SDMB Fantasy Basketball

[Kid_A]

Anyone interested in renewing the league for another year?

I'm gunning for another 4th place finish.

[dalej42]

I'd play. I'm in an ESPN fantasy league, but managing fantasy basketball isn't much work.

[Wilson]

I'd be in again, for sure. Not that I'll be any good, but someone has to finish 7th.

[Jimmy Chitwood]

I'm in.

[Kiros]

I'll play again, but I can't commish this year, unfortunately (way too many work-related time constraints). It's not a ton of work, but someone has to be willing to get people to the draft and to maintain the faux-IR we use. Who wants it?!

[Omniscient]

I'll play again, still pissed about my falling from 1st to 3rd in the last week last year.

[Wilson]

I'll commish if no-one else wants to.

[dalej42]

Can I suggest a Sunday for draft day? Any Sunday is fine with me. I'd prefer after 3PM Eastern, which is 12 noon my time.

[Mullinator]

I'd do it, though somehow my vast knowledge of all things basketball always fails to translate well to fantasy. And, I'd likely end up auto-drafting. So, if you're good with those caveats, I'm there.

[dalej42]

So, are we on?

[tds1273]

If there are still spots available, I'd be happy to join; a Sunday draft would work for me too.

[Omniscient]

Hey, what's everyone's opinion on doing a weekly head-to-head style league instead of a straight up rotisserie format this season?

[dalej42]

How does a weekly head to head league work? How do you compensate for the potential of two teams who have players who play different numbers of games in one week?

[Jimmy Chitwood]

I'd prefer roto.

dale, you don't. The person with more games played has an advantage.

[Kid_A]

I'm good either way.

[Wilson]

I'd also prefer roto.

I just read through Bill Simmons column about how to improve Fantasy Basketball and I was like, dude, try roto.

[Omniscient]

I'd also prefer roto.

I just read through Bill Simmons column about how to improve Fantasy Basketball and I was like, dude, try roto.

Eh, Roto has it's flaws. The basketball season is so long that roto becomes a real grind. Football is best because of the weekly head-to-head trash talk and drama of individual matchups. In a roto format an individual game by a player has very little meaning in the grand scheme of things. Kobe's 80 points from a couple years ago was just a blip in fantasy. In head-to-head format that would have been exciting.

[dalej42]

Well, anyone going to set up the league?

[Jimmy Chitwood]

All right, I set it up.

League ID # is 96137
Password is birdman

Draft date/time: Sunday, Oct 26 7:00 PM Eastern.

I used the same settings as last year. There's plenty of time to make changes as needed. Anyone and everyone is invited so long as you're going to stick around to watch my roster of players who would score 65 points a game if they were a real NBA team slowly drain the life out of you with junk stats.

[dalej42]

OK. I'm in. Phoenix Purple Power.

[Omniscient]

Madhouse on Madison is here, prepare to get stuffed.

[Wilson]

I'm in as well, The Round Mounds. Maybe this year I won't suck in the rebounding stat.

[Jimmy Chitwood]

Still plenty of room for those of you who have expressed interest, and any newcomers.

Plenty of room under the tread of my mighty toe, that is.

My toe of beating you in fantasy basketball.

[Kiros]

Number 18 Is Coming signed up. Will I be first or last this year? It's going to be one or the other! Who knows?!

[Omniscient]

Any chance we can move the Draft to a weekday?

[Jimmy Chitwood]

We could, but a Sunday slot was requested above.
The games start on Tuesday.

Would Monday night work for all? Most?
Everybody let me know if you could, please.

[tds1273]

Strange Sasquatch is go.

I would be okay with a Monday as long as it started at or after 6:00pm PST. I can't reliably make it home sooner than that.

[delayedtilmarch]

First time poster, long time lurker. Is there still room in the league?

Fantasy basketball is what finally pulls me out of the woodwork...

[Kiros]

Current draft time is good for me, I could make Monday too if needed.

[dalej42]

I'd prefer Sunday, but Monday after 6:00 Pacific is also ok

[Omniscient]

I'm going to be driving back from my Alma Mater Sunday and probably won't be back by 6PM central Sunday night. I'm good for anytime Monday and would probably be good for anytime late on Sunday, say after 9PM.

I'd really love to make the draft, so if everyone is flexible it'd be appreciated.

[delayedtilmarch]

I went ahead and signed up as the Dribblerz. I hope that's ok with everyone. Prepare to be underwhelmed.

