[Seuss]

You are voting as to which team you feel is the best of the bunch.
Leaving comments as to why you picked a team would be appreciated.

If you are not a part of this draft or your team is in this division, you are not allowed to vote, and your vote will/would not count.

Boston Celtics Team:


PG: Mookie Blaylock
SG: Michael Cooper
SF: George Gervin
PF: Dave DeBusschere
CE: Moses Malone

BENCH: Jack Sikma, Arvidas Sabonis, Jojo White, Ron Harper, Allen Houston

New York Knicks Team:

PG: Mark Price
SG: World.B Free
SF: Peja Stojakovic
PF: Elvin Hayes
CE: Bob McAdoo


BENCH: Mark Eaton, Larry Kenon, Walter Davis, Scott Skiles, Ronnie Turiaf

New Jersey Nets Team:

PG: Chris Paul
SG: Ray Allen
SF: Paul Pierce
PF: Chris Webber
CE: Ben Wallace

BENCH: Joe Johnson, Bob Dandridge, Otis Thorpe, Stephen Marbury, Tree Rollins


Philadelphia 76ers Team:

PG: Dave Bing
SG: Bill Sharman
SF: Jerry Sloan
PF: Karl Malone
CE: George Mikan

BENCH: Mark Aquirre, Maurice Stokes, George Yardley, Guy Rodgers, Tom Heinsohn

Toronto Raptors Team:

PG: Chauncy Billups
SG: Michael Jordan
SF: Grant Hill
PF: Larry Nance
C: Dikembe Mutumbo

BENCH: Antonio McDyess, Rashard Lewis, Dana Barros, Zelmo Beatty, Brent Barry

[Sharpie]

Right now, I'm leaning towards the Raptors here. Reason #1: Michael Jordan. There's no one there that can make him work on offense AND defense. Reason #2: The construction of that team is solid. It's basically the 90s Bulls on HGH. Reason #3: They are capable of dealing with all the #1's on the other teams. Mutombo, Nance, and Beaty can deal with the combinations of Moses, Sikma, and Sabonis, McAdoo and Hayes, Wallace and Webber, and Mikan and Malone. True, that goes both ways, but no one can deal with Jordan AND Hill.

[jericho]

I give it to the Raptors by a hair.

Mutombo in the starting lineup leaves them playing 4 on 5 at the offensive end, but with Jordan (and Hill alongside him), they can afford to take that risk.

I think Nance will have trouble holding his position at PF in this league, but Jordan and Hill will keep opposing teams mostly too busy to be able to capitalize on the Raptors' lack of a grade A post-up game.

So I agree with Sharpie that Jordan is the key difference-maker in this division.

I like Boston's team overall, but I'm not scared of their point guards and don't buy Gervin as a SF. In fact, there's no clear SF, although DeBusschere and Cooper could realistically each log some minutes there. Moses and Gervin should be a monstrous duo in this division, and Sikma is great coming off the bench. I'd like to see some better overall playmaking to get the scorers the opportunities they need to dominate.

I'd be very interested to hear GMs make cases for their own teams. Hopefully we'll at least do that come playoff time.

[ss03]

Originally Posted by jericho

I give it to the Raptors by a hair.

Mutombo in the starting lineup leaves them playing 4 on 5 at the offensive end, but with Jordan (and Hill alongside him), they can afford to take that risk.

I think Nance will have trouble holding his position at PF in this league, but Jordan and Hill will keep opposing teams mostly too busy to be able to capitalize on the Raptors' lack of a grade A post-up game.

So I agree with Sharpie that Jordan is the key difference-maker in this division.

I like Boston's team overall, but I'm not scared of their point guards and don't buy Gervin as a SF. In fact, there's no clear SF, although DeBusschere and Cooper could realistically each log some minutes there. Moses and Gervin should be a monstrous duo in this division, and Sikma is great coming off the bench. I'd like to see some better overall playmaking to get the scorers the opportunities they need to dominate.

I'd be very interested to hear GMs make cases for their own teams. Hopefully we'll at least do that come playoff time.

I'm not going into too much depth right now, I plan on saving all that typing should I make it to the playoffs.

The idea is that with an offensive 1-3 with great passing abilities, a great post-up game would likely have been wasted, or taken away touches from the better players on this team. Since so many teams have all the "all-time great" 4-5's, I wanted to focus on defense at the PF/C spots, while still having a reasonable amount of offense. At the end of the day, my inside (Pfs Cs) are just strong (Mutumbo) and/or very athletic players (Mcdyess). If nothing else, they're atleast smart (Big Z) with a good all-around game, even if they're not the best post-up players in the league.

Also, Mutumbo doesn't make it 5-4 on offense, because no team is going to leave Mutumbo open. If he gets the ball inside and they give him space, he'll get it in. I don't know if you watched Mutumbo in Denver and Philidelphia, but his entire game was rebounding and shot-blocking, he did have an offensive game.

