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The second round of the mock draft should prove to be interesting in the sense that we’re going to see how each of the drafters chose to build on their first-round picks. The first two picks of any draft represent the core of your fantasy team. How will the drafters do with their bounce picks? Will they choose to begin locking down certain categories; or positions ; or simply grab the proverbial “best player available”?
Trailblazing into the second round of a draft nearest you.
Round 2
Pick 2-1: Brandon Roy, SG – You really can’t go wrong grabbing Roy in the second round. He’s going to be awesome this season. Brandon Roy and Gerald Wallace seem like an odd couple for starting off a fantasy team, but I can see where this can work out. Well I at least tried my best to do so. Assuming Wallace can maintain his unprecedented (for him) combination of good FG% AND FT%, Project Spurs now has a team that has a little bit of everything while keeping good percentages and and a decent amount of points. I look at Roy and Wallace as “link players”. These are players whose stats fill in the gap between the polarized stats produced by point guards and centers. It is a unique drafting style to say the least. I feel like a field scientist, who just discovered a new specie in the Amazon rain forest.
Pick 2-2: Chris Bosh, F/C – Here is an example of a double-center or double-pf/c bounce strategy. Team Velvet Hoop has opted to build on the strengths of his first-round pick, Al Jefferson. Combined, Al and Chris give this team a good base of points, rebounds, and FG%. Bosh helps improve on Jefferson’s relatively poor FT%. Between the two of them, the team is now averaging 77.7 FT%. He admits that his team is still a little light in the blocks department. But the draft is still young and I am sure that he can build on that category later on. My only concern with this team so far is the durability of its first two picks.
Pick 2-3: Steve Nash, PG – From a double-C bounce strategy, we now come to a double-PG bounce variation. I am actually fond of bouncing from Deron to Nash when I find myself drafting in a late draft positon. It’s like an old-guard, young-guard match made in fantasy heaven. Even though the drafter (pwangtsa) claims that “it’s small-ball all the way for me…“, I actually consider this pairing to be a far more versatile base than that. Because both guards shoot very well from the field, this team actually has the option of grabbing big men from here on out and has already snuck in several Ws in the assist category. Of course, he can also go small. Steve does help cover up Deron’s lack of treys, but steals are very light and TOs are pretty much thrown out the window as far as this team is concerned.
Pick 2-4: Caron Butler, G/F – Caron Butler is not exactly the first Washington Wizard that comes to mind, when I think of a potential bounce target for Dwight Howard. Nor is he, the first Wizard I would consider drafting in the first two rounds of a fantasy draft. It’s that games played thing (or lack thereof), you know? The drafter thinks Caron won’t have too much of a downside with Agent Zero’s return. I, on the other hand, respectfully and strongly disagree. All that being said, I am in kind of a quandary as to where this team is headed. I can see Butler adding a some steals into this mix and possibly even a little bit of assists. I won’t pass judgement on a team purely based on its first two picks. I will have to observe his next several picks to see which direction he’s taking this team.
Pick 2-5: Pau Gasol, F/C – Now this is the right spot to value Pau Gasol at. I vehemently disagree with Yahoo O-ranking him into the first round at eight. Eight! Don’t get me wrong, he was pretty impressive last season; and I’m willing to give credit where credit is due. It appears that he’s going to be Amar’e's —> see how dumb a double apostrophe ends up looking? —> partner in crime. From my experience, it’s best to build a team capitalizing on Stoudemire’s good free throw shooting instead of forcing the issue of him being a big-ball cornerstone. Pau is the perfect complementary pick to further strengthen the categories Amar’e is already good at (FG%, FT%, + some boards and blocks here and there). Pau’s low turnovers, help offset Stoudemire’s as well. Overall, this is a good pairing.
Pick 2-6: LaMarcus Aldridge, F/C – To be perfectly honest, I did not see this one coming. I would normally expect Jose Calderon, Chauncey Billups, or even Antawn Jamison to be paired with Dirk. I’ve seen Brook Lopez reached for this early, but this is the first time I’ve seen it done for Aldridge. Whether or not Nels did not expect LaMarcus to reach him in the third round is something we will never know. Putting that speculation aside, Aldridge is fantastic bounce mate for Dirk. Aldridge’s low turnovers, decent rebounds, and good percentages fit Dirk’s organic statistical strengths perfectly. Go Nels! School these readers and show them how the experts roll.
