Give Me The Rock
this is fantasy basketball
I will be doing a round-by-round analysis of the ongoing Readers Mock Draft. I did coverage of last season’s mock on my old blog when I participated in it. This season, it’s obviously clear that this is the more appropriate venue to do it since I am now writing for GMTR. I intentionally recused myself participating in this year’s mock draft so that I can be (or appear to be) more objective in my analysis. More than just addressing whether a pick is good or not, I will look at the bigger picture and see how each pick fits in with the team as a whole.
The Mock Draft is being done by Give Me The Rock’s readers and writers (Nels). There are 12 teams drafting and the draft assumes that the participants are drafting teams for a league using the head-to-head format and using nine categories for scoring (points, rebounds, assists, steals, blocks, three-pointers made, field goal percentage, free throw percentage, and turnovers).
Round 1
Pick 1-1: Chris Paul, PG – You can’t really go wrong with picking Chris Paul first overall. He is projected to once again lead the league in both assists (11.0) and steals (2.8). He also has fantastic FG% and rebounds for a point guard. Paul’s three turnovers a game last season shouldn’t even make you bat an eyelash that he is still worth being picked first overall. Just like CP3’s passing, this pick had pin-point accuracy.
Pick 1-2: LeBron James, SF – It’s either you pick him first or second in fantasy basketball this season. There aren’t any other rational alternatives that I can think of at this point. He fills up every category your fantasy team needs/wants. He also improved on his FT% last season, one category that had his owners complaining about (slightly) in previous years. No surprises here.
Pick 1-3: Dywane Wade, G – He led the league in scoring and has one of the most versatile guard stat lines in fantasy today. He played awesome in his 79-game performance last season. Plain and simply, Wade was on fire. Wade appears healthy and motivated to come up with a good year for the Heat, but do not forget that he missed 31 games in each of the two seasons prior to last due to various injuries. His sheer fantasy value makes it hard to pass him up at this spot.
Pick 1-4: Kevin Durant, G/F – This is where the draft begins to get interesting. Generally, people either choose to draft Kobe or Durant 4th in most mocks I’ve participated in. Kobe is tried and tested, while Durant’s projections deafeningly scream “Upside!”. While both their fantasy values are within the same range (or at least projected to be), the drafter (Shawn Kemp’s Kidz) pointed out he likes Durant’s positional versatility.
Pick 1-5: Kobe Bryant, SG – Kobe is a solid, reliable pick at fifth overall. There are speculations that Kobe’s stats may suffer a bit this season due to the Lakers’ addition of Ron Artest. Even if that statistical dip does happen, I do not foresee his overall fantasy value dropping too far. Let’s not forget that he’s an “iron man” who played in all 82 regular season games last year in spite of a broken pinkie.
Pick 1-6: Danny Granger, G/F – As we all know, Danny was simply awesome last season. There are still probably some concerns about his nagging knee problems. He might actually be drafted higher than this spot if he was 100% this past summer. His versatile stat line is a good starting point for almost any fantasy team. The Pacers will be leaning on him to bear the brunt of the offensive responsibilities for the team, so watch out for some explosive fantasy performances from him every now and then.
Pick 1-7: Dirk Nowitzki, PF – Nels picked Dirk at this spot, recognizing that he was simply the best available player within the top tier of fantasy studs. Dirk is consistent, reliable, and efficient. It’s not hard to build a team around him due to the versatility of his category strengths.
Pick 1-8: Amar’e Stoudemire, F/C – Whether you were burned by his injury last season or are irritated by the recently added apostrophe to his first name, you still cannot deny the fact that Sun Tzu has the ability and the environment (Run ‘n Gun Suns) to return to his former fantasy glory. As long as he keeps his goggles on, he should 20-20 vision. Aside from his potential for a “comeback season”, he provides good first-round value as one of the few good free-throw-shooting, center-eligible players in fantasy.
Pick 1-9: Dwight Howard, C – Dwight Appears to be a “reach” at this spot based on most rankings lists, but I consider this to be a strategic pick. He is not only last season’s league leader in both the blocks and rebounds categories; he is also arguably the most consistently healthy center in the market. If the drafter (In You Face Odyssey) chooses to punt FT% and/or TOs, he still has drafted the best cornerstone for “big-man numbers” in fantasy today.
Pick 1-10: Deron Williams, PG – If you miss out on Chris Paul in your fantasy draft and are at a spot where you want to secure one of the best point guards in the game today, then Deron Williams should be a logical draft target. He’ll pour in those dimes and points (at good FG%) and is still poised to grow into a basketball superstar. Fine, he doesn’t steal the ball nearly as much as Paul, but he is the strongest candidate to joining him as a 20-10 (points-assists) fantasy contributor.
Pick 1-11: Al Jefferson, F/C – In spite of his nasty-scary knee injury last season, news from around the interwebs that Al Jefferson is recovering ahead of schedule and is pumped to be back in action is encouraging. Encouraging enough for some people to believe that he should return to his last-season ADP value. If he can return to 100% health, then it shouldn’t be too much of a stretch to expect him to pick up where he left off last season and deliver 20+ points, 11+ rebounds, and good blocks. The addition of capable passing point guard, Ramon Sessions also brings a more positive light to his outlook for this season.
Pick 1-12: Gerald Wallace, F – No, your eyes are not betraying you. Yes, I had to do a double take, myself. Yes, this is also the first time I’ve ever seen Gerald Wallace picked in the first round of a fantasy draft. As I said in the preface of this post I will be more objective. While I would personally not grab Crash this early in the draft, Project Spurs clearly has something in mind. I would conjecture that a drafter who is bent on owning Wallace in fantasy this season and is in the tail-end of the first round, may want to grab him in the early second, because it is unlikely to see him reach your position in the third round. Technically speaking, this is virtually like a second rounder since he get the first bounce pick. That’s the best logic I could shove into the analysis of this pick. We’ll have to take a closer look at how this team shapes up in the end, before passing judgement.
Drafter’s quote of the round:
“Fantasy basketball was made for this guy. He will help my team win several categories.” – Team Project Spurs, on drafting Gerald Wallace
Subscribe via RSS