This trade deadline madness is going to produce some really juicy partial player seasons...

Posted by Midge on 2/9/2023 12:17:00 PM (view original):

Posted by robusk on 2/9/2023 10:41:00 AM (view original):
All right, while I am stuck quarantining in a hotel in the most awful city in America, it was a fun morning to catch up between WILD NBA trades and WIS forums.

Can you post your list of the ten worst cities in America?

For the purposes of this list I will define a city as over 300k people:
1. Jacksonville
2. Indianapolis
3. Oklahoma City
4. Fresno
5. Tampa
6. Wichita
7. Bakersfield
8. Sacramento
9. Tulsa
10. El Paso

Honorable mention: Stockton, Henderson, Mesa

Your spot Houston would be high simply because its sprawl and commitment to poor transportation infrastructure is almost unprecedented. But its food and multiculturalism save it.

Source: I’m in consulting and have had to travel extensively in that role for 13 years. I’ve lived in 3 other countries, have lived in 12 states and have spent at least a full night and day in every state except for Alaska.

Criteria:
- sprawl/density ratio
- effective transportation planning
- food
- diversity
- climate
- proximity to areas of interest
- cultural relevance
- Is or is not Tampa

Posted by raggedclaws on 2/9/2023 12:53:00 PM (view original):
This trade deadline madness is going to produce some really juicy partial player seasons...

I hadn’t even thought of that. Great point.

Posted by robusk on 2/9/2023 10:26:00 AM (view original):

Posted by jcred5 on 2/9/2023 8:54:00 AM (view original):
edsortails
Better owners than me have built teams around Kawhi Leonard. His numbers look very good. Good to very good shooting with great TS%. Basement low TO%, rebounds very well for his possession. Defense is great, high usage to take advantage of his efficiency and pretty good assists. 7 time champion and averages 48 wins, impressive considering I drafted him twice! I wonder those average if you remove my teams. When I had him I found it exceedingly frustrating adjusting his minutes for those 2000 – 2100 minute seasons. Your best player getting tired set to 23 mpg. And to continue my tangent, I firmly believe there is a cap that when you exceed your per game minutes by more than ~ 15%. TO’s and shooting fall off significantly. Relevant to Kawhi because if you get playoff bye or want to bank minutes, he’s so low that you can’t get more than 35 in his best seasons, maybe 28 in other seasons. I don’t get it. I’d have him mid-ish 2^nd round. But enough about Kawhi. Artis Gilmore is good. Great shooting very good boards and pretty good D. Can go with different seasons depending on your shooting or rebounding needs. TO’s are high though and he’s not Hakeem bad with fouls, but he’s high. I want to like Shawn Kemp, but the TOWELS are rough and next to Gilmore concerning. Some good shooting, some mediocre. Some good to great defense. Boards are pretty good. Not a bid pick, just a lot of TOWELS in your front court and Mr. Clean at SG won’t totally make up for it. Tracey McGrady here threw me. Usually a prized back up for his usage and otherwise stat filling capabilities. Occurred to me you may look at Kawhi at the point for a season or two. I was surprised to see Tmac has some PG eligibility. Curios to see where this goes. Deron Williams is a nice get here. Fills in some good seasons at PG, great assists with solid D.
Alvin Robertson has defense, good rebounds and passing you can sometimes play at the point. You’re TOWELS are seriously piling up. You’ve almost got a “who’s who” of turnovers and fouls. I admit to some bias, for years I didn’t focus on the TOWELS and I now hate them. You have a lot of good defense and some good rebounds. Josh Smith can do some things at SF. Good rebounds, great D and passing. Kyle Korver is a 3 point specialist and not much more, assume he’ll get reps when you don’t want Tmac on the floor. Have to figure out the usage rotation. Zion Williamson has a great offensive season, he’ll give a very nice offensive bump to the team you put him with. I’m not sure John Havlicek has a place in Savage. I wish he did, but the shooting is not good and I don’t know he has enough other attributes to make up for it. Troy Murphy is a nice addition late. Defense is not as bad as I remember with very good shooting and pretty good boards. Elvin Hayes has 5 seasons over $9 million in the sim. That should count for something.

Final thoughts: This has a lot of players I don’t like. They could be good but they’re not the type of guys I like to use. I liked but did not love a lot of these picks. Bird and Camby are strong. Nothing wrong with Oscar and others like McGee. I think I’m a little luke warm on the SG. A little too much usage for guys a little too just ok. Ultimately a good team that I’m not sure is great.
Draft Grade: C-
Best value pick: Troy Murphy
Head scratching pick: Kawhi ?? McGrady
Projection: 15-20

Maybe a little copy pasta problem here. But man, having done this stuff a bunch, it is hard af. You did A LOT of typing on this. I know everyone really appreciates it and it is a lot of what mkaes draft leagues fun.

