Minnesota, Sacramento, Memphis, or maybe even Phoenix (although I think Lucky did a pretty awesome job..I think Phoenix is a bit beyond reproach) will be sent home, because 1-9 the West is pretty stacked.

I think Phoenix is the team left out.  I'm not as high on Nene as you are, and I don't think the other starters outside of Nash (McDyess, Ariza, Affalo) are strong enough to sustain a playoff run.  I'm also not necessarily willing to rely on Mayo, Villanueva, and Jordan to play big roles.

Do you believe Phoenix drastically improved their roster at virtually every position, both starter-wise and depth-wise?

[Edgar]

I agree I will take division
probably conference
and most likely almost definetly championship

ty for this delightfull hard work

p.s. it wasnt easy to pick Galo over FElton BTW.

[Roy H.]

Like I said, you're a playoff team, I just kinda didn't look at the whole conference when i started arbitrarily anointing people. One of Minnesota, Sacramento, Memphis, or maybe even Phoenix (although I think Lucky did a pretty awesome job..I think Phoenix is a bit beyond reproach) will be sent home, because 1-9 the West is pretty stacked.

I think Phoenix is the team left out.  I'm not as high on Nene as you are, and I don't think the other starters outside of Nash (McDyess, Ariza, Affalo) are strong enough to sustain a playoff run.  I'm also not necessarily willing to rely on Mayo, Villanueva, and Jordan to play big roles.

Do you believe Phoenix drastically improved their roster at virtually every position, both starter-wise and depth-wise?

"Drastically improved at every position"?  No.  For instance, I prefer the front court of Gortat / Frye / Lopez over Nene / McDyess / Jordan.  I prefer Grant Hill to Ariza.  Carter / Pietrus matches up okay with Afflalo / Mayo.  I'd take Jared Dudley over Charlie V.

I think it's fair to argue the alternative, to to say the improvement is "drastic" across the board?  No way.  I like how Lucky changed his early roster, bringing in better defensive players.  However, I think the Suns are fairly comparable to the "real" Suns in terms of overall quality; if there's an improvement, it's a marginal one, rather than a drastic change.

[Who]

Can’t say I’m a fan of Chris Kaman as their 1st round pick, when guys like Ty Thomas, Serge Ibaka, even Jeff Green or Ryan Anderson make more sense next to Duncan.

Ignoring the Pick II Spurs for a moment ...

I would absolutely love to see the actual San Antonio Spurs add a guy like Tyrus Thomas to play alongside Tim Duncan. Adding a defensive four with elite quickness and good defensive range would be fantastic for their defense. And for their transition game and ability to matchup against squads with perimeter bigs + combo forwards.

I hate seeing San An stick with Bonner, McDyess and Blair. Make a change, please!

[indeedproceed]

Like I said, you're a playoff team, I just kinda didn't look at the whole conference when i started arbitrarily anointing people. One of Minnesota, Sacramento, Memphis, or maybe even Phoenix (although I think Lucky did a pretty awesome job..I think Phoenix is a bit beyond reproach) will be sent home, because 1-9 the West is pretty stacked.

I think Phoenix is the team left out.  I'm not as high on Nene as you are, and I don't think the other starters outside of Nash (McDyess, Ariza, Affalo) are strong enough to sustain a playoff run.  I'm also not necessarily willing to rely on Mayo, Villanueva, and Jordan to play big roles.

Do you believe Phoenix drastically improved their roster at virtually every position, both starter-wise and depth-wise?

"Drastically improved at every position"?  No.  For instance, I prefer the front court of Gortat / Frye / Lopez over Nene / McDyess / Jordan.  I prefer Grant Hill to Ariza.  Carter / Pietrus matches up okay with Afflalo / Mayo.  I'd take Jared Dudley over Charlie V.

I think it's fair to argue the alternative, to to say the improvement is "drastic" across the board?  No way.  

Here is the way I see it:

Arron Afflalo can play a role nearly identical to the role Jason Richardson played in Phoenix. Vince Carter can't play the defense, he's a less efficient scorer, and he's not as solid from outside.

Trevor Ariza to me is arguable that Grant Hill is a better option, but I'm not sure how Ariza will react to the Nash bump. CP3 and Ariza has not been a match made in heaven..so I dunno.

McDyess is 10x the defender Frye is, he's a better rebounder, and while he doesn't have the range Frye does, he's a smarter player, and a better pick and pop partner next to Nash. Nene I'm just way more of a fan than of Gortat.

OJ Mayo vs Pietrus...I dunno, I'd give the nod to Pietrus defensively, but I also think we don't really know how good Mayo is.

I think Lucky put a better team around Nash, both in fit and caliber of talent..and because the current Suns are .500 and 3 games out of a playoff spot in a league with less parity at the top, I think the Suns get in.

Gortat over Nene? Sheesh.

