Jake's Awesome Squad + Rules

Happy humpday readers! We're hoping to drag ourselves past mid-week with a theoretical challenge. The NBA is now a superteam league, Jimmy Butler is in the city of brotherly love, Paul George showed some smalltown love by staying in Oklahoma, Boogie is chilling in sunny Oakland and Anthony Davis is now packing his bags for greener pastures - almost certainly to team up and get a KDeasy ring (see what I did there?) So we've been thinking, the current NBA climate is a little stale - what team would we create if we could pull players from any decade? Obviously we couldn't clone MJ or LeBron 5 times, so we came up with some rules...

Outline:

Chad and Jake get to make their own theoretical team following some general rules, then they hand their teams over to each other and talk about 4 different things.

Rules:

10 man team, 1 coach and a style.

Starting Five:

1x Superstar (MVP winner or multiple championships)

1x All Star (At least 1 All Star selection but no MVP wins)

3x Starters (No All-Star appearances but other accolades okay)

Bench:

1x Sixth Man (At least 1 Sixth Man of the Year win - can also be an All star)

3x Role Players (No individual accolades)

1x Bench Player (12mpg or under throughout career)

Coach: Any coach

Questions to answer:

What style of basketball could you see this team playing?

Name the strengths, weaknesses of your team.

Predict their overall record and a short summary of their season.

Top stat leaders in the team.

Jake's Team

Superstar: Shaquille O'Neal

All Star: Reggie Miller

Player 3: Shane Battier

Player 4: Richard Jefferson

Player 5: Mike Bibby

Sixth Man: Mike Miller

Role Player: Nikola Vucevic

Role Player: De'Aaron Fox 

Role Player: Khris Middleton

Bench Warmer: Kostas Antetekounmpo

Coach: Brad Stevens

Style of Basketball

The basketball gods have caused some kind of unsolvable contract issue in Beantown because I spotted Brad Stevens running down the highway holding his Basketball Bible in hand. I'm probably massively overpaying him in this team, because my stylistic view needs to be bound together by someone who knows what they're doing and if there's one man for the job - it's the ex-Celtics mastermind, Brad Stevens.

I've built this team with a multi-faceted offense/defense in mind - so let me share one of my many visions with you. 

Picture this scene - My team are down by 2 with 45 seconds left to play in the 4th quarter, all five starters are in. Mike Bibby dribbles over the halfway line and gets a double horns screen from Shaq and Battier, he chooses Battier's screen who, after setting the screen flies over Shaq's screen and receives a whipping pass from Bibby. The help defender closes out on Battier who immediately swings an extra pass to the corner where Reggie Miller awaits - everybody thinks it's all over, but somehow the help defender blitzes out of control towards Miller, who calmly throws a lob pass into the lane, where a rolling Shaq-Train receives and pummels the and-one jam over a single helpless defender. Hopefully he makes the free throw...

As you can see, my teams offense is going to have some many options that you're really going to need to pick your poison on any given night. We've got athletic three and D players like Jefferson and Reggie Miller - who on any night could go off for 25-30 points. We've got incredible pick and roll shooters like Mike Bibby and Khris Middleton. We've got some of the deadliest swing men shooters the league has ever seen in Shane Battier and Mike Miller (man I wish they played on the Miami Heat at the same time). And if all of those options weren't enough then we can just stroll down the floor and shovel the ball to the most dominant basketball players of all time - Shaquille 'Diesel' O'Neal.

The bench mob shouldn't be discounted either - you've got an incredibly smart, underrated European big man in Vucevic. He's having a breakout season this year dropping 20 & 10 lines most nights, I'd bank on him being able to secure the second unit with a neat pick & roll/pop game with De'Aaron Fox - one of the quickest and arguable most improved players in the NBA right now. Add in a dash of Khris Middleton's underrated play making, shooting and versatility and we're onto a winner.

If this tantalising squad isn't quite enough for you, just bear in mind that I've got the brother of the should-be MVP Giannis Antetekounmpo riding my bench. Kostas Antetekounmpo hasn't hit the floor yet this season for the Dallas Mavericks, but you best believe he's going to get some garbage time minutes with the amount of blowouts my team is going to cause.

Strengths and Weaknesses

Strengths: Shooting, athleticism, basketball IQ and defense.

Shooting is a given with this team, they'd be playing a 4-out-1-in system most nights and would likely raining fire from Shaq's kick-out passes and swing balls. Without Shaq the rest of the roster averages a 38.2% clip from three-point range - I'd bet on that most nights! Athleticism is a given with this roster, you have the quickest PG in the NBA (Fox) coming off the bench, prime RJ and Miller running the floor on a nightly basis. My players aren't going to live above the rim but you'd definitely be drooling when they're running a fast break. They're a smart roster too, you have guys who've made a living from picking spots to attack in the opponents offense and defense, dogs who know what it takes to win rings and who'll set a culture in the locker room and on the court defensively.

Weaknesses: Rebounding, pick and roll defense.

