Pick your Beilein-Era Starting Five With $15
These have been done before, but I always find them fun and interesting. Please note that there are MANY Beilein-Era players who are great in their own right, but picking 15 total and trying to balance the positions forced me to make some tough cuts (sorry MAAR, Robinson, DJ Wilson, Novak, etc.).
Using $15, pick your starting 5 from the table below. I tried to format it so you can pick 1 PG, 1 "Big Man" and 3 wing-players.
Mine would be (from $5 to $1)
Burke, Hardaway, Teske, Matthews, Harris.
I'll just take the $15, thanks.
I'll take all of them. I don't need cash to acquire Michigan players.
Wagner (4), Teske (3), Zavier (4) Manny Harris (1), LeVert (3)
You have chosen a team that is going to end up with Simpson charged for a triple homicide after the three "wings" refuse to play defense up to his standards.
I am intrigued by the 4-5 pick and roll though.
To answer the OP using $15, these are my five:
1 - Zavier
2 - LeVert
3 - Matthews
4 - Sims
5 - Teske
If I could take a starting five with no limits, these are them:
1 - Trey
2 - Stauskas
3 - Hardaway
4 - Wagner
5 - Teske
Trey Burke, Nik Stauskas, Moe Wagner, and Jordan Morgan.
I'll take my 4 against other teams' 5.
Spike, Wagner, Stauskas, THJ and Harris.
PG - Burke ($5)
W1 - Matthews ($2)
W2 - Manny ($1)
W3 - Caris ($3)
C - Teske ($3)
Total = $14
Not the best shooting lineup of the group, but would have good defense, good enough shooting, and good playmaking ability 1-4.
I'll take this 5 as well. You have to start with Burke and then Teske vs. Wagner is a tough call. I'll take Teske's better defense. Then add Caris and fill in the rest of the team with whatever is left. Matthews and Harris is fine.
Walton, Caris Levert, Charles Matthews, Jon Teske and Wagner. Not sure I have enough shooting but there are no weak spots.
Burke (5)
THJ (4)
LeVert (3)
Matthews (2)
Jmo (1)
Gimme your lunch money.
I'll do an interesting one:
Burke (5), Wagner (4), Hardaway (4), Spike (1), Morgan (1)
Spike would def bring some swag
Definitely scooping up MAAR and GR3 for $0.
Was thinking similarly on my defensive heavy line-up that follows — take Robinson for $0, send him to the corner and give him the green light.
Poole too
Yeah, too many PGs and Cs and not enough 4s (really zero 4s on here).
List is missing Robinson and DJ Wilson. I'd swap one of them for Sims and then you can make a lineup without putting any too far out of position.
Yeah, I'd probably go with Walton (3), Stauskus (5), Levert (3), Teske (3). Which leaves me with one dollar, which I'd probably want to spend on someone else, other than the $1 options in the chart. Probably for a 4. GR3 and DJ Wilson feel like they'd be worth more than a dollar in this, so maybe Livers.
Possibly some recency bias here but I’d take Teske, Caris, Mathews, D Walt and Z. Not sure if we would get enough scoring out of Caris, Walton and the Simpson/Teske 2-man game but that would be one hell of a defensive line-up.
Burke (5), LeVert (3), Matthews (2), Sims (2), Teske (3)
Using the parameters set by the OP:
PG- Simpson (4)
Wing- Stauskas (5)
Wing- Matthews (2)
Wing- Harris (1)
C- Teske (3)
Good mix of defense and offensive production.
Picking from these players with no limits:
PG: Simpson
Wing: Stauskas
Wing: Hardaway Jr.
PF: Wagner
C: Teske
(Sixth Man: Matthews)
Burke Wagner Teske Harris Mathews
Burke ($5), Wagner ($4), Teske ($3), Matthews ($2), Harris ($1)
Move Wagner to a PF position with Teske at center. You'd have a lineup with two very tough big men with the ability to shoot long range. Incredible handling and shooting from Burke with the driving abilities and shooting of Matthews and Harris. That's a tough lineup to defend.
