Player picking game from latest podcast

[UrinalCake]

Okay first of all Jason had a major advantage in this game because he knew all the categories ahead of time and thus could be more strategic in who he picked. But here are mine, along with some commentary/complaints:

Get a bucket:
Zion - if we're talking someone to give the ball to on the last possession and clear out for, it's gotta be Zion or Kyrie. The only argument against Zion would be that maybe you need it to be a guard so he is more guaranteed to have the ball in his hands and would be harder to double team. Also his outside shot wasn't as elite as most of the other guys you could name, so a defender could justifiably back off and pack the lane and concede the jumper. But I still think he's the pick.

Get a defensive stop:
Pretty hard to answer this without knowing who the other team's best player is and whether it's a guard or a big. If we're facing Tim Duncan then I'd go with Shelden or Mark Williams (or maybe Greg Newton). If we're facing Allen Iverson then I want Johnny Dawkins or Tre Jones. I also agree with the pod crew that Shane is not the best individual one on one defender even though he is probably the best team defender in Duke history. But given the universal nature of this question I think I'd still have to go with Battier.

Make a three:
Okay, so are we including the ability to generate an open look when handed the ball at halfcourt with an elite defender on you, or are we talking about receiving a kickout after someone else drives the lane and draws your defender and then just having to knock down a standstill open shot? Those are two different skills, but regardless I'm going with Redick.

Get a rebound:
If it's an offensive rebound we need then Bagley or Zoubek. But this question is probably asking about defensive rebounding, essentially a variant of the defensive stop question, so I'll use Shelden here.

Make 2 free throws:
Since Redick is off the board I'll choose Gary Trent who hit something like 95% from the line in the final three minutes of games decided by less than five points (I'm probably butchering that stat).

Go for 30 points:
I'm not sure if he ever actully hit this mark but Kyrie is my pick, assuming he's healthy of course - he can score so many ways and was simply unguardable in college. Lots of good answers for this one though.

[chrishoke]

Defensive stop - gotta be Billy King.

[LasVegas]

Get a bucket:
Zion - if we're talking someone to give the ball to on the last possession and clear out for, it's gotta be Zion or Kyrie.

Tyus Jones.

[weezie]

Tyus Jones.

Hands down, because he proved it, twice! Sheesh!

[JasonEvans]

Okay first of all Jason had a major advantage in this game because he knew all the categories ahead of time and thus could be more strategic in who he picked. But here are mine, along with some commentary/complaints:

Get a bucket:
Zion - if we're talking someone to give the ball to on the last possession and clear out for, it's gotta be Zion or Kyrie. The only argument against Zion would be that maybe you need it to be a guard so he is more guaranteed to have the ball in his hands and would be harder to double team. Also his outside shot wasn't as elite as most of the other guys you could name, so a defender could justifiably back off and pack the lane and concede the jumper. But I still think he's the pick.

Get a defensive stop:
Pretty hard to answer this without knowing who the other team's best player is and whether it's a guard or a big. If we're facing Tim Duncan then I'd go with Shelden or Mark Williams (or maybe Greg Newton). If we're facing Allen Iverson then I want Johnny Dawkins or Tre Jones. I also agree with the pod crew that Shane is not the best individual one on one defender even though he is probably the best team defender in Duke history. But given the universal nature of this question I think I'd still have to go with Battier.

Make a three:
Okay, so are we including the ability to generate an open look when handed the ball at halfcourt with an elite defender on you, or are we talking about receiving a kickout after someone else drives the lane and draws your defender and then just having to knock down a standstill open shot? Those are two different skills, but regardless I'm going with Redick.

Get a rebound:
If it's an offensive rebound we need then Bagley or Zoubek. But this question is probably asking about defensive rebounding, essentially a variant of the defensive stop question, so I'll use Shelden here.

Make 2 free throws:
Since Redick is off the board I'll choose Gary Trent who hit something like 95% from the line in the final three minutes of games decided by less than five points (I'm probably butchering that stat).

Go for 30 points:
I'm not sure if he ever actully hit this mark but Kyrie is my pick, assuming he's healthy of course - he can score so many ways and was simply unguardable in college. Lots of good answers for this one though.

I had told Sam and Donald about the categories before we did it. They had time to prepare and think through their choices. It ain't on me if they didn't.

Here is who I took:

Get a bucket: J Will. I considered several guys here and almost took Zion, but I was thinking a lot about "put the ball in his hands and get out of the way" and I think JWill may have been a tad better than Zion at that. I could be convinced that I am wrong.

Get a defensive stop: Billy King. As I said on the pod, everyone is going to think Shane is the choice, but I interpreted this as "this guy needs to get the stop one-on-one" and I think Billy was a better one-on-one defender than Shane. Shane was the better help defender, no question about that, but I like Billy to D up any one guys and stop him.

Make a three: JJ is the obvious choice but I wanted to save him for another category. I took Kyrie who hit 46.2% from 3 in his aborted season... pretty impressive!

Get a rebound: I took Shelden. I get why Donald took Marvin Bagley and Bagley is not a bad choice, but I took The Landlord.

Make 2 free throws: Here is where most folks say JJ is a no brainer pick. I disagree. JJ hit 91.2% of his FTs in his Duke career. Wow! But, I needed to save JJ for the last category and I could take Tyus Jones who hit 89% of his FTs in his Duke career. Ain't that much difference in 89 and 91%. I also think Tyus had a real clutch gene that makes him even more likely to knock em down with the game on the line.

Go for 30 points in a game: This is where I took JJ Redick and frankly, only a fool takes anyone else. During the 2006 season, JJ scored 30+ points 14 times. Do you know how outrageously hard that is it do? He also had 29 points on 3 other occasions. Who else are you taking here? Zion had 5 games of 30 points. RJ had 6 of them. Bagley did it 7 times. Kyrie had 1 30 point game in the 11 games he played.

[rsvman]

Get a bucket: JWill. Honorable mention Laettner, Kyrie.

Get a defensive stop: Battier.

Make a three: Redick. Honorable mention the Alaskan Assassin, Luke.

Get a rebound: Zoubek? We haven't really had a murderer's row of great rebounders. I can't think of a single player that rebounded like Tshiebwe, or even, unfortunately, Bacot.

Make two free throws? Before I tell you my choice, I'll tell you who I definitely WOULDN'T CHOOSE: RJ Barrett, Mark Williams (both too soon, I know). I would choose Redick here, too, although a case could be made for Grayson Allen and possibly for Kyrie Irving, as well.

Go for 30 points? Redick, again? Honorable mention Kyrie, JWill, Johnny Dawkins, Laettner, Grant Hill.

[JasonEvans]

Note- you are not allowed to pick the same player twice. So you can’t take JJ in like 3 categories.

[Edouble]

Get a bucket: Kyrie (the guy didn't really mind triple teams)

Get a defensive stop: Zion (insane defender in college)

Make a three: Jason Williams (dude hit many, many clutch threes)

Get a rebound: Brand (still remember him rebounding over Obinna Ekezie like it was nothing)

Make two free throws: Laettner (duh...)

Go for 30 points: Redick (he could have 30 in the first half these days)

[accfanfrom1970]

Get a bucket: I'm looking at this as "make a bucket" - Laettner

Get a defensive stop: Billy King

Make a three: Trajan 42%+

Get a rebound: Shelden

Make two free throws: Trajan was the best followed by Redick...but - then comes Scheyer

Go for 30 points: Redick - no doubt.