Another reason teams will always keep a man with is because if they don't, he'd get the offensive rebound, and he's score. They have to math up a player with him, and that player has to work hard to box him out. It wouldn't be 5 on 4, it would be 5-5, and they'd probably be double-teaming Jordan on a lot of posessions anyway, so this team has a good chance of finding an open man.

[Diophantos]

'Fraid I have to take Toronto here as well on first glance (though I'll wait to vote). Don't think anyone in this division can match up with the size and physicality of the backcourt and still end up scoring enough to pull through.

[IceMan23and3]

And the benefit of being in the Top 10 begins...

[fruitcake]

Cooper is a better SF then Gervin. He is not a huge factor on offense--but will always guard the other team's best 2 or 3 player. About Cooper:

Drafted out of New Mexico by the Lakers in the third round of the 1978 NBA Draft (60th overall), "Coop" became an integral part of the "Showtime" Lakers teams of the 1980s with his indomitable will on the defensive end of the court. In his 12-year NBA career, he was named to eight NBA All Defensive Teams, including five First Teams. He won the NBA Defensive Player of the Year Award in 1987. He, along with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Magic Johnson, was a member of five Lakers championship teams in 1980, 1982, 1985, 1987 and 1988. At 6 ft 7 in (2.01 m), 174 lb (77 kg), the rail thin Cooper played shooting guard, small forward, and sometimes point guard, although his assignment was invariably the other team's best shooter at the 2 or 3 position. Larry Bird has always said that Cooper was the best defender he played against. For his career Cooper averaged 8.9 points, 4.2 assists, 3.2 rebounds, 1.2 steals, and 0.6 blocks per game. A popular player among Lakers fans, home crowds were known to chant, "Coooooooop" whenever he controlled the ball, and the Lakers sometimes ran an alley-oop play for him that was dubbed the "Coop-a-loop."

He will guard Jordan obviously if I were to face the Raptors. (thats why I had him at 2). Gervin is obviously the weak one defensively, but he will make his opponent work extremely hard on defense. I find this quote about the Iceman summarizes it very well.

Longtime NBA coach Dick Motta told the Sacramento Bee that same year, "You don't stop George Gervin. You just hope that his arm gets tired after 40 shots. I believe the guy can score when he wants to. I wonder if he gets bored out there."

I don't think anybody in this division can stop or slow down Moses at all. On my sig, his 24.5-15.3 year wasn't his best...he had a 31-15 year (and won MVP), but he did not win the championship that year.

In fact, if the opposing team does not have a superstar big man...like Toronto, I would probably shift Moses to the PF position and start either Sikma or Sabonis--two of the greatest passing centers of all-time (especially Sabonis). I could see my offense being run by one of those two. Blaylock doesnt scare anybody but he will lock down the opposing team's point guard and serve as the 3 point shooter.

[fruitcake]

may I ask...why New York? They are an extremely soft defensive team. World B. Free, one of the greatest chuckers in NBA history starting at SG? He's not gonna get 25 shots a game with McAdoo there. Peja and Free are gonna get pummeled.

If I could vote...I would say the Nets are clearly the worst team...followed by New York.. The other three are pretty close and I can understand why Toronto may be considered to be better than Boston and Philly.

[Sunsfan81]

Shouldn't we wait until the owners have written comments about their teams before voting?

[BadBaronRudigor]

post your comments . . . I will wait a day before voting

[Knick_Killer31]

I gotta go with Boston on this one. Like common, they have Moses Malone, George Gervin and Dave DeBusschere. What else can you say really? The Raptors bench was weak and the Sixers were a close second. I dont see many teams having a lot of success again George Mikan and Karl Malone. Those two guys themselves could beat any team...but like I said I'm picking the Boston Celtics.

[ss03]

Originally Posted by Knick_Killer31

I gotta go with Boston on this one. Like common, they have Moses Malone, George Gervin and Dave DeBusschere. What else can you say really? The Raptors bench was weak and the Sixers were a close second. I dont see many teams having a lot of success again George Mikan and Karl Malone. Those two guys themselves could beat any team...but like I said I'm picking the Boston Celtics.

How was my bench weak? Are you judging it with the belief that they'll all come off at the bench at the same time and play 30 minutes a game? They provide 3-pt-shooting at the 1-3 positions solid all around play. Have you seen Dana Barros play at his prime? Brent Barry is a good defender, shoots well and can slot into the team well. Rashard Lewis, another great shooter to have off the bench since I have so many playmakers. He has a good heigh for his position, and can rebound alright. Zelmo Beaty has a good all around game, no reason why he can't play 10-15 minutes off the bench and put in a solid performance behind Mutumbo and Nance. Mcdyess is just a high energy player that can score, rebound and play defense.

The Celtics are good, I'll give them that. However, I have a defensive frontcourt that can play samrt basketball, there's no reason why the team can't stand up to Malone, Gervin and Dave on defense, and outplay them on the offensive end.

I mean, it depends on if you're judging it based on being a team, or based on individual talent.