Win a Sony PSP! Play Drive to the Finals Now!
By Brad Friedman
May 23 - Here we are.
The Eastern Conference Finals. Miami and Detroit competing in Game 1 in the only game on the NBA schedule. The Experts have yet to select a player from either of these teams.
Let's look at the "playable" players on each of these teams followed by their Points, Rebounds and Assists per game total during the playoffs:
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May 22 -- Detroit: Chauncey Billups (27.7), Richard Hamilton (25.6), Tayshaun Prince (25.1), Rasheed Wallace(24.2), Ben Wallace (16.7)
Miami: Dwyane Wade (38.0), Shaquille O'Neal (30.2), Antoine Walker (22.3), Udonis Haslem (19.4)
As you can see, I have nine, count them, nine players listed. The longest this series could go is seven games, and there's no guarantee that it will even last that long.
There are six players in this series with a PRA over 24. Whichever team advances to the Finals, I likely will only utilize a few of them in the Finals.
Accordingly, you want to protect you assets without being overly conservative at this stage in the competition.
That's why I am going to take a middle of the road candidate now out of the aforementioned players, and then once we get a feel for the momentum of the series, the expert team can start exploiting the losing squad's top assets.
Tayshaun Prince stands out as the middle of the road candidate for Detroit. For Miami, it's Antoine Walker.
Walker certainly is a guy who's a triple-double threat. We know he can rebound, and he can really pass as well.
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The experts are relying on Prince to come through.
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But it's been difficult for him to enjoy the success he had in Boston, where he was reponsible for a lot of the ball-handling duties, anywhere else.
Prince is more consistent of the pair: his scoring stays steady, while his rebounding and assist numbers are consistent yet average. He's PRA is slightly higher.
There's another thing to consider in all this: the Pistons are one of the best defensive clubs in the NBA.
Is there a scarier team for your fantasy selection to play against than Detroit?
That said, with the series 0-0 and no inkling of which team is in control of the series, and Miami's defense one of its weaknesses, I'm selecting Prince for the Expert Pick Tuesday night.
He may not be a home run hitter, but he's a consistent singles hitter, and that's all I need as I buy time during the uncertainty period of this series.
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