[Jimmy Chitwood]

Of course you're welcome, delayedtilmarch.

Everybody - NEW DRAFT TIME

Sun Oct 26 9:15pm EDT

[Wilson]

Guess I shouldn't draft Allan Houston, huh?

[SenorBeef]

Got an e-mail message from Tazmanian Devils (at least I think that was his SDMB name, doesn't seem to exist now) saying:

"not sure if you are in the league or not but if you are please let everyone know that i have to work tonight and will not make the draft."

In case he plays under another name, that's the guy whose e-mail address starts with "mco".

[Jimmy Chitwood]

Thanks SB. I know the owner to whom you refer.

[Kiros]

Sorry guys, I flaked. :(
This is... perhaps the exact opposite of the roster I would have taken under my own power.
Ah well, guess that just means I'll have to be super-active early on.

[Mullinator]

Assuming I was intelligent with who I had as my top 50 choices, I managed to snag 8 of them which makes me very happy. Of course, the very real possibility exists that my top 50 is full of truly horrible choices that will lead me into pits of despair. But, dang it, they are mine!

[Wilson]

I'm happy with my team, generally - the one bad pick was Lamar Odom. The top two players on my queue (Mehmet Okur and Kevin Durant) had just disappeared.... I should have taken Lamarcus Aldridge there.
This is probably the first time I haven't completely disregarded 3pt FGs - I was particularly aiming at Jason Richardson in round 3, and that's where I got him.

A lot for me will depend on Beasley and to a lesser degree Mayo. There's no reason on my mind why Beasley can't put up 18 and 10 averages.

[dalej42]

LOL, I also flaked. I had it in my mind that we moved the draft to Monday.

That's ok. With my roster, I won't have to deal with being a homer.

[Mullinator]

So, does anyone want to trade for a power forward with center eligibility? Because I have that market absolutely covered.

[Kid_A]

I may be interested. I do have about a dozen point guards to trade.

[Omniscient]

I think I have the market cornered on foreign guys with funny names: Luol Deng, Rudy Fernandez, Jose Calderon, Mehmet Okur, Luis Scola, Peja Stojakovic, Manu Ginobili and honorary foreign guy Chalie Villanueva.

[delayedtilmarch]

Well, I trudged through that draft so well that I think I'm gonna have to put every player I have on the trading block. The Dribblerz will entertain all offers...

[delayedtilmarch]

Are we doing this again this year? I need to redeem myself!

[Kid_A]

I'm ready to go. This year I'm going to remember that this is the league that doesn't count turnovers.

[Kiros]

I remember that I was good at Fantasy Basketball once... it's been a while.
But yeah I'm in again this year if we do it. Gotta get going quick at this point though!

[dalej42]

I'll play again.

[delayedtilmarch]

Yeah - I need to remember that pesky no turn-overs thing as well! Is anyone interested in being the commish this year?

[Jimmy Chitwood]

Oh, I'm sorry, did somebody call for the returning three-time champion?
I don't mind commishing again. What is everyone's availability for a draft time?

[Jimmy Chitwood]

OK, I renewed the league and sent out invites to last year's owners. All are welcome, however:

League ID# 266984
password: birdman

Tentative draft day/time: Sunday October 25 6:45pm EDT

I thought that the Sunday before the opener would be a good starting point; unfortunately so did everyone else. The 6:45 is the latest starting time we can get unless we start at 10 Eastern or later. I know that the late night drafts in the East are a bit of a hassle for some of us, so as of now I went with the earlier time. Please let me know how that works for everyone.

[Mullinator]

I'll sign up again, though I have no idea what a good draft time will be as the 4 week old in the house will be determining how my free time is spent. That, and I am closing in on zombie level of tiredness.

[Jimmy Chitwood]

Aww. Congratulations.

[dalej42]

Sunday is perfect for me for draft time.

[delayedtilmarch]

That draft time should work for me.

[Omniscient]

Can we please change the league to a Head-to-Head format this season? It's a much better system and it inspires involvement all season long as opposed to plugging in 8 starters and forgetting about it and it limits the benefits to lineup juggling simply to fulfill the max games quota.

It's a DRAMATICALLY better system, can we discuss this?

[Jimmy Chitwood]

We can discuss it, sure. I prefer roto. I could be accused of unfair prejudice toward the old scoring system, but as a rule, I dislike head-to-head in all sports. The NFL is a special case because of the schedule, but in my opinion, it's still kind of stupid to be 2-4 or whatever and have the second most points in the league.

