Legacy league Match #9 - VOTE for the winner!

[Axel]

The legacy league was created to pit teams drafted by fellow RR members against each other and allow the general RR populous to vote on who would win this winner take all, single elimination game if all players were at their peak performance.

Each team drafted an 8 man roster. Each team provided a gameplan justification as to why they believe they should get your vote. Each team is allowed 1 post for "in game adjustments." The role of RR community is simple, vote for who you believe should win. Post justification if you want (encouraged) and weigh the pros and cons for all to see, but ultimately, your vote decides who will win this tournament of legends.

Match #9 - consolation bracket

Mack North Lineup - as set by interim coach Cody73

PG - Kevin Johnson 3x All-Star, 5x All-NBA (4x 2nd Team)
SG - Russell Westbrook 4x All-Star, 4x All-NBA 2nd Team, 1x Scoring Leader
SF - Jerry West 14x All-Star, 12x All-NBA Selection (10x 1st Team), 4x All-Defensive 1st Team, 1x Champion
PF - Kevin Love 3x All-Star, 2x All-NBA 2nd Team-
C - Moses Malone 3x MVP, 12x All-Star, 8x All-NBA Selection (4x 1st Team), All-Defensive 1st team, 1x Champion
Bench - Bob Pettit 2x MVP, 11x All-Star, 10x All-NBA 1st Team
Bench - Drazen Petrovic All-NBA 3rd Team, 2x Mr. Europa Award winner
Bench - Josh Smith All-Defensive 2nd Team

Snooch Lineup

PG: Jason Kidd - 4x All-Defensive 1st team, 5x All-NBA 1st team
SG: Rick Barry - 5x All-NBA 1st team, 8x All-Star
SF: Chris Mullin - All-NBA 1st team, 5x All-Star
PF: Elvin Hayes - 3x All-NBA 1st team, 12x All-Star
C: Bill Russell - 5x MVP, 11x Champion

6th man: AK47 - All-Defensive 1st team, 2x All-Defensive 2nd team
7th: Pau Gasol - 5x All-Star, 2x Champion
8th: Earl the Pearl Monroe - 4x All-Star, All-NBA 1st team

Cody's Gameplan

First off, with a new coach aboard, my 1st plan is to make a slight line-up change, moving Johnson to PG and Westbrook to SG in the starting 5. Petrovic moves to the 6th spot to stay for now, as this allows me more passing, which is one way I will have to beat Snooch.

My real concern is how West is going to do against AK47. This is the real key matchup for me, and I also don't like Smith or Pettit at SF here either with this matchup. Having to deal with Russel is also going to be a real bitch here, as Moses is my only true center who can guard him. However, having Love does give me an odd advantage in my ability to stretch the floor and pass the ball, which is how I have to beat Snooch: Passing the ball and shooting 3's, hoping I make them ala Golden State/Atlanta.

With Drazen moved to the bench, I can bring him in as well if I use Pettit at SF and Love at PF. With having either Johnson or Westbrook at Point, I have myself a great shooting line-up when needed.

In addition, when Love gets Tired... I can bring in Smith at PF to help out. Smith is a slightly less effective 3-point shooter, but at times an be very clutch. Another great thing about Smith is that he can get to the line and shoot well, which is another way I have to make sure I win: By shooting my FT's well.

All in all, this is a really tough game, but I know this line-up will be able to do it if we pass the ball and make sure we try our best to have someone hot and open from outside as much as possible. Were gonna live and die by the 3 this game, boys!

Snooch's Gameplan
Offense

1) My strategy on offense is to expose Kevin Love through the highly efficient use of Elvin Hayes on the block (29ppg) off of a two man game with Jason Kidd who is strong enough and certainly smart enough to be able to handle Westbrook speed and size defending him (at the age of 37 Kidd posted a game score in the playoffs of 14.08 against 13.18 by Westbrook) opening up many kick out opportunities for my great shooting wing players.

2) The intelligence of Kidd and Hayes on offense is matched by that of Mullin and Barry, who will be running screens relentlessly and both possess the ability to continually post up and/or shoot over (Mullin 45% 3pt shooter and Barry, although 3pt not recorded, could shoot from everywhere on the court) the Much smaller defenders of West and KJ and the very defensively challenged Drazen.

