Posted by jcred5 on 2/7/2023 8:07:00 PM (view original):
Jhsukow
Great start with Chris Paul. I think 11 has value as I have him rated a little higher. Great PG’s are hard to come by and CP has no flaws, unless you want to say light on rebounds – but that’s not a weakness, just not a strength. Karl Anthony Towns was a little bit of a surprise here to me, but there is a lot to like with his incredibly efficient scoring, great boards, some passing, solid TO’s and 3’s. Of course the challenge is his D and that’s why he’s not a first round pick. But you have real good D with Chris Paul and plenty of picks to go. I confess I haven’t looked closely at Horace Grant in a while, never seemed to be in my range. He’s great. I didn’t scout every single season, but I trust you’ll get the 5 best whether he’s at 99 or 98% SF. Good D, solid scoring and boards and real low TO’s. Great first 3 with Rob level low TO’s. Pau Gasol in the 4th I kind of like, but mostly worry about the interior defense. Gasol is a great innings eater where he doesn’t hurt you anywhere and that’s nice to have in general, especially in the 4th round. The only concern being those two guys on the floor at the same time. But maybe Gasol spends a good amount of time behind Towns who often is light on minutes.
Otto Porter/Jr. is a real good value pick that fits well beside Chris Paul. Good 3 and D with rebounds. Very clean as well. Batum is a great pairing with him. Gives you many of the same traits as Porter just less so. I always think Tobias Harris can play D until I look him up. He’s rated really low, maybe too much time under Doc Rivers. Great rebounder, shoots 3’s and passes a little with super low TO’s. Josh looks like he’s going for the low turnover title. Old man Sabonis is a good guy behind Towns. I like all that he does at this point in the draft but wish he played better D. Grant Hill I bet fills in behind Horace Grant. I like the idea of him filling the counting stats categories off the bench. Mel Daniels has a couple good seasons you can plug him in. Derrick Rose has some nice later career seasons to provide usage off the bench and Przbilla will crash the boards – good value in the 12th.
Final thoughts: This is a tough one. I really like most of these players and the CP, Towns, Grant start is great. I worry about the overall defense. But, I’m not exactly a Savage historian but usually the most successful teams have to sacrifice something. Sometimes it’s rebounds, or top notch shooting or scraping by with barely enough assists. I don’t recall if someone has gotten by with what I think is average or a bit below average D. But this team could. You will have a TON more possessions than your opponents with your crazy low TO’s and you should out-rebound your opponents. Fouls are good too. So maybe you can win a lot even if your teams out-shoot you. I’m excited to find out.
Draft Grade: B+
Best value pick: Could be Chris Paul, but I’ll say Otto Porter
Head scratching pick: Tobias Harris
Projection: 5ish, no worse than 10
Chris Paul 172 glorious minutes. THRILLED to get him.
KAT 167 minutes. It puts me in a huge hole defensively that I never actually addressed.
Grant 147 minutes. Great pick. Very happy.
Gasol 168 minutes. More of an innings eater than an actual stud. Keeps it clean, though.
OPJ 127, which is more minutes than I realized at the time. Very happy still.
Batum 97, which is less minutes than I realized at the time. Very happy still.
Tobias Harris 104. A lot of great things...here comes the defensive issues again...I'm sure I'll figure it out. (I won't)
Things are about to go...pretty bad.
Sabonis. TWENTY-ONE minutes. This should have been Oladipo. Starting to panic...
Grant Hill. THIRTY-EIGHT minutes. It should have been David West or Bob Lainer....
Settle down. Breath.
Mel Daniels. 73 minutes. Happy to get him, but wow. Lanier was right there, YOU FOOL!
Rose. 35 minutes. We have enough passing on the team to take Chris Paul out and still run some unconventional things. Grant Hill at 97%PG and Tobias Harris, but Rose was a solid pick. Maybe it should have been Ron Harper. Not going to beat myself up.
Pryzbilla. 51 minutes. More useful than I realized.
Weighted across 5 worlds, tov% is 11.58. This is the identity. Top 10 is the goal.