Posted by dBKC on 9/6/2019 8:48:00 PM (view original):
I actually kind of dig that team - I do agree that I’d go a little lower usage to try to feed the super-efficient Amare as much as possible, but that’s a good 7-man rotation IMO.

I like it too, in terms of it being fun, but it's hard in this league to be successful when you're putting lineups with like 120% usage on the floor, means you're spending money on usage you could have spent elsewhere.

Well, I got the guys I wanted; started dreaming about Lucas falling around midway through the 4th and can't believe it happened. Have a 6th man type I'm taking a risk by not drafting, but I don't ever remember him being drafted so hopefully I'm OK.

PG: Stockton/undrafted guy
SG: George/Beasley
SF: Tyler/undrafted guy
PF: McHale/undrafted guy
C: Lucas/Aldrich

Starters go 80/90/90/90/50 on D so should be good there, even though the bench gives up some D. Have good defensive flexibility, with three starters with 90 D who can defend at least 3 positions each. Efficiency should be pretty good; Tyler isn't great there at just over 52% efg, and George is just above him as the highest-usage guy. Hope George does a lot better for me than he did this past year. Stockton's assists should help with that. The big weaknesses: rebounding, turnovers, fouls, in that order. I haven't used Stockton before and I'm looking forward to it but you put yourself behind the 8-ball with that many TOs from a lower-usage guy. Lucas also turns it over more than I'd like for a lower-usage player, but I love him so much. Also I may have a couple lineup combinations that are paying the individual usage penalty, which is obviously not ideal.

I think it's a playoff team unless I've guessed wrong on the guys I can sneak through undrafted.

MJ
Brent Barry
Marques Johnson
Tim Duncan
Bill Russell

I don’t think I’ve ever picked my starters with my first five picks. I could get used to this.

PG Payton / Lin
SG Drexler / Lin
SF G. Wallace
PF B. Wallace / Valanciunas
C Robinson / Valanciunas

There’s a lot to like about this team but I don’t yet love it. I think I will come out all right on 3s once the bench is set. If there is an Achilles’ heel with this bunch, it will be efficiency.

Well... I got about $3.9M to cover 21 minutes of Center minutes. We will see how that goes.

Posted by dBKC on 9/5/2019 6:53:00 PM (view original):
I’ve only used about half of my salary cap so far (which is a bad thing) but I’m pretty happy with:

Ben Simmons
??
Kevin Durant
Tyson Chandler
Hassan Whiteside

Durant at SF dug me in to a major hole at ORB right out the gate, but Tyson/Whiteside/Simmons combine for 30.1 ORB% alone. Also my team eFG with those 4 is 59.5% right now and their D ratings are 71,90,90,100. Not happy with the fouls, and I don’t like Simmons’ TOs...and I need more shooting and maybe more passing...jeez it’s hard to not have any holes in this league. Almost there though.

I like this team a lot. Porter was a great fit there. Hope you're not in my division.

Posted by tarheel1991 on 9/6/2019 8:41:00 PM (view original):

Posted by cjok1051 on 9/6/2019 8:30:00 PM (view original):
PG Jrue Holiday / Mike Conley
SG Manu Ginobili / Jrue Holiday
SF Serge Ibaka
PF Amare Stoudemire / Nikola Vucevic
C Emeka Okafor / Nikola Vucevic

I'm cautiously optimistic with this bunch, and I have 5 mil left to cover 26 total bench minutes.

Holy usage, batman. That's way too much. And frontcourt defense will definitely be an issue.

Keep in mind that Conley and Vucevic are coming off the bench and will very rarely share the court much with Amar’e and Manu. Also Ibaka (98 defense) can cover any of the front court positions, he will always be on the best player. Same goes for Jrue in the back court. Manu and Okafor aren’t horrible defenders either.

Posted by cjok1051 on 9/7/2019 8:53:00 AM (view original):

Posted by tarheel1991 on 9/6/2019 8:41:00 PM (view original):

Posted by cjok1051 on 9/6/2019 8:30:00 PM (view original):
PG Jrue Holiday / Mike Conley
SG Manu Ginobili / Jrue Holiday
SF Serge Ibaka
PF Amare Stoudemire / Nikola Vucevic
C Emeka Okafor / Nikola Vucevic

I'm cautiously optimistic with this bunch, and I have 5 mil left to cover 26 total bench minutes.

Holy usage, batman. That's way too much. And frontcourt defense will definitely be an issue.

