Franchise Tournament Archives - Page 7 of 8

All-Time San Antonio Spurs Team

The Spurs have come a long way from their days in the American Basketball Association. Since joining the NBA, this franchise has been a powerhouse. They’ve earned a .616 NBA winning percentage, which translates to 50.5 wins per season. They’ve appeared in six NBA Finals, and won five NBA championships. They’ve qualified for the playoffs in 35 of 40 seasons. In two of the five seasons they didn’t make the playoffs? They won the lottery (both literally and metaphorically), drafting future Hall-of-Famers David Robinson and Tim Duncan. As the number four seed in our tournament, the All-Time San Antonio Spurs team looks a contender to win it all.

Tony Parker, the starting point guard, is one of the fastest players in this tournament, and a deadly scorer who became a true force in the latter part of his career. While he doesn’t have the floor vision or all-around skill of many other point guards, he puts a ton of pressure on opposing defenders, and knows Gregg Popovich’s system as well as any player on this team. Due to the size and defensive might of their big men, this team can afford to start three guards, so both Manu Ginobili and George Gervin will play as the starting wings. Among shooting guards, these two rank sixth (Gervin) and seventh (Ginobili) all-time in PER. Gervin won four scoring championships in five seasons, and ranks ninth ever in NBA points per game. Ginobili ranks 20th ever (among all players, NBA and ABA) in win shares per 48 minutes. He also might be the best passer on the team, and will help to space the floor for their penetrators and big men.

The starting bigs are the aforementioned legends, Duncan and Robinson. The ageless Duncan has cemented his legacy with a mind-blowing 15 All-Star game, All-NBA, and All-NBA defense selections. He’s been at the center of every Spurs championship, and has a claim as a top-ten player in NBA history. Had advanced statistics been prominent in the 1990s, Robinson’s career may have been seen in a different context. Consider that Robinson ranks second in NBA history in win shares per 48 minutes, behind Michael Jordan. He ranks fourth in NBA history in PER, in between Shaquille O’Neal and Wilt Chamberlain. Robinson is the only player in NBA history to have led the league in scoring, rebounding, and blocked shots, and to have won Rookie of the Year, MVP, and Defensive Player of the Year.

The bench is very solid, with five former ABA and NBA all-stars. James Silas was a clutch player who earned the nickname “Captain Late” for his fourth quarter heroics. Alvin Robertson is a former Defensive Player of the Year, who is the all-time leader in career steals per game and steal percentage. The small forwards provide the team with different options: Mike Mitchell was an excellent scorer, while Kawhi Leonard is the reigning Defensive Player of the Year, who can attack opponents offensively as well. Larry Kenon was the Spurs first 20-10 man, and, with John Beasley (the franchise’s first star player) and Artis Gilmore, gives them great size to match up with any opponent.

This team can overwhelm opponents in a number of ways. They can play fast, with the three starting guards, and Robinson, one of the most athletic big men ever. They can play slow, with Duncan and Robinson dominating opponents inside. They can smother you defensively, with three former defensive players of the year in addition to Tim Duncan, who somehow never won the award, but rates as one of the greatest defenders ever. They also have one of the best coaches in this tournament, who’ll maximize the abundant talent on the roster.

Coach: Gregg Popovich

All-Time Franchise Winning Percentage (through 2014-15): .595

All-Time Miami Heat vs. All-Time Utah Jazz

It’s easy to look at our next first round match up as a contrast of styles. The athleticism of the All-Time Heat vs. the precision of the All-Time Jazz. Wade and LeBron vs. Stockton and Malone. Alley-oop vs. pick-and-roll. However, both teams have strengths that go well beyond these stylistic differences. During the latter part of LeBron James’s tenure with the team, Miami mastered a beautiful offense based on ball movement and spacing. Expect their all-time team to implement this, especially when they play James at power forward and surround him with shooters. Jerry Sloan’s flex offense was ahead of its time, and will maximize the offensive talent of the high scoring team he leads in this tournament. These tactics and several key advantages held by each side will help determine the outcome of this series.

