The Sports Headquarters

It’s the greatest internet fantasy geek tournament ever created, and it starts now.  Plus it’s a hell of a way to pass the off season rumor mill and FA period by.

That’s right we have brought to The Sports Headquarters for the first time the All Time NBA Mock Draft.

The basis of the competition is simple, we took every NBA player that has ever laced them up and made them eligible to be in our draft, once the order was determined we went through a 12 round snake style draft that created our teams.

The teams were created with the rules being, everyone plays by today’s NBA rules, all players are considered to have access to the same technology and work out regimen of today.

Once the teams were selected, well that is where we are now, the pool play. In the pool play we take our teams and devise a sort of game plan, based off a combination of game plans, roster, and NBA knowledge you vote for who you think would win our hypothetical game.

In today’s match up we pit two of the greatest Lakers ever against one another in the the All Time Mock Draft- Magic Johnson v Kobe Bryant.

Game Thread.

PG Dan Majerle 32 min
SG George Gervin 34 min
SF Ron Artest 34 min
PF Magic Johnson 37 min
C Kevin Mchale 31 min

Tim Hardaway 16 min PG
Bernard King 14 min SG 14 min SF
Dwight Howard 11 min PF 17 min C

Defense

Jason Kidd: George Gervin. We want Gervin to lay off Kidd and try to get into the passing lanes. If Kidd is behind the 3 point line we can give help a little. Go under screens and force the jumper. Gervin has the length to still contest.

Kobe Bryant: Dan Majerle. Try using ball denial to keep the ball out of Kobe’s hands. Shadow him all over the court never leave him alone. Thunder Dan was a very good defender including making 2 all defensive teams.

Nique: Ron Artest. Go under screens make him shoot jumpers. Play him physical and deny him the ball. Artest has a DPOY and 4 all defensive teams. He is one of the best wing defenders and has the tools to stop Nique.

Rodman/Pettit: Magic. Don’t think these guys will be a huge part of the offense. main thing is going to be to try and keep them off the boards.

Robinson: Dwight Howard is going to get him for 28 minutes and then Mchale will get the leftovers. Howard can run and stay with him off the fast break. Use strength to try and force him out of the lane. Howard is a 3 time DPOY and 5 time all D member he is a great option to throw at Drob.

Miller will see King: We want to hit him every time he comes off a screen.

Everybody else gets matched up by position.

Offense.

This is a great running offense and we want to run every chance we get. Outlet the ball to Magic and Gervin slashes to the bucket for the dish. If not there he curls back out to the wing. Majerle runs to the wing looking for the or else gets to the baseline. Mchale trails looking for the pass back for the jam or the putback and Metta trails looking for a jumper. We trust Magic to make the right pass and if it is open we want him to look for his shot.

We want to run the 4-1 this game leaving lots of room for our athletic guards to attack.

Postups on Jason Kidd if he is on Magic.

Pull Robinson out and let Magic drive to the basket

Run the PNR with Magic an Mchale

Postup Reggie Miller a lot when he is out there on King. We want to kill Reggie on the defensive side

Get the ball into Mchale and let him go to work with his variety of post moves.

Majerle will be outside looking for a bunch of 3 point shots. We assume Rodman will be on him meaning he will be pulled away from the bucket for help defense and will not be close to the basket to get rebounds.

Screens for Gervin to try and free him up for some jumpers. Also a few isos for him. We want to Make Kobe work on defense so he does not have enough energy for offense.

Attack Nique. Make him work defensively as well. Nique was not much of a defender so we want to get his man some looks.

Jason Kidd – 38 minutes
Kobe Bryant – 40 minutes (10 at PG)
Dominique Wilkins – 32 minutes
Dennis Rodman – 36 minutes (16 at SF)
David Robinson – 38 minutes

Rajon Rondo – DNP
Jerry Sloan – DNP
Reggie Miller – 18 minutes at SG
Ron Harper – DNP
Detlef Schrempf – DNP
Bob Petit – 28 minutes at PF
Mark Eaton – 10 minutes at C

Offense:

Today we are going back to the standard 3-2 offense and allowing Kidd to attack. But again the wealth will be spread out to all. We always will work Kobe and Worm on the same side. The idea behind this is that worm was always so active and was great at screen setting and rolling to the bucket with his athleticism. On the other side leave Nique and Robinson. We want to allow Robinson to work the post with his combination of speed and strength. Either of his bigs are in for a world of trouble in trying to guard someone of Admirals caliber. What this does is invite the double, leaving a flashing Nique to either middle or baseline for the cutting 2. This is what will happen after Kidd makes the first move….

Now Kidd will always work the top and always try to look to get to the bucket. If Magic is on him, this is a big win for me. Kidd can get anywhere he wants on the court in this case, and will cause a lot of switch/rotate help plays. This plays into my teams hands with all the scoring and athleticism we have. When the help comes first look is to a drop off to Admiral or Worm for the easy 2. If they collapse, then its the kick out and Kobe and Nique go into their aforementioned plan of attack. What this does is bring a sense of balance to the court, and makes everyone on his team defend. And we know that is not what his team does very well.

Kobe will be in attack mode on his side, hitting the Worm screen hard and aggressive and look to attack at will. If they smother or hedge, Worm has the easy roll for the one handed flush he made with authority.

Petit will fill in for Worm and slot right in, making the pick n roll even more effectivewhile Reggie is on the court allowing Reggie to come off the picks looking to fire.

For Worms minutes at SF, Robinson will move up to the elbow, going into more of a 2 man game with Kidd/Bryant, while Worm floats to strong side baseline at 18 ft. He will look for the back cut layup/dunks as well as crashing the boards HEAVILY.

This game we will look to keep the pace slower, not falling into the trap of running with this team. We are looking for efficient possessions and slowing the pace to keep Magic and his explosive wings from getting into the open court.

Defense:

We are again in a brand of smash mouth man to man defense, playing everyone tight.

Magic: Kidd / Worm – These guys will pick up Magic at half court, and play him tight in his front pocket. They will then drop off a bit at the 3 pt line, playing the passing lanes more than Magics long jumper, essentially keeping him just a little over arms length. We wont leave him, we just wont give him the oppurtunity to bl;ow by us and get to the middle.

McHale: Worm / Admiral – Again we play him tight. We bump him off his line, and make him play to the spots on the floor he doesnt want. If he gets the ball elbow, we force him sideline and baseline, keeping him from getting an open look straight away.

Gervin: Kobe / Miller – Play at arms length. Take away driving lanes and force him into a long range jump shooter. Gervin was so long and athletic that if he got to the key, he was getting the shot he wants. That is our main focus of taking away his strengths. Same technique of sideline and baseline applies here, where help is easier to trap and shut down.

D12: Admiral / Eaton – Length and defensive prowess is used here to take away any comfortability away from Howard, forcing him into tough, contested shots from guys just as big and bigger and just as long and longer. As soon as shot goes up, we find Howard and get a body on him, keeping him off the glass as much as possible.

King: Wilkins / Kobe – Basically play ball deny defense here, and just dont get into bad spots with Bernard. Dude could fill it up himself, so these guys will do as much to prevent him from getting the ball to begin with. Once he has it, play tight underneath him and take away angles.

Artest: Any combo of Kidd/Wilkins/Miller get the call here and play off him enough to let the headcase start jacking up jumpers

Hardaway: Any combo of Kidd/Kobe will play him tight, and force him to the sideline. We want to keep June Bug from getting the open jumper and getting to the middle.

Bellamy: Any combo of Admiral/Worm/Eaton/Petit (whoever isnt guarding the primary post option) and keep Bellamy from that midrange jumper he made so sweet.