[Seuss]

If you are a part of this division, you are not allowed to vote.

Minnesota Timberwolves Team:

PG: Gilbert Arenas
SG: Sidney Moncrief
SF: Julius Erving
PF: Derrick Coleman
C: Artis Gilmore

BENCH: Rod Strickland, Emeka Okafur, Josh Smith, Eddie Curry, Vinnie Johnson

Portland Trailblazers Team:

PG: Lenny Wilkins
SG: Drazen Petrovic
SF: Dominique Wilkens
PF: Connie Hawkins
C: Bob Lanier

BENCH: Chris Bosh, Reggie Theus, David Wesley, Wally Sczerbiak, Jeff Ruland

Seatle Sonics Team:

PG: John Stockton
SG: Jack Twyan
SF: Carmelo Anthony
PF: Bob Pettit
CE: Walt Bellamy

BENCH: Truck Robinson, Jim Jackson, Bob Rule, Doug Christie, Michael Adams

Utah Jazz Team:

PG: Nate Archibald
SG: Sam Jones
SF: Paul Arizin
PF: Jerry Lucas
C: Shaquile O'Neal

BENCH: Norm van Lier, Neil Johnston, Charlie Scott, Cliff Hagan, Bailey Howell

[BadBaronRudigor]

Will hold off my vote for a day or so to let people post but wanted to get my first impressions up . . . because I enjoy analyzing these things.

Minnesota: Good starters. Gilbert is a bit of a gunner, Coleman is a bit of a jerk, but hard to do much better than a core of Erving, Gilmore, Moncrief. Terrible bench, Strickland is another Coleman, Okafur, Curry, and Smith are just outclassed, Vinnie is only useful in very short spurts.

Portland: Where's the D? Lanier, Hawkins, and Wilkins were average, the wings are way below average as are Bosh, Theus, and Sczerbiak. Some good passer/shooters on the squad but Nique will have trouble with this many other shooters around.

Seattle: Nice old school squad, Stockton will make this team work. A bit weak defensively inside with Pettit the only above average defender (Bob Rule?). Bench in general is unimpressive.

Utah: Not sure how Archibald is going to fit with this squad, might want to start Van Lier and bring Archibald and Scott in to fire things up off the bench. Lucas's outside shooting a nice complement to Shaq's low post, Hagan and Howell nice late picks. Close between this squad and Seattle, leaning to Utah due to the bench.

[fruitcake]

Utah jumps out at me. I should probably wait till the GMs say something but I'll be gone.

[jericho]

My initial reaction is that it's between Minnesota and Utah in this division.

I'd rather see a pass-first PG feeding the ball to Erving, but the Doc can create his own opportunities and I think Gilbert is so competitive he can be counted on not to hog the ball TOO much. Coleman is a bigger gamble with his attitude. I would guess he'd laze his way through some of these matchups, but get motivated enough to bring his A game for Shaq/Lucas and Pettit. Gilmore won't stop Shaq, but he can do a fine job of bruising him and making him work harder than usual.

Tiny can go bucket for bucket with Gilbert. I actually like Tiny and Sam as a backcourt tandem, with Tiny's penetration and Shaq's monstrous presence in the post creating lots of opportunities for Sam's deep shooting.

Van Lier is a nice change of pace for Utah, and will make Gilbert work harder for his points.

I think Minnesota gives up a lot when they go to their bench, but I give this division to the 'Wolves by a hair because I don't think Utah has a way of keeping a prime Erving from taking over, whereas Minny has the big strong bodies to keep Shaq from a 40-20 explosion.

Portland has a lot of talent, and I like the pairing of Wilkens and Wilkins. People tend to forget how many of Dominique's points came in the low post, and I think he and Lanier will be in each other's way on the blocks. Dominique and Connie are a bit redundant, also, and I don't love Connie at PF in this league. Ruland was a great pickup who I think wouldn't back down from Shaq, and Bosh and Theus are nice punches off the bench. You can't afford to have Wally and Wesley on the court, though--they're way outclassed.

