NBA ReDraft Playoffs FINALS: 1) Santa Monica vs. 2) Hartford

[phlp_bj]

Welcome to the 2012 NBA ReDraft voting process. The redraft is exactly how it sounds. The rosters of every NBA team are cleared and then drafted again from scratch. Posters from the site draft full rosters under a salary cap and then there is a voting process to make the playoffs. We are now in the playoffs and the head to head matchups have begun. Please remember to vote for the roster and write-up you believe would win a 7 game series. Also remember that every player is considered as healthy for these playoffs. Thank you and enjoy the playoffs!

Santa Monica

Thomas-Gordon-Prince-Nowitzki-Noah

Hartford

Lowry-Shumpert-Dudley-Boozer-Bynum

Santa Monica:
C: Joakim Noah (36) | Aaron Gray (12) | Jared Jeffries
PF: Dirk Nowitzki (38) | Jared Jeffries (10) | Derrick Brown
SF: Tayshaun Prince (28) | Luc Richard Mbah a Moute (20) | Derrick Brown
SG: Eric Gordon (36) | Jerryd Bayless ( 12) | Jordan Hamilton
PG: Isaiah Thomas (34) | Jerryd Bayless (14) | Sundiata Gaines

Hartford:
PG: Kyle Lowry - Brandon Knight - Brian Scalabrine
SG: Iman Shumpert - Shannon Brown - Brian Scalabrine
SF: Jared Dudley - Vince Carter - Brian Scalabrine
PF: Carlos Boozer - Drew Gooden - Shelden Williams - Brian Scalabrine
C: Andrew Bynum - Andre Drummond - Shelden Williams - Brian Scalabrine

Santa Monica Writeup

First off, we would like to congratulate Corey and Superdude for making it to the Finals. They built a phenomenal team. Good luck to you guys! However, we feel that we match up very nicely with Hartford.

Four Facts We Want You To Know:
1. Isaiah Thomas was a fantastic starting point guard last year when given the chance. He averaged 14.2 points, 5.2 assists, 3 rebounds, 1 steal on 47% FG, 40% 3pt, 83% FT. His synergy numbers on both ends were also top notch and Sacramento fans can attest to the fact that this kid is the real deal.
2. Tayshaun Prince is still an above average defender. He held opponents to a .81 PPP overall (ranked 128) on 35% FG. His opponent PER was 11.4 last season which is well above average with his sample size of defensive opportunities.
3. Carlos Boozer has been extremely mediocre in the playoffs the past two years. In 2010-2011, he averaged 12.6 PPG on 31.7 MPG, an atrocious 49.4% TS%, 43.3% eFG%, and provided non-existent defense per usual. This was in a 16 game run so it was no small sample size. In 2012 Boozer averaged 13.5 PPG with an even more atrocious 43.5% TS%, 42.2% eFG%, and again poor defense. Boozer was often benched late in the game for Taj Gibson! Hartford is going to have some major issues if they are relying on this guy late in the playoffs because he disappears and is just a terrible defender.
4. Santa Monica is the most balanced team in the game. We feel we’ve developed a starting 5 that’s perfectly suited to play off each individual’s strength. Eric Gordon thrives in the PnR and being a primary ball-handler as shown by his 1.21 PPP in PnR situations. With this in mind, we wanted a PG who could still create for others, but also thrive in off-the-ball situations to let Gordon maximize his talents. Isaiah Thomas’s ability to stretch the floor allows us for Gordon and Dirk to really thrive together in PnR situations. Not only that, but IT’s ability to create for himself as well as thrive in the PnR was absolutely fantastic. He ranked 24th, in ISO situations and 5th in PnR situations last season which gives us a very unique ability to turn to an IT-Dirk PnR game or an Eric Gordon-Dirk PnR game. It’s another facet that the Hartford defense will have to account for.

The real strength of Santa Monica is our bigs duo, Dirk Nowitzki, and Joakim Noah. We confidently feel this is the strongest bigs duo in the redraft and their talents complement each other absolutely perfectly. Dirk will have the freedom of totally being focused on the offensive end with Noah’s ability to rebound at a high rate (18 TRB %) and be a quality defensive anchor. Onto the head to head matchups:

