Friday, September 26, 2008

Old Vets vs Young Guns

I was thinking what if I were to make two 12 man squads of the best players currently 30 and over and placed them against the best players 25 and under. I know that demographic automatically leaves out great players like Kobe, LeBron, Melo, T-Mac, Elton Brand, Baron Davis, a good number of players in their prime from the ages of 24-30, I just wanted the extremes. It's obvious that I've been playing too much NBA Live or 2k8. That being said, let's see how it works out.

Over 30

Starting 5:
PG- Steve Nash
SG- Manu Ginobili
SF- Paul Pierce
PF- Kevin Garnett
C- Tim Duncan

Off the bench
Guards: Ray Allen, Allen Iverson, Vince Carter, Jason Kidd
Forwards: Bruce Bowen, Antawn Jamison
Centers: Rasheed Wallace

Picking what I believe the be the premier 30 and over players (born before 1978) it's a very interesting mix. Much more a run and gun team than I would've expected. If I were to make a squad bigger than the normal 12 man rotation then I might have been inclined to include players like Richard Hamilton, Chauncey Billups, and maybe even Shaq or James Posey. Kobe and Marion just turned 30 so I kind of lucked out there on the roster. I used the 1978 deadline and I know, that ekes out several quality players like Kobe, Rashard Lewis, Elton Brand, Baron Davis, and Hedo Turkoglu, but that's just how it is. On the other side I'll likely eke out a lot of good players too, like Gilbert Arenas, Dwayne Wade, and such. I just kind of wanted to look at the extremes.

23&under

Starting 5:
PG- Chris Paul
SG- Rudy Fernandez
SF- Luol Deng
PF- LaMarcus Aldridge
C- Dwight Howard

Off the bench
Guards: Monta Ellis, Louis Williams
Forwards: Josh Smith, Rudy Gay, Kevin Durant
Centers: Greg Oden, Al Horford

Granted none of us have ever seen Oden play except in college, his physical condition is said to be good enough that everyone is putting him up there, including me. This team is still also pretty small in terms of frontcourt size, but they do have two true centers in Howard and Oden, as opposed to PF/Cs in Sheed and Duncan. Still it'd at the very least be a very exciting team to watch.

I'll come out and post who I think would win, but let's hear what you have to say. Who would win? Who would you swap out of the roster? For who? etc... etc...

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