Round 2 has officially begun. Same rules apply to this thread just like the first. Please feel free to comment on why you think which team is better, i think everyone would like to know why you chose who. VBG Pg- Magic Johnson Sg- Ray Allen Sf- Lebron James Pf- Charles Barkley C- Dwight Howard Bench Pg- Kevin Johnson C- Yao Ming Sf- Paul Pierce ICanDunkOnYao Pg- Dennis Johnson Sg- Dwayne Wade Sf- Julius Erving Pf- Tim Duncan C- Bill Walton Bench Sf- Grant Hill C- Robert Parish Sf- Robert Horry
PG - Dennis Johnson vs. Magic Johnson Dennis Johnson is one of the most underrated players. He held Magic to under 17 points in the 1984 Finals even though he was 5 inches shorter. He was the starting point guard for arguably the greatest team of all time - 1986 Celtics. Essentially, he neutralizes the advantage of having Magic SG - Dwyane Wade vs. Ray Allen While Allen can shoot 3's better than Wade, Wade is better in every aspect. Just look at all his brilliant performances - Game 4 vs. 2010 Celtics, where he willed his team to win and avoided a sweep. 2006 Finals. http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/playo...nist=hollinger_john&page=FinalsPerformances-1 According to ESPN, it is the greatest Finals Performance, greater than Jordan, greater than Hakeem, greater than anyone. SF - Julius Erving vs. LeBron James Both of them are very similar players, and Erving is a better rebounder while Lebron is better in defense. PF - Tim Duncan vs. Charles Barkley Duncan is the greatest PF of all time. He won 4 championships and only had 2 All-Star teammates during his career, while Barkley had legends like Julius Erving, Moses Malone, Hakeem, Kevin Johnson yet still ended up with no rings. C- Bill Walton vs. Dwight Howard At his absolute peak, Walton was just as great as Kareem, Russell or Shaq. You think Lebron had a bad supporting cast? In 1977, Walton led a team featuring no All-Stars to a 70-15 record and a championship. How many players can do that? tl;dr Although VBG's team may have more name recognition, don't discount mine. He claims to be able to run "Showtime", but my team can arguably run it better. Imagine Wade running PG with Hill and Erving in the wing positions. All of them are elite dunkers who can streak down the court for easy buckets. Duncan and Walton can establish position in the post in a Twin Towers-esque way and also score. Hell, I could bring in Parish, who can both outlet pass and run along in the fast break.
PG - Dennis Johnson vs. Magic Johnson DJ is a great defensive player. Sure, I'll give you that. But he CANNOT shoot. The Lakers would leave him open on every play when he played the Celtics. Offensively his peak season was 19 points and 5 assists. Absolutely nothing spectacular. Nowhere close to Magic. Please don't say that this is a wash when it isn't close to being a wash. Magic had one bad series against the Celtics and then he came back next time and absolutely dominated them. Magic delivers 20 and 15 in the playoffs. DJ delivers 19 and 9 (seems like an anomoly though since he never had mroe than 6 APG otherwise) SG - Dwyane Wade vs. Ray Allen - Allen is a lot better fit for an all star team. There is one ball to go around. Allen also gives constant effort on both sides of the floor. Wade is better overall sure, but Ray Allen is a better team player. SF - Julius Erving vs. LeBron James Similar in terms of athleticism sure but Lebron is a MUCH better playmaker/distributor that your team lacks overall (DJ isn't a pure pure point on the same level. He's a set up offense kind of guy). Also Lebron is a better shooter. And of course defender. PF - Tim Duncan vs. Charles Barkley Duncan is the Goat PF sure, but Sir Charles is a lot lot faster than Duncan. His girth can keep Duncan out of the post and away from the boards. C- Bill Walton vs. Dwight Howard Dwight is strong enough to keep Walton away from the basket. Dwight is also a better defensive player. I agree Walton is better offensively in terms of passing and pure post up game but again you have one ball. My team is all about playing together. I have 3 ball dominant players to his 4. I have the best off ball player apart from perhaps Reggie (debatable). Dwight Howard is fantastic at finding easy buckets and getting rebounds. His team cannot beat mine on the break. While Dr. J and Wade can keep up with Ray Allen and Lebron. I still have Barkley, Dwight Howard and Magic at point on the break. I also have a fast bench with Kevin Johnson who can run circles around people. In the halfcourt his lack of shooting is really gonna hurt him. His twin towers can be nuetralized by mine with Yao Ming and Dwight Howard.