Miami’s Advantages

Perimeter athleticism: Utah doesn’t have a good option to defend Dwyane Wade. Pete Maravich and Jeff Hornacek are outclassed athletically. John Stockton will be busy guarding Tim Hardaway. The Wade and James combination can overwhelm people on both ends of the court, and Utah doesn’t have many rangy wings who can slow them down. Speaking of James…

Jack of all trades: LeBron James should dominate in this series. Adrian Dantley has no chance of slowing him down. Expect Utah to use Karl Malone on him at times, and to play Andrei Kirilenko big minutes as the primary LeBron defender. Neither is an ideal option; Malone isn’t quick enough to defend him on the perimeter, and Kirilenko doesn’t have the bulk to contend with the brilliant post-up game James developed with the Heat.

Battle of the big men: Alonzo Mourning and (an older) Shaquille O’Neal vs. Mark Eaton and Mehmet Okur. Enough said.

Utah’s Advantages

Offensive efficiency: Dantley, Stockton, and Malone are not only three of the great offensive players of all-time, but also three of the most efficient (ranking fifth, ninth, and 56th ever in true shooting percentage). No defense will be able to completely shut down this trio. Add in Maravich’s playmaking ability, and the long-range shooting of Hornacek, and this offense has the potential to be deadly.

X-Factor

Jazz’s pick-and-roll vs. Heat’s aggressive, blitzing defense: Can Miami’s aggressive approach disrupt one of the greatest orchestrators in NBA history?

Results

Despite the brilliance of Utah’s offensive playmakers, the two-way dominance of the Heat overwhelms the Jazz over the course of the series. How do you feel about that LeBron?

Miami wins, four games to two.

Next Round

Miami faces the All-Time Orlando Magic.

All-Time Utah Jazz Team

The all-time Utah Jazz team is…interesting. They should have no trouble scoring, with two former scoring champions (Pistol Pete Maravich and Adrian Dantley), the second leading scorer in NBA history (Karl Malone), and the all-time leader in assists (John Stockton) leading the offense. The question becomes, how well do the pieces fit together? The 24th seed in our tournament, they face a difficult first round match up against the all-time Miami Heat.

John Stockton is the starting point guard, an all-time great legend who had few weaknesses and made everyone around him better. In his 19 seasons, he was incredibly efficient, with a .515 career field goal percentage, and a .608 career true shooting percentage, which currently ranks ninth in NBA history. Pete Maravich, the starting two, was an incredible showman, who had the misfortune of playing on miserable Jazz teams in the 1970s. In his five full seasons with the franchise, the team averaged only 32 wins per season. While some may ascribe blame to Maravich for these failings, the talent around him was nonexistent (see this team, for example), and he was never put in position to carry the team on a deep playoff run. Maravich averaged 25.2 points per game for Utah (New Orleans at the time) without the benefit of a three-point line. It’s questionable whether his freewheeling style fits into Jerry Sloan’s structured offense, however, and it’s hard to imagine two more different players sharing the same backcourt.

The starting forwards should be able to score with any duo in this tournament. Adrian Dantley was a mid-range and low post wizard who used his rare foul-drawing ability (currently eighth all-time in free throws made) to become one of the most efficient scorers in NBA history (currently fifth all-time in true shooting percentage). Dantley averaged over 30 points per game for four straight seasons with the Jazz, and won two scoring championships in 1981 and 1984. Karl Malone was a two-time Most Valuable Player, and the fulcrum for Jerry Sloan’s offense. Having Dantley and Maravich as the starting wings is less than ideal defensively, so their minutes will have to be staggered to maximize their effectiveness.

The starting center, 7’4” Mark Eaton, was a two-time Defensive Player of the Year who averaged 5.6 blocked shots per game in the 1985 season. Eaton was not much of an offensive player, but his presence will help make up for the team’s lack of wing defense.

This team has a solid yet unspectacular bench. Deron Williams and Carlos Boozer were the poor man’s Stockton-to-Malone in the 2000s. Jeff Hornacek was a great shooter who will get plenty of minutes behind Maravich. Andrei Kirilenko might be the bench’s most important player; he’s by far this team’s best perimeter defender, and their only other rim protector besides Eaton. Mehmet Okur was a rare stretch-five who will serve as Eaton’s primary backup. Unfortunately, he offered little resistance defensively, and he’ll have to be paired up with Kirilenko whenever he enters a game.

Expect this team to use different looks around their core players. Stockton should get plenty of minutes alongside Maravich, Hornacek, and even Deron Williams in two point guard sets, while Malone will be surrounded by both the Dantley-Eaton and Kirilenko-Okur pairings. Rickey Green and Paul Millsap will play sparingly as solid third string point guard and power forward options. Down the stretch of close games, Kirilenko, Malone, and Eaton will be a very solid defensive frontcourt pairing, and Stockton, the all-time leader in steals, will provide good resistance against opposing ball handlers.

Coach: Jerry Sloan

All-Time Franchise Winning Percentage (through 2014-15): .536

All-Time Miami Heat Team

Is this the new dominant NBA franchise? After only 27 years of existence, the All-Time Miami Heat team has a mix of dominant wings, Hall of Fame big men, and clutch point guard play. With three championships in that short time, they enter our tournament as the ninth seed.

The team’s only true point guard is Tim Hardaway, who helped them amass a .664 win percentage during his five full seasons with the franchise (the equivalent of 54 wins per season). Although he no longer had the speed and quickness from his Golden State days, he was a clutch performer with Miami, and finished fourth and sixth in the MVP voting in 1997 and 1998. The starting shooting guard is the franchise’s signature player, Dwyane Wade, who’s emerged as one of the greatest shooting guards of all time. John Hollinger rated Wade’s 2006 NBA Finals performance as the greatest ever, and he’s led the league in scoring (2009), playoff scoring (2010), and PER (2007) during his Heat career.

Remember what I said about Milwaukee’s Kareem Abdul-Jabbar? The same applies for Miami’s LeBron James, who might be the most versatile player in this tournament. James’s ‘four years of college’ produced an NBA Finals appearance in every season, a 27 game winning streak, and the only two regular season MVP awards in franchise history. The underappreciated Chris Bosh is the starter at power forward. Bosh’s deadly midrange game fits beautifully alongside Wade’s slashing game and James’s all-court dominance.

Hall-of-Famer and two-time Defensive Player of the Year Alonzo Mourning is the team’s starting center. Mourning dominated the paint defensively, and putting him alongside James (a dominant defender), and Wade and Bosh (solid defenders) will make this team very difficult to score against.

This team’s bench consists of long-range shooters and big bodies. Expect Eddie Jones and Glen Rice to get plenty of minutes alongside James and Wade to space the floor. Jones was a good all-around player who defended wings very well, and Rice will play small forward when this team downsizes and places James at the four. Voshon Lenard is another three-point shooter who will play sparingly behind Hardaway, Wade, and Jones. P.J. Brown and Brian Grant provide nice size at power forward. Brown was a very solid defender, and both bring toughness and energy off the bench. Shaquille O’Neal and Rony Seikaly are the bench’s centers. Although Shaq was past his prime, he could still score on anybody one-on-one, and he finished second in the MVP voting in his first year with the franchise.

This team should be exceptionally versatile, largely due to James. Want to play big? Play James at point guard. Want to play small? Play him at power forward. Need a defensive stop? Have James guard the opposing team’s best perimeter player, and trot out a lineup of Wade, Jones, James, Brown, and Mourning. While their bench isn’t great, they have many effective players who fit well around their superstars. Despite the franchise’s youth, this team holds great potential, and will be a threat to advance far in our tournament.

Coach: Erik Spoelstra

All-Time Franchise Winning Percentage (through 2014-15): .518

All-Time Indiana Pacers vs. All-Time Orlando Magic

Our next first round matchup features the eighth seeded All-Time Indiana Pacers vs. the 25th seeded All-Time Orlando Magic. Despite the seeding disparity, these two teams are closely matched, and each holds several advantages that could swing the series.

Indiana Advantages

Depth and Positional Flexibility: Every bench player on the Pacers roster made at least one All-Star game during their time in the ABA/NBA. They have a clear advantage here, as only one of Orlando’s bench players made an All-Star team. Indiana also has several players who can play multiple positions, including George McGinnis, Paul George, and Billy Knight, so they’ll throw many different looks at Orlando. McGinnis, Detlef Schrempf, and Rik Smits also have the ability to make Dwight Howard and Shaquille O’Neal uncomfortable on defense by playing on the perimeter and dragging them away from their comfort zone in the paint.

Hack-A-Superman: O’Neal and Howard are poor free throw shooters, and Indiana has enough bodies to resort to this gimmick to slow down the Orlando pair, and try to get one or both of them out of the game.

Perimeter Length: Orlando may have the biggest starting guards and wings in this tournament, but Indiana is better suited than most to defend them. Starting guards Vern Fleming (6’5”) and Reggie Miller (6’7”) have great height for their position, and off the bench, 6’9” Paul George, 6’6” Billy Knight, and 6’9” Danny Granger can all compete against the height of Anfernee Hardaway, Tracy McGrady, and Rashard Lewis. Expect George, the best defender of the group, to see a lot of time guarding McGrady, while Fleming and 6’4” Don Buse will hound Hardaway all over the court.

Orlando Advantages

Size and Strength: Although Indiana has the length to compete with Orlando on the perimeter, they don’t have the bulk to compete with them down low. Consider the size of the defenders who will attempt to guard the 7’1” 325lb Shaquille O’Neal:
Mel Daniels – 6’9” 220 lb
Jermaine O’Neal – 6’11” 226lb
Rik Smits – 7’4” 250lb
Let’s not forget that Shaq has the 6’11” 240lb Dwight Howard playing next to him, who the 6’8” 235lb McGinnis will have to contend with.

Playmaking ability: Orlando has elite perimeter playmakers in McGrady and Hardaway, something that Indiana lacks. These two will pressure the defense and create easy opportunities for their big men and three-point shooters. Indiana will have to work harder to create their points, since they don’t have playmaking guards who can break down the defense. Expect Indiana to diversify at times by running their offense through frontcourt playmakers Roger Brown, George McGinnis, and Detlef Schrempf, and by running Miller off screens to free him up for perimeter looks.

X-Factor

Orlando’s twin towers vs. Indiana’s fleet of big men: O’Neal and Howard have the ability to physically dominate the Indiana front line. Indiana can counter by trying to tire them out with fresh legs and 30 fouls between their five big men. Indiana will try to force Orlando to downsize by attacking their big men on the perimeter, and getting one or both into foul trouble.

Results

This series goes back and forth. The championship experience of Daniels and Brown, and Miller’s ability in the clutch lead Indiana to several close victories. However, Orlando’s size and strength prove too much for the Pacers. Much like the 1995 Eastern Conference Finals, Orlando advances.

Orlando wins four games to three.

Next Round

Orlando faces the winner of the All-Time Heat vs. the All-Time Jazz.

All-Time Orlando Magic Team

The All-Time Orlando Magic team is impressive, considering they’ve only been around for 26 years. It helps that they’ve won three NBA draft lotteries, and drafted two future Hall-of-Fame players with those picks (Shaquille O’Neal and Dwight Howard). The other player, acquired through a draft day trade, was a four-time all-star (Anfernee “Penny” Hardaway), and was one of the great ‘what if?’ players of the previous generation. Since they’ve never won a championship, they enter our tournament as the 25th seed, but their high-end talent will provide problems for their first round opponent.

The starting backcourt is enormous, featuring 6’7” Penny Hardaway and 6’8” Tracy McGrady. It’s hard to believe there will be a taller pairing in this tournament, and both were brilliant playmakers during their Magic careers. Penny’s career was cut short by injuries, but he was so effective that he was named to the All-NBA first team in his second and third seasons in the league. T-Mac was an absolute monster, and won two scoring championships in his four years in Orlando. During his Magic tenure, there was a legitimate debate as to who was better between McGrady and Kobe Bryant, and the stats comparison between the two from 2001-2004 illustrates why:

Unfortunately, McGrady was haunted by his inability to escape the first round of the playoffs, while Bryant went to three NBA Finals during that period (winning two). Similar to Hardaway, injuries later curtailed McGrady’s career (while Bryant remained consistent and became one of the greatest players ever), but his Magic tenure cannot be characterized as anything but dominant.