3) Rounding out the starting lineup is Russell, who although never got credit for his offense was a highly efficient player who would set punishing screens, grabbing defensive rebounds and either taking it himself up the court (Russell averaged over 5 assists per game in his prime), throwing amazing outlet passes, and always capitalizing on any missed shots and/or alley oops from my guards

4) Coming off the bench I have my PG/SG combo of Earl The Pearl, my do it all AK47 and my pf/c Pau who all together will combine to form a brilliant display of passing, driving, inside and outside shooting keeping the opposing teams bench on their heels

5) Offensively my team scored 182 ppg, Grabbed 82.5 RPG and dished out 37.5 APG while attempting an average of 46 Free Throws a game.

Defense

1) Defense wins Championships, and I have the greatest Defensive center the NBA has ever seen, he will hedge on screens to guard the ball handler, and he will absolutely smother either of Malone and Petit and has the ability to guard small covers in any isolation switches, and of course will be able to get into a position to force Westbrook to have to go over or around him like no big man in the NBA today can due to his long arms and freakish athleticism and IQ.

2) Kidd is a great on ball defender who can also guard larger guards as he showed in his past with defense of guys like Kobe so he will be able to handle not only the points guards( he defended Westbrook to 35% shooting and only 4 assists per game in the 2010-2011 and 2011-2012 playoffs at the age of 36-37!!) but also can help out of Drazen if needed.

3) Hayes is a relentless, high motor and tireless defender who will easily be able to chase Love out to the three point line and still get back, and handle the speed of Smith if the other team decides to try and go Small.

4) AK47 and Pau are my defensive weapons off the bench, while Monroe wasn’t the fastest pg and will likely be targeted, AK47 is one of the greatest help defenders in NBA history and will have a lot of fun blocking 3 shots per game from behind whenever Earl does get beat, Pau will gladly block 2 shots a game that AK cannot get to himself.

5) If the opponent even gets the ball up the court (my team averaged 11.5 steals per game) and managed to get a highly contested shot off (my team averaged 14.2 blocks per game based on a conservative estimate of 6 blocks per when some writer have it as high as 10 per) we will grab all of the missed shots (average of 82.5 RPG)


In Game Adjustments

Mack's & Cody's Adjustments
Well guys, that way my issue: I knew this line-up was gonna struggle defensively, so I needed to figure out a way to beat on Snooch offensively.



Another play I can run is try to stuff the ball inside to Moses and try my best to foul Russel out. This may seem like a large task, as Russel averaged only 2.3 fouls per 36.


But knowing how explosive Moses can be..... you guys can get the picture.


Also, during the 2nd half, I slowly bring in Smith at the 3 and Love at the 4 to try my best to disrupt Mullin and Hayes.


One more thing: Johnson is quite an effective assist guy, so is West. While all of you are thinking the team is all slash, I can try my best to make sure the guys are playing unselfishly... and if that isn't working, DRAZEN TIME.


By moving Brook to PG while Drazen's in, I have a guy who wants the ball as much as possible. This way, along with Drazen, Smith & Love alongside him, he has 3 guys who can shoot from everywhere. He also has a guy he can count on inside with Moses.


This also will create less problems for myself.


But yeah, I still got doubts here about us coming up with the W. Mack really should've thought about getting a true defensive SF somehow.

Snooch's Adjustments
Barry stays against West on the offensive end, and he will continue to abuse him offensively because at 6'7" in height, and 210lb Barry will continuously manhandle and shoot over top of the 6'2" 175lb West and easily score his points, rebounds and assists which he averaged 35,9 and 3.

Mullin stays out and continuously runs his cuts with the big fella Russell constantly catching Westbrook, and anytime Westbrook does get out to Mullin, the 6'7" wing will just launch one of his three pointers over the top of the 6'3" Westbrook.


Westbrook at pg, Then Kidd will guard him(who has proven at the age of 37 capable of slowing him down),
Smith at the sf then I go with Barry at the sf spot(who will gladly talk shit and make the hot head smith loose his cool)
Love at PF then I Switch Russell there and let him smother Love everywhere on the court
Malone and Center I will counter with Sliding the Highly competitive defender the Big E to push and bang with him for a while

And against Drazen at sg will be my supersub, my do it all guy, my defensive specialist on the wing with 7'4" wingspan to deny the pass, to guard the ball, and most importantly to come from behind blocking any shots that happen to slip by my shotblockers in Russell and Hayes.

I will continue to exploit my low post scoring with Hayes in the halfcourt sets, and will continue to run off of every blocked shot and rebound letting Kidd, Mullin(when on court, AK47 when not), Barry and Russell run the floor and score easy transition baskets with their athleticism and with each ones great ability to pass the ball(10 apg for kidd, 5 apg for AK47, 5apg for Mullin, 4apg for Barry, 5apg for Russell)...they will score in the halfcourt of set plays through my bigmen, and they will score in transition.