[delayedtilmarch]

I do head to head in my other leagues so I kinda like having a roto league to do something different, but I'm cool either way.

[Omniscient]

We can discuss it, sure. I prefer roto. I could be accused of unfair prejudice toward the old scoring system, but as a rule, I dislike head-to-head in all sports. The NFL is a special case because of the schedule, but in my opinion, it's still kind of stupid to be 2-4 or whatever and have the second most points in the league.

Real sports work that way all the time. I don't see that as a downside.

Fantasy Sports are supposed to give you a reason to watch games and a rooting interest in games that may or may not have any real impact on the season or your team. A pure roto league diminishes that. Fantasy Football is the best and most popular fantasy game by a wide margin because people get to trash talk and watch their team each week against a very specific goal of beating one set of opposing players. In a roto league I'm never rooting against anyone and if my guy gets 4 additional points in a given game it's nice but it's a drop in the bucket in the grand scheme of things. In a head-to-head league that 4 points on a Friday night might be the difference between winning a week or losing a week. And in February the likelihood of me getting excited about a individual effort is dramatically increased in a head-to-head league.

Watching this league for the last 3 years it's abundantly clear that 2/3rds of the teams pretty much neglect their lineups after the first 2 months of season if they are out of the running. When one team is 1000 points ahead in a category there's just no point to juggling your roster in the final 2 months.

Also a head-to-head league will inspire more roster moves because in a given week starting players who play 6 or 7 games as opposed to a player in 4 games can make a huge difference. You'd almost never need to make a decision to sit or start 75% of the players on a roster in a roto league. In a head-to-head league there are occasions where sitting a top 10 guy at his position could be wise based on matchups. It takes much more savvy and thought than a stupid roto league where I can basically plug in 75% of my players for every game of a given month and never even revisit my team unless there's an injury.

Compare the chatter and discussion in the SDMB Fantasy Football threads to the SDMB Baseball threads. It's no contest which is more interesting at the midpoint of the season and which is more compelling for the team in the bottom half of the league at the midpoint of the season.

[Jimmy Chitwood]

I'm not sure comparing football to basketball to baseball is really that wise; to say that football leagues have more chatter than baseball leagues because of the scoring format leaves a whole lot out. I don't understand the comparison to the way actual sports work, either.

We also have an odd number of teams at the moment which won't work for head to head anyway.

That said, the league's a democracy. My vote's for roto. I'd love to hear what everyone else has to say.

[delayedtilmarch]

I vote roto.

[Kid_A]

I've played both and it doesn't really matter to me.

[Jimmy Chitwood]

Got the email blast. It appears to be the case that I can change the scoring settings up until the first actual game is played, but I think that for draft purposes it's best to set the deadline at draft time. I'll go strictly by majority rules. If I get a majority in favor of switching by the time the draft starts, I'll do so. Otherwise it will stay roto. Abstentions will have to count as votes for no change, but "doesn't matter" won't count either way.

[Tazmanian Devil]

I vote roto.

[dalej42]

roto

[Mullinator]

roto

[Jimmy Chitwood]

The people have spoken. Draft in 3 hours 45 min.

[delayedtilmarch]

Also, if there's anyone who would like to join up, there's still a few hours left...:)

[Kiros]

Well, I spent the last half hour trying to get in to the draft app, and Yahoo just will not let me in. Hopefully I get a good team autodrafted that I can work with a bit. Sorry guys. :(

[Jimmy Chitwood]

Damn, that sucks. I wonder why that happens.

It went very quickly. You can see your roster now. I'm going to commence to writing up the draft now. You were mildly screwed, is my off the cuff impression.

[Jimmy Chitwood]

Draft order:
1. Omni -- Madhouse on Madison
2. dalej42 -- Phoenix Purple Power
3. Mullinator -- New Ben = No Sleep
4. delayedtilmarch -- Rim Jobz
5. Kiros -- T'ed Up
6. Tazmanian Devil -- Orlando Tragic
7. Kid_A -- Kid_A
8. Me -- chitwood
9. tds1273 -- Strange Sasquatch

By team:

THOSE PRESENT:

Madhouse on Madison
1. (1) LeBron James
2. (18) Dwight Howard
3. (19) Andre Iguodala
4. (36) Derrick Rose
5. (37) Rajon Rondo
6. (54) Marcus Camby
7. (55) Rudy Gay
8. (72) Anthony Randolph
9. (73) Eric Gordon
10. (90) Luis Scola
11. (91) T.J. Ford
12. (108) Michael Beasley
13. (109) Chris Duhon
14. (126) Jonny Flynn

I agreed with the Lebron pick at #1. I'm not entirely sure that there's a statistical plateau that I'm certain he will never achieve. Will he average a triple double? Shoot 50/40/90? Average 35 a game?