Again, I vote for the team that apparently no one else likes, ICanDunkOnYao's. This time it's not tough at all. First, there are more transcendent players on ICanDunkOnYao's team: Erving and Duncan are legends, Walton played legendary at his peak, Wade is a champion, and Hill was a supremely talented small-forward. Collectively, we have a ton of championships and MVPs (7 and 6?), and loads of First Team All-NBA recognitions (all five, perennial). In addition, those five can definitely play well together - especially against a team that starts a 6-9 point guard -. Second, I think ICanDunkOnYao's team would eventually find that a lineup of Wade, Erving, Hill (remember, he was once a First Team All-NBA fixture), Duncan, and Walton would be the most productive. That lineup, in their respective primes, gives that team a chance to switch ANY matchup in the backcourt and three great, explosive playmakers. Third, the way I see it, everyone on VBG's team is ball dominant. Even Ray Allen who doesn't actually touch the ball but requires special plays to free him; in other words, he eats up plays. Just think of games he's in, you know when a play is for Allen and when it's not; in his prime, he was devouring plays. Howard is the same way. The Magic rely on his post presence to clear the three-point line and run their offense through him. He's definitely not a Ben Wallace/Dennis Rodman garbage player. Then there's Magic and James, two of the most ball-dominant players of all time and Barkley who can pound the ball like nobody else and made passing plays for his team. (None of that is important in this type of league - we have to accept a different reality for this -, I just don't want people to think that Allen and Howard have ever taken backseats in their team's offenses and would therefore find it natural to do so on this team.) Fourth, I don't think VBG's starting lineup is actually that unstoppable in the fast break. Magic and James are awesome and Howard can rebound great and outlet pass well, but Allen fudges up many fast breaks - honest, ask any Buck/Sonic/Celtic fan -, and Barkley, well I don't know, the Barkley I remember from Phoenix didn't finish many fast breaks. On the other hand, Walton was an awesome rebounder and outlet passer and Wade and Erving - and Hill - awesome fast break finishers. That's not to say that VBG's team is not the superior fastbreaking team - Magic alone makes it better -, but the trio of Walton, Wade, and Erving on the break can be devastating as well. Finally, the only significant disadvantage for ICanDunkOnYao is the bench. We can all agree that PRIME Hill is the best player on both benches, but Robert Horry is BY FAR the worst player on both benches. He's one of my favorites but it's a joke that he's on a team in an eight team, eight player all time league - 64th best? -. Everyone on VBG's bench can contribute to this league; prime Yao was much more imposing than Parish, and Johnson and Pierce were both awesome - just not as nearly as good as Hill -. To me, this series hinges two things; the first being the possibility that ICanDunkOnYao plays Hill at least 38 minutes a game, think Manu Ginobili; and the second being their advantages in the paint. Again, PRIME Hill, while not as good as James, was definitely in Wade's class and MUCH better than Allen or Pierce. He needs to play tons of minutes. The twin-tower duo of Walton and Duncan, two legends, is simply much better than Barkley and Howard. Barkley was great, but never as good as peak Walton or Duncan because he wasn’t a defensive presence, and Howard is just great right NOW in the weakest era of big men, but I don’t think his offense is up to par in this league. If you fuse Barkley and Howard together now and then clone that fusion... Hmm. Ultimately, basketball is a vertical game, won in the paint through rebounding and defense. ICanDunkOnYao's three-headed monster, which guarantees a formidable twin-tower combination at all times, just outclasses VBG's bigs. Grant Hill is the icing on the cake. Magic and James can make it interesting, but the trio of Erving, Wade, and Hill should be able to nullify them completely. If this were boxing, that trio would work on the head while Walton and Duncan just pound away at the body. ICanDunkOnYao in an easy five game series. As an aside, shooting just isn't that big of an issue here. Allen and Pierce make VBG the better shooting team, but if they stick close to them, three-point shooting will not swing the game in any way.
In this series, I wouldn't squander Magic on defense by having him check DJ. Move LBJ to defend DJ or Wade and put Magic on Erving. With LBJ on the perimeter, he can crowd passing lanes and challenge threes while Magic, who is your third best rebounder, plays closer to the basket and can help out on the boards. Plus he's faster than Walton and Duncan, as is Barkley, so you have a 4-on-3 break off of every defensive rebound. Against Dr. J, Magic can muscle him and keep him shooting J's, which he is not great at. It also increases the chance of a screw-up on the switch from O to D and back so you could possibly get a mismatch with DJ guarding LBJ at the other end and Magic big enough to pass over Dr. J. Nobody in this matchup warps the floor like Magic, so I vote for VBG.
My bad. The statistic is actually from March 1977 - March 1978 (including playoffs) that was the record for his team. It may be skewing the data a little bit, but I'd be surprised if any current player has put a similar record up. Magic was not known for his defense, and against one of the best dunkers of all time who revolutionized the game by playing above the basket, Magic will just get the opportunity to be on a poster. Regarding Shooting While no one in my team has a particularly strong 3pt shooting %, Wade and Horry are clutch shooters who can nail it when the game is on the line. Besides, my team offense does not try to implement excessively shooting 3's so it's a moot point how their shooting is. Wade, Hill, and Erving can all slash and go inside. If they decide to play zone defense and clog the lane, then Walton, Duncan, and Parish are all capable of shooting jump shots.
How much foul trouble does Howard get into? Barkley certainly isn't going to help out when Wade, Erving, and Hill get passed their man. And he's going to have to help out on Duncan, too, all the while guarding Walton. Hmm...
I voted for ICanDunkOnYao. They have the better post game for sure with Duncan and Walton. Howard is mainly used as a dominant rebounder and Walton could nullify some of that because he is a great rebounder also. I really think VBG should have started Yao for this series to matchup. Having Magic and Lebron is not as good as it looks because Lebron likes to dominate the ball and I don't know if he will be able to play through Magic. I think this is pretty evenly matched but I voted for Icandunkonyao because I think Lebron finds a way to screw things up.
