Dream Team Vs Redeem Team

One of my friends suggested and requested I tackle this topic so I will do my best.

First of all stats for the two teams are for the most part irrelevant because the level of competition that is playing around the world today is much tougher than the opponents that the Dream Team faced so we can through out points per game, all around offensive and defensive statistics.

I understand that the Dream Team was full of amazing players, but the Redeem team had their fair share of great players too. So lets start matching up starters.

Dream Team starters Magic, Jordan, Bird, Barkley, and Ewing

Redeem Team starters Kidd, Bryant, James, Anthony, and Howard

Right away there are are a couple match-up issues with both teams and it would come down to who decided to guard who. Kidd would struggle guarding anyone one the court but, the same could be said for an older Larry Bird. By position Bird would guard LeBron and that would not be great for the Dream Team. Bryant and Jordan is mostly a push. the Dream team would need to start Pippen to try to guard LeBron with little success. Anthony and Barkley would struggle guarding each other Barkley is too strong for Melo, but Melo would pull Barkley away from the hoop and beat him off the dribble. Howard vs Ewing is a tough battle Howard I think has the size to play with another older player.



The bench for the Redeem team is much deeper at guard and could put in a more threatening guard such as Paul or Williams while Stockton was the back up point guard and had a leg injury during Barcelona. Creating an advantage for the Redeem Team.

The Dream team is much deeper in the post with Malone and Robinson. This would create trouble for Howard if he fouls and none of the Power Forwards for the Redeem team match up against the size and strength of the Dream Team.

Some issues I have with the match up are things like people saying Micheal Jordan would not accept defeat this is not an argument this is something that people who live in the past and were obsessed with the older generation of players say. Kobe has the same killer instinct as Jordan that argument is a push. Another thing is people think of these older players in their prime people forget to understand that Ewing, Stockton, and Bird where all either old and not in their prime or injured. Other people forget the fact that Magic Johnson won of the key factors had not played basketball in a year and was almost 33 years old.

The issue with the argument is neither team was built to play each other. The 2012 team appears to make more sense for comparisons sake and the 2012 team would have more than one true center and add some great point guards and a guy named Kevin Durant

I am bias I understand, but I am going to have to go with the Redeem Team because their speed and athleticism would create so many problems for some of the older players on the Dream Team meaning 3 of the Dream Team starters would have limited minutes. Dwight can play with the big men of the Dream Team, but chanced are he would foul out giving the Dream Team a great shot.

Despite my decision both teams are full of great players and as much as everyone would want to see this match up it will not happen. Please feel free to comment and let me hear what you think. This is my opinion on the match up and I am not a professional so let me hear your opinions.

Trades

I will take a look at some trades and my opinion on how they could affect some of the teams involved. Saying what players and teams are winners and losers in some of the deals.

First I will start with the trade between the Wizards, Nuggets, and the Clippers. This deal sent JaVale McGee and Ronnie Turiaf to the Nuggets while the Wizards got NeNe, Brian Cook and a future first round draft Pick. The Clippers got Nick Young. I think the winning teams in this deal would be the Nuggets and the Clippers. The Nuggets get a young center in McGee who is great in the paint, less scoring than NeNe, but a great shot blocker and rebounder.


The Clippers get Nick Young a young guard who was averaging 16.6 points a game for the Wizards. I think the Wizards would be a loser in this deal, they have no idea where their first round draft pick will be. They did get the best player in my opinion, but they gave up some youth on a young team that I thought could be good in a couple of years. Adding the age and experience of NeNe could be what the young team needed however.

My Favorite trade Is between the Bucks and the Warriors. The Warriors get Stephen Jackson and Andrew Bogut. The Bucks get Monta Ellis Epke Udoh and Kwame Brown. The Bucks give Jennings a lot of help with the scoring by adding Monta Ellis at the shooting guard position while also adding big man Udoh who does not have great stats, but is a good shot blocker and will get much better with the minutes. The Warriors may have not got the players that they wanted they added some depth. The Warriors turned around and traded Jackson to the Spurs for Richard Jefferson and T.J Ford and a future first round pick.

