FAKE RONJAN!!X's, O's, and Triangles: Small-Stars vs. Tall-Stars
I've become enamored of SBNation's Breaking Madden series. In a nutshell, they take a wacky idea -- like "what if there was an entire NFL team of Greg Schianos" -- and make it happen in Madden, writing about the results. It's flat out hilarious and any reader of this site would love that feature.
While I've quit the NFL forever, I want to try this idea out with other sports. Enter X's, O's, and Triangles, named after the buttons on the PlayStation controller.
Bring on the first idea!
What would happen if a team of good short players played against a team of good tall players?
There are probably some interesting variations on this one that we can test soon, but I wanted to start with something simple. I took this list of all-time NBA All Stars sorted by their height, and I took the 12 smallest active players on the list and pitted them against the 12 tallest active players.
We ended up with 2 fairly evenly matched teams of current and former All Stars, with the short team being 6'3" and below and the tall team being 6'11" and above:
I assigned the short players to the Warriors and the tall players to the Pacers, feeling that those coaching tendencies would match up well with their respective talent. I also enjoyed the mismatch between each team's name and their roster.
At this point, I watched the computer play itself in a full game (6 minute quarters). However, I screwed up the PS4 video and missed out on capturing the footage for a phenomenal ending in which the short team (Warriors) mounted a last-second comeback and won, 51-50, on a Rajon Rondo three at the buzzer.
Despite the fantastic ending, however, I wasn't totally satisfied with the way the game played out. Notably, I didn't feel that the two teams were playing as "extreme" as they should given their rosters. So I decided to try again.
This time, we'll take the same rosters, but we'll dial up the extremes in the coaching settings, with the Warriors using their speed to dominate outside and the Pacers using their size to dominate inside:
I re-simmed the game and correctly captured the video. After a tight first three quarters, I present below the entire 4th quarter. (NBA 2K14 does not include sound when you share the video highlights on PS4, so I have put a similar length classical work on as background music. Enjoy!)
I was shocked. Not only did the small team win again, but they won in a blowout. Watching the tape, I'm struck by the unwillingness of the big team to use their size inside on offense. Several possessions end up with passes around the perimeter ending in a Nowitzki outside shot, rather than any kind of entry pass into the post.
The stat sheet shows that the Warriors actually scored more points in the paint and outrebounded the Pacers. What a joke! At least the Pacers won the blocked shots category, 5-1.
My theory is that there was no one with a high enough entry pass rating on the Pacers in order to actually help get the ball into positions where the size advantage matters. And with that, they ended up playing sloppy (losing the turnover battle, 10-4) and giving the Warriors several quick transition buckets.
At any rate, I hope you enjoyed our first segment of X's, O's, and Triangles! Let us know if you have any suggestions for future segments!
-rj