Posted by jcred5 on 2/9/2023 8:55:00 AM (view original):
Steelers821
Welcome Steelers! You’re in a good drafting spot at 23, excited to see what you do with it. You start off by nailing down assists with John Stockton. Once thought of as a gem, people now focus on his TO% (fairly so) and his lack of rebounding for a 1st round pick. Those criticisms are fair, but the shooting is very good and assists is one category that one player can be kind of a force multiplier. In that Stockton allows you to take guys at SG and certainly front court that others might have to wait on. You can use that to your advantage, that’s the value of Stockton. In the second round you take the guy you should have take in the first round! No worries, Duncan in the second is a steal. Love Duncan in this format I considered him over KG. Great rebounds, good TO’s, passing and solid rebounds. Hits every category. Manu Ginobili is a popular guy to spot start and back up. Solid player, doesn’t hurt you anywhere and maybe helps a little here or there. So early in the 3rd I’d have preferred something more bold. Nance, Frazier, Camby maybe Brand. But Manu is fine. Kenneth Faried is very effective at SF. Not the best defender but you’re doing well there otherwise. The rebounding helps as you’re a bit low in other spots. I like the Richaun Holmes pairing. Nice compliments and Holmes can score it with solid boards.
Wes Unseld at times can be a plus rebounder but with mediocre D. Other times he’s a good passer, but I’d focus on getting as much rebounding out of him as you can. Vince Carter is a great with Manu. He’ll do a lot of heavy lifting when Manu is out, pretty good D and super low TO guy. Gives you good usage when you starters come out. Charlie Ward can back up Stockton. Solid D and some passing and boards. TO’s are high but he’s fairly low usage. Anderson Varejao has a few nice seasons. Fairly good shooter and ok boards depending on the season. Good TO’s too. Zelmo Beaty, I’m guessing you don’t love all the Unseld seasons and Beaty fits in other spots. Or maybe is playing besides Duncan. He has a couple solid seasons with pretty good shooting and doesn’t hurt you elsewhere. Chris Bosh I’m less sure of. Possibly you’ll use his later career SF eligible seasons to help with Faried and Holmes. If so that’s a solid approach. Charlie Edge is a very good defender and rebounder in limited use.
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
Thanks Jcred I appreciate the eval! The Stockton pick I regret now especially seeing the point guards that went way later than I was expecting. Just seemed like it would be a good idea to get a guy who was a plus for 5 seasons in assists and efg.
so my bosh/Zelmo picks were because I got super nervous about who would backup Duncan considering his usage is necessary to my team. Zelmo has 2-3 decent seasons that are above 20%. Bosh was supposed to be a mix of a 3/4 depending on the season. I think he has some good options at both. Edge fills out whatever bosh can’t do at the 3.
overall a C seems right. I feel like (based of no experience at all) I made a bunch of decent picks that I can’t really hate but I did nothing that makes me think wow this will be hard to beat. I’m excited to learn this season. I went for a balanced approach which most likely means 5 28-40 win teams lol. I really don’t know if it would’ve been better to truly stack just a couple teams but with no experience I tend to just go with my gut.
excited to play with everyone here no matter the results. It’s awesome seeing basically 1440 different players being used by the top owners in the sim when normally in the other draft leagues you tend to see the same seasons get picked again and again.
good luck everyone!