| RealGM All-Time Draft: Hornets Versus Jazz Authored by Tyler Sherkin - July 11, 2006 - 8:06 pm
OK, after a delay mostly centered around the NBA Draft and the author of this series of articles getting a new job, the RealGM All-Time Draft matchup analysis articles have returned! This week, we bring you mopper8's Utah Jazz team versus kdawg's New Orleans/Okalhoma City Hornets.
The Rosters
1. Utah - mopper8
Wilt Chamberlain [1]
Sidney Moncrief [60]
Mitch Richmond [90]
Dan Issel [91]
Chauncey Billups [121]
Clifford Robinson [180]
Rashard Lewis [210]
Kevin Porter [211]
Rudy LaRusso [241]
Don Chaney [300]
Raef LaFrentz [330]
Jason Terry [331]
13. NO/Oklahoma City - kdawg32086
George Mikan [13]
Bob Cousy [24]
Reggie Miller [78]
Latrell Sprewell [113]
Andrei Kirilenko [168]
Wayne Embry [253]
Happy Hairston [288]
Dennis Scott [318]
Tom Van Arsdale [329]
Staceu Augmon [343]
Kermit Washington [351]
Sherman Douglas [amnesty]
The team concepts are reasonably simple; the Hornets are centered around Mikan, Cousy and Miller, with Kirilenko filling in just about everywhere and the rest of the team filling other needs. They are a reasonably decent team, unfortunately they caught some very, very bad luck with this match-up.
Utah is one of the best teams in the All-Time Draft League.
First of all, they center around a guy who is hailed almost universally as the best center to ever play the game, certainly the most dominant big scorer in league history. He happens to also be the most prolific rebounder in NBA history, standing with Bill Russell as one of only two players to end his career with a 20+ rpg average. By all accounts, a dangerous shot-blocker and man-defender, Wilt is pretty much everything you could hope for from a dominant center... except that he's a horrendous foul shooter. Nevertheless, the incredible free throw shooting aptitude of the rest of the team makes up for that.
Speaking of which, Utah has surrounded Wilt with some incredible shooters. Worse still for their opponents, the shooters are not limited to the backcourt. Rashard Lewis, Raef LaFrentz, Clifford Robinson and Dan Issel are all 6'9 or taller, frontcourt players capable of warping opposing defenses to give Wilt space.
That spells doom for the Hornets.
Their defense is not potent enough by half to stop Utah's overwhelming firepower.
The starting lineups will look like this (as taken from their on-board writeups):
Utah
=
Wilt Chamberlain
Dan Issel
Mitch Richmond
Sidney Moncrief
Chauncey Billups
New Orleans
=
George Mikan
Happy Hairston
Andrei Kirilenko
Reggie Miller
Bob Cousy
The first real problem is that none of the Hornets can defend the post against Utah; Utah has expressed the intent to post Wilt, Mitch Richmond, Sidney Moncrief and Chauncey Billups. Right there, the Jazz expose a severe weakness in New Orleans' team.
Billups will outmuscle Bob Cousy easily and happens to be one of the best post-scoring guards in the league since Gary Payton fell into his decline. Moncrief was good at posting smaller guards and Mitch Richmond was a strong high post scorer, especially on his turnaround jumper. These, of course, would be inverted post options used to exploit mistmatches; the primary post scoring option would be Wilt, for obvious reasons.
George Mikan hasn't a prayer of stopping him. Bill Russell, widely regarded as the best defender in NBA history, didn't stop Wilt. He slowed him down but won by concentrated not on Wilt primarily but rather on his teammates. Mikan surrenders at least three inches to Wilt, a vast amount of athletic ability and strength (Russell was at least a similar athlete) and would be completely outmatched.
So Wilt in an isolation play against Mikan would basically be a bucket every time. The instant the Hornets try to double, they get burned by a shooter. Someone, anyone, it doesn't matter, all four other players have strong games out to 20-ish feet and several of the starters can hit the three very well (and most of the reserves, as well).
It gets worse; the Hornets do not have anything resembling Utah's firepower, especially not in the face of Utah's defensive capabilities. Their two best scorers are Mikan and Reggie Miller; Miller was never enough of a volume scorer to really make himself a threat in a matchup like this because he wasn't a talented isolation scorer. He could do it well enough to keep defenses honest and he took over games at times but not against a team like this and especially not without any serious help. Chamberlain would shut Mikan down and significantly hamper New Orlean's ability to play off of Mikan as a scoring option because Utah wouldn't bother to double, which derails their offensive gameplan.
It degenerates for New Orleans further as soon as bench lineups come into play. Utah brings out a totally different kind of lineup. Wilt proved that he could thrive in an up-tempo offense and even move himself to the high post and act as a serious passing hub for a different look in the halfcourt. The Hornets have to be dreading what would happen if Wilt moved their and started getting loads of looks for Rashard Lewis, Clifford Robinson and Raef LaFrentz from 20 feet and out, or working the elbow pick-and-roll with those guys (and with Chauncey Billups).
That's the long of it. The short of it is that Utah's offense is unstoppable to the Hornets and they just don't have the guns to keep up with the Jazz.
Match point to Utah. |
