Seano

Hahaha. :dancer: Yes Diesel, I knew you were going to be one of those teams looking for a PG, so if I took your guy, then great! :taunt: The good news is that there are still a ton of good players out there still, point guards or otherwise. That makes it really hard to decide on who to draft, cause there are a bunch of players that I'd love to have on my team.

Thanks, man. Yeah, it was hard though, cause there were other players I was considering that weren't PG's that I really had to debate as to whom I should take. I wanted to secure the point position though for sure, cause I think there are at least 3 teams in the top 8 that still need a PG, and I knew Conley was not going to make it through that gauntlet without somebody grabbing him. It made it easier though since Kris Humphries was off the board, cause then I'd have had a REAL internal debate on my hands. :)

Ok, thanks for the heads-up on my pick, fellas. With this pick I would like to choose Mike Conley. This guy's already a solid NBA PG and only 23 years old, so plenty of room for further upside potential in my opinion. The things I like about him are that he is a 'true' PG, sort of the quarterback on the floor type PG looking to distribute and facilitate first as opposed to being a shoot first PG, which I'm not a huge fan of those types. Give me an old school PG any day of the week, and that would be Conley. He's also durable as hell, playing in 82, 80, and 81 games the past three seasons. He carries an excellent 3-1 assist to turnover ratio, he's a shooter who's not going to kill you when he does shoot the ball (.441 career FG%, .380 3 point FG%, and 76% FT shooter), good for almost 2 steals per game and he's a solid on-ball defender. That would give me: Conley- PG Wade- SG Undrafted- SF Aldridge- PF Nene- C

Javale would be sweet. Between he and Smoove, they'd probably average out to around 4-5 blocked shots per game. But I don't know why Washington would trade him to us, and even if they did- judging by what they got from us in the Hinrich trade, maybe we shouldn't be dealing with the Wiz?

Teams so far: jy21- Lebron, Gay, Ibaka Dieselputer- Dwight, ZBo, Eric Gordon sultanofatl- Durant, Bynum, Igoudala capstone21- Deron, Pau, Granger Whassuphawks- Kobe, Bogut, Ty Lawson AHF- Chris Paul, Chris Bosh, Greg Monroe Supporter- DRose, DeMarcus Cousins, James Harden Nicholasp27- Blake Griffin, Tyreke Evans, OJ Mayo Seano- Wade, Aldridge, Nene 01d0rd3r- Rondo, Marc Gasol thatsmydawg- John Wall, Al Jefferson ngc7- Horford, Noah coachx- Westbrook, Love alejandro09- Dirk, Jrue Holliday TRUEINTELLECTPLAYA- Carmelo, Brook Lopez Colin- A'mare, Steph Curry IHeartAtlanta- Monta Ellis, Joe Johnson Nice looking teams shaping up so far, and still a long way to go!

Well this was kind of tough cause there were a few players I was considering, but I'm gonna go with the big Brazilian here, Nene Hilario. He fits the bill for a quality big and in my opinion he's a value here. He doesn't average a lot of blocks, but his post defense is more than solid and he is unafraid of playing physically and mixing it up out there, which is good. For a very large human being, he has got a high energy level. He led the league in FG% again this season at .615 (career .563 FG%), and in he, Wade and Aldridge I've got three players who each shot over 50% from the field. Anyway, he's not really all that glamorous, but Nene can hold his own on either end of the floor against any C in the league. Plus he was born on my birthday, so he's got that going for him too, and no way was I going to pass on Nene. :biggrin:

Good luck in basic. I wouldn't worry about any Bynum trade, as the Lakers have quashed any talk of moving him. They nipped those rumors right in the bud and in no uncertain terms. Assuming they can be taken at face value, then Bynum is going nowhere, at least until Dwight Howard hits the open market. At that time, he'd make an attractive piece to add to a possible trade for Dwight.

Dang, you guys don't miss a beat! Great pick on Monroe, AHF. I had him right up at the top of my list and was hoping he'd sneak through. Ahh well, day late and a dollar short once again. :banghead: I like the idea of running some kind of sim too and seeing how these teams play it out on the court. I think that would be totally fun.

It sucks to lose a hometown team, that's for sure. I have been through that myself. As a fan in that situation, you feel totally betrayed and violated and sold out. I took that loss very personally, and I was fricken ripshit pissed about it. All that money I'd spent on memorabilia and tickets, all that time and attention and emotional investment I'd poured into that team ever since I was a boy, none of that mattered or meant anything at all to them- proving once again it ain't about the fans, it's ALL about the damn money. So I don't blame Thrashers fans for feeling the way they do. They have every right to feel upset. It's an upsetting thing to lose something you care about like that, especially when it comes as the result of a cold and calculated business decision.

Not necessarily so, I wouldn't think. JJ might be overpaid, but he is at least a good player, while Marvin is just deadwood. And if we did get out of JJ's contract, then what? We'd have lost our best player, so how would you propose we replace him and with whom?