PG Matchup: Isaiah Thomas | Jerryd Bayless vs. Kyle Lowry | Brandon Knight
On the surface this is a clear win for Hartford. However, Thomas as a starter was a flat out stud. His stats are actually very similar to those of Lowry. Lowry has averaged 13.5 PPG and 14.3 PPG the last two years with a little over six and a half assists per game with around a 55.4% TS%. Now Lowry is known to be a fantastic defender, but most advanced statistics say otherwise. His synergy numbers have him ranked as the 280th best defender in terms of total PPP, and he allows opposing point guards a PER of 15.8. We actually like this matchup a lot because Lowry allowed opponents to shoot 67-145 (46.2%) off of spot-ups. Lucky for us, Thomas is a great shooter (38% from 3, 0.99 PP on spot-ups-123rd in the NBA). Thomas will be able to get his on offense, by running the pick and roll (5th in the league) with Dirk and Noah and playing off Dirk and EG spotting up from deep. Defensively, Thomas doesn’t let his lack of size prevent him from limiting his opponents. He’s a very good isolation defender and defends the pick and roll very well as well, which are two of Lowry’s favorite methods of scoring on offense. Lowry won’t be posting up Thomas or anything as Lowry has no post game and even if he tries, Thomas actually defends post ups well. Off the bench, we both have young guards who provide good offense, and can run the offense for some time.
Slight Advantage: Hartford

SG Matchup: Eric Gordon | Jerryd Bayless vs. Iman Shumpert | Shannon Brown
Now before people bring up Gordon’s injury history, know that Shumpert is coming off an ACL tear and will not be back until mid to late season. We have no idea how he will respond to something as major as ACL surgery. Gordon on the other hand was offered a max by Phoenix and matched by the Hornets, which clearly suggests that they think he’ll be in form this year and the next few years. Gordon is still a top scorer at SG and has a huge advantage here. He can score from anywhere and is an efficient offensive player (career 57.5% TS%). Not only is Gordon a great scorer, but he is also a very good ball-handler and passer. Two guys in the backcourt who can run the pick and roll with two very competent bigs are going to be virtually impossible for Hartford to guard. Shump is known to be a great defender, but he is still raw. He sometimes finds himself out of a play after taking unnecessary risks and he can be over-zealous at times. Offensively, Shumpert is just not good yet. He sports a horrific 48.4 TS% and takes 2.7 3’s per game while making them at a horrific 30.4% rate. Gordon will be able to save his energy for the offensive end. Off the bench, we will play Bayless at the 2 as he has great shooting ability and we don’t lose anything on defense as Brown is an undersized 2 guard and Shumpert is basically a negative on offense.
Advantage: Santa Monica

SF Matchup: Tayshaun Prince | Luc Richard Mbah a Moute vs. Jared Dudley | Vince Carter
This is a matchup of role players. Prince is a savvy veteran who provides very good defense and solid 10-12 points per game. He knows what it takes to win a chip and now that he is actually motivated and not on a bottom-feeder team in Detroit, his defense and efficiency will go up a bit. Dudley is a nice scorer on the wing, but he’s a beneficiary of Steve Nash. Kyle Lowry is a nice distributor and all, but he is not the set-up man that Steve Nash is, so don’t expect Dudley to see as many open looks. Dudley’s points come off of Spot ups, cuts, and screens for the most part and Prince is very good at defending spot ups and screens (0.9 PPP on spotups and 0.79 PPP on screens). Not only is Prince able to hold him in check, but also Dudley won’t be getting as many open looks on this team. He can’t create his own shot whatsoever so the playmaking on the perimeter for Hartford will be sparse. Off the bench, we have the clear advantage as Luc is a versatile player who provides great defense , rebounding and hustle. Carter on the other hand can’t even find a team and is just an old, fat, washed up player. He provides little to nothing at this point in his career.
Advantage: Santa Monica

PF Matchup: Dirk Nowitzki | Jared Jeffries vs. Carlos Boozer | Drew Gooden
This is the finals difference maker. You have a guy who is an awful defender and gets much worse in the playoffs against arguably the best PF in the league who is one year removed from leading his team to an NBA championship versus the Heat. Not only does Boozer have no chance of stopping him, but Hartford can’t even bring someone off the bench to limit Dirk. Boozer has been so bad in the playoffs that he generated -0.1 OWS in the last two years. His total win shares will look somewhat okay, because he’s on the best defensive team in the league, but his OWS just shows how awful he is in the playoffs. Because if Boozer isn’t producing on offense, then what the hell is he good for? The guy is a horrific defender and isn’t going to be altering any shots in the paint. As for Dirk, people think he had a down year. However, because of the shortened season and him playing overseas, he had a very slow start to the season. After the allstar break, Dirk went back to being Dirk. He averaged 23.6 PPG. 6.7 Rbs, and 2.1 Asts on 46% from the field. However, he still managed to be uber efficient, shooting 43.4% from 3 and getting to the line over 6 times a game and hitting his FT’s at a 91.1% clip. However, this play didn’t stop in the regular season. In the playoffs, against a great defender in Serge Ibaka, Dirk averaged 26.8 PPG, 6.3 RPG and 1.8 APG all while getting to the line an absurd 10.5 times per game and sporting a 56% TS%. If Dirk did this on Serge, then what the hell are Boozer and Gooden going to do against him? Off the bench, Jeffries can fill in at SF-C and defend any position on the court. He is a good rebounder, hustle player, and is fantastic at taking charges.
HUGE Advantage: Santa Monica

