Friday, March 27, 2009

Revisiting the age question

So I talked about this earlier, sort of, and decided it'd be pretty interesting to visit again. So this time, let's do it by age. Here are my picks:

Over 30:

PG - Chauncey Billups, Jason Kidd
SG - Kobe Bryant, Vince Carter, Ray Allen
SF - Paul Pierce, Antawn Jamison
PF - Kevin Garnett, Dirk Nowitzki
C - Tim Duncan, Shaquille O'Neal, Marcus Camby

This team would probably play pretty slow, I can see a 5 on the floor of Chauncey Billups, Ray Allen, Kevin Garnett, Tim Duncan, and Shaq on the floor causing havoc on both ends, I like Billups and Allen being spot up shooters while KG, Duncan, and Shaq cause havoc all across the various post positions. I don't know that there are enough shooters for a Greg Popovich system to work, but I'd love to see Phil Jackson run his triangle offense through this. Shaq, Duncan, Garnett, and even to some extent Camby are all very good passing big men, and the length that they'd have in the frontcourt would make them a nightmare on either end of the court. Should they want more of a transition game I can see a lineup of Kidd, Bryant, Pierce (or Carter), Dirk (or Jamison or KG), and Camby being fairly effective too.

25-30:

PG - Deron Williams, Tony Parker
SG - Dwayne Wade, Joe Johnson, Brandon Roy
SF - LeBron James, Caron Butler, Carmelo Anthony
PF - Amar'e Stoudemire, Chris Bosh
C - Yao Ming, Pau Gasol

This would be like a dream Mike D'Antoni team if you slid Amar'e to the 5 slot and plugged Bosh in at the 4. You could also run super small by having LeBron play the 4 and Joe Johnson or Caron Buter take the 3. Either way this team is designed for running, outside of Yao and Gasol. They have at least 6 ball handlers (Williams, Parker, Wade, Johnson, Roy, James) that can all initiate the offense fairly effectively. A big question though would be on the defensive end and how they'd hold up there, especially in the frontcourt.

Under 25:

PG - Chris Paul, Rajon Rondo, Derrick Rose
SG - OJ Mayo, Monta Ellis
SF - Kevin Durant, Rudy Gay
PF - Al Jefferson, LaMarcus Aldridge
C - Dwight Howard, Andrew Bynum, Andris Biedrins

This is a young team, so I would probably pick like Jerry Sloan or someone to coach it. While Mayo, Durant, and Gay aren't great 3 point shooters they can still space the floor. The big question will be if Dwight Howard and Al Jefferson can coexist as neither has a great mid-range game. However, it'd be really fun to watch Chris Paul run a high pick-and-roll with Dwight Howard.

Well? What's your pick?

3 comments:

Greg_Oden_Is_My_Grandpa said...

You really don't think Gasol would be a great running 5?

GnachSanoj said...

Maybe I just haven't seen him play enough. Maybe.

Anonymous said...

I'd go with the old guys