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The playoff race (not really)
Here are two teams that both recently pulled off blockbusters with the Minnesota Timberwolves, Miami and Atlanta. The Heat brought in JR Smith along with Kosta Koufos, Ish Smith and their own first-rounder in exchange for rising star Bradley Beal, what is left of Hedo and Nate Robinson's contract. The Hawks acquired Chris Paul and rookie Jordan Adams for Kyle Lowry, Tyreke Evans and TJ Warren and a swap of first-round picks, which will be in their favor. The teams are sitting in adjacent spots in the eastern conference playoff race, 7th and 8th respectively, with a comfortable margin ahead of Charlotte. But being a likely division winner, the Miami Heat are destined to move up to 4th seed come playoff time, allowing them to avoid a matchup with the three best teams in the league. The Hawks have no such luck and are only 2-13 against teams above 0.500. They looked like a candidate for a first-round sweep. But that was before the turned their strategy around one more time and traded multiple assets for a big time star by bringing in Chris Paul. Can this duo propel them to a greater destiny. Can they steal a game or two in the playoffs? Can they, dare we say it, win a series against Boston? Against Cleveland? Against Philly? Atlanta has 7 weeks to figure out it's rotation. Especially their front-court rotation is being shuffled around a lot and needs to get settled. Miami is in cruise control, biding it's time until Kemba gets back. Most notable about these team's stats is that the Hawks are playing at the league's fastest pace, the Heat is average (15th). The Hawks also have the 7th best defense, Miami is 14th. But the Hawks are poor on offense 22nd and shooting 23rd and average in rebounding (18th). Miami's offense (12th) and shooting (19th) is a bit better and their rebounding is top 10. Rudy Gobert vs. Marc Gasol Al Jefferson has struggled with his shot for the last two years, but none of his coaches dared benching him in the past. The usual modus operandi was find a sucker to pony up a decent trade offer and make away with it. Ryan has tried that too, but it seems that none of the offers were good enough. So now Big Al takes up a big spot on the bench, and while he is still slotted in to play 35 minutes and be the #1 option for the second unit, it certainly wont sit well with the veteran. As for Gobert. His field goal percentage is gaudy, but mostly scores on gimies, so that is no surprise. His value comes on the defensive and and the boards. With Atlanta's second unit his liability on offense was not offset by his rebounding and shot-blocking. Maybe he will be a better fit with the starters. Gasol suffered through similar shooting woes last year and this year with the Raptors, but seems to have come around in Miami without being demoted first. Edge: Miami Channing Frye vs Zach Randolph Frye has been in an out of the Hawks' starting five every since coming over from the Magic. He is strictly there to stretch the floor, but his 29% three point shooting, although a top mark for a NLL big man, still leaves something to be desired considering his skill from downtown. Randolph on the other hand is a guy who lives on the block and while giving up height on most nights, he can score on anybody. He will score on Frye, be certain of that. Edge: Miami Patrick Patterson vs Rudy Gay No picture of this particular matchup is to be found. so we'll settle for Rudy with two balls. Patterson will have the ungrateful task of guarding Allstar Rudy Gay, who is likely to run circles around the tweener forward. While Patterson has a clear strength advantage he is rarely to be found on the block, where that strength could be used to punish Rudy and force him to exert extra energy on defense. He barely scores one basket per game in the paint. Gay on the other hand gets into the paint at will and is a nightmare to contain on the break for quicker small forwards. He is likely to go off on 2Pat. Edge: Miami Dwyane Wade vs. JR Smith Wade has returned from a three-week absence and is looking to push his Hawks firmly into a playoff position. His 27ppg would be a top-10 number had he not missed a bunch of weeks. He went off against Morrow in his return, shooting 12-16 from the floor and 13-14 from the line. With Smith he will have a quicker defender on him in this game, but one known for defensive lapses as well. Since coming over from the Wolves, the former NLL darling Smith has fallen off a cliff. His output has dipped by 10 points, as was to be expected since he now needs to share the ball with four guys instead of just one. But his percentages have also taken a nose-dive. Granted, the sample size is small, with only 5 games. Maybe he still needs to adjust to the weather in Florida. Edge: Atlanta Chris Paul vs Mo Williams Just like JR, Chris Paul didn't last long in Minnesota and is now part of another super-guard duo with Wade. The two veterans were spectacular on offense in the debut together, but didn't play much defense. Against Mo Williams we can expect more of the same. Williams has been holding down the fort in Walker's absence and has actually looked a lot better as a starter than as a reserve, but against Paul, he still takes the second seat. Edge: Atlanta So overall the front-court clearly belongs to Miami, while the back-court is Atlanta's strength. Since this league is currently very much dominated by guards, the should favor Atlanta. The Hawks bench also features more prominent players with Jefferson, Aminu, Beverly and Covington, who are all specialists in one form or the other. For Miami the bench pretty much consists of CJ Miles, who can be wildely inconsistant. He can shoot you to victory one night and single-handedly cost you the game the next day by consistantly clanking shots of iron. Jeremy Evans has played well in short stretches, but Erik Spoelstra doesn't trust him with exteneded minutes. Edge: Atlanta