The starting frontcourt is also massive, with 6’10” Rashard Lewis at small forward, 6’11” Dwight Howard at power forward, and 7’1” 325lb Shaquille O’Neal at center. Lewis will provide much needed spacing for this group, while Howard and O’Neal will dominate the glass and protect the paint on defense. Offensively, these two will have to stay out of each other’s way, and their horrendous foul shooting will be a liability down the stretch of close games. Despite these challenges, they should make a great pairing, and they have the ability to dominate most opposing front lines.

The bench is predictably weak, considering the youth of the franchise. Darrell Armstrong and Jameer Nelson are two undersized point guards who get the most out of their physical abilities. Nick Anderson and Dennis Scott will provide more spacing for O’Neal and Howard, while Hedo Turkoglu has the ability to play the 3 or the 4, and run the offense as a point forward. Bo Outlaw and Horace Grant are the backup big men; both will compete defensively and on the glass, but this team might be better served playing Turkolglu or Lewis at the 4 when O’Neal or Howard rests in order to space the floor better.

This will be a very difficult team to coach. Howard, O’Neal, and Hardaway were all known for their immaturity during their Magic tenure. O’Neal once compared Hardaway to Fredo Corleone, and he and Howard engaged in a humiliating feud over a nickname. Grant, Outlaw, Nelson, and Anderson will have to provide veteran leadership for this team to reach its full potential.

Coach: Stan Van Gundy

All-Time Franchise Winning Percentage (through 2014-15): .493

All-Time Indiana Pacers Team

It’s difficult to profile the all-time Indiana Pacers team. They experienced their greatest success in the wild and wacky American Basketball Association (ABA), which Will Ferrell somewhat accurately portrayed in the movie ‘Semi-Pro’ (side note: Terry Pluto’s Loose Balls: The Short, Wild Life of the American Basketball Association, an oral history of the ABA, is my favorite basketball book ever – an absolute must-read). With three championships and five ABA Finals appearances, Indiana was the league’s most successful team. Despite the ABA’s buffoonery, the league had great players, and in the first season after the merger, 10 of the 24 all-star participants were former ABA players. So even though the Pacers have been a slightly below .500 team since the merger, their rich ABA history deserves to be honored here, and those players are evaluated in the same context as their NBA counterparts.

This team’s biggest hole is at point guard, where Vern Fleming and Don Buse will split time. These were perfectly solid players; both were good defenders, with great height to bother their opponents (Fleming is 6’5”, Buse 6’4”). However, this is a subpar pairing for a tournament of this caliber, especially on the offensive end; they both made the cut over Mark Jackson, a more talented offensive player who was comically slow-footed with a shaky jump shot. Reggie Miller is the clear choice as the starting shooting guard; despite being somewhat overrated due to his flair for the dramatic (he only made five all-star games in 18 seasons), he was one of the greatest shooters ever, and a great late-game option who embraced big moments. Paul George provides great length, defense, and versatility off the bench, and he and Billy Knight, one of the leading scorers in franchise history, can play at guard or forward, as needed.

Roger Brown and George McGinnis are the starting forwards. Brown was the first player that was signed in franchise history; he never went to the NBA because he was associated with point shavers as an amateur (his name was later cleared), but he was a Hall-of-Famer who shined brightest on the big stage (in the 1970 playoffs, he averaged 28.5 PPG, 10.5 RPG, and 5.6 ASG in leading the team to their first championship). McGinnis is a former ABA MVP who had a good jump shot and a nose for offensive rebounds. Both were good passers, which will help make up for the lack of playmaking at the point guard position.

