2023-24 Season Draft R1 - Dr Positivity* vs. wackbone

[Fadeaway_J]

Here is a quick list of what you need in your writeup.

1. Specific years for each player on your team
2. Rotations and minutes for each player
3. Reasoning as to why your team will win and/or why people should vote for you.

Do not vote in this thread until both managers have submitted their writeups. Please ensure you give a rationale for your vote; votes with no explanation will not be counted.

If writeups aren't posted within 24 hours, we will vote solely based on the players they have drafted (and any rotations they have posted on their roster page).

**First to 3 votes advances.**

[wackbone]

Victor Wembanyama - 16.7 FGA - 21.4 ppg, 10.6 rpg, 3.9 apg, 3.6 bpg (led league), 23.1 PER, Top 3 DPOY
Tyrese Haliburton - 15.2 FGA - 20.1 ppg, 3.9 rpg, 10.9 apg (led league), 36.4 3P% on 7.8 att, 23.3 PER
Jimmy Butler - 13.2 FGA - 20.8 ppg, 5.3 rpg, 5.0 apg, 41.4 3P% on 2.4 att, 22.0 PER
John Collins - 11.0 FGA - 15.1 ppg, 8.5 rpg, 37.1 3P% on 3.4 att, 17.5 PER
Naz Reid - 10.5 FGA - 13.5 ppg, 5.2 rpg, 41.4 3P% on 5.0 att, 16.0 PER, 6MOY
Lu Dort - 8.3 FGA - 10.9 ppg, 3.6 rpg, 39.4 3P% on 5.0 att, 11.1 PER
Royce O'Neale - 6.8 FGA - 7.7 ppg, 4.8 rpg, 37.0 3P% on 5.3 att, 11.1 PER
Kyle Lowry - 6.3 FGA - 8.1 ppg, 3.2 rpg, 4.2 apg, 39.2 3P% on 4.2 att, 10.9 PER

Total: 88/88 FGA

Subject to change pending matchup
Tyrese Haliburton (36) / Kyle Lowry (12)
Lu Dort (30) / Royce O'Neale (9) / Kyle Lowry (9)
Jimmy Butler (36) / Royce O'Neale (12)
John Collins (30) / Naz Reid (18)
Victor Wembanyama (36) / Naz Reid (12)

Writeup:

Going against Jokic in Round One puts my strategy to the ultimate test. Good luck Dr P.

Defensively we will start with Dort on Kyrie, Haliburton on Suggs, Butler on Herb, Collins on Siakam, and Wemby on Jokic. We also have Lowry (Kyrie), Royce (Siakam), and Naz (Siakam or Jokic) off the bench who are all good-great defenders themselves. Herb isn't a huge offensive threat so Butler can help as needed.

The elephant in the room is obviously Jokic. No one can stop Jokic from getting his. But I think we matchup fairly well with our overall defense and Wemby's length potentially impacting some of the passing lanes. Dort and Lowry on the perimeter, Butler largely roaming, and Naz/Wemby down low are all excellent defensive presences. Again, Jokic will be Jokic, but I feel like we can put up as good of a fight as anyone. (And as an aside, Wemby led the league in bpg)

When building the team offensively, the main goal was surrounding Wemby with talent, shooting, playmaking, and toughness. I think I was able to do so. Wemby is the only player on our team shooting less than 36% from deep. Haliburton had an up and down year to be sure so he's a bit harder to accurately evaluate, but by the end of the season he was still a high-level playmaker, leading the league in apg while maintaining complete control over the offense. Butler is a guy who always elevates to new heights in the playoffs, unfortunately IRL he got hurt. Again, Haliburton is the primary ballhandler, Butler is the main wing offensive engine, and Wemby does his thing down low. Dort, Collins, and 6MOY Naz provide double-digit scoring support and Lowry off the bench ensures we always have a capable PG playing to get the ball to Wemby.

From a pure talent perspective, Dr P has both the clear best player in Jokic and the clear worst two players in Holiday and Ingles. As stated on his roster page, half of his SG minutes are taken up by either Holiday or Ingles. Conversely, our worst players are all legitimate contributors. Lowry is old but is averaging 34 mpg through 3 games this postseason. He's still got the tenacity he has always had.

