It’s not often that you can look at a span in the NBA and see two of the greatest that ever played face each other, but that’s what we have for you today.
As we continue to channel our inner NBA nerdom, and live in our All Time fantasy land, we have a battle of titans.
Today, we offer you the All Time NBA Mock Draft: The Big O vs The Logo. If that’s not enough we have a classic frontcourt battle as well.
That’s right, 2 of the greatest guards the game of basketball has ever seen step onto a basketball court and will play out their game here, for you to decide who would win.
As always feel like dropping us a comment on the game, check out the forums sections.
Game Thread.
The Fightin’ Chupacabras Gameplan
PG: “The Big O” Oscar Robertson 38min
SG: Sam “Effortless Range” Jones 34min
SF: Dominique “Human Highlight Reel” Wilkins 38min
PF: Bob “Canoe Shoes” Lanier 38min (22-PF, 16-C)
C: Robert “Chief” Parish 32min
“The Blade” Alex English 28min (14-SG, 10-SF)
Dennis “The Worm” Rodman 18min-PF
Dave “Double Dutch” DeBusschere 8min-PF
“Sugar” Micheal Ray Richardson 10min-PG
DNP-Buck “No Minutes” Williams
DNP-Mitch “Rock” Richmond
DNP-Steve “Super White” Kerr
Quick Lineup Talk
-Worm/English will play the same role as the starter in the offense when in.
Defense
Overview-Tough and Nasty D throughout here. We look to eliminate the strengths of his players. Make it tougher for them to get “their” shots. If they Iso a lot this plays into our hands as we don’t have a “bad” defender.
PnR/PnP- With Payton we will go under screens, we are not concerned with Glove launching long jumpers. With West/Price we will fight through/go over screens to not let them get open looks for jumpers. With West/Price we will also hedge occasionally especially if Duncan is the roll man as his strength was never rolling to the basket for the jam. We make sure to cut off STAT rolling. With the PnP we stay home on Duncan/STAT as they had good range, we are not overly concerned with Zo taking jumpers.
West-Jones gets the call here. We want Jones to play in West’s hip pocket all game long, and be tough and physical with him. Do remember that Jones checked West well enough to beat him all those times for championships. Leftover time here is given to MRR, and he plays him the same way. If English is in at the 2, Oscar will switch to West and English will guard Bowen.
Duncan-Chief is the man for this job. Chief is going to get physical with Duncan, bang with him all night long. We look to try and force Timmy to finish with his left hand, and will prefer to let him shoot contested bank shots over letting him drive. I love Timmy, but he isn’t the strongest big man out there so Chief getting physical with him might lead to decreased efficiency in the 4th. Lanier gets the leftovers.
Payton-Nique is the guy here. We will look to play off a step to encourage long contested jumpers. Nique will use his height advantage to obscure Payton’s vision, limiting his ability to make easy passes. Leftovers go to Oscar.
Zo-Lanier will check him. Lanier will bang with Zo all night, and keep him out of the low-block. Lanier will also body up on rebounding chances to prevent Zo from getting easy putbacks. Worm/DD get the leftover minutes.
Bowen-Oscar will get the call here. We are not concerned with Bowen much on offense. Oscar will keep tabs on him, and keep tight on him whenever he’s in the corner three spot. English will guard him when he is in the game.
Price-We want to play the poor man’s Nash nice and tight, not giving him room for jumpers. Stay home on the other options on the court to limit his passing skills. Nique will get the call when Price is in or else guard by position.
Vince Carter-With Wince we look to play a step off to keep him out of the lane and encourage long contested jumpers. If he is in at the 2, Jones/Oscar/MRR will check him. If in at the 3, it will be Oscar/English.
Mikan/Gilmore-All we need to do here is be physical and bang with these guys, and push them out of the low post. We will guard by position here.
STAT-We want him taking contested jumpers, never give him an open look. We will guard by position.
WBF- Play a step off, and cut him off from the lane. Gets whichever guard isn’t already occupied.
Kiki-We will play him nice and tight, get a little physical with him. He will get checked by whoever is in at the 3, unless it English then we will check him with Nique/Oscar/MRR.