The Rose/Rondo turnaround also pleased me. Those are two guys who maybe aren't statistically as good as they are to have on a real team, but each has I think a very good chance of outperforming that draft slot.

Strong Bill Simmons flavor to this team, it seemed to me during the draft, but that might just be because I was angry that Simmons said something about Anthony Randolph in a recent column and I share his sanguine outlook on him so I wanted him to shut the hell up about it. FT%, as everyone knows, is a big problem when you draft Howard, which is why I think going ahead and grabbing Rondo was well done, even though some of the later picks went a ways toward rehabilitating that deficiency rather than reveling in it.

This is a team with some very definite strengths and some very obvious weaknesses, to which Omni might well respond that would be great, if these league was head-to-head like he wanted. Alas. Anyway, a lot of similar player types on this team -- high efficiency all around guys and productive scorers who don't shoot much from outside. Blocks, rebounds and steals fairly abound; should be great apart from 3s and FTs.

There's also very little in the way of boom or bust candidates here until you get to the later rounds; you know what you're getting from most of the expensive guys. Then you get to the Beasleys, the Gordons, the Randolphs and the Gays. Four incredibly talented players, each of whom could be a star sometime soon, but each of whom has also comes with a reason to doubt it. There's a scenario here where each of these guys is a real asset -- Beasley's got it straightened out and starts playing like a monster, Gordon benefits from Baron Davis being in shape and committed and Griffin rounding out the balance of the team, Gay gets traded or the team explodes or somebody gets hurt, and Randolph keeps developing -- and you've got stars on your hands. It'll happen for at least one of them, I'm sure, and maybe more.

Grade: 7/10
Literary metaphor: Superman III
---

Phoenix Purple Power

1. (2) Chris Paul
2. (17) Tim Duncan
3. (20) Vince Carter
4. (35) Elton Brand
5. (38) Stephen Jackson
6. (53) Zach Randolph
7. (56) Michael Redd
8. (71) Mike Bibby
9. (74) Kevin Love
10. (89) Blake Griffin
11. (92) J.R. Smith
12. (107) Andrei Kirilenko
13. (110) Jason Thompson
14. (125) Mike Miller

This is a team made up of guys who, if you took the best season from each, you'd have a perfect roster. The question's going to be what are you actually going to get? Paul is a great start, obviously, and will probably lead the league in minutes, steals, and assists. If he starts hitting more 3s he'll be perfect (and he actually might). You're probably better off if the Hornets have more success and he doesn't have to score as much and shoots over 50%, but we know that if he's forced to he can put up 30 a night, which doesn't hurt either.

Then you've got Duncan - Carter - Brand. Duncan is fading, and they've added some talent behind him. He'll be great but probably continue to see diminished minutes and fewer touches. Carter, who the fuck knows. Everybody on that team seems to score around 20 a game and make 3s, and he can certainly do that, but hey, maybe he'll decide to dominate the league again. If he does, he's certainly never been on a team like this one, so there's really no telling what he can do. Probably he'll make a ridiculous number of 3s and score a fair bit, and not much more, but seriously. Who knows.

Elton Brand is a terrible and worthless player and I hate him. That's just because of his contract, though. He'll probably average a double double and a couple blocks for a few months before an "anonymous fan" buries him underneath the wreckage of the Spectrum.

All in all, a very interesting mix. There are guys on this team who can do it all - high octane 3 point shooters, lots of front court names, a giant Russian jack of all trades, and the king of the distributors. It's a team fraught with risk, though. Nearly every pick is old, injured, fat, lazy, or insane, or some combination thereof. Scary, and hard to predict.

