Man to Man pt 2: RIP Hamilton vs. Delonte West

Yesterday we looked at what would be a key matchup for the Pistons first round series against the Cav's, between Lebron James and Tayshaun Prince, and I came to the concensus that Lebron James wins that matchup.

Today, I'm going to not only be doing this but also adding a poll in this fanpost just in case any of you disagree with myself. Today's was originally going to be RIP vs. Wally, but one of the guys from Fear the Sword made a good point that Wally is highly unlikely to post major minutes in this series, and Delonte West would be a better choice to matchup against Richard Hamilton.

So without more interuptions, I give you RIP vs. Delonte 

I'm going to first start off with Delonte West.

via www.nba.com

Delonte West is a very decent player on the Cav's roster. His PPG average is just around 11.8, with 3.2 RPG and 3.5 APG. Delonte has been in the League for about 4 years, but has had his only starting chances with the Cav's last season. Delonte played about 63 games, and every single one he played in - He started in. The way he got to the Cav's was through a major deal with the Sonics that sent Ben Wallace and Wally Szczerbiak to the Cav's also. 

I found this quote on Delonte West from Wikipedia:

On April 27, 2008, West made perhaps the most clutch 3-pointer of his NBA career with 5.4 seconds left in a playoff game against the Washington Wizards, in Washington. His tie breaking game-winner took the Cleveland Cavaliers to a 3-1 lead in this first round series. In 13 playoff games, West averaged 10.8 points, 4.2 assists, and 3.3 rebounds. West scored 21 points in both Game 3 and Game 5 against the Boston Celtics.

Delonte knows how to execute in the playoffs, and he knows how to make clutch shots when the Cav's need him to. One can't deny that he is an asset to Lebron James and this whole team, and asset that is an effective tool to Lebron and Co.

His Free throw percentage has been amazing in the playoffs, and if I were the Pistons, I wouldn't want to foul this guy at a 'end of the game' situation (his FTP being 85.4% from the line)

My take on Delonte: His defense isn't the best, but I don't think that the Cav's have any worries going in to the playoffs because for the most part they have controlled most games this season.

Next we bring in one of my favorite players: Richard "RIP" Hamilton. I was consious about Richard Hamilton since his days at UCONN, but never really payed attention until he got on my favorite team. Since being on the Pistons, RIP has really put together a masterful tenure with Detroit. He has been clutch, technical, and flat out amazing at times. He was one of the reasons the Pistons won the Championship in 2004 and continues to be a key player on the Pistons.

via www.nba.com

Richard Hamilton has been plagued with injuries this whole year long, but it seems to me that he is finally coming out of the valley of the shadow of the bench, and is playing like the leading scorer that we have needed all season long. Even when RIP was benched earlier this season by Coach Curry, we saw RIP contribute in that role as much as he could (especially with 38 points against the Bucks which is the record of any Piston reserve), until he stated that he wanted to start again. The way RIP plays has been solid the past couple of seasons. He has a type of endurance that isn't seen in a whole lot of players in the NBA, because he doesn't seem to stop on either ends of the court.

RIP's season numbers have been an average of: 18.3 PPG, 3.1 RPG, 4.4 APG, which are very solid numbers for a player who has been injured for the most part of the Season. A couple of weeks ago, Richard Hamilton set his career high of 16 Assists this season against the Raptors. Basically, RIP has had exceptional numbers considering that he has been not to healthy this season.

My take on RIP: He will continue to contribute to this team come these next couple of games if he can get open and score from open looks. His ability to continue to move around and get open is one of the most important contributions that he has for this team. I expect RIP to have an exceptional series and still lead this team in scoring through these playoffs.

Who wins in this matchup?

I go with RIP, and not because he is a Piston, but because he is an experienced player who knows how to get open and knows how to score (but who is at this most point finally getting over the injuries and coming up big in these last few games). Delonte is young and is very talented, but I believe that Richard Hamilton comes out of this as the victor of Part 2: Man vs. Man on MSM.

Tomorrow: 'Sheed Wallace vs. Anderson Varejao

Till tomorrow!

Cheers!