So RR faithful, who wins this game?

[Axel]

Tough matchup (they all are though). I like that Cody changed up the starters but it still doesn't address that West is really quite small for SF these days. Would have preferred to see Smith in at SF and West in the backcourt over KJ (still leaves Petit off the bench as big).

Think Snooch has the advantage in this one so far.

[BS10]

Yea, Snooch does look like he has the advantage on this one.

Bill Russell > Kevin Love all day. Major mismatch.

[Axel]

Yea, Snooch does look like he has the advantage on this one.

Bill Russell > Kevin Love all day. Major mismatch.

Sorry, another missed lineup adjustment. Russell should be starting at centre (fixed now).

[BobLoblaw]

Some early thoughts, I won't vote yet.


Team Mack-Cody has 3 elite slashers on perimeter, this team is slash slash slash kick out to Love and Jerry West. Dump it to Moses Malone when he's solo covered. Transition should be great.

I think it's cool.

I don't think it's like GSW / Atlanta, less shooting and ball movement. Moses is a major offensive option but he won't pass, he'll rather shoot over double team than pass. And Kevin Johnson / Westbrook backcourt is two athletic slashers, but subpar shooters, so it looks more like Phoenix backcourt with Dragic / Bledsoe than GSW or Atlanta.

Still, while I'd want a little bit more shooting here, I think it's an effective, dynamic offense overall.

Defensively, I think it's an average team. Also, no one is big enough to guard Rick Barry. Jerry West will do his best, he's good and has long arms, but he's at a disadvantage.


Team Snooch. If you want to counter a team with 3 elite slashers, you better have some shot blockers inside, and Team Snooch has exactly that with Bill Russell and Elvin Hayes.

But it's going to be tough defensively for those perimeter defenders. I don't think that Kidd / Mullin / Barry can do anything defensively against so much explosiveness, speed and athleticism from Kevin Johnson, Westbrook and Jerry West. Those 3 smaller guys will get by a lot. So it's all on team, help defense and especially on those shot blockers.

Offensively, assuming Mullin is starting, I think it's a pretty nice team. Mullin and Barry shooting and passing on perimeter. Russell setting screens, exploding.

I don't like Hayes, I think he makes this team worse and spoils all this passing. Plus I don't think that most of the Hayes strategems will work, I think he's just not that type of player:

Hayes is a relentless, high motor and tireless defender who will easily be able to chase Love out to the three point line and still get back

The intelligence of Kidd and Hayes on offense is matched by that of Mullin and Barry

My strategy on offense is to expose Kevin Love through the highly efficient use of Elvin Hayes on the block

He's a good shotblocker, but I wouldn't expect him to move around constantly on defense, he was quite lazy, in my eyes. He's also someone who shoots way way too many turnaround midrange jumpers and doesn't pass the ball, not what I would call an intelligent player on offense. I wouldn't expect him to be efficient.

I think that offensively, Elvin Hayes is to this team what Rudy Gay was to the Raptors.

[BS10]

Sorry, another missed lineup adjustment. Russell should be starting at centre (fixed now).

Ah, now it looks a bit more even.

[Maury]

Legacy league Match #9 - VOTE for the winner!

I would say snooch can take advantage of mismatches on offence pretty easily, especially with Jerry West at the 3. Snooch's defence is definitely superior to cody's. I really don't like Westbrook. I think he would hog the ball, and play hero ball too much. He is almost too relentless and forces his offence, and gambles too much on defence. My vote goes to Snooch.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Apollo]

Tough matchup (they all are though). I like that Cody changed up the starters but it still doesn't address that West is really quite small for SF these days. Would have preferred to see Smith in at SF and West in the backcourt over KJ (still leaves Petit off the bench as big).

Think Snooch has the advantage in this one so far.

I agree. This is the same issue I exploited in round one. I will wait and see on the adjustments but right now I'd have to vote against Mack.

I also don't think West and Westbrook would fit together. They both generated most of their production with the ball in their hands but if were going to work I'd want to convince Westbrook to stay out of position at the 2, agree to play off the ball and shift West to the point. Then I'd bring in Drazen at the three to play alongside Love and Malone. Defensively it wouldn't be very good but probably a little better than the current lineup and on offense it would be smoking.

[Mack North]

Good job with the lineup change, Cody. I like the look.

