At center I am starting Tyson Chandler, the best defensive center of his era. Tyson Chandler is second all time in field goal percentage because he knows his limitations and doesn't take bad shots. He is a monster pick and roll player, finishing lobs from Chris Paul in his early career and shooting an incredible 68% in 2012. He was the heart of the Dallas defense in 2011 that shocked the world to win a title and his consistent dominant defense saw him rewarded with the Defensive Player Of The Year award in 2012. Chandler twice led the league in offensive rebounds, is an unselfish player who doesn't need possessions on offense to dominate on defense.
At power forward is Dirk Nowitzki, the greatest international player and greatest shooting big man of all time. I'm sure I don't need to explain why he is so great. An above average rebounder who has an arsenal of low post moves and an unguarable fadeaway jumper.
The greatest player of this generation and one of the five best players of all time starts at small forward. He's an above average three point shooter (34%) so he helps the incredible spacing on this team. Lebron is also the best passer in the draft. The guy averaged 7 assists per game as a power forward. He has been a dominant force since he was 20 years old. The first player to make 6 straight finals since the Celtics dynasty when there were only 10 teams in the league. One need only to look at how the fortunes of Miami and Cleveland changed as he came and went. He dragged a terrible Cavs team whose second best player was a 40% shooting Larry Hughes to the NBA finals. 5 straight years as first team all defense, he can guard any player on the floor, pass as well as any point guard, rebound as well as almost any big man and score better than anyone. Unstoppable post up game, good shooting and a bulldozer off the dribble, there is no chance that Kevin Durant will be able to stop Lebron James. In head to head matchups,
James' teams are 16-3 while he averages 29/7/7 on over 50% shooting. Finally, Lebron is an incredible clutch player. Look at this year's series where he leads all players in points, rebounds, assists, steals, block and is shooting 50%. He just had back to back 40 point performances facing elimination in the finals against possibly the greatest team of all time.
Or how about when Lebron went for 45/15/5 on the road against the Rondo Allen Garnett Pierce Celtics in an elimination game and
shot 73%? Or when he scored 48 on the road against Detroit in 07 to win in double overtime and
scored Cleveland's final 25 points in a row? Or what about his triple double against San Antonio in the Ray Allen elimination game? It's unfortunate for MJJ that his team is built around two pairs of teammates that Lebron has dominated (Allen/Garnett and Durant/Westbrick). Even Kobe got dominated by Lebron, Lebron's teams are 16-6 against Kobe with Lebron averaging 28/7/7.
In the backcourt are the splash brothers who surely need no introduction. The two greatest shooters of all time who have played with each other for years and developed an unstoppable chemistry and understand. Both above average defenders (Thompson an elite one), both above average passers (Curry an elite one), and both over 42% three point shooters while taking an incredible amount.
Offensive strategy
Rain threes and get offensive rebounds in order to shoot more threes. This team has the greatest shooters at PF, SG and PG of all time and another very good one at SF. It will use the 1 in 4 out offensive with an emphasis on dribble drive kick. Chandler will hold his own on the boards while Kevin Garnett is neutralized at the rim by chasing Dirk all over the three point line. Thompson and Curry are good rebounders for their position and Carter is decent too. This team won't win the rebounding matchup but it will shoot so many threes that it only needs to keep it close. There is no real correlation with rebounding and winning if you have the other assets to make up for it. San Antonio was 24th in rebounding this year while Chicago was 3rd.
Specific to this matchup, I think Dirk will be neutralized by Garnett pretty well. Kevin Garnett was an amazing defender. However, Dirk will spend most of the series playing around the three point line. This will force Garnett to guard Dirk and provide less rim protection and rebounding than he normal is able to. Wallace and Rodman are both formidable defenders and Tyson Chandler is not an offensive great so like usual most of my points will come from outside shooting. Kobe Bryant was a great defender in his prime but he was also a very lazy and selfish defender for the last 7-8 years of his career. He would leak out for fast break opportunities if his man beat him, not rotate fast enough and gamble for steals too much. When you are playing an elite ball movement duo like Steph Curry and Klay Thompson, momentary lapses in concentration punished by ball screens, pin downs and the best off the dribble shooting in the history of the NBA. If he puts Ray Allen on the floor, it will get even worse for his backcourt defense.
The most important matchup is who he decides to play at center. If he puts Bosh there, Lebron will drive and score in the post at will. Bosh is a good 4 but you can't play someone with his lack of rim protection at the 5 against a bulldozer like Lebron and get away with it. So I think he will play Wallace or Rodman, which leads to my defensive strategy.
Defensive strategy
Once again we can play 5 on 4 knowing that Rodman and Wallace are total non-threats on offense. Rodman averaged 7 points per game, Wallace averaged 6. Tyson Chandler, a defensive player of the year, will have the freedom to guard Garnett in the post and be a great help defender knowing that Yi Jianlian's can guard Rodman or Wallace. Klay Thompson will guard Kobe while Steph tirelessly chases Allen around or guards Chauncey Billups who won't be able to play his normal role with a ball dominant Kobe next to him, diminishing the passing ability he brings to the team.
Bench
Golden State has proven the value of elite shooting and how they can ruthlessly seek out a weak link on defense. The team has 4 three point contest winners and several other excellent three point shooters (Rasheed, Davis, Carter). The team also has two sets of title winning teammates (Dirk/Peja/Chandler on the 11 Mavs and the Splash Brothers).
Let's note that he is already down 1 on the bench because Alvin Robertson was a mistake pick and he has no business being in this draft. Let's say he starts Wallace, Garnett, Durant, Kobe, Billups. That means his bench unit consists of Rodman (defensive one way player), Mullin (offensive one way player), Bosh (good but not great two way player), Allen (offensive one way player) and Westbrook. Westbrook would normally turn this bench mob into a very good crew except Ricky Rubio is a fantastic on ball defender who doesn't need to put much energy into offense and can spend his time hounding Westbrook defensively. My bench unit will be excellent defensively too with Sheed, Barkley, and Rubio all being excellent defenders.