Honestly rebounding is going to the primary problem here, we're going to have to hope we sink enough shots and hustle back on defense. Except O'Neal and Vucevic (both +10 rpg) we've got a lot of guys averaging 3/4 rebounds per game over their careers. Luckily we can make up for it by running the floor quicker than most teams and hope that Shaq hustles back up the floor before our opponents punch the ball inside. Pick and roll defense could become a problem also, we don't have a very switchable big man rotation, so Shaq and Vuc could be in trouble if our help defenders don't show quick enough off the pick and roll, causing them to be put on an island 1v1 with potentially devastating consequences. 

Overall Season Prediction

Record: 60-22

This is going to be a crazy regular season squad. They have enough tools and weapons on the squad to comfortably play their way into a top 1 or 2 seed in either the Eastern or Western conference. If I were Brad Stevens I'd be splitting the minutes at point guard between De'Aaron Fox and Mike Bibby to keep Bibby's body right before the playoff slog. I'd also be trying a similar tactic with O'Neal and Vucevic - although I'm not sure Shaq would be too happy, we all know he wants to get to the All Star game just for a dance off! The season and playoffs are going to be tough if any of our shooters get into foul trouble or go cold from deep, it's very easy to plan a 7 game series around Shaq if he's got no viable options to kick the ball out to. I've got to view this from a similar angle as Chad does - can a smart, multi-functional, athletic team go head-to-head with the star power of the Warriors? I don't think I could bet against Splash Bros & co either... They take my team down 4-2 in The Finals.

Stat Leaders

Points: Shaquille O'Neal - 28.5

Rebounds: Shaquille O'Neal - 14.3

Assists: De'Aaron Fox - 7.8

Steals: Mike Bibby - 2.3

Blocks: Shaquille O'Neal - 4.2

Turnovers: Shaquille O'Neal - 3.5

Chad's Response

This squad could be big trouble for the league. And teams with multiple elite guards could spell trouble for this team.

The good first…

Like you said, Shaq is possibly the most dominant force in NBA history. Prime-Shaq playing in today’s game against these soft bigs like Karl-Anthony Towns, Dwight Howard, and Hassan Whiteside would leave careers in ruin. You could almost select a supporting cast by random and still guarantee that squad makes the playoffs with Shaq as the center piece. And when you pair him with Spike Lee’s arch nemesis, Reggie Miller you have a potential for some insanely high scoring nights. The inside-out three ball is going to be key here. Shaq is a guaranteed 25+ points every single night with the current state of the league. But can guys like Jefferson, Mike Miller, and Shane Battier step up on a nightly basis from beyond the arc and on the defensive end? I’m going to say so. There is enough championship experience, basketball IQ, and consistency between these three that they can, as one, act as a third option. Then you mix in Khris Middleton who is arguably better offensively than all three and you’ll be putting some big numbers up on any given night. And I actually think that in today’s game, rebounding won’t be too big of a weakness for this team. Using athleticism, brute force, and basketball IQ (enhanced by Coach Stevens and his staff) will help snag more rebounds than their career averages might suggest.

.

The problem I see though is less a problem with this unit and more so respect for the juggernaut that is the Golden State Warriors who have three elite guards/shooting forwards. One of which is pretty much seven feet tall. Over the past five seasons the Warriors have averaged 39.5% from long distance as a TEAM. This theoretical Brad Stevens led team will only average 34.5%. I say “only” because although 34.5% as a team, when Shaq shot a miserable 4% over his career, isn’t that bad, 5% is a HUGE difference when talking about three point shooting. Just using that stat (because I’m lazy and not very good at math), if each team gets 100 possessions and only shoots threes, the Warriors will score 118.5 points while this theoretical squad will only notch 103.5. A fifteen point difference is hardly a close game. And I’m not sure there are enough athletes or length to defend the likes of the Warriors. Swipa will probably have to spend a lot of time on Curry (unless Mike Bibby can evade the refs eyes while bullying Steph) just using his superior athleticism to cause as much havoc as he can. I trust Battier to do as good a job as anyone of his size and athleticism could possibly do on KD. Leaving Klay for Reggie, Draymond for RJ, and Boogie for Shaq. 

Unfortunately I think the Warriors win three of these four matchups (Curry, KD, Draymond) and draw when it comes to Klay and Reggie. And that’s being kind to Reggie because I love his competitive fire. It seems crazy, but Klay shoots a better clip from beyond the arc and averages a whole half a game more in defensive win shares than Reggie over his career.

But hiring the brilliant mastermind from Beantown was a terrific decision my friend. He has a great feel for the game and will know when the time comes. Coach Stevens will call a timeout at a turning point in the series and pull out his clipboard. He'll say nothing, but write four words on the board in all-caps…

“FEED THE BIG FELLA.”

These Warriors will have never seen a force like The Big Diesel. Imagine an apocalyptic scene where a football field (American football, please) sized alien spacecraft made of some indestructible material dives through The Bay Area wrecking everything in it’s path, from the Golden Gate Bridge to City Hall and the Transamerica Pyramid. That will be The Big Aristotle versus these Warriors. Boogie will foul out (possibly in the first half) and Vucevic will have his lunch eaten, regurgitated, and fed back to him. Gross, I know. Maybe my imagination is getting in the way of a logical outcome here but because I’m now seeing Shaq with red Terminator eyes and bionic, larger than life limbs, I’m going to take the Warriors by three in Game 7 on a Klay Thompson game winning three proving once and for all that he is truly a slightly better version of Reggie himself.