Offense(So Much Cutting You‘d Think We‘re Emo)
Tempo-We look again to break intelligently in this game, but it will be more of an emphasis this time as it obviously behooves us to get out in transition and look for points before Wlk’s defense gets to set up. On rebounds we outlet to Oscar/Nique/English and look to get to the rack. We can also hit Jones for the pull-up three, or hit the trailing big men for jumpers or dunks. If nothing presents itself we set up in our half court offense…
1-4 High Stack
Big O will set up high, with Nique&Jones on the wings and Chief&Lanier on the elbows. As always we are running a lot of action to get the Big O/Lanier involved in the offense, but in this game we are also looking to get Nique lots of looks off of cuts and post up opportunities on either Bowen or Payton. Nique was not a premier post player, but he had moves down low and should excel against either as he has the height advantage on Payton, and Bowen was not a good post defender. Overall, our wings are always cutting and we will have lots of PnR/PnP action. We should also get good looks on jumpers with our various height advantages, and our bench is vastly superior to his.
Possible Plays:
-PnR/PnP with Oscar and either big. Here Oscar has the choice to drive to the hoop and finish, slash and kick, hit the big man for the jumper or the alley-oop, or pull up if he has some space for his silky smooth jumper.
-Nique will always be cutting underneath to the basket, Oscar will look to set him up for dunks at the rim.
-Jones will always be cutting, looking to get easy finishes at the rim or if it’s not there sprinting to the corner or wing for open jumpers.
-The 4/5 PnR action. Here Lanier will set a pick for Chief who rolls to the basket. If the big men don’t switch, Oscar hits Chief for the easy finish. If they do switch Chief takes his man baseline, out of the paint, leaving Lanier in the high post area. Lanier can cut to the basket for the alley-oop, or Oscar feeds him and he sets up shop in the high post and runs offense, as Duncan/Zo were weaker defenders in space.
-Post-Ups against Bowen.
-Lanier/Chief attacking Duncan/Zo in space.
-Iso’s against Kiki/Carter. English/Nique will get easy points off of this.
-Give-and-Go with Oscar and either big. Oscar is looking to score here.
-Chief shifts to the low-post and Lanier plays some Hi-Low with him.
-When Oscar/English/Nique are in, one will get a size advantage on West. We will take advantage with easy look jumpers, or post-ups.
-Oscar gets the double screen from the bigs, and looks to get switched on to Duncan/Zo or for Chief/Lanier to get switched onto Oscar’s man. Oscar will either attack the big in space or Lanier/Chief will post up the smaller defender. If they don’t switch, Oscar should get an open look for his silky smooth jumper.
Bench Offense:
-8min in mid 2nd/3rd
PG-MRR
SG-English
SF-Nique
PF-DD
C-Chief
In this set we are in full Speedy Gonzales mode. On defense we are playing the passing lanes aggressively to get steals for quick breaks. Off misses or makes we are pushing the tempo, looking to get points at the hoop with MRR/English/Nique or DD pull-up jumpers. If nothing is there we pull up into a…
4-1 High:
MRR/English/Nique/DD will be on the outside and Chief will be in the high post. We are looking for underneath cuts to the basket and PnR/PnP action. English/Nique will be the feature here.
Why We Will Win
-His Big Men Are Weaker Defensively In Space
-English/Nique Will Score At Will
-Supremely Superior Bench
R.evenge O.f the B.ums Gameplan
PG – Gary Payton PG 28 SG 7 (35)
SG – Jerry West SG 41
SF -Bruce Bowen SF 30
PF – Tim Duncan PF38
C – ZO C 35
Vince Carter SF 18
George Mikan C 13 PF10 (23)
World B. Free PG 20
offense…Tri-Angle…kinda…starters only…
ss-3pt line…West/Payton…they both get time here depending who brings the ball down…if they get the ball here look to the post first…then choice ISO/Shoot/PNR/PNP…ss-freethrow line…Duncan/Zo…we’ll run double bigs here if Jones isn’t on Payton sometimes…when that happens Zo/Duncan hi/low Bowen corner 3…we get Payton and West ws…will explain there…
ss-high/low-post…Duncan/Zo…both get time here depending on who gets down court first…if they get the ball down low look to attack…sometimes set on high-post for PNR/PNP w/wing…jumper or ISO if they get the pass high-post…
ss-corner…Bowens/West…Bruce will get the ball from PG up top and starts the offense, then cut to the corner for the kickout…this is his shot…West will take some time here if Bowens starts getting too much pressure initiating the offense and/or a few times just to move West around…both players work the side line if the defense starts cheating or falls asleep…West can shot or make a play from the corner whichever he feels…if West is in the corner Bowens is at the top SS…
ws-hi/low post…Duncan/ZO/Payton in that order preferably…Duncan/Zo can play both high and low-post…against Lanier high, anybody else mostly low but not exclusive…Payton is here in the low post looking to attack only if being checked by a guard not named Sam Jones as stated above…otherwise we can get a better shot…
