Back again with another article of the ‘PML Meets NBA All Stars’ series. This time we’re covering the AFC East, our final division in the AFC before switching over to the NFC.
Disclaimer: This is for fun and was something I thought of. If you don’t like it, keep it moving.
SPDot – New England Patriots: Jrue Holiday
One of the best defensive guards in the NBA (if not the best), alongside one of the best defensive users in the PML. Both players have one championship to their name but SP has, multiple championship and Superbowl runner up appearances alongside of that. However, there game is similar to me. Both are excellent on defense, and can produce offensively maybe not at the ‘highest’ rate but efficiently. If you look at SP, he’s ranked in the top 3 of every defensive category but one where he ranks 11th. However, offense he is in the late twenties for everything. However, still sits at 6-2 and top of his division. His defense wins him games, similar to how Jrue Holiday creates and causes havoc on the court to create turnovers and points for his team.
Greeny – New York Jets: Paul George
We’ve seen what Paul George is able to do when at his best, one of the more skilled players on both sides of the ball when he’s playing at his best ability but when he’s in a slump or playing through injury, it isn’t as pretty. I see the same with Greeny, who over the course of this cycle when you look at stats and rankings, his defense has always been on the top end while offense has always been on the lower hand. There are games where Greeny can heat up on offense and kill you with his run game, or even in the air. Other games, it’s his defense keeping him in games and getting him the win or trying to hold on for as long as they can. Paul George similarly, can always be counted on for his defense in games however if he’s not on form when it comes to offense it can get pretty ugly. That is the biggest flaw for both to me, if Greeny can tidy it up on offense and keep it consistent he could very well be making runs when it comes to the playoffs.
Beast – Buffalo Bills: Bradley Beal
This was a tough one to find for Beast, as we saw in his first year in the league he came in and made a statement, put the league on notice as he steamrolled through the regular season and made an AFC Championship game appearance all in his rookie year, where he ultimately fell short to SPDot. However, since then it’s only been down for him. What everyone thought was a one off last year, where he lost Josh Allen abilities has turned into something else. This year is another struggle year for Beast, as he sits at 2-6. Since his Cinderella run ended, it has been a rough stretch for Beast. Dropping games he should be winning, and practically giving games away. In this instance, I probably could’ve given Beast someone like Tyreke Evans or Michael Carter Williams – two players who only kept going down after their rookie year, but Beast despite the poor record to show for, continues to maintain a great offense that has ranked inside the top ten of multiple categories that past two years (both missed the playoffs). Similar to Bradley Beal here, where most of his career he spent on a team that couldn’t win over 25 games a season but he was constantly producing – at least on the offensive end.
Deebo – Miami Dolphins: Coby White
It’s hard to explain Deebo, as someone who’s only been here three seasons and hasn’t seen much from him. It’s hard to give him a comparison, but Coby White fits. Two players who aren’t really talked about or noticed by the league. Both capable of going on streaks of hot form and then cold form. We’ve seen Deebo get close to making a playoff appearance a couple times in the past two seasons but just falling short, in what is an extremely hard division. Both Coby White and Deebo, offer you a chance on any night to pop off and take over a game, while other nights it’s more laid back and playing to their natural role which is being an average player to their team or in Deebos case, an average user to the league.
That was the AFC East edition of PML Meets NBA All Stars. One of the harder divisions to pluck out comparisons for, but we got it done. That also caps off our AFC round up for PML Coaches and their NBA comparison. Up next will be the beginning of the tour around the NFC.
