Full bracket. LET’S ARGUE ABOUT THIS. pic.twitter.com/Exz7jd2zio
— Hardwood Paroxysm (@HPbasketball) March 27, 2020
First thanks to Ali for sending me the bracket, I heard about this because I was listening to Mickstape this morning and I had to correctly fill it out. Unfortunately, I couldn’t see the tweet at first because HPBasketball has had me blocked since like 2015 but that is a story for a different day. I know Action streamed at least some of the matchups on 2K last night but I didn’t see it and don’t really care what the outcomes were. This is strictly what I think would happen in a real life 1 on 1 game.
I think some of these are pretty obvious, I mean it is only the first round, we don’t need to breakdown Kawhi over Isaac or Simmons over Galinari but I know not everyone is going to be happy with this initial round. Honesty, I don’t care but I’ll walk you through my thought process on what I think are some more of the controversial picks. Personally this wasn’t a super hard pick for me but knowing that this is a Philly site I have to explain Ja Morant over Tobias Harris. Simply I think Ja is better but that doesn’t matter in 1v1. I mean I have Melo over KAT and KAT is obviously better. I don’t think Tobias can stop Ja from consistently getting to the rim and Morant isn’t an elite shooter but if he is left room he can score from 3. While on the other hand, obviously Tobias is bigger but I think he would be settling for too many long 2s or try and back Ja down and shoot fadeaways and whether you agree or not I don’t see that as a successful strategy.
Now I know I have to answer for advancing 3 of the 4 Celtics on this list. I think Tatum and Kemba is pretty easy but I can see why someone might disagree with Juice. First, Trae can’t stop him getting to the rim and he can’t get the rebound over Jaylen on a missed layup. Trae does have virtually unlimited range but Jaylen is much bigger and doesn’t have to worry about anyone but Trae, there are no picks and he isn’t walking the ball up the court. If Trae is checking it up at the top he is going to be super ineffective.
I do just want to point out I think the rankings are way off. Like Jokic isn’t an 11 seed and Beal isn’t a 4. Some super weird bias is clealy in play but I’m here to sniff it out. Onto the next round!
The hardest one here was for sure Butler over Curry. I really had to think about that one and I think I made the right call. Steph can’t stop Jimmy on defense and of course he is Steph Curry and one of the best shooters of all time. I just think Jimmy can keep him in front of him and score at will. So far this was the hardest choice and I think it could actually go either way.
My two baby boys are next. Tatum vs Brown. I’m proud and sad at the same time. I decided to go Tatum, he is a better shooter and defender and I think it would be tough but he can get to the rim on Juice as well. I think it would be close but probably 11-8 Tatum.
I think this is what most peoples bracket would look like at this point. Went chalk for the most part which is disappointing but I want to have the best and correct bracket not the one that is wrong just for the sake of being wrong. Only thing I have to explain is the Paul George pick and it is only because most people who read the site are Philly fans. Embiid is great, he was my pick to win MVP entering the year and honestly he is better than PG. With all of that being said PG is built for a tournament like this, he can score on anyone and shoot all while defending all positions at an elite level. It wasn’t a hard choice but I know the audience.
Skipped who was advancing into the Final Four because it was so little amount of change, it is pretty obvious and we can cover it here. I feel like in a different region Kyrie is making the Finals so the matchup completely fucked him but LeBron is still LeBron. I do think it would be close probably go into OT but I think KD handles Lebron. Kind of an upset but I also had PG make it past Harden, I think this would also be close but we all know how Harden likes to choke when he is almost in the Finals.
I can see some people trying to use my logic for PG over Embiid against me in AD over PG but what those people are forgetting is that Anthony Davis is better than Joel Embiid. Davis is at worst a slightly worse defender and that is me being very generous. AD is a better ball handler, shooter and would thrive in a situation like this. He is a big man who can play like a guard. A worse KD if we wanna be super broad. Speaking of KD and AD…
The snake himself is your King Of The Hill.