Good catch, edited the original post with the correction

Posted by robusk on 2/9/2023 1:16:00 PM (view original):

Posted by Midge on 2/9/2023 12:17:00 PM (view original):

Posted by robusk on 2/9/2023 10:41:00 AM (view original):
All right, while I am stuck quarantining in a hotel in the most awful city in America, it was a fun morning to catch up between WILD NBA trades and WIS forums.

Can you post your list of the ten worst cities in America?

For the purposes of this list I will define a city as over 300k people:
1. Jacksonville
2. Indianapolis
3. Oklahoma City
4. Fresno
5. Tampa
6. Wichita
7. Bakersfield
8. Sacramento
9. Tulsa
10. El Paso

Honorable mention: Stockton, Henderson, Mesa

Your spot Houston would be high simply because its sprawl and commitment to poor transportation infrastructure is almost unprecedented. But its food and multiculturalism save it.

Source: I’m in consulting and have had to travel extensively in that role for 13 years. I’ve lived in 3 other countries, have lived in 12 states and have spent at least a full night and day in every state except for Alaska.

Criteria:
- sprawl/density ratio
- effective transportation planning
- food
- diversity
- climate
- proximity to areas of interest
- cultural relevance
- Is or is not Tampa

This list is missing Memphis and Birmingham.

I can't agree more with this list, but I may have rotated Sacto and El Paso to the 11 and 12. Tampa should've been higher.

Mesa's proximity to Pizzeria Bianco and Scottsdale helps it.

Posted by PBandJ on 2/9/2023 1:50:00 PM (view original):

Posted by robusk on 2/9/2023 1:16:00 PM (view original):

Posted by Midge on 2/9/2023 12:17:00 PM (view original):

Posted by robusk on 2/9/2023 10:41:00 AM (view original):
All right, while I am stuck quarantining in a hotel in the most awful city in America, it was a fun morning to catch up between WILD NBA trades and WIS forums.

Can you post your list of the ten worst cities in America?

For the purposes of this list I will define a city as over 300k people:
1. Jacksonville
2. Indianapolis
3. Oklahoma City
4. Fresno
5. Tampa
6. Wichita
7. Bakersfield
8. Sacramento
9. Tulsa
10. El Paso

Honorable mention: Stockton, Henderson, Mesa

Your spot Houston would be high simply because its sprawl and commitment to poor transportation infrastructure is almost unprecedented. But its food and multiculturalism save it.

Source: I’m in consulting and have had to travel extensively in that role for 13 years. I’ve lived in 3 other countries, have lived in 12 states and have spent at least a full night and day in every state except for Alaska.

Criteria:
- sprawl/density ratio
- effective transportation planning
- food
- diversity
- climate
- proximity to areas of interest
- cultural relevance
- Is or is not Tampa

This list is missing Memphis and Birmingham.

I can't agree more with this list, but I may have rotated Sacto and El Paso to the 11 and 12. Tampa should've been higher.

Mesa's proximity to Pizzeria Bianco and Scottsdale helps it.

Tampa is awful (see the last item in the criteria). I don't hate Memphis. The downtown is cool. It rates highly in food, diversity, cultural relevance and not being Tampa for me. Plus they are at least trying to do useful things to tackle homelessness and food inequity in a positive way. Birmingham didn't make the population cutoff.

I was just in Scottsdale two weeks ago and ate at Pizzeria Bianco twice. Check at Arcosanti next time you are in the area if you get a chance. It is a cool place to kill a few hours.

Posted by jcred5 on 2/9/2023 8:54:00 AM (view original):
Ashamael
I sense you’re worried about Jokic. Imagine where he’s going next Savage! I love the pick. He’s not the traditional defensive player, but boy can he do everything else. Amazing shooting with a lot of usage, solid to great rebounds and of course the assists. A fun player to build around I would think. Ben Wallace seems the perfect pairing. A complete statistical opposite of Jokic. Walt Frazier is a guy I would typically be hesitant to try because he doesn’t pass enough for a PG or rebound enough for a SG. Activate Jokic Powers! You have such incredible front court assists you can grab an otherwise valuable guy with great defense, pretty solid shoot and if you play him at PG, fine rebounds. Derrick Favors in the 4^th is ok. Some pretty good D seasons with lower minutes. Shoots very well later in his career. Solid rebounds and some of it at SF. Did you consider Marques Johnson here? Would be interesting to see him with this group. Jayson Tatum! As we know he should be rated much higher defensively, but even so he offers a lot offensively. You needed some usage, great boards, pretty good passing and nice low TO’s. I like the fit.
Carlos Boozer falls to you in the 6^th and I’m guessing he’s your Jokic backup. Pretty nice for a backup. In high doses as a starter he can be flawed but I like him behind Jokic. Brandan Wright is a super efficient scorer and can rebound well for a SF. Check out his crazy low TO%! Kemba Walker is interesting, I always forget how good the sim thinks his defense is… way better than Tatum’s! You can use him in a few ways. I’m not doing the math, but with Wallace basically being a zero with usage you need a lot next to him. So maybe you’ll run Jokic, Tatum and Kemba sometimes. A.C. Green is another SF option with solid D, rebounds and shooting. Doesn’t really hurt you anywhere, solid guy to have around. I’m starting to get a little pretzled with some of the positions here, Jamario Moon is a great SG plug in. Loosing track a bit, but I guess you still need SG minutes? Or is a defensive and rebounding upgrade over Tatum or Kemba. Miles Bridges has one very nice shooting season at SG, one or two other help seasons. Closing with Rasheed Wallace that is good value this late. His SF seasons are very usable.

