Staff Blog
The Non-All-Star NBA Challenge
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About an two hours ago I received what appeared to be a simple message:
If you had to choose 8 never-been-alls
tars to start an NBA team who would you choose?
Now you have to understand, this is like asking Amy Winehouse if she wants some crack, or Roger Clemens if he wants some underage girl, or J.R. Rider if he wants some crazy … needless to say I was immediately consumed. Now, 90 minutes and about 6000 words of debate later, I’ve created a list that I’m only kinda happy about: your 2008-09 all ‘neverbeenanallstar’ all stars!
Here is the criteria: no player on the team has ever been to an all-star game, the team is meant for this year and moving forward, and it has to be able to play together (i.e. remember that there are only so many shots to go around before putting Kevin Durant, Al Jefferson, and Kevin Martin all on the same team) and rotation matters. You only have eight guys (just like a playoff rotation) so putting four PGs on your team might not make a terrible amount of sense.
I’ll leave my list after the jump with a few notable ommissions, but if you’re going to put together your own I strongly recomend doing so BEFORE hitting the link.
Enjoy
PG - Deron Williams
SG - O.J. Mayo
SF - Danny Granger
PF - LaMarcus Aldridge
C - Andrew Bynum
Bench Derrick Rose
Bench Tayshaun Prince
Bench Al Horford
A few problems I have with my team …
Can I really leave Kevin Durant off? He would immediately be the best scorer on the team and is only going to get better. I dropped in him favor of Granger, who needs the ball less and is a far better defender, and Prince who, with his ability to shoot from everywhere, hit the deep shot and handle the ball, is the perfect glue guy for this team.
Can Derrick Rose and Deron Williams play together? I’m guessing so, they’re both unfairly talented. Still, both are true point guards and O.J. can handle the ball too. With those three at the guard positions I’m guessing Granger doesn’t see a terrible amount of time at the 2.
Is Prince better than Josh Smith? It’s close.
Am I ready to go to war with Bynum, Aldridge, and Horford? Actually for me this isn’t a problem, but I’m guessing we’ll see a couple of Oden, Jefferson, Chandler frontlines, and one could make a clear argument that second frontline is better.
Do I want to blow off all legitimacy and add Ricky Rubio? Yes, yes I do and it pains me I can’t find a place for him.
God I can’t wait to update these after the normal all star teams are announced.
I want to have sex with your job.
Deron was brilliant as a 2-guard in the Olympics.
Did we overthink the Granger/Durant thing? I think its a plausible toss-up… especially considering Durant plays for an NBDL team.
IMPORTANT QUESTION: how many games would this team win this season? Its a sexy roster, but most of the players play for poopy teams, and the players from good teams are mostly 2nd and 3rd options (save for Deron Williams, who is one of the best players on the planet).
btw, loved the intro
What about Brian Scalabrine? You can’t deny his stats.
how about Devin Harris over OJ Mayo? if i’m trying to win, i’d rather not have OJ on my squad.
other than that, i’m disappointed how much i agree with your picks. i love the Granger call. he has turned into an absolute beast. and i like Alrdidge/Horford over Oden/Jefferson. if it was a 10-man roster, could we make room for Troy Murphy? and Monta Ellis if he were healthy?
Here is my problem with Harris - he needs the ball in his hands to be effective. He’s able to be ‘the guy’ in Jersey and it works great, but there is no way he’d be ‘the man’ on this team.
He’s not going to really impress you off ball - he can only play the 1 AND he isn’t getting the team involved while doing so. He was the PG of my second team (yeah, I kinda went overboard on this project) but with an 8 man rotation I just thought I couldn’t carry three true point guards.
this team would probably only win about 45 games in the West (50 in the East) this year, but is there a GM in the league who wouldn’t trade his entire roster for this one? Even if i was running the Celtics or Lakers, i’d consider it. Since everyone on the list except for Tayshaun is gonna eventually play in at least 1 all-star game.
true, you’d have 2 PGs who need the ball. but i pictured it being kinda like the Dee Brown/Williams combo at Illinois (with Harris just being a better version of Dee). that worked out ok for them. If we do leave off Harris, why not just replace Mayo with Durant at the 2? Also, can we put Darius Miles on the team just to piss off Portland?
Look, leaving off Durant hurts - once I got 8 deep I couldn’t believe I didn’t have a spot for him - but I don’t see him as a 2 and I really value versatility. Mayo can handle the ball, and I’m of the mind that the kid is a stud not a perennial’best player on a bad team.’
That said, if he were to go KD would be in the conversation for his replacement(with Granger playing the 2), as would Rudy Gay and maybe even Kevin Martin.
OK - I cheated. I DID do my own before I looked, but then …
I am on board with your first 6, but
I can’t believe I’m saying this: I’ll take Nene to spell Bynum (and in case Bynum goes down for a spell [Nene over Horford]
I want Randy Foye as my 8th - because I just love having a guy who is just “stronger than you” in the backcourt, for when the game gets into the trenches (add to that 87% from the line) [Foye over Prince]