I think the overall winner was the Warriors during this trading time. They added some players that will be able to help their team right away while getting draft picks that will help them reload for the future. A player that I feel lost was NeNe he was a good players on a good team and now he is a good player on one of the worst teams. His stats my increase due to the Wizards needing him to try to carry them he will not be making the playoffs anytime soon from how the Wizards have been looking.

These are just my opinions on a couple of the trades so let me know what you think about some of the deals.

March Madness

It is that time of year, March Madness so I am going to take a break from the NBA and talk college basketball. The conference tournaments are over and some teams are going into the games extremely hot. One team that just after watching several times that I think could make some noise is Vanderbilt. They are a five seed in the east region. They proved they can hang with anyone beating Kentucky in the conference championship, which I thought was an amazing game. They would have to get through Syracuse eventually if they wanted to continue to New Orleans which is do-able for this squad.

Whoever comes out of the south region will be battle tested, in my opinion that region is stacked. I like Baylor over Duke to possibly play Kentucky in the elite 8. Baylor has been a streaky team but, their athleticism may be too much for Duke and with a win over Duke it could be the jump start to give Baylor a spark to make its way to the Final Four.

Another hot team is Missouri I have seen several games where they have played Baylor and Kansas and wonder how Missouri with a 4 guard line-up can win. A simple answer is they shoot the ball. With 4 guards there is plenty of shooters to find on a drive and kick. This team will go as far as their hot shooting can take them which could be into the final four.

Interesting thing in the Midwest region. If North Carolina and Creighton win their first games they will be matched up against each other. The interesting part is it puts former teammates against each other, Doug McDermott and Harrison Barnes. Both played together on the State Championship team Ames in Iowa.



This division could be dominated by the top two seeds in Kansas and North Carolina. This blog post was really random but, thought I would share some things that I thought are possible during the greatest time in sports. Let me know who you think could be a sleeper or who you have in your Final Four.

LeBron vs Kobe

Alright I am going to do my best to tackle this topic and hopefully spark some more comments. The debate between who is better has been going on since LeBron entered the league. Truthfully it is an unfair comparison in my opinion. They are two different types of players. I would rather have LeBron James on my team for a whole season, but I would rather have Kobe on my team for a must win game. The two compare like this, during LeBron's career he averages 27.7 points, 7.2 rebounds, 7 assits, 1.7 steals, and .8 blocks. While Kobe averages 25.4 points, 5.3 rebounds, 4.7 assits, 1.5 steals, and .5 blocks.

One could easily look at statistics and say LeBron is a better player, then the championship talk comes into play. Kobe has 5 championships while LeBron has yet to win a ring. Much can be said to the quality of teams that each player played on and I will leave that to the readers to decide. LeBron is still a young player and until last year with Bosh and Wade has not played with great talent like Kobe has for all of his career.



After watching today's game Miami vs Lakers I realized Kobe is almost an unstoppable scorer and impossible to guard when he is hitting his turn around jumper. I also realized how much of a all around player Lebron is. LeBron was guarding Pau Gasol a 7 footer. LeBron was doing more than holding his own guarding the much taller player.You may have noticed I have not really said who is better and that is because they are not very comparable. Kobe is a shooting guard that does not often hang out in the paint for rebounds and it is not his job because he has played with several 7 footers. LeBron is a big strong hybrid type of player that can play about anywhere on the court and often has the ball in his hands which can create more assists and plays for other people.

As a basketball fan that is not an expert I would say that LeBron is the better overall player because he fills the stat sheet, but Kobe is the better scorer because he can flat out shoot the ball. So with that said let me hear your input on these two players. I am just excited to possibly see them on the court together again in the Olympics.

Statistics retrieved from ESPN.Com