Walton- 3
Senior MAAR- not listed so I’m going with free
nik-5
healthy Mitch 5
sims I guess
Many interesting options here. Walton at point for "3" is a good buy. I'll take Poole, Hardaway, Mo and Teske.
Trey, Nik, Manny Harris, Moe, and since DJ Wilson is free I’ll take him too.
I don't know how you don't take Burke, even if sacrificing at other positions. A guy like that who can absolutely take over a game offensively with his playmaking and his ability to score from everywhere on the floor in combination with stout defense. I love X as much as the next guy, but Burke on this year's team wins the natty. The reason we've lost games this year is we don't have that guy who can just take the game over when the rest of the team is struggling.
While I agree that Trey was amazing, I took a look at his tourney performances and they weren't actually all that good. The Kansas finish seems to have an outsized impact on our memories, not surprisingly.
Even in his Naismith sophomore year: he was bad in their first game against SDST with an Ortg of 77.
He was great at times against VCU but had 7 TOs and 96 Ortg (a very Cassius Winston-like game).
He was very bad for the first 35 or so minutes against Kansas but then obviously had a 10 legendary 10 minute or so stretch.
He was ok against Florida with a 108 Ortg on 5-16 shooting.
He was bad against Syracuse with a 89 Ortg on 1-8 shooting. Definitely did not take that game over as Michigan slogged to a game in the 50s.
And he didn't even play in the first half of the Louisville game (but was brilliant in the second half).
It wasn't a given that he was going to take over a tournament game. Still, I agree you take him for $5.
Simpson, Walton, Stauskas, Matthews, Morgan. And I'll need more $$ for subs cause it gonna get crazayy. Flexibility in the backcourt. Scoring from a Canadian. Defense and swag without the pressure to create offense from Matthews. And a nice PnR option with a little defense from Morgan.
McGary is over-valued at $5 ($4 or $3 is more appropriate considering his peak was over a handful of games at the end of the year).
Walton ($3)
Stauskas ($5)
Matthews ($2)
Teske ($3)
Morris ($2)
A little on the small side, but I like the versatility and 3P shooting.
Give me Morris - LeVert - Stauskas - Matthews - Teske
Pairing an athletic point guard and distributor who can also get to the hoop like Darius Morris (who seems overshadowed by everything Burke accomplished in two years and the extended stretches of Walton and X --both of whom were players who didn't develop fully until they were upperclassmen--) and Jon Teske on a pick-and-roll game would be lethal. Then you spread the court with lights-out perimeter shooting from LeVert and Stauskas and add a slasher like Matthews to the mix.
Defensively, Stauskas and Morris are liabilities, but Morris can be average if he wants to be with his length. But Matthews, LeVert, and Teske are all excellent defenders.
Lot of good options already listed.
For something a little different...
PG Simpson, SG Burke, SF Harris, PF/C combo of Wagner and JMo
Great mix of defense and offense
I feel like that line up would struggle offensively against other combs.
Simpson can't shoot, so do your run the offense through Burke? Who is an undersized 2. Or run the P&R with Simpson and have Burke as a wing ready to shoot?
Harris wasn't a great shooter (to be fair, he had high usage because he had to do a lot on below average teams).
JMo wasn't much on offense and only useful down low, but he was 6'8" and not a ++ athlete.
Running the P&R with Burke and Moe would be the best offense, but if you can get a guy like Matthews on Burke, he's going to have to work hard for points. Put Teske on Moe and force Simpson/JMo/Harris to beat you offensively.
P&R with Burke and Wagner would be damn near impossible to guard. Go under the screen and Burke will drill a 3. Go over and Burke might beat you the hole. Wagner can roll to the basket, pop for a 3, or take you off the bounce after a pump. I really miss Wagner on the offensive side of the ball when things bog down this year.
If you don't have shooters on the outside, you can rotate guys to help. Harris was a career 31% 3P shooter. Simpson is worse. JMo has to live in the paint.
Hedge the pick and (depending on the line up) get Matthews on Burke since Simpson isn't a threat to shoot (put the nominal "worst" defender on him from the other line ups and sag off) and you have a guy with 6 inches on Burke and 8 inches of vertical. Burke would have to work to get good shots over something like that. Moe could cause a lot of problems stretching the floor.
