I’ve been reminiscing on the JB era tonight in hopes of hyping myself up for the big game tomorrow night. I thought it would be fun to do the whole “pick your roster” thing with all the best guys of the last decade. Could be interesting to see everyone’s perspective with all the talk of how we should play lately (2 post, more transition, etc.)
Rules: you have a $15 budget, pick one guy at each position.
PG
$5 Trey Burke
$4 Darius Morris
$3 Derrick Walton
$2 Spike Albrecht
$1 Xavier Simpson
SG
$5 Nik Stauskas
$4 Tim Hardaway Jr
$3 Muhammad Ali Abdur Rahkman
$2 Stu Douglass
$1 Matt Vogrich
SF
$5 Caris Levert
$4 Glenn Robinson III
$3 Manny Harris
$2 Zak Irvin
$1 Duncan Robinson
PF
$5 DeShawn Sims
$4 Zack Novak
$3 DJ Wilson
$2 Evan Smotrycz
$1 Kam Chatman
C
$5 Mitch McGary
$4 Mo Wagner
$3 Jordan Morgan
$2 Jon Horford
$1 Mark Donnal
I think Donnal could average 12 a game with a PG that could run the PnR well. He looked really good running it with a healthy Caris against Illinois. I was really wanting to pair Morris with Donnal for that reason, but can’t pass up the NPOY.
PG: Darius
SG: Nik
SF: Duncan
PF: Wilson
C: Horford
We all know the magic Morris could work the PnR with despite the team around him, but add someone like Wilson and the options are endless. Obviously Horford on the roll, you could hit Wilson in the corner or running baseline for an easy dunk/oop, and there’d be two of the best shooters in the country on the wings. I’m assuming we’re talking about all of these guys at their peak so there is also unstoppable force Stauskas, my favorite Beilein player.
Stauskas post-Wisconsin at Kohl is probably my favorite player moment ever. Followed closely by Stauskas end of first half at Illinois and Stauskas blowing kisses in EL. What a player
Spike, Nik, Zak, Kam, Mitch or
Spike, Tim, Zak, Evan, Mitch or
Spike, Stu, Zak, Glenn, Mitch (this is cheating but both Zak and Glenn spent a lot/most of their time at the 4 at Michigan)
Trey and Nik are the two best players, but Mitch in the tourney was so much better than any other center for Michigan, compared with Spike and Zak being good deals at $2
Any answer without Burke seems crazy to me. Douglass as a shooter and defender I like a lot. The pf section made me sad. I love Novak, but as our second highest cost? Peedi sims was very good for us, but his play wouldn’t fit without a pick and pop 5, donnel or mo, and he might work.
Manny is one of my all-time favourite Michigan players. Loved his cocky, brooding attitude and he had the skills to back it up. Especially when he would blow by somebody on the perimeter and finish with a dunk – who else has done that recently except Nik? I would take Manny over LeVert any day.
I initially had the exact same lineup as Buckets12, with the two Cadillacs in the back court, but to mix it up, based on this pricing scheme and positional breakdown, I would probably take:
BURKE
HARDAWAY
MANNY
CHATMAN
HORFORD
Funny how the current team is mainly 2-3$ players.