ws-3pt line…West/Payton…sometimes they pull it here…sometimes call for a screen from the high-post and PNR/PNP it…sometimes drop it down to the big…
so many options but the majority of time here we want to focus on our bigs and getting West in different spots to make plays… we have 2 guys who can score from the free-throw line in efficiently, Zo looking to score…Duncan looking to both score or make plays with his passing…
other guys offense…since starters will be in with subs at times, this is what we run…1-3-1…this is for our PG/Low post players to get some love but the wings and high-post keeps you honest…
high-post free-throw line…Duncan/Zo/Mikan…back screens and clean ups a lot…if ball goes to a wing play weak side unless wing calls a screen looking for PNR/PNP…15foot Js or a drive if they get the ball here…
wings…Vince/West/Payton…all have the green light to shoot, iso, PNR/PNP…
low-post…Mikan/Duncan…plays mostly ballside when wing has ball… will clear to weakside and get in position to board and/or receive back door pass if the wing/hi-post big have something going…when they have it in the post looking to score but can drop a dime if you start helping…we want low-post to get about 1/3 of the looks in this set…
up top…best for last…World B Free is going to ATTACK ATTACK ATTACK…we want him to get 1/3 of the looks as well with his speed and explosiveness…mostly iso but can call for a pick if MRR gives him trouble…we want him to both force fouls and dunk on his bigs with that 46inch verticle…he might drop a few dimes when the defense starts helping…
what we want out of this is to attack that gut…1/3 for World B. Free…1/3 for low-post…1/3 for the rest…
offensively we won’t push much, we like our offensive flow too much so we crash the boards defensively…but with our great defenders we run on steals…otherwise execute the plans…slow an methodical…any plays with 8 seconds or less Mr.Clutch gets the call except the last shot of the game…if it comes to that West plays decoy and Duncan drills the game winner…
Defense…man with help rotations…
Big O…Payton/Bowen/West…Payton picks him from the catch and tries to force a steal or get him to pass early…Bowen picks him up half court or so and plays the same…we want life tough on him, in his ear when he gives it up…Glove is gonna let him know about it all game…West will have em when Free is in if need be…West will play him physical as well from the catch…whenever he breaks containment our bigs are instructed come over and look for the block…foul if you think he might get you on a shot or pass…if you foul make it count…Zos been doing extra push ups…we want to take him out the game…face guard on rebounds…
Sam/MRR…West/Payton/Free…i think MRR plays alot this game…we want West here mostly but he may see Payton or Free…we play Sam half court in…a step off without the ball, in his face when he has it…we can help from here but not early, about mid second qtr…we treat MRR like the Big O…
Nique…Bowen/Payton/Vince…we deny him the ball as soon as we can get a hand on him…slow him down on the break if they get out…stay close the entire possession unless going under on screens, bigs bump Nique off his lines…on the catch close out give up the long jumper hands in the face…we want to limit his catches on the run and fast breaks, he’ll have to hit contested jumpers to beat us…Vince will probably see DeBusschere, just stay with him give up the jumpers but try to block em from a step off, make him think about it…face guard on rebounds…
Highpost big…Duncan/Mikan…doesn’t matter which of his bigs…we want Duncan/Mikan high as much as possible so Zo/Mikan can gets some blocks down low…will help slow down drives from here…hedges on the screen, and shots down to Zo or Mikans man if they have to go over to stop a drive…box out and board unless Worm’s in the game…stay w/him and let somebody else get the board as our front court is crashing as well…
Low-post big…Zo/Mikan…Mikan plays high if Zo is in…low if Duncan is in…Zo/Mikan are the last line of defense…help on all beaten drives, go for the block or make em pay…our other big will rotate to help the helper when these guys help…if it goes back out Zo/Mikan will shoot up top for that possession and run the same way w/Duncan…basically turning the paint into triangle…
other guys slot in by position…no matter the combination our guys are covered…we close out on everybody giving up the jumper first to everybody except Jones, Richmond, and Kerr(play the shot give them the drive)…but as soon as the ball is bounced we’re up nice and tight…when Rodman is in we shade his side but our big will help a lot and will double team from here if somebody gets going…we want them taking long jumpers but don’t fear the drive…our bigs will help…we attack the defensive boards…only bigs rebound on offense…slow brutal game…
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