Mel Daniels, a two-time ABA MVP and the leading rebounder in ABA history, is the easy choice as starting center. This team boasts impressive frontcourt depth, with Jermaine O’Neal providing a great defensive presence off the bench, and Rik Smits and two-time Sixth Man of the Year Detlef Schrempf doing the same on the offensive end. There were many solid frontcourt players who were not able to make the team, including Clark Kellogg, Dale Davis, Chuck Person, Herb Williams, Roy Hibbert, and Ron Artest (who would have had a good chance if hadn’t played less than 200 games for the franchise).

This should be a very good rebounding team who can shine defensively when Buse, George, and O’Neal enter the lineup. Miller and Danny Granger should help to space the floor for their big men to operate down low. With three championships, the Pacers are the eighth seeded team in our tournament, and face the Orlando Magic in their first round match up.

Coach: Slick Leonard

All-Time Franchise Winning Percentage (through 2014-15): .511

All-Time Oklahoma City Thunder vs. All-Time Milwaukee Bucks

Our first matchup features two very intriguing teams, the All-Time Oklahoma City Thunder vs. All-Time Milwaukee Bucks. It’s a shame that one of these teams will be eliminated so early, but this shows the depth of talent in our tournament. Below is a breakdown of this classic battle.

Oklahoma City’s Advantages

Perimeter Defense: Specifically, the defense of former Defensive Player of the Year Gary Payton. The Bucks starting lineup does not feature a traditional point guard, and Payton’s presence will force them to use more of Oscar Robertson and/or Sam Cassell as the primary ballhandler. When one of these two replaces Ray Allen, there’s less spacing around Kareem Abdul-Jabbar; when one of them replaces Sidney Moncrief, the Bucks perimeter defense is severely compromised. If the Bucks play lineups featuring Robertson or Cassell, Allen, Moncrief, and Marques Johnson, then they’ll suffer on the boards, despite the presence of Jabbar.

Frontcourt Length: Kevin Durant, Shawn Kemp, and Jack Sikma are all over 6’10”, which will cause problems for the Bucks on both ends of the floor. If the Bucks try to play small ball against this unit, they’ll get murdered on the boards, and Durant and Kemp’s athleticism won’t allow Milwaukee to have a large edge in quickness on the perimeter.

Three Point Shooting: This team, featuring one of the greatest groups of three point shooters in this tournament, will never be out of a game. Lineups with Durant at the 4 will be particularly unguardable, and the Bucks won’t be able to physically dominate him on the other end of the court unless they play Vin Baker alongside Jabbar. Baker would have no chance against Durant on defense, so the Bucks will avoid using this lineup as a counter.

Milwaukee’s Advantages

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar: If Oklahoma City decides to double Kareem, then the Bucks have the perimeter firepower to make them pay. Lineups with Ray Allen and Michael Redd will be particularly difficult to defend from beyond the arc. Sikma is a crafty defender, but he doesn’t have the size or length to effectively defend Jabbar one-on-one, and if he gets in foul trouble, Oklahoma City doesn’t have another true center on the roster.

Defending Durant: Marques Johnson will make Durant, Oklahoma City’s best scorer, work very hard on the defensive end of the floor. In late game situations, expect the Bucks to put Moncrief on KD, despite the size mismatch. Smaller defenders have had some success against Durant (Jason Kidd, for example), since he doesn’t have the bulk to dominate them down low. He can shoot over anybody, but Moncrief will make him work for everything.

X-Factor

Foul trouble and Roster Depth: Both teams have plenty of backcourt depth, but don’t have a deep roster of big men. Can the Thunder’s bigs stay out of foul trouble defending Jabbar? When Sikma sits, Kemp will serve as his primary defender, so player/coach Lenny Wilkens will have to stagger their minutes and play Spencer Haywood and Detlef Schrempf alongside both big men. Vin Baker will have to step up in case Kareem gets in foul trouble, which (needless to say) is a big downgrade for Milwaukee on both ends of the court.

Results

These two teams go back and forth in a seven game battle. Oklahoma City proves to have a deeper bench, but Milwaukee has the best player in the series. Down the stretch of the deciding game, Durant hits a three to put the Thunder up by one. Seven seconds remaining. Larry Costello knows exactly what to draw up:

Bucks win four games to three.

Next Round

Milwaukee faces the number one seeded Boston Celtics.

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