Grade: 5.5/10
Literary metaphor: Bartleby the Scrivener
--

Rim Jobz
1. (4) Kevin Durant
2. (15) Steve Nash
3. (22) Jason Kidd
4. (33) Brook Lopez
5. (40) David Lee
6. (51) Mehmet Okur
7. (58) Al Horford
8. (69) Jason Terry
9. (76) John Salmons
10. (87) Leandro Barbosa
11. (94) Wilson Chandler
12. (105) Ronnie Brewer
13. (112) Corey Maggette
14. (123) Marc Gasol

I approve of the Durant pick; I had some hope that maybe I might be able to squeak him in at #8 but no luck there. I spent the entire second half of last season trying to trade for Durant hoping that his owner hadn't noticed that at some point he started averaging like 28 and 8 and was shooting 50% from three. I'm still not sure what the deal is with that guy from an all around perspective, but he's probably going to be as good as anyone at his position has ever been statistically.

The next three picks were Nash, Kidd, Lopez, and Lee, which seemed like a very deliberate and methodical way to fill out the roster. Assists, steals, rebounds, Lopez blocks shots, good percentages; this is a team that won't have to give up points on many categories. Blocks are probably a concern. The wing guys and Terry add a lot of production even though they also maybe introduce some inconsistency, and Brewer and Chandler are good plugins with upside. Salmons is crazy but really backed it up last year before and after the trade. I don't trust him at all but there's no reason to expect him to fall off a cliff numbers-wise.

This is a good bunch. I'd be worried about the frontcourt a bit, especially in case of injuries since there isn't much behind the starters, and after Durant there isn't really anybody else who is a #1 scoring option, but those are relatively minor concerns, I think.

Grade: 7.5/10
Literary metaphor: White Men Can't Jump
--

Kid_A
1. (7) Danny Granger
2. (12) Deron Williams
3. (25) Joe Johnson
4. (30) Josh Smith
5. (43) Carlos Boozer
6. (48) Monta Ellis
7. (61) Nene Hilario
8. (66) Hedo Turkoglu
9. (79) Emeka Okafor
10. (84) Boris Diaw
11. (97) Andrew Bogut
12. (102) Raymond Felton
13. (115) Allen Iverson
14. (120) Louis Williams

Another team with a fair few question marks. Okafor and Iverson are hurt now and several players missed significant time last year, plus Turkoglu and Iverson are in brand new situations. That said, he got a good value in each of the first 5 rounds. Granger's a stud, Deron Williams seems to be consistently underrated but it looks like that's finally over - he can match any point guard's numbers when he's going right. Joe Johnson puts up great numbers every year, and Boozer will probably be motivated to get back to near-superstar levels of play.

Josh Smith will presumably be inexplicable as always, but it's worth noting that in addition to his inexplicable nightmares at the FT line last year, he decided inexplicably halfway through the year to start banging 3s at a 40% clip. It's a pretty good bet where he'll end up at the end of the year, but good luck trying to figure out how he's going to get there.

Iverson and Monta Ellis are tough to predict. Iverson's a great value at 115 - worst case scenario you aren't giving up anything, best case scenario you're getting 25 a game plus some steals and free throws. Ellis is a bit riskier; we've seen that he can be a unique player when he gets the minutes in the right position, but he's not exactly always guaranteed to do so. It looks like he's going to be a nominal starter at the beginning of the season, and as long as he's getting the right kinds of touches he'll add lots of points and great percentages.

Diaw played really well for Charlotte, but I think that probably the frontcourt is going to be a little thin. That's probably a spot that will see some turnover.

Grade: 7/10
Literary metaphor: Little Giants

--

chitwood
1. (8) Pau Gasol
2. (11) Al Jefferson
3. (26) Devin Harris
4. (29) Gilbert Arenas
5. (44) Ray Allen
6. (47) Baron Davis
7. (62) Andrew Bynum
8. (65) Tony Parker
9. (80) Jeff Green
10. (83) Thaddeus Young
11. (98) Mario Chalmers
12. (101) Joakim Noah
13. (116) Ramon Sessions
14. (119) Tyson Chandler

This is a hilarious squad. I hate nearly every player on it. Gasol isn't worth 8, but I took Bynum to go with him so they can ruin both spots on my roster. Ray Allen and Arenas won't combine to shoot 50% from the field. But they'll take a lot of threes. I draft Baron Davis every year, so, uh, I guess it's good that this is one of the years that he might actually play?

I hope Noah gets suspended for taking estrogen pills. I like Jefferson, Jeff Green, Thaddeus Young, Chalmers and Sessions. Those were good picks. The rest are terrible and/or Gilbert Arenas. I get almost all of my players from the waiver wire in this league, anyway.