Final thoughts: Ok, this is tough as the final product is hard to predict. For sure your Core is Jokic, Wallace, Frazier and then it’s a jumble. At times you can put more defense out there with Favors, AC Green, Moon and Rasheed. Other times you’re rolling with Boozer, Tatum, Kemba and Bridges. I guess you’ll blend them to get what you need.
Draft Grade: B+
Best value pick: Boozer
Head scratching pick: Favors
Projection: 5-10

Man, evals are a thankless and pretty much impossible task. You are trying to evaluate at a glance in a fraction of the time the person picking the players have likely spent studying them. You can't see what they see, and yet you're tasked with judging it. And worse, some people get mad or defensive at your takes! If I ever win this league, all y'all are getting are gifs making fun of your teams. So thank you for your valiant attempt at doing such a thorough job!

1) I'm curious as to what you think is enough rebounding at SG if Frazier isn't good enough to do it (14-16% every season I'm using).

2) I honestly don't think Marques even belongs in the same conversation as Favors. Marques has one really good SF season and then is either a SF that doesn't rebound or a SG that doesn't shoot threes. I don't want to talk Favors up too much so that people aren't doing him like they started doing Jarrett Allen after I took him in the fifth once.

3) I absolutely was still drastically short on SG minutes at the point I took Moon & Bridges; I had two starting spots missing and wanted to upgrade Tatum's rookie season at a third. Tatum has that one excellent season that can't play either guard position; Moon was drafted specifically to pair with him to help offset the rebounding disadvantage of having a barely 20% guy at the three. I am likely squeezing a few minutes out of another season. Bridges' two excellent seasons will start, though getting the usage right with the 17.3% usg one was difficult.

Jumble?! You have no idea how much of a jumble it actually is!! More on this when I do my annual self-eval where I make fun of my picks, though!

I do have one starting lineup that goes 90-100-100-100-100 on D.

Posted by robusk on 2/9/2023 10:16:00 AM (view original):

Posted by dh555 on 2/8/2023 8:03:00 PM (view original):
Explain Yourself....

1. Shaquille O'Neal

Thrilled to land the #5 pick. I figured none of the big 3 would fall so it was gonna be Shaq(1st choice) or MJ for me. I'm not opposed to trying Giannis at this spot if I get the chance again, but I felt building around Shaq/MJ and their extra mins would be easier for me. 4 of the 5 Shaq seasons are no-brainers but I had to think a little bit about the 5th. I decided on 02-03 for the extra D.

2. Klay Thompson

I was definitely looking for a guard in round 2. I've been wanting to use Klay for awhile now and this seemed like as good a time as any to finally try him out. I figured he would be available and loved the thought of a deadly inside-out 1-2 scoring punch with Shaq. I started getting cold feet on Klay as it got closer to my pick as I tried to figure out how I would get enough AST% for my liking. I started talking myself into Draymond as a solution and was starting to like that fit. I also felt that Billups might fall to me or that Lowry in the 4th would be ok. If Payton and Kidd had made it to me I would have gladly picked them over Klay. I knew Lillard wouldn't be an option with robusk picking right in front of me. The only other guard I was considering over Klay was...

3. Steve Nash

**** yea!!! There's been a few picks in Savage where I was surprised/delighted that someone fell to me, but this was my absolute favorite. Nash used to be my guy in WIS and I won a lot of games and chips with him. I'm done worrying about AST% now and feel good about 3s even if I can't add anymore behind Nash or in the frontcourt(3s at SG behind Klay was always a given). But the best part is that my 3 highest usg players on all 5 teams will all have an EFG over 55%. My teams have an identity now - I will outscore you with an awesome inside-out super high efg% attack. I'll need to have a good offense because I have no shot at a good defense with Nash at PG and Klay not a great option to cover him. I'm also waaaay behind on the glass so defense/rebounding will be the priority at the 3/4.

4. Donyell Marshall

I kinda think Donyell is a bit overrated in Savage. 03-04 is fantastic but the other seasons are better suited as backups. However, he was the last SF left in his tier group. If I don't grab him now I'm hoping for Bo in the 5th(could have got him!) or piecing the position together later. I didn't feel great about the options at PF(Noah? kills the efg vibe, Pau? not enough boards) so Donyell it is. I sent out a 2 person proxy for this pick and decided on Bogut as the 2nd name. This would have been way too early for him but he brings exactly what I wanted from the PF spot and I felt good about Donyell being there with my pick anyway.

5. Andrew Bogut

...and he's still available in the 5th! Things are working out nicely for me here. He lacks mins, but is a solid rebounder that actually has decent defense. Those guys are drying up fast so I was glad to get one.

