On the Miami Heat Podcast Mosi Platt and Alfredo Artuaga brought up a great idea. If the NBA players put on a 3 on 3 tournament in a great venue such as Las Vegas who wouldn’t want to watch? Mosi even did a rundown of how the best three person combos on each team looked. With no NBA to watch the Wages of Wins Network decided it would be a lot of fun to draft three person teams (and one alternate) using a snake draft. We’ll be posting the results the next couple of days. Here are our contestants
- Greg Steele, our Houston Rockets experts, has the 1st, 12th, 13th and 24th picks
- James Brocato of Shut Up and Jam (a Seattle Supersonics/Oklahoma City Thunder blog) has the 2nd, 11th, 14th and 23rd picks
- Patrick Minton of The NBA Geek (a Timberwolves blog) has the 3rd, 10th, 15th and 22nd picks
- Arturo Galletti, co-editor of the Wages of Wins and head writer at Arturo’s Silly Little Stats has the 4th,9th, 16th and 21st picks
- Ben Gulker of Pistons by the Numbers has the 5th, 8th, 17th and 20th picks
- Devin Dignam of NBeh? (a Toronto Raptors blog) has the 6th, 7th, 18th and 19th picks.
Round 1
1) With the first pick Greg selects Kevin Love:
The differences between the 5-on-5 game and the 3-on-3 game
necessitate certain adjustments in player evaluation. Players whose
primary strength is attacking the basket are slightly less valuable in
ahalf-court game with no referees. Players with good long-range
jumpshots, good passing skills, and high basketball IQ are somewhat
more important in the 3-man game. K-Love gets checkmarks in each of
the above three areas, and is the best rebounder available in 3-on-3,
5-on-5, or any other permutation. The only downside to the pick is
that it leaves my team with relatively weak interior defense. -Greg
2) With the 2nd pick James selects LeBron James:
Love him or hate him, there’s no denying that LeBron is the best all-around player in the NBA. He can score (yes, he’s even a decent 3 shooter), rebound, pass, and defend with the best of them. He’s nearly impossible to guard, which makes him super valuable to a 3v3 team. He can get the basket practically at will, and if he doesn’t like his chances at the shot, he can find his teammate on the wing over the open 3 when the defenders collapse on him. If he decides not to drive, and to shoot the 3, I still like his chances. His ability to defend the wing and the post would also prove to be very valuable in a 3 on 3 game. -James
3) With the 3rd pick Patrick selects Kevin Durant:
When playing by 2s and 3s, Wade or Howard would clearly be the best choice her, but Durant is a beast in a game by 1s and 2s because he shoots so well from 3 and so efficiently when he drives. I’m actually thrilled with this pick as I believe he’s the #1 pick in this format. -Patrick
4) With the 4th pick Arturo selects Dwight Howard:
Rough choice here for me and I’m torn. Best big or best small? I believe someone said something about a short supply of tall people. My pick is Dwight Howard. The defense, interior presence on offense, defense and the boards we all know about but I think the fact that it’s street ball pushes it over the top for me. Lots of no calls on fouls and lots of ridiculous blocks that would have been goaltends in an NBA game. I could see some two pointers getting blocked. Totally happy with this pick. -Arturo
5) With the 5th pick Ben selects Chris Paul
He’s a fantastic ball handler, excellent at breaking down defenses off the dribble, fantastic distributor, and pesky defender. With little-to-no help defense in a 3-on-3 setting, Chris Paul will have a field day. -Ben
6) With the 6th pick Devin selects Pau Gasol
I’m going to start with my big man – Pau Gasol. Other than Howard, he’s the best all-round big for this format. He can shoot from almost everywhere (don’t believe me? Check out his Eurobasket stats – 7/11 threes in 10 games), can rebound, pass, defend reasonably well. I have him ahead of Love because of his defense and basketball IQ. -Devin
Any surprise omissions? Also to clarify the rules this is a 3 on 3 tournament played half court, counted by 1 and 2 and the players honorably calling their own fouls.
Wages of Wins Journal 
chris (@chrisofspades)
September 26, 2011
Interesting that Gasol and Love went in the first round over scorers like Carmelo, Wade, and Rose. I’ve always felt that 3-on-3 games favors good ball handlers.
Patrick Minton (@nbageek)
September 27, 2011
This crowd wasn’t likely to ever pick Carmelo even if it did prefer scoring :)
Wade and Rose are both much worse in this format then in a traditional 5-on-5 because they are poor 3-point shooters; when a 3 is worth twice as much as a 2, this makes a huge difference. Also, neither are particularly good at penetrate-and-pitch, as they both tend to finish on their drives themselves.
brgulker
September 27, 2011
This was an awesome idea, and it generated some really interesting conversation.
I’m with Patrick in that I think the game is changed at a fundamental level by this format. I made selections that don’t necessarily align with standard WP analysis in rounds 2-4. I hope it evokes further interesting convos.
Shawn Ryan
September 27, 2011
Yay! New podcast! It’s been a while.