Not saying Burke + Moe P&R would be made irrelevant, but what's plan B? Simpson's hook shot? Harris driving?
And this is what folks do not understand about the limiting factors of this current team. When Poole is the lone true sniper out there he gets swallowed up by the help coming from every direction. I place great value on defense...but you still have to score to win.
Well it's pick your poison. With Simpson at PG, you can go under all the screens because he won't pull up. That keeps defenses from having to rotate and leave Poole/Iggy (and Livers with Matthews out) open outside. It doesn't always stop the offense, but it can create those 10 minute cold streaks that happened against MSU.
Part of the reason why Burke was so good (outside of him being really good on his own) was that he was flanked by guys like Hardaway, Stauskas, and even GRIII. All of those guys were above 32% from 3. Hardaway was at 37 and Stauskas was 44. McGary/Morgan couldn't shoot, but if Burke turned the corner and defenses rotated to help, there's a wide open 3 point shooter who will knock down at least half of his wide open catch-and-shoot 3s. If defenses sucked up to their shooters, Burke could get in the lane and make tough shots. He could also pull up from anywhere. You can only take away 1 or 2 of those 3 or 4 options.
Similarly, 2016 had 4 guys shooting well over 34% from 3 who could all flank Walton and that's not counting Wagner who was almost at 40%. Walton turned the corner and had shooters all around him. He could pull up, drive, or kick to guys who would hit their shots.
PG: Walton (3) - Kind of the middle between Simpson and Burke. Simpson can't shoot (is a better defender than Walton) and Burke's shooting can be made up with Stauskas a bit.
SG: Stauskas (5) - Best shooter by a bit of a margin. Can create his own shot like Burke.
SF: Matthews (2) - Defensive stopper, best athlete.
PF: Sims (2) - 6'8" good athlete that had some stretch ability (3P% wasn't great but he played on bad teams and had a higher usage than was optimal).
C: Teske (3) - Could match up with every other "Big Man" on the list. Could bang with McGary down low and had 3 inches on Morgan. Moe could take him outside but that's about it.
Caveats: Late stage Walton and sophomore Stauskas.
Run the P&R with Walton and Teske, have Stauskas for late clock situations to go 1 on 1, Matthews can take the best 1-4 guy on the other team defensively if the defense struggles.
Could flip it to Burke and LeVert instead of Walton and Stauskas, but I would fear Simpson harassing Burke a lot and not having an A+ option on the wing (LeVert was good but we never saw a final product because of injuries). Morgan or Sims at the 5 would be problematic versus the rest of the big men. Not overly dependent on either the defensive or offensive side of the ball. Might be better to pick one side and focus on it though.
Trey, Nik, Charles, Peedi,, J-Mo
Here's my starting five:
1. Carlton Brundidge
2. Laval Lucas-Perry
3. Aubrey Dawkins
4. Max Bielfeldt
5. Ricky Doyle
And give me Colton Christian, Jordan Dumars, Blake McClimans coming off the bench. I'll use the leftover cash to trade for draft picks and other assets.
That will be 48 cents.
Thank you and pull around.
Burke, Wagner, Stauskas, Walton, DeShawn Sims.
In the college game, the backcourt of Sr Walton and So Burke would be insane. And splash from 3 all night with Stauskas (boom goes the dynamite!). Moe is Moe, and I just always loved Sims game, so he is my $1.
That's way over $15
Ahhh, I get it now. I'll start over.
Trey, Moe, Walton, Sims, Manny Harris. There, I think I only had to sub out 1 guy.
Moe is worth way more than Mitch.
Walton, stauskas, Levert, Harris, Teske
Burke (5)
LeVert (3)
Harris (1)
Matthews (2)
Wagner (4)
Burke (5) Wagner (4) Levert (3) Mathews (2) Morgan (1)
The correct answer at these values is:
Walton ($3)
Levert ($3)
Matthews ($2)
Wagner ($4)
Teske ($3)
Edit** I didn’t read it to the position restrictions. My bad! My team will still beat yours though
Walton
Stauskus
Matthews
Morgan
Wagner