6. Kermit Washington

This was the hardest pick in the draft. I knew it would be my last chance to get some of the great 1/2 season guys at SF here. But I also really needed mins at PF as well. My guy Unseld is just starring at me, ready to lock down PF with clean rebounding. But with Nash, that would have been a death sentence for my defense and I really wanted to try to hammer high EFG as much as possible. And then there's Amare. Just insane value in the 6th. I played around with his fit for awhile but it just wasn't gonna work. In the end, it was between Kermit, Boucher, Clarke, Porter, and Henson. Despite being able to play some SF, I was actually viewing Kermit as a PF for my team. In looking for potential PFs with good defense and high EFG, Kermit's 2 seasons were sticking out. I was definitely looking for higher dreb% but everything else fit nicely(well except the towels but that's pretty much unavoidable at this point). I also liked that he was flexible between 3/4 and could provide defense there if needed. Still not sure how I feel about this pick.

7. Terry Tyler

One pick away from Porter! Damn you robusk, that must have been your easiest pick of the draft. But I wasn't expecting Porter here. I had already filled in the KJs behind Nash by the time midge picked him. That was frustrating as I thought I would get him for sure with the way PGs have been dropping in Savage drafts. It was important to me to find good backups to Nash and Klay and I didn't want to wait too long to pull the trigger. I knew SG could wait, but PG was starting to look ugly for what I wanted(someone with 5 seasons of at least 25% ast). With KJ off the board, I focused back to SF/PF. Siakam and that one great season was very appealing but I didn't like any of his other seasons. I didn't like his average to below average efg, but Tyler was pretty much my last chance to add elite defense with solid rebounding at the usg I wanted. He has two seasons I felt could start and 3 other decent seasons to use if I was hurting for mins. I thought about rolling the dice and trying to get him in round 9 but decided not to risk it.

8. Rajon Rondo

There's Rondo, lingering like a bad fart. I didn't want to use him again. I wanted to take another SF/PF or just take Reggie now in case he goes earlier than I expect. I don't like the efg and turnovers and his usage will make him the 3rd highest udg player in certain lineups. Jameer in round 9 was considered but luckily I didn't choose that path as he went before my pick. In hindsight, I'm pretty happy with this pick. I needed the ast% and it was nice to add some defense to the backcourt. Not sure who I would have ended up with if I passed on Rondo. Tim Hardaway again in the 12th? I think I need to seriously reconsider the PG position in Savage and AST% in general. I've convinced myself I need a certain amount, yet I see other teams doing just fine with lower AST% then I would consider. Just off the top of my head, my concern for AST% at backup PG has led to me picking Rondo(twice), Jose Calderon, Ty Lawson, Darrell Armstrong, Tim Hardaway and probably another scrub or two who shouldn't be drafted.

9. Clifford Ray

Oh **** you dbkc! The one time I really want to use Reggie Miller. Ah well, I still have J.R. and Buddy available. And I definitely need to grab some more PF mins here anyway. I feel comfortable grabbing Przybilla in the 11th, but Ray has more mins and I feel like I'm gonna need them all(I did). I think I might regret this pick the most. I could have locked up Buddy or J.R. here and used my last two picks on Przybilla and another boarder at PF. Kermit could have easily shifted to SF to cover the other mins I needed there.

10. Bob Lanier

3 spots left and I still need my backup to Klay and Shaq plus more mins at SF. I really like Lanier and Yao for C, J.R. and Buddy for SG, and Maxwell and Spoon for SF. But who will fall? I decided Spoon was most likely to make it back to me(correct) so it was between SG and C. Lanier is the best player but I need more mins at SG. I also notice gerry has picked J.R. the last 3 drafts. Would he really take him again?(yes dummy! this is the guy who takes Mark Price every single draft). In the end it came down to who I was more comfortable with as a 3rd option - Michael Redd or Cousins/Blake. I started talking myself into Redd(two really good seasons!) and decided Lanier was too good to pass up. His one really good season will back up 02-03 Shaq. I might even play some of that season at PF but the rest will strictly be Shaq backups.

11. Terrence Jones

Of course gerry takes J.R. again. And there goes Buddy too. Yao also went, and I'm sure Lanier would have as well. dbkc strikes again with Maxwell. But at least Spoon makes it back to me. However, I started searching for other options with decent defense and better efg than Spoon. Jones takes a hit on mins, defense and boards compared to Spoon but I was starting to like his fit on one of my teams and really liked his good 900 min season backing up 03-04 Marshall. The result is I now have to play one of the 48% efg Tyler's for 20mpg on one of my teams but I can live with that.

12. Michael Redd

Sigh...I should have picked Reggie/J.R./Buddy earlier. At least he has realllly low tov%.