[BobLoblaw]

I'll vote for Team Snooch here for basketball reasons. Since we are counting self-votes, and Team Mack-Cody has two self-votes, and Team Snooch just one, I think he needs this extra vote to make it fair.

Otherwise, I think these are two very even teams. I like Team Mack-Cody offense more, I like Team Snooch defense more. I don't like Elvin Hayes, but Rick Barry is probably my favorite 'old' player, I think his basketball IQ, shooting and playmaking are Bird level. I like the Barry-Russell combo a lot.

So it's not like Team Snooch doesn't deserve the vote either way, I might vote for it regardless.

I equally like Team Mack-Cody, though.

Personally I think Westbrook is fine at SG. Some of my favorite Westbrook moments were from some years ago, playoffs, Harden was playing de facto point guard while Westbrook more of a SG, cutting and finishing off Harden's playmaking. I think it can work fine.

It's true that Jerry West scored most of his points with the ball in his hands, his bread and butter was pull up shooting. So yep, I can see the argument that Kevin Johnson / Westbrook / West might be too many guys who all should have the ball to be most effective, but still I think there's enough ability to move, get a pass from each other, make a quick drive or cut or pull up. I think they could make it work.

I'd like a bit more shooting from that team, but I think it's a fun lineup change and it can work.

I think neither team's perimeter can really defend each other. Yep, Team Mack-Cody's perimeter is small, but Team Snooch's perimeter is a bit clumsy and slow for handling such speed defensively. Both perimeters will have issues.

But Team Snooch has way more defense inside, which is why it's a better defensive team.

[Cody73]

In game adjustments:


Well guys, that way my issue: I knew this line-up was gonna struggle defensively, so I needed to figure out a way to beat on Snooch offensively.



Another play I can run is try to stuff the ball inside to Moses and try my best to foul Russel out. This may seem like a large task, as Russel averaged only 2.3 fouls per 36.


But knowing how explosive Moses can be..... you guys can get the picture.


Also, during the 2nd half, I slowly bring in Smith at the 3 and Love at the 4 to try my best to disrupt Mullin and Hayes.


One more thing: Johnson is quite an effective assist guy, so is West. While all of you are thinking the team is all slash, I can try my best to make sure the guys are playing unselfishly... and if that isn't working, DRAZEN TIME.


By moving Brook to PG while Drazen's in, I have a guy who wants the ball as much as possible. This way, along with Drazen, Smith & Love alongside him, he has 3 guys who can shoot from everywhere. He also has a guy he can count on inside with Moses.


This also will create less problems for myself.


But yeah, I still got doubts here about us coming up with the W. Mack really should've thought about getting a true defensive SF somehow.

[Snooch]

my in game adjustments.

Barry stays against West on the offensive end, and he will continue to abuse him offensively because at 6'7" in height, and 210lb Barry will continuously manhandle and shoot over top of the 6'2" 175lb West and easily score his points, rebounds and assists which he averaged 35,9 and 3.

Mullin stays out and continuously runs his cuts with the big fella Russell constantly catching Westbrook, and anytime Westbrook does get out to Mullin, the 6'7" wing will just launch one of his three pointers over the top of the 6'3" Westbrook.


Westbrook at pg, Then Kidd will guard him(who has proven at the age of 37 capable of slowing him down),
Smith at the sf then I go with Barry at the sf spot(who will gladly talk shit and make the hot head smith loose his cool)
Love at PF then I Switch Russell there and let him smother Love everywhere on the court
Malone and Center I will counter with Sliding the Highly competitive defender the Big E to push and bang with him for a while

And against Drazen at sg will be my supersub, my do it all guy, my defensive specialist on the wing with 7'4" wingspan to deny the pass, to guard the ball, and most importantly to come from behind blocking any shots that happen to slip by my shotblockers in Russell and Hayes.

I will continue to exploit my low post scoring with Hayes in the halfcourt sets, and will continue to run off of every blocked shot and rebound letting Kidd, Mullin(when on court, AK47 when not), Barry and Russell run the floor and score easy transition baskets with their athleticism and with each ones great ability to pass the ball(10 apg for kidd, 5 apg for AK47, 5apg for Mullin, 4apg for Barry, 5apg for Russell)...they will score in the halfcourt of set plays through my bigmen, and they will score in transition.

[Miekenstien]

here i stuck with russell. him and barry with jkidd running the show is very strong

[Cody73]

I lost.



Mack's gonna kill me!

[Apollo]

#OMGFireCody73!!!

Here's my best guess Cody:



My favorite one is at the five second mark. If he fires you with a desk thump first, then the finger point it's more dramatic.