[Dr Positivity]

GL wackbone

PG: Kyrie Irving (FGA: 19.5)
SG: Jalen Suggs (FGA: 9.5)
SF: Herb Jones (FGA: 7.7)
PF: Pascal Siakam (FGA: 15.9)
C: Nikola Jokic (FGA: 17.9)

SG: Justin Holiday (FGA: 3.3)
SG/SF: Joe Ingles (FGA: 3.3)
PF/C: Aaron Gordon (FGA: 9.8)

86.9 / 88

PG: Kyrie Irving (38) / Jalen Suggs (10)
SG: Jalen Suggs (24) / Justin Holiday (10) / Joe Ingles (14)
SF: Herb Jones (36) / Joe Ingles (6) / Aaron Gordon (4)
PF: Pascal Siakam (36) / Aaron Gordon (12)
C: Nikola Jokic (38) / Aaron Gordon (10)

Defensive matchups: Jokic on Wemby, Siakam on Collins, Jones on Butler, Suggs on Haliburton, Irving on Dort

Jokic takes Wemby to school in this matchup and helps neutralize his shotblocking by making him a one on one defender, and Irving is like a better version of Murray on offense, while Siakam is a great 3rd guy and going against a PF in Collins who is is an average player at this point in his career (.110 WS/48, -0.9 BPM) who's playing a lot of minutes at 30. We match up well with Suggs and Jones guarding Haliburton and Butler. Hali had an inconsistent season as a scorer so having Suggs on him could take him out of the series in that regard. I agree that our 7th and 8th man aren't the best but in addition to having the best bench player and a PF better than his starting one, Ingles still had a solid 17mpg season on good team this year, yes he isn't getting the most burn in the playoffs but up to that point I'd have considered him to have had a better season than Lowry and maybe comparable to O'Neale. Holiday who played 15 minutes as game this year and shot 40% from 3 is at least in the identical situation with Jokic. Overall the supporting casts around our big 3s are similar in talent but Jokic, Kyrie and Siakam beats Hali, Butler and Wemby.

[Fadeaway_J]

Agree that Kyrie is better than Murray in a vacuum, and I think he has the skill set to approximate a lot of the two-man game stuff with Jokic. Siakam slotting into a less prominent role alongside an elite passer should work well as it did in real life. Hali's post-injury downturn and Jimmy having a bit of a dropoff puts wack behind the 8-ball in terms of top-end talent, and Collins to me is just a guy at this point. Wack has much stronger 7th and 8th men, but it's similar to the 2023 Nuggets where the starting 5 plus sixth man are enough to carry the day.

Vote: Dr Positivity

[wackbone]

.

.

.

.

.

.

Need some votes here!

[Snakebites]

It's hard to vote against Jokic with a solid supporting cast when I don't think that wack has an overall talent advantage here.

I don't LOVE Suggs and Jones starting (as both are pretty average offensive players) but with Jokic/Kyrie handling most of the possessions I guess it's not a total non-starter here since this is a somewhat shallower overall pool.

I like Hali/Wemby but those are still guys who are fairly (or entirely) untested and Jimmy had a slightly off season here too.

Close, but I vote

Dr P

[durantbird]

Pretty low on Collins but I still prefer wackbone trio and depth.

Vote wack

[Dr Positivity]

.

.

.

.

.

Still need votes

[flaco]

Dr P has the best player in the series draft. Wack has superior depth. Was reluctant to vote cause I'm on the fence. When I can't make up my mind, I use spacing as the deciding factor. Dr P can run a 5-out offense. That's hard to stop. Wemby is obviously supremely talented, but he's still raw. Jokic averaged 34-10-8 against him this season on 61% shooting. Love Haliburton's game, but he's on relatively poor form since the all-star break. Wouldn't be surprised if he still carries an injury tbh.

Vote: Dr Positivity

[Fadeaway_J]

Dr P advances

[wackbone]

GG Dr. P.

Jokic is an absolute force, and rightfully so.