I'm pretty excited about this team even though I feel it could end up failing miserably. It was always a risk starting with the Shaq/Klay/Nash trio(d/reb/pos flex) but I love the offensive upside of that inside out combo. You really can't play any kind of +/- defense on me. I thought I did a solid job of trying to add as much defense/boards as I could at the 3/4 while still maintaining a high efg. Unfortunately, I added waaaay too many towels. For a team that's gonna be mediocre to bad on the glass, that could be a death sentence. My hope is that Nash doesn't completely tank my defense and I'll be able to win the shooting battle most games. The good thing about my starting trio is that they are consistent across their 5 seasons which gave me the chance to build 5 teams capable of making the playoffs(or all finishing with 36-42 wins if things go bad). I did beef up a bit on the teams with 99-00 and 00-01 Shaq. I'm hoping they can compete for a title.

What is your adjusted creb sitting at for most teams?

starting lineups are probably around 35/85...little better when one of the 3 ray seasons are in

7) - Kevin Johnson - Traditionally, the 7th round is where I always quit looking to see who is best for my team and I start looking around to see who I can screw over. Who needs a point guard with at least five seasons of 25% assists? Ah, there he is, dh555! Sorry dude. It's like when you're playing Ticket To Ride and you don't really need that New Orleans to Miami track, but your brother does so you take it. TAKE THAT TIM! THAT'S FOR HITTING ME IN THE HEAD WITH A HAMMER WHEN I WAS SIX YEARS OLD!

youre killing me here tim...should have been a nicer brother and maybe i get kj

that hammer hit might explain some of these midge jokes tho

And now for the segment literally nobody was waiting for... " 'Splain yourself, Ash!"

Before we get started, please keep in mind that my goal this draft was to make simple selections where I wouldn't have so much of a jigsaw puzzle to put together post draft.


Round 1 - Nikola Jokic
I landed the the 21st draft slot. Seeing as there were 20 guys I wanted to build around and that Jethro was one of the 20 guys drafting ahead of me, I was confident I'd land one. Then he had to go and make an actual sensible selection in the admirable Admiral, and I'm sitting here with a thumb up my ***. Nobody sitting there looked like who I wanted to build a team around, as literally everybody there looked exactly like someone I could get just a few picks later. I believe I once said something like, "I don't think I could ever take someone with sub 40 defense in the first three rounds of the Savage draft, and absolutely NEVER would take one in round 1."


Round 2 - Ben Wallace
There are four guys I can pair with Jokic on the turn to cover his defense that I wouldn't mind having, and if all four got taken, there are plenty of guys who would work at the top of round 3. Hakeem & Duncan got taken, so it was really between Big Ben, Bill Russell, or picking a guard, which I traditionally want to do (I hate going big/big or guard/guard in the first two rounds). I liked plenty of the guards available, but I liked absolutely none of them enough to use a top 30 pick on. All were guys I'd like around 40. Jokic's defense - or lack therof - seemed like a priority, so it's between Ben & Bill. Bill has more minutes and would allow me to virtually never worry about drafting another power forward, but his efg% is just rancid at best. Ben has the two bad efg% seasons, but has one okay and two actually not that bad ones. Bill has none of the aforementioned stuff, and once you adjust for usage & minute inflation, I think Ben has the better Salary per minute. I've used him twice before, so I know exactly how to float his seasons around to get the most out of the squad, so let's do it.



Round 3 - Walt Frazier
It was between three guys here: Frazier, Kyrie, and Larry Nance. I liked Nance the best out of the three, but I absolutely could not put off getting my first guard any longer. I liked Kyrie better than Frazier, but with Jokic playing so few minutes, I didn't want to immediately grab another high usage guy that basically only plays a little more than half the game. Also, I figured it'd be easier to grab middling defense usage later than it would be to get superior defense for five seasons, though I'm pretty sure I could have had Butler, Moncrief, or Alvin Robertson in rounds 4 or 5 without a problem looking back. If I had known that then, and known that I'd land Kemba as late as I did, I would have gone Kyrie. But 4x 90 & 1x 100 defense from Clyde with 3 seasons of 53%+ efg and the other two at 51%+ combined with the ast% & threes I'm getting from Jokic... I can't be mad at it.



Round 4 - Derrick Favors
Remember when I said this earlier?

please keep in mind that my goal this draft was to make simple selections where I wouldn't have so much of a jigsaw puzzle to put together post draft.

Enter Favors. I loved exactly zero people available at the positions I had open. Well, that's not true, but I wasn't about to spend a 6th round pick on any of them much less a fourth. I knew I could get 2-3 starting seasons out of him at either the 3, and his two Pelican seasons as a Big work perfectly behind Jokic/Big Ben. I think he was the top adjusted salary per minute player on my board for five seasons (Mitchell Robinson for three) at this point, and I just so love dicking around with spreadsheets post draft. I'll behave after this, though! No other weird positional pieces!!


5. Jason Tatum
He is 100% at point guard for two seasons. He can't even play any guard a third. Those three seasons are all tier 1 or 2 usage... how 'bout a fourth season where he's only tier 4 usage? This... this just got complicated in a hurry. I need everything he gives me, though, and I have the same problem I had six picks ago: Nobody I like is worth drafting this high.


