Battle of the Bloggers 2 - Analysis

Welcome back to the Battle of the Bloggers. In this edition, we'll award points for last week's questions and explain exactly why those points were respectively afforded.

We enlisted the help of assistant general manager Rob Babcock to clarify a few opinions, but all assertions made here are speculatory, and have (literally) no bearing whatsoever on what Randy Wittman's lineup will actually be. Again, these are just opinions; no one knows what the actual Wolves rotation will be come November 2 when Minnesota faces Denver here at Target Center.

With that said, here we go:

7 points: Dave Kelsey, (12 total): twolvesblog.com
6 points: Anthony Hall, (8 total): twolvesblog.com
5 points: Stephen Litel, (11 total): minnesotabasketball.blogspot.com; hoopsworld.com
4 points: Kate Doan, (7 total): mnsportsfans.com
3 points: Sonia Grover, (10 total): iheartkg.com
2 points: Alex Halsted, (3 total): minnesotasportszone.com
1 point: Derek Hanson, (5 total): twolvesblog.com

WHY DID WE SCORE LIKE THIS?:

KELSEY
- I like your mix of starters and bench players the best, and as such, you win. You have a nice blend of youth and experience (or as good as you can get with this roster) and were savvy enough to start the solid Gomes while Brewer earns his (coming soon) spot in the starting five.
- If Smith doesn't start, he's definitely the first guy off the bench -- at least from what we know after watching him dominate the summer league.
- I think you got that Yi - chair joke from Bill Simmons' dad, which almost made me drop you to second place.

HALL
- Kelsey just, repeat just, beat you out because his second question answers were a bit funnier, and because despite saying you wanted to find a middle-ground between old and young, you went almost completely young.
- Excellent point about starting jobs needing to be earned, in terms of giving Davis the nod. Many really good basketball minds think that rookies and unproven players (except for a freak like LeBron) need to earn their starting jobs. Perhaps Gomes starts and Brew comes off the bench for a change of pace in your lineup? You also had the McCants/Green combo off the bench, but edged Litel with your 2nd answers.

LITEL
- A very thorough, solid if safe analysis here. The biggest reason you didn't win was that you have both McCants and Green coming off the bench, and I'm thinking McCants and Green will have to compete for minutes. Perhaps Gomes fits better with your mix.
- Your points about Foye needing minutes and Blount creating room for Al are sound, but 36.8 percent from three isn't good enough for Green to be sitting out on the perimeter.

DOAN
- Your Foye/Jaric backcourt and justification for it was actually pretty good, but your starting lineup lacks scoring punch compared to other NBA squads. If you want to go with that backcourt, you might be better served putting Ricky Davis at the three and bringing Gomes off the bench.
- Blount does spread the floor when his jump shot is on, which will have a greater effect upon Jefferson when compared to KG, who often was on the perimeter himself.
- Liked the "Great Walking Wall" and "King Whale Killer" mentions. Solid research there.

GROVER
- Your outstanding effort in week one and the fact that your second-question answers were the funniest saved you from getting one or two points, and bumping you to three. I certainly get where you were going with your argument for what the lineup will be in May, but right now it's tough, on paper, to start McCants over Davis, leave Ricky and Blount completely out of the rotation. You also, with this lineup, are relying on McCants, Brewer, Jaric and Green to get you points in the swing spots.
- You were the only blogger to even mention Juwan Howard, though he wasn't in your rotation. I'm not even going to get into that, come to think of it.
- The McRoberts joke was top notch, including the mention of the fabulous MTV shows "Laguna Beach" and "The Hills." "Newport Harbor" is pretty good, too.

HALSTED
- Not quite as thorough as some of the other arguments, but your lineup works for the most part. However...
- The bulk of your initial argument centered on Sebastian Telfair's emergence. I think we'd all really like to see that, but it's definitely something that we won't know until they lace 'em up. Given that we're just speculating anyhow, this seems too speculatory. Follow me? At least I know what I mean.

HANSON
- Although you did a good job of explaining your reasoning behind your lineup, you just can't leave Brewer out of your eight-man rotation, even at the start of the season. Of course, I could be wrong here, but you were the lone Wolf, so to speak, who went that direction.
- You used 10 words to describe how you only had 250 words.
- You did make a terrific point about Fabricio Oberto dethroning Lindsey Hunter as the NBA player with the least- intimidating first name, but not enough to get you out of the Brewer-inspired basement.

OK, on to the next topic, with Dave Kelsey holding a one-point lead over Stephen Litel.

WEEK THREE QUESTION:
How much of a difference will one year of experience as an NBA point guard help Randy Foye heading into year two?

TUNE IN TUESDAY MORNING TO SEE THE BLOGGER'S RESPONSES!