2012 Atlantic Division Preview

First up, the Atlantic Division, which contains three extremely storied franchises with deep, rich histories, one former ABA team with a modest amount of decent players, and one franchise whose two best players are deeply hated by it's current fan base. (That should be fun.) For each of the teams, I'll list their starting lineup, their bench, and a little bit of commentary about how I determined the starting lineup. (The number before the player's name is the year of that player's career I'll be using, the number immediately following the player's name is his career Greatness Rating with the team, and the number in parentheses after that is his "salary", in millions, for the given year according to WhatIfSports.)



Boston Celtics
PG - (1953) Bob Cousy - 412.6 ($7.298)
SG - (1972) John Havlicek - 479.1 ($9.343)
SF - (1985) Larry Bird - 654.9 ($9.595)
PF - (1987) Kevin McHale - 272.7 ($9.280)
C - (1963) Bill Russell - 733.9 ($9.160)


Bench:
(2002) Paul Pierce - 228.5 ($9.097)
(1973) Dave Cowens - 237.2 ($8.469)
(1953) Ed Macauley - 164.8 ($8.071)
(1989) Robert Parish - 254.3 ($7.842)
(1965) Sam Jones - 290.0 ($6.306)
(1956) Bill Sharman - 276.2 ($5.918)
(1960) Tom Heinsohn - 217.8 ($5.262)


This was pretty much a no-brainer. Cousy is really the only natural point guard on the team, and I know Havlicek would probably work better as a small forward, but with him and Bird on the wings, that's just unstoppable. Russell is the quintessential Celtic, so he's obviously starting. The only semi-debate I had was whether or not to start Cowens over McHale, but McHale is basically the perfect example of a power forward, so that seemed like a pretty easy call. (Plus WIS has 1987 McHale as being better than 1973 Cowens anyway, so, the semi-debate was over pretty quickly.)


(Weird random omission: Jo Jo White. He placed 13th. His rating was 147.2, just behind Ed Macauley. There's a pretty good chance he'd start for about 20-25 other teams in the league. But he certainly wasn't going to crack the Warriors roster with his season and half there. And the his 13 game stint with the Kings didn't help him there, either. Sorry, Jo Jo.)


Side note: for the "random omissions" I'll do periodically for various teams, I'm not going to count players who made it onto other teams' rosters (Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen, Dennis Johnson, Tiny Archibald, etc.) or players who scored higher with other teams and didn't crack that other team's top 12. Bailey Howell would be an example of that happening.


New Jersey Nets
PG - (2003) Jason Kidd - 164.9 ($7.760)
SG - (1994) Kenny Anderson - 18.7 ($6.573)
SF - (2006) Richard Jefferson - 30.3 ($7.398)
PF - (1994) Derrick Coleman - 40.9 ($7.356)
C - (1985) Buck Williams - 89.3 ($8.112)


Bench:
(1972) Bill Melchionni - 18.0 ($6.600)
(1997) Kerry Kittles - 30.6 ($6.573)
(2000) Stephon Marbury - 18.2 ($6.264)
(1986) Mike Gminski - 17.2 ($6.128)
(2003) Kenyon Martin - 26.8 ($5.835)
(1998) Jayson Williams - 16.8 ($5.468)
(1975) Brian Taylor - 18.6 ($5.327)


Disqualified Players:

(1975) Julius Erving - 101.5 ($9.866) higher score with 76ers

(1972) Rick Barry - 29.0 ($8.313) higher score with Warriors

(2007) Vince Carter - 58.7 ($7.980) higher score with Raptors

The starting five for the Nets was pretty easy to figure out. Kenny Anderson is more of a point guard than a shooting guard, but I felt moving him over to the 2 guard added more of a benefit to the team than bringing him off the bench and starting Kerry Kittles instead. It's really not a bad starting five, not a great bench, but a pretty decent starting lineup. I'd say this team has a chance to be a sleeper to make the playoffs in the East.