6. Carlos Boozer
I wanted Domantas Sabonis to back up Jokic, as he has a lot of similarities. He was gone. Boozer, someone I've drafted in round 4 of this very league, was here in round 6. I'm literally never going to get a better backup for three seasons, much less five, and I have a gut feeling that Amerk takes him if I don't pull the trigger. Who needs starting shooting guards and small forwards, anyway?!


7. Brandan Wright
Lot of high value, low minute dudes went in round 6... which makes sense. I think that at this point, Brandan was the highest adjusted per minute player available, and it wasn't even close. He only plays about 5k minutes, but it's an incredible 5k minutes. I'm getting really concerned about the usage puzzle I'm creating for myself, though.


8. Kemba Walker
Again, if I had known I'd get him here, I'd have taken Kyrie earlier and many things would be different. Still, he actually is a great backup for those two Tatum seasons that are 100% at point guard, not to mention he gives me a backup for Frazier all five seasons. Threes & usage with surprisingly not terrible defense and boards and absolutely outstanding tov% ... he fixes a ton of problems. I am worried that I'm going to have to start him a couple of seasons at this point, though, as I am still several thousand minutes short at small forward and let's not even ******* start talking about shooting guard!


9. A.C. Green
Did I mention that I am super short on shooting guard minutes? I am. The two best guys I have on the board at this point are Cedric Maxwell & A.C. Green. Maxwell can even play the 2 some seasons, but he doesn't give me any threes while playing meh defense and dear god, look at the turnovers. Green, on the other hand, is incredibly clean and has that one season absolutely worth starting. I still have a good 30+ shooting guards on the board that I'm confident I can get two of, so let's just ignore that SG problem for a while longer.



10. Jamario Moon
So, umm, yeah. That list of 30+ SGs? My top two are still there. Moon fits in perfectly with that weird Tatum season that doesn't play shooting guard, giving me excellent defense & rebounding while playing incredibly clean and not getting in the way with usage. He has another season that will get some spot minutes, but honestly, just that one season was enough here. I'm suddenly feeling much better. It pays to ignore your problems.


11. Miles Bridges
The last piece to the puzzle falls in. I needed a tier 3 usage SG season & another higher efg SG season where usage didn't matter as much. This fellow, while not exactly an upstanding citizen, just makes everything click together so well. Nick Anderson and a plethora of other guys were on the list, but I really thought I needed that tier 3 usage season, and it turns out I was right.


12. Rasheed Wallace
At this point, I'd like to have a PF with high defense to cover for Jokic/Boozer when Big Ben's not in the game for the 2-3 seasons I don't have Favors playing up front. I'm looking at Oliver Miller, Caldwell Jones, and someone else I can't remember... and 'Sheed. Sheed was the worst value overall & had the least amount of boards, but the 92 & 93 defense seasons were incredibly clean & gave me some threes as well. He has a tier 3 usage season at 100% SF that's as good or better than the 23.8% usage Favors, which lets me use him instead of one of the inferior Boozer seasons as Jokic's back-up... and yeah. Let's put it together & go play with the spreadsheets!


Conclusion
I set out to make a simple team with as few warts as possible. Honestly, I'm not sure I have any warts. The problem is, I'm not sure any of them are especially good at anything. They're clean, at least. Rob generally builds clean teams, and there might be one or two others that are better in either turnovers or fouls, but my five-team average is 12% tov & 16.7 fp48. Lowest being 11.6% & 15.5 and highest being 12.5% & 17.86.

Five team average of 71.5 defense when you selected Jokic as your first pick seems pretty stout, and that can go up to 72+ with rotation changes based on what's happening. Lowest is 70, highest is 74.6 (which can go up to almost 76, again, if I change a rotation).

efg% is a bit disappointing at 54.3%, but the worst 2 are 52.8% & 53.3% and the best 3 are all 55%+. The worst 2 go up significantly if I play Boozer more (but defense drops because then I don't always have a 92, 93, or 100 defender covering).

Assists 5ta is 64.1%, with 62% as the low & 67.8% as the high. Can drop as low as 59% if I want to crank up the defense & boards with rotational changes.

Rebounding is a bit low for my taste: 5ta is 131.1, but goes up or down depending on potential rotation changes. There's one team below 130 - it's 126.9% - and one at 134%. Pretty consistent between them, and again, I built these teams with certain thresholds in mind yet flexibility to crank up minutes for certain other guys if one thing isn't working.

Threes are satisfactory: 5ta of 561 with 500 the low & 657 the high.

Stocks are 17.7% 5ta.

I can't help but see the other things that people have posted and think I'm in that 6-10 range at best, but I'm hoping my attention to a lack of towels makes up for some of those super squads touting 57%+ efg, mid 70s defense, and 140% rebounding!

Oh, and my starting lineups are pretty stout themselves.