The playoff race (not really)

Here are two teams that both recently pulled off blockbusters with the Minnesota Timberwolves, Miami and Atlanta.

The Heat brought in JR Smith along with Kosta Koufos, Ish Smith and their own first-rounder in exchange for rising star Bradley Beal, what is left of Hedo and Nate Robinson's contract.

The Hawks acquired Chris Paul and rookie Jordan Adams for Kyle Lowry, Tyreke Evans and TJ Warren and a swap of first-round picks, which will be in their favor.

The teams are sitting in adjacent spots in the eastern conference playoff race, 7th and 8th respectively, with a comfortable margin ahead of Charlotte.

But being a likely division winner, the Miami Heat are destined to move up to 4th seed come playoff time, allowing them to avoid a matchup with the three best teams in the league.

The Hawks have no such luck and are only 2-13 against teams above 0.500. They looked like a candidate for a first-round sweep. But that was before the turned their strategy around one more time and traded multiple assets for a big time star by bringing in Chris Paul.

Can this duo propel them to a greater destiny. Can they steal a game or two in the playoffs? Can they, dare we say it, win a series against Boston? Against Cleveland? Against Philly?

Atlanta has 7 weeks to figure out it's rotation. Especially their front-court rotation is being shuffled around a lot and needs to get settled.

Miami is in cruise control, biding it's time until Kemba gets back.

Most notable about these team's stats is that the Hawks are playing at the league's fastest pace, the Heat is average (15th). The Hawks also have the 7th best defense, Miami is 14th. But the Hawks are poor on offense 22nd and shooting 23rd and average in rebounding (18th). Miami's offense (12th) and shooting (19th) is a bit better and their rebounding is top 10.

Rudy Gobert vs. Marc Gasol

Al Jefferson has struggled with his shot for the last two years, but none of his coaches dared benching him in the past. The usual modus operandi was find a sucker to pony up a decent trade offer and make away with it.

Ryan has tried that too, but it seems that none of the offers were good enough. So now Big Al takes up a big spot on the bench, and while he is still slotted in to play 35 minutes and be the #1 option for the second unit, it certainly wont sit well with the veteran.

As for Gobert. His field goal percentage is gaudy, but mostly scores on gimies, so that is no surprise. His value comes on the defensive and and the boards. With Atlanta's second unit his liability on offense was not offset by his rebounding and shot-blocking. Maybe he will be a better fit with the starters.

Gasol suffered through similar shooting woes last year and this year with the Raptors, but seems to have come around in Miami without being demoted first.

Edge: Miami

Channing Frye vs Zach Randolph

Frye has been in an out of the Hawks' starting five every since coming over from the Magic. He is strictly there to stretch the floor, but his 29% three point shooting, although a top mark for a NLL big man, still leaves something to be desired considering his skill from downtown.