Grade: N/A
Literary metaphor: Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
---

I think that's everyone who was present for the draft. I'll attack the rest later.

[delayedtilmarch]

Great writeup Chitwood! You hit the nail on the head with the Rim Jobz and blocks. Every guy I targeted to shore those up either got himself drafted a pick or two before me or couldn't compete with the 'value' of some other player left on the board. That will come back to haunt me for sure.

*I was bummed that Madhouse took Anthony Randolph 4 picks before I had him slotted - I wanted to represent my fellow Woodrow Wilson High School graduate. (He learned everything he knows from watching me play pick-up basketball with his teachers after school by the way...)

*I think I'd rate your team, Chitwood, higher than you're rating yourself. You may have reached a little bit for Gasol at 8, but I think you made out well in your top 3 picks with Jefferson and Harris. You also may have drafted the biggest steal of the draft with Gilbert Arenas at 29 overall. I think he's top 10 value if he returns to his pre-injury form. And like you said, every guy you drafted from the 9th round on has tremendous upside.

[Jimmy Chitwood]

I think I was going to be unhappy with my first two picks no matter who they were; I just didn't like the spot. We shall see about Arenas. I'm a sucker for a bounceback year and always have been. And no matter what I say, I'm happy enough with my team.

Back to it, then.

The Autodrafted

New Ben = No Sleep
1. (3) Dwyane Wade
2. (16) Kevin Garnett
3. (21) Caron Butler
4. (34) Kevin Martin
5. (39) David West
6. (52) Manu Ginobili
7. (57) Andris Biedrins
8. (70) Mo Williams
9. (75) Andre Miller
10. (88) Chris Kaman
11. (93) Josh Howard
12. (106) Brad Miller
13. (111) Luol Deng
14. (124) Richard Hamilton

No obvious autopick screwage here - that might be because Mullinator was prepared to be absent, but it's always nice to see in any event. Wade's a monster, Garnett at 16 is maybe a little scary but not unreasonable, and I love Butler. If Garnett surprises pleasantly, that is a fantastic top 3 that covers most all bases. If you fall back to a more cautious projection of what Garnett will be able to do, you're still looking at a pretty good start. I think Martin, West, and Biedrins are all great picks, and so your frontcourt is either going to be very good or great.

Depthwise this might be a case where a team has plenty of players who are good enough to be on the team, but who don't really help that much in any one direction. It's hard to say what Andre Miller's role will be this year, Rip Hamilton's a very good player but rather flat in terms of production, and Deng is a tease. Josh Howard should have been a great pick, but it's hard to see where he's going to find the minutes and the touches.

This team will shoot(ing stat) well, and rebound and defend (ing stats) very well. The question marks here are, I think, overall scoring, assists and 3s. Just how well the team performs in the standings will probably come down to what kind of role the middle-round selections inhabit on their respective teams. Kaman, Biedrins, Howard, Manu, Andre Miller... all very good players but all I think at significant risk of suffering for touches because of the circumstances of their teams. Anyway, pretty solid up and down, I think.

Grade: 7.5/10
Literary metaphor: Guess How Much I Love You
---

T'ed Up
1. (5) Kobe Bryant
2. (14) Chris Bosh
3. (23) Antawn Jamison
4. (32) Paul Pierce
5. (41) Troy Murphy
6. (50) LaMarcus Aldridge
7. (59) Jameer Nelson
8. (68) Ben Gordon
9. (77) Al Harrington
10. (86) Lamar Odom
11. (95) Ron Artest
12. (104) Trevor Ariza
13. (113) Jamal Crawford
14. (122) Randy Foye

An accidental autodraft. Jamison's probably only going to miss a couple of weeks, though, and again, not all that bad. The late rounds in particular are interesting to me. Crawford seems like he won't get the amount of shots he's used to, but he seems to generally find a way. Odom, Artest, and Ariza is a funny triumvirate to have, and I think that's solid flexibility out of the bottom of the draft. Foye is worth keeping an eye on. Somebody's going to get minutes in Washington, and I like the way Foye attacks the rim.

As far as the important picks, Kobe's Kobe. Bosh is a little frustrating but is really good value at 14. He's probably a better pick than, for instance, Gasol. This team's going to score a lot and shoot the bejesus out of the ball from all over, and has pretty solid interchangeable parts to fill every position. Pierce could be a key, since if he has to step up a little more and be the no question #1 scoring option every night his numbers could suffer or they could be great.