Keep in mind that Conley and Vucevic are coming off the bench and will very rarely share the court much with Amar’e and Manu. Also Ibaka (98 defense) can cover any of the front court positions, he will always be on the best player. Same goes for Jrue in the back court. Manu and Okafor aren’t horrible defenders either.

Ibaka can only cover the 4/5 if one of your guys at those positions can cover the 3. Amare is only 93% there, but you could set him to defend it; he would probably defend the 3 at around 40 defense. Okafor and Vucevic will both be disasters defending the 3 if you set them to defend there.

Your lowest-usage lineup among your 7 picks is Holiday/Conley/Ibaka/Okafor/Vucevic, which is around 115% usage. (Likely you will draft some bench players that make for somewhat lower usage lineups, but most of the minutes you need are backing up Ibaka, your lowest-usage player.) Your starting lineup is closer to 120%, and when Stoudemire/Vucevic play together (which will happen 10+ mpg) you could get around 125%. When you have that much usage on the court, you’re giving up something else.

All valid points^ and you are correct with the plan of specific bench players creating some more favorable line ups. While I may in fact be a bit high on usage in certain lineups, I think you'd agree it's much better to be heavy than light.

Yeah, it’s better to be heavy than light, but it’s best to be neither :)

I'm at a point where I would never trade out of the first. You can't really find a super efficient high usage guy with average defense who passes and/or rebounds outside of the first round. It's a great building block. After the first round, there are lower minute guys who are close (Capela, Vucevic, Jokic, Kyrie, etc) but in this league, you need at least 36 minutes of that. Having that building block gives you the opportunity to address all your other needs without giving up on an important category.

I would also never pick up another first. Too difficult to hope that the perfect role players will be there at the end. With enough usage in the beginning of the draft - no less than 40% but ideally 50% - you really don't need two top 12 guys.

Posted by tarheel1991 on 9/7/2019 2:08:00 PM (view original):
Yeah, it’s better to be heavy than light, but it’s best to be neither :)

Having Lillard back up Kawhi and Hardaway has me carrying a couple more points than I usually do. My starting lineup will be ~105 at 13.5 points... but upwards of 115/15 when Lillard and Favors share the floor. Hopefully that doesn’t happen more than 10 minutes or so per game.

Lillard just had the right combination of low fouls, low turnovers, passing and threes I wanted. Plus he is my favorite player. I should be able to get enough minutes under the cap with good numbers everywhere. We will see who else gets taken...

Posted by bds9992 on 9/7/2019 2:38:00 PM (view original):
I'm at a point where I would never trade out of the first. You can't really find a super efficient high usage guy with average defense who passes and/or rebounds outside of the first round. It's a great building block. After the first round, there are lower minute guys who are close (Capela, Vucevic, Jokic, Kyrie, etc) but in this league, you need at least 36 minutes of that. Having that building block gives you the opportunity to address all your other needs without giving up on an important category.

I would also never pick up another first. Too difficult to hope that the perfect role players will be there at the end. With enough usage in the beginning of the draft - no less than 40% but ideally 50% - you really don't need two top 12 guys.

I won last year trading out of the first if i'm not mistaken.

Posted by cjok1051 on 9/7/2019 4:37:00 PM (view original):

Posted by bds9992 on 9/7/2019 2:38:00 PM (view original):
I'm at a point where I would never trade out of the first. You can't really find a super efficient high usage guy with average defense who passes and/or rebounds outside of the first round. It's a great building block. After the first round, there are lower minute guys who are close (Capela, Vucevic, Jokic, Kyrie, etc) but in this league, you need at least 36 minutes of that. Having that building block gives you the opportunity to address all your other needs without giving up on an important category.

I would also never pick up another first. Too difficult to hope that the perfect role players will be there at the end. With enough usage in the beginning of the draft - no less than 40% but ideally 50% - you really don't need two top 12 guys.

I won last year trading out of the first if i'm not mistaken.

And I did the same a few seasons ago. But as far as I know, it's only happened twice in this league.

Still hating on you robusk for drafting my current favorite player. I'm thinking that I got lucky getting Clifford Ray to help with defensive rebounding and assists. Also adding Pascal Siakam's 59 EFG% to keep Kemba Walker's 52.7 EFG% from hurting as much was helpful.

Curious about how this team will match up with LTB's after that trade. That team has a lot of defense but lower EFG%. I don't like Gary Payton taking shots away from David Robinson.