Randolph on the other hand is a guy who lives on the block and while giving up height on most nights, he can score on anybody. He will score on Frye, be certain of that.

Edge: Miami

Patrick Patterson vs Rudy Gay

No picture of this particular matchup is to be found. so we'll settle for Rudy with two balls.

Patterson will have the ungrateful task of guarding Allstar Rudy Gay, who is likely to run circles around the tweener forward. While Patterson has a clear strength advantage he is rarely to be found on the block, where that strength could be used to punish Rudy and force him to exert extra energy on defense. He barely scores one basket per game in the paint.

Gay on the other hand gets into the paint at will and is a nightmare to contain on the break for quicker small forwards. He is likely to go off on 2Pat.

Edge: Miami

Dwyane Wade vs. JR Smith

Wade has returned from a three-week absence and is looking to push his Hawks firmly into a playoff position. His 27ppg would be a top-10 number had he not missed a bunch of weeks. He went off against Morrow in his return, shooting 12-16 from the floor and 13-14 from the line. With Smith he will have a quicker defender on him in this game, but one known for defensive lapses as well.

Since coming over from the Wolves, the former NLL darling Smith has fallen off a cliff. His output has dipped by 10 points, as was to be expected since he now needs to share the ball with four guys instead of just one. But his percentages have also taken a nose-dive. Granted, the sample size is small, with only 5 games. Maybe he still needs to adjust to the weather in Florida.

Edge: Atlanta

Chris Paul vs Mo Williams

Just like JR, Chris Paul didn't last long in Minnesota and is now part of another super-guard duo with Wade. The two veterans were spectacular on offense in the debut together, but didn't play much defense. Against Mo Williams we can expect more of the same.

Williams has been holding down the fort in Walker's absence and has actually looked a lot better as a starter than as a reserve, but against Paul, he still takes the second seat.

Edge: Atlanta

So overall the front-court clearly belongs to Miami, while the back-court is Atlanta's strength. Since this league is currently very much dominated by guards, the should favor Atlanta.

The Hawks bench also features more prominent players with Jefferson, Aminu, Beverly and Covington, who are all specialists in one form or the other.

For Miami the bench pretty much consists of CJ Miles, who can be wildely inconsistant. He can shoot you to victory one night and single-handedly cost you the game the next day by consistantly clanking shots of iron. Jeremy Evans has played well in short stretches, but Erik Spoelstra doesn't trust him with exteneded minutes.

Edge: Atlanta

Star

JR Smith
Gay will get his, and the Heat front-court will dominate to the extend that 2k allows front-courts to dominate.

But it will come down to whether JR can successfully check Wade and deliver an efficicent shooting night.

PPG

RPG

APG

SPG

BPG

FPG

TPG

Star

Chris Paul
Since this is Wade's team until prove otherwise, it is up to Paul to blend in and show how he can play alongside another ball-dominant guard. He played with JR Smith for several successful seasons, but JR was ok with jacking up jumpers off Paul's feeds.

Wade needs to create for himself and Paul will have to adjust to playing off the ball half of the game.

X-Factor
Since the starting fives balance out pretty evenly it could come down to how the benches help their teams. In his first game as a reserve Jefferson shot 5-16, but was a +6 for the night. If he can outperform CJ Miles, who has to play against the defense of Aminu and Beverly, the Hawks have a good shot. But a Jefferson shooting night like the one against Denver, would likely doom Atlanta against Miami.

X-Factor

Since the starting fives balance out pretty evenly it could come down to how the benches help their teams. In his first game as a reserve Jefferson shot 5-16, but was a +6 for the night.

If he can outperform CJ Miles, who has to play against the defense of Aminu and Beverly, the Hawks have a good shot. But a Jefferson shooting night like the one against Denver, would likely doom Atlanta against Miami.