NBA Showdown: Building a *better* custom team

 So if you missed it, the NBA Showdown master Matt built a Showdown team around Anthony Edwards earlier this week, which you can read here! 

Matt challenged me to build my own team around my favorite player, GIANNIS ANTETOKOUNMPO!!

I really, really wanted to build around Dame and Giannis, but as you'll see, I found a better option!

STARTING LINEUP: Just like Matt, my best five players could only add up to 4000 pts in salary. Because of Giannis' more expensive cost, I opted for a different formation than a big three... but thankfully, Giannis does a bit of everything:

With better-than-average defense and great offense (which should lead to 30ish pts per game and 12 rebounds per game), what a phenomenal building block!!

 

As I mentioned above, my chief priority was pairing Giannis with a phenomenal PG in order to (1) pump in assists and (2) add extra scoring fire power. I was planning to make that partner-in-crime Dame for the affordable-enough 1020 pts.... but then my eye was drawn to a more explosive PG option for only 10 points more that ESPN loved to rumor Giannis would go off and join a few years ago:

Another superstar to go with Giannis, should be an easy ~28 ppg... although I do wish I got a little more assists from this point guard stud.

So with superstar Steph on the squad, I've got ~60 points-per-game coming from my top two options! Definitely happy with that starting place, but I want to fill in two more guys that I think will score 15-16 points per game without being complete defensive liabilities and who won't be reliant on assists to fill it up... thankfully, I found two solid dudes to fit the bill!

Houston's young stud is a guy I think will hit 15 points or more nearly every time out there!

Considering the weak Offensive rating for most centers, I'm not afraid of a 10 defense herer at all and I *love* how quickly Ayton gets to 3 rebounds in a quarter. AA battery for rebounding on this team, as we'll keep going and going and going on the glass!

After these four scoring machines, I only have 240 points left to spend... but luckily, I found a defensive wing that'll be the perfect stopper to fill out this lineup, hopefully helping lock up the best SG/SF the other team has to offer, limiting the scoring against me while the other four score ~100 pts all on their own!

So that rounds out my starting five (3990 pts):

PG Steph Curry 1030 pts

SG Jalen Green 740 pts

SF Matisse Thybulle 230 pts

PF Giannis Antetokounmpo 1330 pts

C DeAndre Ayton 660 pts

So now I turn to the bench, where I have 1000 pts to spend and no one can surpass 230 pts!

I wanted a cheap defensive option to lock down at PG in spell of Curry who could also easily dish out assists, which I found out of Utah:

For shooting guard, I found another 200 pt guy who's good at offense/defense with a nice, high-end quarter that's possible... but I'm more interested in the more attainable 3/1/1 off the bench in a quarter.

At small forward, I wanted a guy capable of (with assists) putting up a huge quarter of scoring... this dude has a 20% shot on his chart of a 7 point quarter and is no liability on the defensive end. A great bench player to have stashed, especially in contrast to Thybulle. 

For my power forward, I love this guy -- look at this chart, PLUS average defense, what a steal! Will he ever be adding to his roll? NO -- but there's a 50% shot at 3 or more points every quarter! Plus a 20% chance for a 5 pt quarter, 2 assist quarter and 2 rebound quarter: LOVE to see it for only 110 pts!

Lastly, as my backup center, I'm taking a big swing on the potential awesome quarter from DUOP (and not too concerned about the 9 defense with the low offense centers -- i.e., the young frenchman only having an 8 offensive rating).

So there you have it, a team built around Giannis that I think can go toe-to-toe with Matt's ANT squad... he's not going to be able to stop the Greek Freak and I think the three other big scoring options will be key, although he's got charts that can be great without a big advantage too, so it'll be a BATTLE.

Let us know which team you favor!!

Overall, my team is 4740 pts, so there's some room to add to the bench here and there if necessary!

SPECIAL EXTRA IDEA -- ok, so my other thought (which would make the lineup exactly 4000 pts) is to swap out Jalen Green for Colin Sexton and his epic offense at the cost of having any semblance of a defensive backcourt: 

Is that a swap out that you think would be better for the team, or would the revolving door created by Curry/Sexton be too weak to stand up to ANT and Matt's squad?

Also, shout out to one of my fav potential bench cards that I definitely would've used if not for Curry's defensive woes: