Did you guys see Lillard last night?

Now owns the most efficient 60 point game and the most efficient 70 point game of all time. I wish the Blazers were better, I wish Olshey had done a better job with resource utilization over the last decade… but I wouldn’t trade getting to root for Dame for anything.

I don't follow him or the Blazers super close, but from the outside - so great to see him committed to the city and org. Rather than whateverthehell Kyrie and others are trying.

Eval grade is a way too early grade on my evaluation
Pbandj:
Final thoughts: In your second savage I like this team better. You made some nice improvements and while LeBron is great, it’s not easy to build a team having to wait so long on the 2^nd and 3^rd picks. I like you’re core of LeBron, Mutombo and Draymond and some of the pieces. Interested to see if you can make it work.
Draft Grade: C
Best value pick: LeBron!
Head scratching pick: Lavine
Projection: 12-15
Way too early eval grade: B. 19^th, but 3 team in the playoff hunt and a good PY
Chewy:
Final thoughts: I think there’s a lot to like. The only thing I wonder is if you end up with extra unused minutes could you have done more with the Lucas pick. That said, you have everything you need. I wouldn’t be surprised if this is your best finish and get a championship if you go for it with a team or two.
Draft Grade: B
Best value pick: Fat Lever
Head scratching pick: Jerry Lucas
Projections: top 10
Way too early eval grade: C+. Early, but I may have been too conservative on my love of this roster. 2^nd place with 5 in, great offense with solid D.

Ty84moss:
Final thoughts: Steph and Holiday is a fun start, but drafting 2 or 3 guards in the first 4 picks can make a tough build. I think the defense is lacking a bit and you’ll score and get boards, but I think you’re assists are a bit low as well.
Draft Grade: C-
Best value pick: Zubac
Head scratching pick: Jarrett Allen
Projection: In the 20’s
Way too early eval grade: C- 17^th with a good PY and 3 teams in the hunt. Really good offense, we’ll see if the defense can hold.
Jpevans31
Final thoughts: I like this team, not sure I love it. You can put a ton of D out there and try to win that way and opportunistically use guys like Barry, Bane and others. I don’t know if you have enough offense though to really challenge. Very interested to see the pieces put together
Draft Grade: B
Best value pick: Mookie
Head scratching pick: Kukoc
Projection: 8 – 12
Way too early eval grade: C+ 16^th place now, but I think this team may trend up. One of the best defenses in the league and the PY wins show some tough loses. Wouldn’t be surprised to see a surge out of conference.
Mr. Savage DH555
Final thoughts: The Klay and definitely Nash picks concerned me, but looking at the whole picture you have some good teams. The best of Shaq, Klay, Nash can seriously score and with the best of Donyell and Kermit/Clifford Ray could compete.
Draft Grade: C+
Best value pick: Donyell Marshall
Head scratching pick: Nash
Projection: 10 - 15
Way too early eval grade:
B+ 14^th Offense is great, defense is not. I’ll be curious if there are any roster changes the commish can make to tweak that D….
Rob
Final thoughts: We are in trouble. This is a very well drafted team. I think he can go 5 wide and get all the teams in and still compete for multiple championships.
Draft Grade: A
Best value pick: Stoudemire
Head scratching pick: I guess Iguodala
Projection: 1^st
Way too early eval grade: A+ we’re still screwed. Seems like the division draw was tough and still at the top. 5 in and great defense with what seems like enough offense. We’ll see if anyone can keep it interesting.
Gerryred
Final thoughts: This is a well put together team. You have good, not great D and pretty good scoring for your starters. Some interesting bench guys. I wouldn’t be surprised if this is one of your best outings.
Draft Grade: B
Best value pick: Moncrief
Head scratching pick: Maybe Poeltl
Projection: 5 – 10
Way too early eval grade: B Hanging in there at 10. Offense is doing pretty well, defense is hanging on. 4 teams in right now is a good sign.
Jethroeg
Final thoughts: Started out pretty good but the pieces around Robinson, Pippen and Williams could struggle. I think you’ll turn over the ball a lot and miss some shots. Defense is pretty good, but I don’t think enough to overcome it.
Draft Grade: D+
Best value pick: Maurice Lucas
Head scratching pick: Drexler
Projection: 20’s
Way too early eval grade:
C+ 18^th right now with a couple teams hanging in there around .500. Defense is pretty good, we’ll see what out of conference holds
Midge:
Final thoughts: Good draft with some nice players. Very good first 4 picks and lots of options with the guys you took through. I don’t know how many teams you’ll get in, may depend on the SF/PF combo’s with Brand, Love and Bridges. These teams could be real good.
Draft Grade: B+
Best value pick: Bill Bridges
Head scratching pick: Kevin Love
Projection: 5-10
Way too early eval grade: C- 15^th but I’m not giving up hope yet. Didn’t look at the div draw, maybe it’s tough. Two pretty good teams that could make a playoff run to rack up points later.
Albiband0
Final thoughts: Some fun players and an interesting start with Barkley and Kidd, but I think you’ll have a hard time getting stops.
Draft Grade: C-
Best value pick: McDyess
Head scratching pick: Middleton
Projection: 15-20
Way too early eval grade:
C 24^th I was on track with the defense, expected a bit more form the offense. We’ll see what happens out of conference
Jhsukow
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
Way too early eval grade: D Ouch. 21^st right now. Hopefully a really tough div draw. The defense is struggling as I worried. Does have one strong team so if the others can bump up and that one team can win a chip…. We’ll see.
24kpyrite
Final thoughts: I like a lot of this team. I wonder if you could have gotten enough usage to maximize Lillard with someone like Danny Green, Covington or Porter besides Lillard and improved your D. But you got that late with other players and have options now with Luka. I wanted to love this team, then with Luka I was a little worried, then I think I went back to loving it seeing how you rounded out late.
Draft Grade: B+
Best value pick: McAdoo
Head scratching pick: Luka
Projection: 5-10
Way too early eval grade: B 3^rd place with two teams in real good shape and 3 hovering at .500. Strong offense, defense hanging in there. PY wins suggests some good fortune, but a long way to go.
dBKC
Final thoughts: This is a real good team. Might be the best I’ve seen built around Durant if you don’t let Westbrook muck it up too much. Good D, scoring and strong boards. TO’s can be a bit high but you can’t have everything.
Draft Grade: A-
Best value pick: Ben Simmons
Head scratching pick: Westbrook
Projection: top 5
Way too early eval grade: B 7^th place, 2 games back of 3^rd. It’s so early. Good defense, solid offense. Going through a tough streak now 20-30 in last 50. It happens to pretty much everyone even great teams and champs. Would be surprised to see a surge out of conference.
Benhoidal
Final thoughts: This team make a lot of sense seeing the whole draft. Grab a bunch of usage early, put efficient McHale around them and then grab a ton of flexible rebounders, defenders who shoot very high and have low TO’s. Impressive draft, admire the strategy. I tend to be so precision focused on team and position slotting.
Draft Grade: A+
Best value pick: Looney, Davis and Vanderbilt
Head scratching pick: It was West, but seeing the whole picture I’ll say Oakley
Projection: a close 2^nd. As mentioned I’m projecting as I go and may revisit. I still like Rob’s team a little more at this point.
Way too early eval grade: B One team is killing Ben, not sure if that was by design. It’s probably throwing off the PY wins to make it seems like a fall in the standings is coming for ben. That team is giving up over 113pp100 and throwing off the overall D. I still think a lot of these teams are real good, but it puts a lot of pressure for those teams to do really well if one is a clunker.
Raggedclaws
Final thoughts: This is a good team. There’s some good piece, efficient team with enough passing. Good bench/later round guys. Maybe a little light on defense and rebounding, but not glaringly so. These teams should do well.
Draft Grade: B
Best value pick: Horford
Head scratching pick: Hayward
Projection: 5-10
Way too early eval grade: B Strong start in 5^th place. D is real good, offense great. A lot to like here.
Beloud:
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
Way too early eval grade: C I still like these teams, couple are struggling a few games under .500. Defense is ok, but not great and maybe not good. We’ll see what out of conference shows.
Jkaye24
Final thoughts: I’m not sure this will be one of jk’s best outings. I like Jordan, Magic and Ewing, but after that I thought you maybe didn’t maximize what those players can do. Some good players that I don’t know fit optimally. DeAndre and Ewing are supe low assists, so I can see the appeal of Lowry with his 3’s, assists and rebounds. I’d have liked Hardaway or Mookie if you wanted assists.
Draft Grade: C
Best value pick: Ewing
Head scratching pick: Lowry
Projection: 15-20
Way too early eval grade:
C 11^th place with real good D and 3 teams in. Two teams are real strong, another close. Think I under estimated jk and Jordan.
Jcred5
Final thoughts: KG was a little tougher build than I thought. Really, it’s more the draft position. And who’s there on the next pick and so on. Wade is good, but probably not the best pair with KG. They’re kind of redundant, not as complimentary. Nance is good and I’ll have really good D but I don’t think it’s enough shooting. I did go heavy on usage and I’m curious what impact that has on shooting. Never heard if this has been proven, but I’ve always suspected that you can get a little shooting bump taking less shots than IRL.
Draft Grade: B+
Best value pick: Nance
Head scratching pick: Willis Reed. Be more daring!
Projection: 5-10
Way too early eval grade: B hanging in at 6. One team is hurting me and I need to find a way for it to be at least close to .500. I feel like my divisions are mostly strong, my out of division record is pretty good so hoping that holds out of conference. But the grass is always greener this early. I tried leaning into more usage and assists with D rather than focusing so heavily on TS (Wade, KG). Not sure how well that’s going to work.
Berkelon
Final thoughts: 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: B
Best value pick: Camby
Head scratching pick: Bradley Beal
Projection: 10-15
Way too early eval grade: D+ tough start at 22^nd. I thought the D would be a bit better, not yet though. No teams in yet is a concern.
edsortails
Final thoughts: Kawhi has been successful and you certainly started with a player who can add a lot when on the court. There are players here I like such as Gilmore, Deron and Zion, but it’s the fit I don’t love. I mentioned the TOWELS concern, not sure if your mostly very good defense can overcome that.
Draft Grade: C-
Best value pick: Troy Murphy
Head scratching pick: Kawhi ?? McGrady
Projection: 15-20
Way too early eval grade: B 13^th place most teams are right down the middle. I sense the division draw was tough so could see a surge out of conference.
Ashamael
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
Way too early eval grade: A 8^th place. Good offense, good defense, well built teams. Only 3 in but I wouldn’t be surprised if it gets to 4, maybe 5. The Pranksters are the worst team but that division is pretty weak and may be able to sneak it in or at least a good record.
Amerk:
Final thoughts: I really like how you started this, a bit non traditionally. I was with you until Dirk. Still kind of like this team. You could certainly load up and go for a championship. Some kinda sorta good rotation guys. Very interested to see what you make of it.
Draft Grade: C+
Best value pick: Theo Ratliff
Head scratching pick: Dirk
Projection: 10-15
Way too early eval grade: D 23^rd. Somehow your rebounds are only a little better than average. I guess if you go with a lot of Dirk that can hold back others. Offense is hurt by lack of passing. Hopefully brighter days ahead…
Steelers821
Final thoughts: Nice job for your first time. The Stockton pick isn’t popular, but as I said if you use him right it can be effective. Not sure you totally did that, but you got some valuable guys along the way.
Draft Grade: C
Best value pick: Holmes
Head scratching pick: Zelmo
Projection: 15-20
Way too early eval grade: D 9^th place, strong start with good offense and defense. Two worst teams 1 game under .500, very good sign.
20ks
Final thoughts: I’m not exactly a Savage historian, but it wouldn’t surprise me if this is the best defensive team ever in terms of all 5. Some one can keep me honest. It falls off in the later rounds of course but that’s to be expected. Vaguely similar to my team, but better I think. Doubling down on defense and hoping you can make enough shots.
Draft Grade: A-
Best value pick: Dalembert
Head scratching pick: Noel
Projection: 15-20
Way too early eval grade: D+ 20^th D+ for me because I gave a draft grade of A- and a projection of 15-20 which does not add up. Hakeem, Doc and Bobby Jones are helping with a pretty good defensive team. Offense needs to get it going.

Posted by jcred5 on 2/23/2023 10:46:00 AM (view original):
Also, it's early. Again off memory but the league seems to be shooting better too. average is about 56%TS. My team was doing so bad with rebounds on a couple teams that I pivoted and gave KG and Willis Reed SF mins at like 94% just to get a boost.

	PPG	DReb%	OReb%	CReb%	A/G	TS%	eFG%	F/G	TO%	3PM
S4-S9 AVG	120.7	73.2%	26.7%	99.9%	32.8	56.1%	52.9%	19.0	14.8%	513
S10	121.0	73.3%	26.7%	100.0%	32.7	55.8%	52.5%	19.0	14.8%	532	(3s forecasted)

CREB should always average 100 but general rounding issues on the S4-S9 averages.

Love the re-eval jcred!

I’m pleasantly surprised with not having any bad teams (as of now) I feel like if manu and VC could play better on pretty much all of my teams that might even make some of my teams good lol.

Posted by steelers821 on 2/27/2023 11:50:00 AM (view original):
I’m pleasantly surprised with not having any bad teams (as of now) I feel like if manu and VC could play better on pretty much all of my teams that might even make some of my teams good lol.

I have had them multiple times each... they are good as they are supposed to be but not as good as you want them to be.

great stuff jcred...thanks for taking the time

you were spot on with my team...unfortunately i dont think theres a move out there to save my 3 ****** teams...at this point im just hoping one of my two good teams can win a chip and save this savage season for me

Posted by robusk on 2/27/2023 11:34:00 AM (view original):

Posted by jcred5 on 2/23/2023 10:46:00 AM (view original):
Also, it's early. Again off memory but the league seems to be shooting better too. average is about 56%TS. My team was doing so bad with rebounds on a couple teams that I pivoted and gave KG and Willis Reed SF mins at like 94% just to get a boost.

	PPG	DReb%	OReb%	CReb%	A/G	TS%	eFG%	F/G	TO%	3PM
S4-S9 AVG	120.7	73.2%	26.7%	99.9%	32.8	56.1%	52.9%	19.0	14.8%	513
S10	121.0	73.3%	26.7%	100.0%	32.7	55.8%	52.5%	19.0	14.8%	532	(3s forecasted)

Guess not! Numbers seem pretty much spot on

So Damian Lillard scores 71 points and right after the game the NBA made him take a drug test. It seems to me that they should have drug tested the Rockets we were (or were not) guarding him.

Posted by Midge on 2/27/2023 6:08:00 PM (view original):
So Damian Lillard scores 71 points and right after the game the NBA made him take a drug test. It seems to me that they should have drug tested the Rockets we were (or were not) guarding him.

Yeah but we drafted Jabari because we needed a defensive specialist.

Posted by PBandJ on 2/27/2023 7:49:00 PM (view original):

Posted by Midge on 2/27/2023 6:08:00 PM (view original):
So Damian Lillard scores 71 points and right after the game the NBA made him take a drug test. It seems to me that they should have drug tested the Rockets we were (or were not) guarding him.

Yeah but we drafted Jabari because we needed a defensive specialist.

The wrap on Jabari was that most of his offensive issues in college were due to auburn having 2 ball hog guards that didn’t know how to pass. Everyone was certain he’d have a better situation in the nba. I guess everyone forgot green and Porter existed.

Chewy is dominating Poss Diff at +6. Next best is only +2.4.