Posted by jcred5 on 2/8/2023 5:09:00 PM (view original):
Beloud:
Beloud is back from his Savage hiatus and takes Karl Malone, a little bit of slide with 16 being his lowest draft position in Savage. I don’t necessarily disagree with most of the picks before this, yet I still think he’s very good value. He doesn’t hurt you anywhere and is an advantage in passing, sometimes shooting with great TS%, solid D. I’ve always thought he was good to build around. He is a bit light on boards, but not so much so you can’t cover it elsewhere. At 16 I think he’s more appealing because you’re drafting a little earlier in the 2^nd and the player quality it there. In the second Whiteside immediately addresses Malone’s one mild weakness. Whiteside is light on minutes so you’ll have more work to do later, but minutes are rarely a problem in Savage. Good address pick, his defense is good to great and he score very effectively around the basket. Chauncey Billups in the third is another good pick. I think he’s the last pretty attractive PG left before you get into mostly partial seasons or PG with a lot of flaws (although my spreadsheet rates Mookie higher, but he routinely goes later). Billups gets you good to basic assists, good defense solid TO’s some shooting with good TS% and a lot of 3’s. Nikola Vucevic in the 4^th is interesting. I’d guess you’ll slide him next to Malone/Whiteside with their better defense. I had him last time with some success, great rebounder, super low TO’s, scores reasonably efficiently and good usage. Defense can be pretty bad, but if you put enough defenders around him he can be great. Great assists too. Love, love, LOVE the Marques Johnson pick. I’ve wanted to try him forever. He has a great SF season, another good one and some SG seasons that are better than his draft position would suggest. His creb of 30 seasons at SF with the good D is great, his top season is a bit weak on boards but scores very effectively and still good D. And his 3 SG seasons are really good. Low TO’s across the board.
Chris Boucher is a stud when he plays with limited minutes. I sometimes think of partial minutes players like this: “where would Marques Johnson be drafted if you stacked Chris Boucher’s minutes on top of him”. I think the answer is the second or first round. When you think of it that way. Point being is the quality of Boucher is so high when you add it to a good/very good player to lock up a position, very high value IMO. Then Bobby Portis, I won’t re-hash my last point, just emphasize it here. Beloud’s 5^th, 6^th, and 7^th round picks probably give him the best 48 minutes at SF in the league. I’ll double check to make sure that’s not BS…. Just checked. Ok, Rob has Giannis and Marion and that’s better. But those are 1^st and 2^nd rounders. It’s the lateness here that’s impressive. I’m gushing because I’ve always felt the inefficiency at SF that you can do just what Beloud did here while focusing on the guards and front court earlier. I always get sucked into Bird, Nance or Jones… for good reason. Dejounte Murray has one impressive season with boards and assists that I think is an upgrade over one of Billups lower defense season. He maybe able to back up another season or two. Similar to Murray, Lonzo Ball offers plus rebounds and can play with or behind Billups. Good value with both these guards. Marcus Smart give some defensive options, with the number of guards you have it looks like you’ll have the option to go with him periodically over other guys if you need the defensive bump over passing, rebounds and shooting. JaMychal Green is another high performing SF in small doses. I’d have thought you’d have cornered the market on them already, but guessing you need a few more minutes. Beloud rounds it with Shai Gilgeous – Alexander. He’ll probably be used sparingly but is pretty effective when he’s in there. Nice 23 season coming…

Final thoughts: Walking through each pick I had a hard time finding a bad pick. Then I looked at the whole picture and I like this team a lot, what I didn’t initially notice is that you have Malone, Whiteside and Vucevic as what I’d call primary front court players. And that Vucevic will play all or most of those minutes. And I certainly mentioned my love of the small forward, but on the whole the team is a bit light on defense. You’ll often have Vucevic, sometimes with an average defending SF and ok to good SG defense. And Billups is pretty good, but he’s not a 90-100 guy. Otherwise there is a lot to like. Very good rebounding, good shooting, clean team.
Draft Grade: A-
Best value pick: Marques Johnson
Head scratching pick: Marcus Smart. I know I mentioned defense, but I wonder if you could have grabbed that Larry Sanders season or some other front court defense insurance.
Projection: right now 3rd

Thanks for the eval, jcred. I love that projection! Makes me feel a little better about my teams. These are my 5-team weighted averages:

115.8% usg, 54.0% efg, 67.4% ast, 11.7% tov, 632 3pm, 66.4 def, 132.3% cReb, 18.8 pf/48, 76.9% FT, 58.1% ts

Looks to me like a team that could have some nice regular season win totals but will probably struggle if/once they get to the playoffs. The defense (66.4) will likely hold me back. Plenty of usage and hopefully your theory proves true. Efg is lower than I wanted but hopefully the low tov% will help get me more shot attempts.

Posted by robusk on 2/9/2023 1:56:00 PM (view original):

Posted by PBandJ on 2/9/2023 1:50:00 PM (view original):

Posted by robusk on 2/9/2023 1:16:00 PM (view original):

Posted by Midge on 2/9/2023 12:17:00 PM (view original):

Posted by robusk on 2/9/2023 10:41:00 AM (view original):
All right, while I am stuck quarantining in a hotel in the most awful city in America, it was a fun morning to catch up between WILD NBA trades and WIS forums.