I love the Stockton/Pettit/Anthony trio...pairing one of top 3 passers ever with two high-octane inside-outside scorers. The bench is fairly weak except for Truck, and I don't know if Twyman is really a SG.

All in all, I like this division, and I see the Timberwolves barely coming out ahead.

[Seuss]

Voting closes Sunday, 5EST/2PCT.


I will vote last, then tally the votes.

[Sunsfan81]

Originally Posted by BadBaronRudigor

Utah: Not sure how Archibald is going to fit with this squad, might want to start Van Lier and bring Archibald and Scott in to fire things up off the bench.

Yeah I can see that, but Archibald was too great of a player not to start.

[Sunsfan81]

I see Seattle as Utah's toughest competition. It'll be a tough battle between their starting 5s but I like more the Jazz. All five were named to the 50 Greatest Players. And Shaq is certainly the most dominant player on the court. Archibald's quickness, penetration, passing and shooting, along with Shaq's presence inside, and the nice shooting of Lucas, Arizin (2-time scoring champ), and Sam Jones, that's a tough offensive team to handle. The rebounding is about equal to Seattle's. Defensively neither starting five is great, but neither is bad either. The Jazz have an advantage in intangibles such winning. The starting five has 17 championships combined. With Seattle, Twyan was naturally a SF, but I guess he did play at guard at times, so I'm not sure how important that is.

But what separates Utah from Seattle is the bench. The Jazz have three Hall of Famers coming off the bench. Neil Johnston is one of the most underrated players ever. He's the only player other than Wilt Chamberlain to lead the league in scoring and rebounding in the same season, and was a 3-time scoring champ. Bailey Howell was a hell of a player. Similar to Lucas, a PF who was a very good shooter and a great rebounder. Cliff Hagan was an excellent scorer, a good rebounder, twice he averaged almost 11 rpg, and a good passer too, he was top 10 in the league in assists four times. Norm Van Lier was a short, very quick PG, who was an excellent passer, and put up some suprisingly good rebounding numbers for his size, one season he averaged 7 rpg. He was also one of the best defensive guards of all-time, he was named to all-defensive teams eight times. Charlie Scott was an explosive high scoring guard. He holds the ABA record for highest scoring (34.6 ppg) in one season. He continued to put up good numbers in the NBA with the Suns, and then was a very important part of the 1976 Celtics championship team.

As far as Minnesota, I don't see Arenas as a real PG. Moncrief is a very underrated, pretty good scorer and one of the best defensive guards ever. Erving of course was an awesome player, and Gilmore was an excellent all-around center, should be a Hall of Famer. But Derrick Coleman, yikes, yeah he had talent, but he was a disappointment due to laziness, weight problems, attitude problems, and injuries. And the bench stinks. While the Jazz have three HOFers and excellent all-round guard play of Van Lier and Scott, Minnesota has the likes of Vinny Johnson, Eddie Curry, and Josh Smith.

Portland has a nice offensive starting 5, although I think of Hawkins as more of a SF. Theus is a nice PG to have coming off the bench, but then Wesley and Szczerbiak, yikes.

Overall, I like Utah the best, and leaning towards Seattle for second place, while Portland and Minnesota if not second, can certainly be playoff teams.

[TiMVP2]

weak division, jazz win.

[Diophantos]

I keep wanting to vote for Utah, and then getting this image running through my mind of what the Doctor would do to Paul Arizin, and how much of Arizin would be left over afterwards.

Let me think about it some more.

[Seuss]

Voting Results:

Jazz - 9
Sonics///Wolves - 2
Blazers - 0

[Sunsfan81]

Originally Posted by Diophantos

I keep wanting to vote for Utah, and then getting this image running through my mind of what the Doctor would do to Paul Arizin, and how much of Arizin would be left over afterwards.

Let me think about it some more.

That's only one matchup. Plus Arizin would score on him too. And Utah has advantages at every other position, plus a huge bench advantage.