New York Knicks
PG - (1971) Walt Frazier - 317.1 ($8.435)
SG - (1962) Richie Guerin - 106.8 ($7.639)
SF - (1984) Bernard King - 81.8 ($6.671)
PF - (1969) Willis Reed - 234.5 ($8.519)
C - (1990) Patrick Ewing - 316.9 ($9.598)


Bench:
(1954) Harry Gallatin - 155.0 ($8.030)
(1994) Charles Oakley - 60.4 ($7.245)
(1972) Dave DeBusschere - 100.5 ($7.077)
(2000) Allan Houston - 49.5 ($6.664)
(1973) Bill Bradley - 48.9 ($5.621)
(1958) Carl Braun - 114.3 ($5.402)
(1954) Dick McGuire - 84.1 ($4.902)


Disqualified Players
(1975) Earl Monroe - 59.1 ($5.903) higher score with the Wizards


I decided to move one of the team's "true centers" to the starting power forward spot. I mean, c'mon. Wouldn't you want Ewing and Reed as twin towers in the middle? This team is absolutely stacked with big men. Ewing, Reed, Gallatin, Oakley, DeBusschere... That's going to be hard for other teams to battle through when they can just keep throwing those guys at you one after the other. The weak link on this team is at the wings. King is obviously solid, and Guerin had a really good year in 1962, but after that it's just Houston and Bradley, who are both a bit overrated in my opinion. Actually, Bradley is extremely overrated in my opinion, but hey, he still made the team. Primarily because Earl Monroe didn't... That would've helped the team's depth at the wings. But anyway, the Knicks are still loaded. I'm thinking a top 3 or 4 finish for them in the East.


Philadelphia 76ers
PG - (1986) Maurice Cheeks - 148.0 ($7.787)
SG - (2003) Allen Iverson - 247.4 ($8.375)
SF - (1981) Julius Erving - 357.9 ($8.338)
PF - (1988) Charles Barkley - 266.7 ($10.050)
C - (1958) Dolph Schayes - 424.3 ($7.808)


Bench:
(1970) Billy Cunningham - 150.4 ($8.296)
(1959) Red Kerr - 84.6 ($6.826)
(1969) Hal Greer - 251.9 ($6.824)
(1976) Doug Collins - 73.3 ($6.334)
(1955) Paul Seymour - 88.0 ($6.137)
(1959) Larry Costello - 107.0 ($5.761)
(1979) Bobby Jones - 75.2 ($5.524)


Disqualified Players:
(1966) Wilt Chamberlain - 259.5 ($12.326) higher score with Warriors
(1983) Moses Malone - 171.5 ($8.922) higher score with Rockets
(1967) Chet Walker - 94.6 ($6.070) higher score with Bulls


We've got another absolutely stacked team here. The bench isn't quite as deep as the Celtics or Knicks, but the top eight players are pretty damn amazing. You might be wondering why I started Cheeks over Greer at point guard, but since the simulator only uses one year of a player's career, Cheeks's best single season was better than Greer's best single season. Even though Greer had the far better career and name recognition and all that. I'd say this team would be another top four finisher in the East, but the way the playoffs are set up the Celtics, Knicks, and Sixers can't all be in the top four. (The Central and Southeast Division winners are going to take up at least two of those spots.) So it's going to be very interesting to see which one of those three teams gets squeezed out to the five slot.


Toronto Raptors
PG - (1997) Damon Stoudamire - 7.5 ($7.212)
SG - (1997) Doug Christie - 10.6 ($6.966)
SF - (2000) Vince Carter - 83.9 ($7.948)
PF - (2009) Chris Bosh - 97.7 ($7.732)
C - (2002) Antonio Davis - 18.5 ($6.277)


Bench:
(2004) Donyell Marshall - 7.9 ($6.715)
(2006) Morris Peterson - 15.2 ($6.635)
(2010) Andrea Bargnani - 7.0 ($6.212)
(2008) Jose Calderon - 16.0 ($5.724)
(2008) Anthony Parker - 8.1 ($5.653)
(2002) Alvin Williams - 10.2 ($5.610)
(2003) Jerome Williams - 6.4 ($4.928)


Alright, ladies and gentlemen, here we have the punching bags of the Atlantic Division. And possibly the entire league. Doug Christie is a starter, for God's sake... The fan base despises its two best players - Carter and Bosh (with good reason). And there's not even a true center on this team. If this team wins more than ten games, I will be astonished.