Can you post your list of the ten worst cities in America?

For the purposes of this list I will define a city as over 300k people:
1. Jacksonville
2. Indianapolis
3. Oklahoma City
4. Fresno
5. Tampa
6. Wichita
7. Bakersfield
8. Sacramento
9. Tulsa
10. El Paso

Honorable mention: Stockton, Henderson, Mesa

Your spot Houston would be high simply because its sprawl and commitment to poor transportation infrastructure is almost unprecedented. But its food and multiculturalism save it.

Source: I’m in consulting and have had to travel extensively in that role for 13 years. I’ve lived in 3 other countries, have lived in 12 states and have spent at least a full night and day in every state except for Alaska.

Criteria:
- sprawl/density ratio
- effective transportation planning
- food
- diversity
- climate
- proximity to areas of interest
- cultural relevance
- Is or is not Tampa

This list is missing Memphis and Birmingham.

I can't agree more with this list, but I may have rotated Sacto and El Paso to the 11 and 12. Tampa should've been higher.

Mesa's proximity to Pizzeria Bianco and Scottsdale helps it.

Tampa is awful (see the last item in the criteria). I don't hate Memphis. The downtown is cool. It rates highly in food, diversity, cultural relevance and not being Tampa for me. Plus they are at least trying to do useful things to tackle homelessness and food inequity in a positive way. Birmingham didn't make the population cutoff.

I was just in Scottsdale two weeks ago and ate at Pizzeria Bianco twice. Check at Arcosanti next time you are in the area if you get a chance. It is a cool place to kill a few hours.

Tampa is #2 on my list. Of course I have a couple other things in my criteria.

Thanks for the heads up on Arcosanti. I was always a big Olive and Ivy fan in Scottsdale, but I just loved all of the art galleries and culture in that area. That was a huge plus for me.

The teams are IN!

Explain yourself...

I have some serious imposter syndrome going on here. I don't quite believe all this exists, but you 40 or so nerds prove it to be so. I know I'm not giving the process enough time, that's for sure. But I do love it so I give it what I can. Just for context, most picks were made with about 15 min or so of thought. I'm definitely quitting some of these more random leagues so I can spend more time on this obsessive sh@t. Without further adieu...here's my lukewarm offering...

I saw I got the 19 pick. Oh, snap, I got to take Bird at 19. Just like jcred. He won the whole thing picking Brid at 19. Sweet. I'll just copy him! This is going to be straightforward. It's a cheap move, but whatever. Bird and Dr. J and Mutombo and Vuc...Got it...oh, Dr, J got picked? Oh. Oscar is the closest thing to Dr. J that I can see, but I can't see very far. And that's sad, since Oscar is obviously NOT Dr. J. Copying jcred is harder than I thought it would be.

Next pick I'm thinking I need low usage defense and rebounding. If there's one thing I think I've learned in these leagues, it's efg% and rebounding and defense...and don't turn it over...and shoot the 3...and don't commit too many fouls...get your usage dialed in...it appears there are many things to consider. So I take Camby.

Now I'm scared that I got three guys who don't have great efg%, and I know efg% matters a lot...so John Collins it is (Again, jcred's pick, Vuc, is not available. At this point I finally become rooted in reality and accept that I will not be copying jcred, since the only thing I have in common with him after four rounds is Larry Legend).

Next is lots of fear that I'll be too small and I won;t have enough efg%. Enter Javale McGee. Seems sweet.

Wait, do I have enough usage? I never really know. Should I reread Ash's post about usage? I think I remember him saying something about more usage is better, even though that ran counter to his hypothesis. Where did I save those usage tiers? Is is 22.7% and 32%? I don't quite know, but life is a good part art, right? Here's some art. I'm not going to spend the 6 minutes finding the info. Art, yo.

I take Brad Beal for clean usage and hope it's not a mistake. On a separate note, will I ever get to really tell my wife about this hobby? (She knows what I'm doing, but doesn't care much. It could be worse, bur we're not talking shop at the dinner table).

Oh, no, defense....John Henson. He plays D. Next!

Speaking of defense, I want more at G, especially since I just took Beal. I also want more 3's. a 3 and D guy, I guess you'd call him. Pat Beverley seems reasonable.

Except I have no interior scoring. I need a big who can score with high EFG and decent usage. Rebounds would be nice, too. Muresan feels like just what I need, but I'm sure I've already made enough subtle mistakes to hamstring this team into the middle of the pack. Also taking Muresan just feels wrong. I don't want that goofy energy, but what can I do? It's him or Yao, and they're both goofy. I'll get over it.

Hield, Sanders, Battier - Hield is my Beal handcuff and the guy who guarantees I don't end up thinking "I wish I had more usage and scoring." Sanders is just anxiety about my lack of defense. Battier is glue and 3's and D and positional flexibility. Did I mention the imposter syndrome?

Love this league the most. Not even close. Cheers, everybody!

Will