C Matchup: Joakim Noah | Aaron Gray vs. Andrew Bynum | Shelden Williams
Bynum had a fantastic year in LA but we have no idea how he will respond to being the number one option. He’s a very good post player but he also can be inconsistent at times. We like having Noah to match up with him because Noah is going to frustrate the hell out of Bynum in a seven game series. Bynum has always sported a bit of a temper, and Noah is a guy that does things to frustrate his opponents. He’s extremely aggressive and physical with his counterparts and we think that Noah will do just fine versus Noah. That’s not to say that Bynum will be shut down, because he won’t be. But Noah is a very good defender and we have yet to see what Bynum can do as a number one option. On offense, Noah won’t be limited by Bynum. Noah is great at setting picks and is actually very versatile on offense. He is one of the best passing big men in the game and can hit the mid-range shot. He is a threat to score on offense (56.1 TS%, ranked 80th in the Pick and Roll, 84th in the post up, 68th cutting, and 33rd in transition) and does many things that don’t show up on the stat sheet to help his team win. Bynum is a very good post defender, but Noah isn’t a post player so Noah will not be limited in this series. Off the bench, Aaron gray provides good rebounding and defense and is a nice big body to put on Bynum if Noah ever finds himself in foul trouble.
Advantage: Hartford

All in all, it’s clearly a close matchup. However, we match up very well with them. Keep these things in mind:
1. Hartford has only one wing who can create his own shot, and that is Shannon Brown off the bench who is a liability on defense.
2. Noah is a much better answer to Bynum than Boozer is to Dirk.
3. Boozer is horrendous in the playoffs.
4. Dirk showed that he’s still a superstar with his play post-all-star break and in the playoffs.
5. Eric Gordon is an ideal second option for this team.
6. Isaiah Thomas performed very well as a starting PG and would thrive with options like Dirk, EG, Noah and Prince to dish to.
7. Anything you can think of, we have it. Post scoring, post defense, a defensive anchor, floor spacing, play-making. We are an extremely balanced team with a player who is one of the most clutch in the league and is a fantastic playoff performer.
8. Who is taking the last shot for Hartford in a close series? Kyle Lowry?
9. Santa Monica has Home Court Advantage
Thank you for reading our lengthy write-up. We truly believe that we are the best team in the game and would defeat Hartford to take the chip.

Hartford Writeup

Philosophy:
Shut down everyone around Dirk. Dirk isn’t capable of winning a finals on his own without solid contributions from role players…We have the pieces available to shut down Dirk’s supporting cast.

Dirk will get his, shut down everyone else and Hartford wins the series

Point Guard: Isaiah Thomas vs. Kyle Lowry

Isaiah had a nice rookie season for a team that wasn’t playing for anything. Kyle Lowry is one of the best defensive guards in the NBA. We feel that Lowry would be able to take Thomas out of the series and make him a non-factor.

They’ve only played each other once, and Lowry dominated the matchup and won the game.



Lowry outplayed Thomas across the board, and we expect more of the same throughout this series.

Shooting Guard: Eric Gordon vs. Iman Shumpert

Iman Shumpert is one of the best defensive perimeter players in the league, and we feel like he would be able to contain Eric Gordon throughout a series. Shumpert has a distinct size advantage over Gordon, and he would be able to bother him throughout this matchup. If Gordon can’t get into a rhythm offensively, Santa Monica doesn’t have anyone besides Dirk to turn to for consistent offensive performances.


Small Forward: Tayshaun Prince vs. Jared Dudley

No filter: Tayshaun Prince blew last year. He was just awful. He’s had a major drop off the past few seasons, and he’s nowhere near the player that he used to be.

Last season against playoff teams, Prince shot 39% from the field. He was a non-factor offensively against good teams. In those same games against playoff teams, he shot 29% from 3pt range, and only 75% from the FT line.

Dudley, on the other hand, performed very well against playoff teams. He shot 45% from the field, 37% from 3, and contributed across the board against teams that were set to be playoff teams.

Dudley is on the upswing of his career while Prince is on the downside. In their last matchup, Dudley dropped 23 points and 7 rebounds while shooting 67% from the field against Prince. In this same matchup, Prince had only 12 points and was 6-16 from the field. Jared Dudley would be the more productive player in this series.

Power Forward: Dirk Nowitzki vs Carlos Boozer

This matchup is a clear advantage for Santa Monica, which is what we expect. Our gameplan is to shut down Dirk’s supporting cast.

I’m not going to waste your time BSing about stopping Dirk, but I will say that Boozer will still have a solid offensive output in this series. Boozer had a very nice rebound season last year and averages 15+/8 per game. I think he would be good for at least 16 points in this series.

