Against the Bobcats, the Hawks will play a zone defense. Charlotte has no shooter outside of Matt Carroll as well as noone who really can bust a zone. A case can be made for Allen Iverson, but more often than not, its his own shot he's busting for. Josh Howard plays a midrange game, and Ronnie Brewer scores off his dunks and putbacks, which is why he shoots a high percentage, NOT because he is a good shooter. Kevin Garnett is a big time player, but a midrange shooter who gets sucked into that shooting trap. Dampier isn't gonna be shooting. Defensively, I have the players who can guard this team effectively. Westbrook is a great defensive player and playing a zone with his skills and speed is a piece of cake. The big men I have will also benefit from this zone.
Offensively, Gilbert is a scoring machine and will be absolutely fine against a defender like Brewer, who in his own right is a good defender, but most stars have had their way with him. Westbrook isn't looked upon to score, but rather to keep the offense going and really to play defense. Miller is a deadly shooter with a few tricks up his sleeve. With Agent Zero getting alot of attention, combined with offensive post games of both Scola and Kaman (more on him later), Mike will get his fair share of open shots, as well as the ones he can create for himself. Now, Chris Kaman has done very well against Dampier in games where both started against one another.
When we look at the benches, I want to play a faster game once my bench is in. My bench is younger, faster, and more talented than Charlotte's. Knight is old as hell, and looks and plays the part. Davis played poorly on a bad team last year with enough minutes to make him look good, but didn't. Blount is just an overall bad player, he cannot play defense, cannot play offense, and cannot rebound. Respectable players on that bench are Carroll, an amazing shooter, and Collison, a rising big man. But those two won't be enough. My bench has a rising scorer in Chandler, a solid PG in Jaric (also scored with his wife btw), a solid defender in Bogans, a rising big man in Green, and a big man in Harrison who has shown to be solid given the minutes. Donte will split time with Chandler if we keep the big man on the court, and will slide to the 4 or 5 (interchangeable) if we go small ball and keep Harrison on the bench.
With all these factors in mind, I think my team can beat this Charlotte Bobcats team, and if when we are up in the series, KG will crack like he has shown he can do (and I mean crack mentally). Josh Howard will have a hard time maintaining a sane state of mind and may bust out with another confession (tsk tsk).
On that note: Good luck Denny, and you are a respectable and worthy opponent.
