[Seuss]

GM/Coach has one day to get his gameplan up. Here's a gameplan template.

Offensive Plan:
Defensive Plan:
Overall Focus:

St. Louis Hawks Team:

PG: Gary Payton
SG: Mitch Richmond
SF: Bernard King
PF: Buck Williams
CE: Tim Duncan

BENCH: Brad Daugherty, Andrew Toney, Paul Silas, Gus Williams, Richard Jefferson

Chicago Bulls Team:

PG: Kevin Johnson
SG: Dennis Johnson
SF: John Havlicek
PF: Dan Roundfield
CE: Bill Walton

BENCH: Marcus Camby, Marques Johnson, Xavier McDaniel, Kurt Thomas, Brevin Knight

[jericho]

This is a great matchup that could reasonably go either way. Here's the Hawks' perspective on the series...

Offensive Plan:

The Hawks are very versatile and can be thoroughly opportunistic about how they attack the Bulls. The default is deliberate half-court sets--pick-and-rolls, and an inside-outside balance. Both centers (who will frequently be on the court together) are excellent at passing out of double teams to find cutters and shooters.

Duncan obviously has a solid jumper and will look to draw Walton out on occasion, making room for King to drive in or for Payton to post up KJ or Knight. The Hawks' PGs have a significant size/strength advantage that they will play to often.

But the Hawks can also fly very effectively on the break, with any of the bigs throwing the outlet pass. King is virtually unparalleled as a transition scorer, Richmond and Jefferson are excellent, and even Buck and Silas run very well.

The Bulls clearly have excellent defense on the wings in their starting unit, but take a bit hit if the reserves spend much time on the floor. McDaniel is more of a power 3 who logged significant time as an undersized PF, and I think he would have great difficulty staying with King or Jefferson. Marques Johnson is out of place at shooting guard, and I think Toney would run rings around him.

So I look for a varied attack--a lot of continuous motion and ball movement (especially between the PGs and Cs) when in half-court, and to run whenever the opportunity presents itself. Duncan and Payton are both masters at controlling the tempo, and should be able to set the pace intelligently rather than overreacting to whatever Chicago is trying to do.

Defensive Plan:

Chicago has some decent scoring balance, but Hondo is the only truly explosive scorer. Everyone else is a pretty comfortable single cover. Havlicek is dangerous with the ball in his hands and of course will get his points. But King is big and strong and can body him up a bit. Richmond/Toney can experiment with cheating off of DJ/Marques, to make it harder for Hondo to get the ball or drive with it. Jefferson will see some time on him and is a very able defender. And if Havlicek seems to be on the verge of blowing up, I can run a 3-guard lineup with Gus covering the opposing point and Payton on Hondo. This is the same Payton who covered Jordan and arguably outplayed him in the NBA Finals.

Overall:

It's all about the key matchups.

I think Duncan and Walton will drive each other crazy, but with the ability of Duncan and Payton to make the tempo work for them, I think Duncan has the edge here.

Payton has size and strength on KJ, is at least as good a scorer and a much better defender and rebounder.

King will make Havlicek work hard on defense, being the more explosive scorer between the two of them, but I know Hondo will get his points as well. Team defense will be geared toward making sure he can't run away with the game.

Again, this should be a great series, and both teams deserve to win. Good luck to the Bulls!

[Sharpie]

I'd like to read what Jabroni plans to do, they have some potential problem lineups against the Hawks.

[BadBaronRudigor]

Great, Great Matchup . . . I love the Walton/Havlicek combo with Walton in the post defending and passing to Hondo who is being guarded by the sometimes defensively lazy King; Duncan and Walton overall should be a wash, the guard advantage enjoyed by Payton should be neutralized by the equivalent advantage enjoyed by DJ and the PF matchup, while entertaining, won't be a difference maker. Camby/Johnson give Chicago enough off the bench to counter the Hawks greater depth, Chicago should win this.

[Diophantos]

Went with St. Louis, though I could definitely see the Bulls posing some problems for them. It's close.

[Sunsfan81]

Very close series. The backcourts are about even. With Payton better than a very good player in Kevin Johnson, and Dennis Johnson better than a very good player in Mitch Richmond. Payton can slow down KJ, and Richmond will have to deal with Dennis Johnson's great defense. The Bulls certainly have an advantage with Havlicek over King. Havlicek will score on King, and his great defense will prevent King from scoring a ton of points. I like Roundfield a little more than Buck Williams, and Walton in his prime was as good as Duncan.

The starting lineups are close, but the Hawks do have a bench advantage. While Marques Johnson is better than anyone on the Hawks bench, he's a bit out of position at SG. The Bulls only true guard is Brevin Knight, and Gus Williams is much better. The Hawks also have advantages with Silas and Daughtery over Kurt Thomas and Camby. Jefferson and McDaniel are about a wash.

In the end, the Bulls have a slight advantage with their starters, and the Hawks certainly have more depth, and with homecourt, the Hawks squeak out a very close series.

[Jabroni]

Damn, I was out of the country and I just had to draw the Hawks didn't I? At least it was a good series. To answer the guard problem, I saw my team having the PG slot as a sliding assignment. DJ would slide over to the PG if KJ needed the rest and it works alternatively. I really liked my passing on this team, with the scoring relying on Hondo but getting solid (16-18 ppg) from most of my starters namely KJ, DJ and Walton. Marques and Roundfield would also get their share of points. I would have matched up:

Payton - DJ
Richmond - KJ
King - Hondo
Williams - Roundfield
Duncan - Walton

Those three are the main problems for my team I would think. I would let Duncan try his luck against Walton although he would most probably come up on top in that match up. Slight cheating off Williams by Roundfield would also help, just a little. I would move DJ on to Payton. In his time he was known as a lock down defender and I see controling Payton as one of the key factors in winning this battle. King would be easily handled by Hondo. They win the bench fight although I do have the best player on either bench. Good luck Hawks in the next round.

[jericho]

Welcome back, Jabroni! Your team kept it close even without you, so who knows how it might have turned out if you'd been here to make the case for them. Hope all was well enough overseas. At least you're back in time for more Strat-O-Matic fun.

[Jabroni]

I'm still not back. I'm on a laptop in an Austrian apartment at the moment. Yeah my team did me proud. Just happened to run into a great team at the wrong time.