I realize as I write this that I'm completely discounting Jameer Nelson. If he's anything like the player he was last year, this is actually a very good draft. I don't think he is, but if he's close and he plays the full year, it's still a good value at 59. Don't much like Gordon or Harrington, but they do put the ball up.

So, lots of points, lots of 3s, pretty soft in the middle. This is another one that's hard to judge (not that these grades are really based on anything, I don't even know what scores I'm giving out).

Score: 6.5
Literary metaphor: The Book of Threes

Orlando Tragic
1. (6) Dirk Nowitzki
2. (13) Amar'e Stoudemire
3. (24) Jose Calderon
4. (31) Gerald Wallace
5. (42) Rashard Lewis
6. (49) Jason Richardson
7. (60) O.J. Mayo
8. (67) Charlie Villanueva
9. (78) Paul Millsap
10. (85) Rasheed Wallace
11. (96) Richard Jefferson
12. (103) Mike Conley
13. (114) Shaquille O'Neal
14. (121) Francisco Garcia

Very formidable at first glance. Maybe a bit of a paper tiger. Stoudemire at 13 is weird, because I was terrified of taking him at all, and I think everybody must have been scared off of him the same way because he ended up dropping to a point where he was actually undervalued. The injury problems are a huge concern, but by all indications he's getting better by the day, and when he's going well I don't think there's any doubt that he's the most valuable big man there is in this format. Pretty good for mid-round 2.

Calderon's a freak and a weirdo, but in the ways that he helps you he helps you about as much as anybody. 98.1% from the free throw line is a nice number to trot out there, for instance. This team has a lot of freaks like that - G Wallace is equally likely to give you 24 points, 16 rebounds and seven blocks or to give you four points, three rebounds, and a broken wrist. Mayo had great numbers for a rookie but I wonder how much better he's going to get playing the way he does, and I can't imagine AI being around is going to help him much in that regard. Richardson wasn't that great for the Suns, but it isn't really clear why, exactly. Rasheed and Villanueva are both really talented, really spidery, and both insane; each is in a new place and presumably will be in a secondary role.

Millsapp, Jefferson and Garcia were all pretty good chances to take.

Lots of interesting pieces, but somehow it doesn't seem to me to come together that neatly. There's somebody here who is capable of doing just about everything, but it's another question of whether they're all going to do them or not.

Score: 6/10
Literary metaphor: The Dirty Dozen
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Strange Sasquatch
1. (9) Brandon Roy
2. (10) Chauncey Billups
3. (27) Shawn Marion
4. (28) Carmelo Anthony
5. (45) Tyrus Thomas
6. (46) Andrea Bargnani
7. (63) Marvin Williams
8. (64) Russell Westbrook
9. (81) Nate Robinson
10. (82) Spencer Hawes
11. (99) Aaron Brooks
12. (100) Greg Oden
13. (117) Kelenna Azubuike
14. (118) Chris Andersen

This is an entire team of guys who don't have a position, except for Billups and Oden. That doesn't really mean anything but I think it's interesting.

Also interesting is that Oden, Melo, Tyrus Thomas, Bargnani and Marvin Williams were all to some degree controversial really high draft picks. I'm sorry, I said that was going to be interesting, and then it turned out that was all I had to say. It wasn't that interesting. It isn't even really that true for Thomas but I threw him in there.

Brandon Roy is a stud, and his game is really poorly described by this roto format, even though he's still really damn good in this format. One has to be a tiny bit worried about what Andre Miller bringing the ball up will do for Roy, since Roy's not really an off-the-ball scorer and Miller can't shoot the ball.

Russell Westbrook is also a very good pick. Kelenna Azubuike once held the ball during the NCAA tournament while the clock wound down to zero, even though the game was tied. It went to overtime and Michigan State won. Nice job, Kelenna. Good athlete, though.

The story with this team is going to be that aside from Billups, Westbrook, Anthony and Roy, every player needs to improve on last year's performance to put this team on top. Marion's been drifting for years at this point and definitely hasn't been worth a top 30 pick in a while, even though he's always been drafted up there. Thomas, Bargnani, Williams and Oden all need to vault a couple of plateaux to become something other than projects. Each of them could, but I think it's asking a lot to expect them all to, and if they don't, this team will probably fall short.

Score: 5.5/10
Literary metaphor: Hamlet