Pick 2-7: Jose Calderon, PG – Every time pick Danny Granger in the first round in a head-to-head draft, I instantly am drawn to the small-ball strategy. Generally, I pick one of the several non-Chris-Paul-tiered PGs available in the second round. It’s really hard to go wrong with any of them, frankly it boils down to the drafters preferences. Jose Calderon may have had a slightly disappointing season in 2008-09, but I’m with the general group of people who have the outlook that he will do well (better) this time around.
Pick 2-8: Chauncey Billups, PG – Kobe + Billups. Good pairing. Whether or not you’re one of those people who don’t like “oldie” point guards, you’ll have to admit that “Mr. Big Shot” Billups still deserves second-round draft consideration. He adds treys, steals, and dimes to Kobe’s production. Chauncey also strengthens Bryant’s strong FT%. Looks like a lot of teams appear interested in starting off with small-ball type of guys. If all of them follow through, things may (will) get ugly in later rounds.
Pick 2-9: Jason Kidd, PG – Oh look! It’s a point guard draft train (Cue in the conga-line music). Frankly, I don’t blame any of these guys. If you have a chance to grab a good quality PG in the second round, and you think he fits in the vision you have for your team, then by all means go ahead. I’ve been too harsh on Kidd in the past due to his age and expected stat decline. Bottom line is that you probably won’t get a crack at him in the third round this season. If you think this season’s potential decline is going to be slight, then second round should do just fine. He adds to Durant’s strong rebounds, while Durant will offset Kidd’s lack of scoring. He adds more treys and steals as well.
Pick 2-10: Joe Johnson, G – There are two schools of thought this season when considering drafting JJ. The first is that Joe is in an upbeat team that’s motivated and is ready to lead them to a great season. (Don’t all team previews suspiciously sound like this?) The other one is that Jamal Crawford’s addition to the Hawks’ back court is going to be nothing less than cataclysmic for Johnson’s fantasy value. I’m personally riding the fence on this one and think that the “Jamal Crawford Factor” will be mitigated by the “Contract Year Factor”. He and Wade make a very well rounded back court. I guess you can call this a combo-guard bounce strategy(?)
Pick 2-11: Devin Harris, PG – The beauty of drafting LeBron James in the first round is that you really can’t go wrong with your second round pick. Devin Harris has some interesting synergy with LBJ in the sense that he will improve on assists and points while becoming a security blanket in the event that LeBron’s FT% slides back down this season. Watching Harris play last season gives me some worries about his durability. In fact, the drafter (Team “Why So Serious?”) agrees with that insight.
Pick 2-12: Brook Lopez, F/C – My “Fatal Attraction” love fest bias for Brook Lopez aside, he should get prime value in most drafts because of his solid FT% and blocks combo. He’s just a sophomore and this should be the season that will validate whether or not he is the “real deal”. He is a great diversification pick to go with CP3. His FG%, blocks, and boards give Team Tales of Nine Cats the option to go big ball. His relatively high FT% (among centers) still keeps the door open for the team to go for small-ball. At this point, this is one of the more versatile team cores so far.
Drafter Quote of the Round:
“The good Lopez got 30 minutes a night in what I thought would be a crowded Nets frontcourt last year, and unless Tony Battie’s dad became coach, that should be his floor minutes this year…” – Tales of Nine Cats on drafting Brook Lopez
Snubbed Players of the Round (at least according to those Yahoo O-rankings):
Antawn Jamison, Kevin Garnett, Tim Duncan
Previous Rounds:
Tags: Brandon Roy, Brook Lopez, Caron Butler, Chauncey Billups, Chris Bosh, Devin Harris, Jason Kidd, Joe Johnson, Jose Calderon, LaMarcus Aldridge, Mock Drafts, Pau Gasol, Steve Nash
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