[Lucky17]

Here's how I see the fake Suns vs. the real ones:

PG: Nash-Chalmers vs. Nash-Dragic: push. Chalmers is a better defender than Dragic, Dragic a better shooter and distributor.

SG: Afflalo-Mayo vs. Carter-Pietrus: slight edge, fake Suns. Afflalo the most complete player of them all. Mayo is having a poor year, yes. Pietrus isn't doing much better since he relocated to Phoenix, but at least he can play some defense. Carter still can explode for 30 points, so he has that going for him, but he's still Vince Carter, meaning he'll check out during games, and miss others due to a hangnail, or hurt feelings.

SF: Ariza-Casspi vs. Hill-Dudley: slight edge to real Suns. I'll qualify this by saying that it's only because Hill and Dudley are better shooters than my guys, and arguably as good defensively. However, I'd rather have my guys, whose combined ages are slightly older than Hill.

PF: McDyess-Villanueva vs. Frye-Warrick: fake Suns. CV matches Frye on the offensive end (and perhaps, on the defensive too), but McDyess is head and shoulders above either Frye or Warrick in terms of being a complete player.

C: Nene-Jordan vs. Lopez-Gortat: edge, fake Suns. Gortat has put together a nice stretch. But goodness, doesn't Nene eclipse those numbers offensively with Nash feeding him on the pick and roll? Being the second (third?) banana in Denver behind Carmelo, Nene has still averaged close to 15 and 8 the last three years. That goes up to possibly 20 and 10 as focal point 1A in the fake Suns' offense. Jordan vs. Lopez is essentially a wash right now, although Jordan is the better athlete, and has more upside.

In sum: I'd rather have the fake Suns, in terms of balance on both sides of the ball, and going forward.

[Chris]

I'm curious to hear what about their individual games makes you think that they'll make for an uneven wings. To me their abilities complement each other well.

Both of them are long, athletic SFs who are at their best playing off the ball, and shooting jumpers.  Deng prefers his from 15 feet, while Gay is more of a 20 foot shooter, but neither is a great slasher (both can do it, but its not their strength).

And defensively, both of them would have trouble chasing true SGs like Ray Allen, Rip Hamilton, etc. 

Now don't get me wrong, its not a terrible fit, I just think for the talent they both have, you are not going to get the most out of them.  And I think you could replace either one of them with a less talented SG who is more of a slasher (say, John Salmons), and it would work out better, and then you could have upgraded Brandon Bass to really do some damage right away. 

[indeedproceed]

I'm curious to hear what about their individual games makes you think that they'll make for an uneven wings. To me their abilities complement each other well.

Both of them are long, athletic SFs who are at their best playing off the ball, and shooting jumpers.  Deng prefers his from 15 feet, while Gay is more of a 20 foot shooter, but neither is a great slasher (both can do it, but its not their strength).

And defensively, both of them would have trouble chasing true SGs like Ray Allen, Rip Hamilton, etc. 

Now don't get me wrong, its not a terrible fit, I just think for the talent they both have, you are not going to get the most out of them.  And I think you could replace either one of them with a less talented SG who is more of a slasher (say, John Salmons), and it would work out better, and then you could have upgraded Brandon Bass to really do some damage right away. 

Here is my thought on Deng/Gay..and the way Memphis deals with screen runners.

Luol Deng and Rudy Gay are both more than just jump shooters. Luol Deng is a more versatile scorer than you might believe, he's very good at finishing at the rim, and he takes about as many midrange (16-23 feet) jumpers per 40 mins as Paul Pierce does. Like Pierce, because he's long and athletic, he gets that shot up on most guys, certainly any 2 guard in the league.

Rudy Gay also can put the ball on the floor, but unlike Deng, he's shooting nearly 40% from long range.

While neither guy is a magic man around the basket that can layin any shot they please, both of them are athletic finishers, and good at drawing fouls.

In short, I don't think either one will be hurting for scoring opportunities.

Now, as far as defending Ray Allen or Rip Hamilton (other guys that use screens as well escape me), Memphis also has Courtney Lee, who is fully capable of doing that about as well as one could hope from a guy who isn't an elite defender. If they face guys who are going to run that game on them, they can manage Deng and Gay's minutes as they please and put in Lee..or they can go small, with Gay at the 4, or they can just use Deng's size advantage on the other end to compensate what he's giving up defensively.

[indeedproceed]

IP's Anticipated Standings/Seeds

EASTERN:

1   Miami   61   21
2   Chicago   59   23
3   New York   53   29
4   Orlando   50   32
5   Boston   47   35
6   Milwaukee   46   36
7   Atlanta   44   38
8   Indiana   41   41

===================================
WESTERN:

1   LA Lakers   57   25
2   Portland   55   27
3   San Antonio   54   28
4   Dallas   53   29
5   OKC   53   29
6   Phoenix   50   32
7   Sacramento   50   32
8   Minnesota   50   32

EDIT: I was gonna do breakdowns and stuff, but meh. I don't really feel like it. That means someone wins.