Dirk isn’t the best defender, and we feel comfortable with Boozer offensively in this series.

Center: Joakim Noah v Andrew Bynum

Santa Monica is going to try to sell you on Noah shutting down Bynum in the series.

They haven’t played each other since 2009, and Bynum is a much better player now than he was back then.

Last season, Bynum was a considerably better scorer and rebounder than Noah. He was considered the second best center in the league, and had a lot of success against players that were considered good defenders.

Against playoff teams, Bynum averaged 19 points, 12 rebounds on 55%+ shooting from the field. We feel comfortable in saying that Bynum will be able to get his numbers in this series. Noah is a good defender, but Bynum is playing on a different level right now.

Benches

I see depth as another clear advantage for Hartford. Hardford has Brandon Kight, Shannon Brown, Vince Carter, Drew Gooden, Andre Drummond and Sheldon Williams coming off the bench. All of these players were starters last season, with the exception of Drummond who was a lottery pick.

For Santa Monica, they’re lacking in scoring off the bench. They’ve got a few decent pieces, but nothing that will outperform my reserves.

[Swashcuff]

Its FINALS time baby!!! Let's Go!!! Best of luck *****es

[The_Jamal]

Since Rosh did work with the write-up during Halloween weekend, I'll tear into the Hartford write-up a bit:

1. Kyle Lowry played for a team that was just as much as a non-factor as Isaiah Thomas. While Lowry is a superior defender, they had the same offensive year last season as a starter. While Lowry has the advantage defensively, we see this match-up being incredibly close the entire series. Also, using a 1 game sample size is fairly worthless. It means nothing in the context of this match-up

2. Hartford does not have a single member on their team who's been to the playoffs as the best player on their team or #1 option. Bynum has yet to show he can be the man for a playoff squad, and Boozer's drop off in production is well-documented. Dirk is the best and most proven player in this series and only a few years removed from his legendary playoff run in his title year.

3. The Dudley-Prince match-up is a complete non-factor. While Prince was not good offensively last season, he was forced into a bigger scoring role with a terrible Pistons team. That said, he was still a great defender last year and was able to keep his opponents in check. Dudley isn't a good enough player to take over a series in the first place, especially not against a good defender like Prince.

4. We won't try and deny the match-up advantage of Bynum over Noah. We're confident enough in Noah to give Bynum a tough series and make him work on both ends of the court. It's no coincidence that Noah has anchored a top 3 defense the past few seasons; he's a tremendous rebounder and defensive anchor.

[mightybosstone]

Santa Montica. Normally, I would read the write-ups if I thought the matchup was close. But I don't think the matchup is close and my boy Jamal has this in the bag. Also, I irrationally hate Carlos Boozer, so that doesn't do Hartford any favors.

[Raps08-09 Champ]

I voted Corey because he didn't give me Deron Williams.

[KnicksorBust]

Moment of truth...

I LOVE Hartford. They have a ton of defense and I'm really high on their backcourt. However, the truth is can Lowry-Shump-Dudley-Boozer-Bynum really win an NBA title? They SERIOUSLY lack playoff experience. Bynum is a questionable #1 option. Boozer is a questionable #2 option. Lowry is main playmaker (asking Shump or Dudley to run an offense would be a disaster). And Dirk did bounceback in a big way and is being guarded by arguably the worst defender in Hartford's starting 5. In many ways it's a bad matchup for Hartford.

However, I also don't trust Thomas's small sample running the show in Sacto. Gordon and Dirk BOTH have injury-age concerns. And Prince was a shitshow last season. In many ways it's hard for me to buy into that team as well. They do feel more like a championship team though.

TOUGH!

[The_Jamal]

I think you answered the big question with this series. Do you trust Dirk or Andrew Bynum to carry a team to a title? Not to mention, Eric Gordon is by far the best offensive perimeter player in the series and the only reliable perimeter player who can create for himself

[roshan3ai]

Can the people who are voting at least give reasons?

[The_Jamal]

^^

I'd like to especially hear from the GM's who've voted. Nate, Baller, Jets etc.

[NYMetros]

I took Santa Monica because I just love their mix of players, I think they mesh together very well. I understand Hartford's game plan but but you're not just gonna shut someone like EG down completely. I don't really trust Bynum to be the guy to win a title for Hartford either.

[Saddler The Gr8]

Santa Monica in 6. I think Dirk dominates this series

[LakersMaster24]

Accidently pressed the GM button

[Corey]

A vote for Hartford is a vote for equality.

Scalabrine/Scalabrine '12.

http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_ma...qggno1_500.gif

[DreamShaker]

I am going with SM. Both teams gave solid write-ups and it was close for me. But Dirk/Gordon/Noah is too much for Hartford. Kinda reminds me of the core that won the championship in 2011. Dirk thrives with those kinds of players.

[The_Jamal]

More GM's defending their votes