Nah, I'm not really that naive about those guys. I realize that as owners they're really not all that great. But then again they could be worse, right? I mean they have sunk a pretty significant amount of money into the Hawks payroll, in fact I think we had the 6th highest payroll in the NBA this past season, so at least they're not Donald Sterling-esque cheap. I'm just hopeful I guess. Either way, I would think that splitting the two organizations up would make it easier for the ASG to be able to sell the Hawks and Phillips if that's still what they're aiming to do.

Well it's the same type of deal with Blake Griffin and Kevin Love so far as defense goes, I mean basically they are just warm bodies out there when it comes to playing defense, even factoring in their defensive rebounding. So then the question becomes: does their rebounding and offensive output outweigh their weak defense so that you come out with a net positive? I would say for all three the answer is yes, just like Charles Barkley before them. You can live with bad D if you're getting a big enough contribution from a player in other areas.

Zbo! Nice pick, Diesel. I had my eye on him too.

I just simply do not care about the Thrashers or hockey in general, so I'm glad the ASG is rid of that so they can focus their efforts and the entirety of their attention (and hopefully $$$$) on the Hawks. That's my best case scenario anyway!

I'm in no rush at all. The Championship series might not even wrap up till mid-June, and then it's looking like we might have a very long off-season to suffer through, so there's no hurry far as I'm concerned. Whatever works for others is fine by me.

RE: Noah, I really love his game and how that guy plays. I am totally impressed by how relentless he is and how he goes balls-out every second he's out there on floor. The opponent goes on a fast break, and Noah will sprint the floor out there even if it looks hopeless, just to try and make a play defensively and/or put himself in position for a rebound , whereas you'll see many other players in that same situation just conceding the break and jogging it up the court. However Noah is developing some pretty serious questions so far as durability goes, and I think much of that has to do with how hard he does play, flying around out there and diving on the floor or into the seats after loose balls. That's caused him some problems, but it's also one of his best features, that effort and heart. You sort of wish for the sake of his health he'd tone that down a little bit and try to protect himself a little bit more, but then again that would be asking him to change one of his finest features as a player and something that's probably intrinsic to him and that he might not be able to change even if he wanted to do so, because he played the exact same way at UF, balls to the wall 100% of the time.

That is a very interesting point. I hadn't noticed that because I wasn't looking for it, but you might very well have a point. Maybe Smoove feels intimidated about going into the post or something when playing bigger and stronger PF's.

Thanks bud. Ok, I'll take LaMarcus Aldridge please. Well what is there to say. 25 year old multi-talented and very versatile big man who you can line up at either the C of PF positions and he can play either position very well. He's got a silky smooth mid-range jumper and a developing post game which showed improvement almost by the game this past season. He finished second in the NBA in the most improved player award this season behind Kevin Love, was named third team All NBA, and put up a stat line of 21.8 PPG, 8.8 RPG, 2.0 APG, 1.0 SPG, and 1.0 BPG all in the absence of Greg Oden and with Brandon Roy mostly unavailable, so he really stepped it up at a time when his team needed it most and showed that he could be the man. He's got great leadership qualities, and this guy will be a perennial All Star for years to come.

Marvin fans? C'mon Diesel, you know better than that. Unless his parents post here, I'm pretty sure there are no more Marvin fans left on this board. That boat done sailed a long time ago, and at this point everyone realizes that Marvin just pretty much plain sucks as a basketball player.

1. jy21 - Lebron James2. diesel - Dwight Howard3. sultanofatl - Kevin Duran4. capstone21 - Deron Williams5. whassuphawks - Kobe Bryant6. ahf - Chris Paul7. supporter - Derick Rose8. nicholasp27 - Blake Griffin9. seano - Dwayne Wade10. 01d0rd3r - Rajon Rondo11. thatsmydawg - John Wall12. ngc7 - Al Horford13. coachx - Russell Westbrook14. alejandro09 - Dirk Nowitzki15. TRUEINTELLECTPLAYA - Carmelo Anthony16. Colin - A'mare Stoudemire17. IHeartAtlanta- Monta EllisRound 218. IHeartAtlanta - Joe Johnson19. Colin - Stephen Curry20. TRUEINTELLECTPLAYA - Brook Lopez21. alejandro0922. coachx23. ngc724. thatsmydawg25. 01d0rd3r26. seano27. nicholasp2728. supporter29. ahf30. whassuphawks31. capstone2132. sultanofatl33. diesel34 jy21Just a little update as to where we're at right now, just to help me keep it straight inside me own head. Alejandro is up next, and congrats to you Alejandro by the way on the birth of your child. My fiance and I are expecting our first around Nov. 15th, very exciting stuff. Good draft so far everyone. This is fun, and at 17 teams it's a big enough league as to where you're not going to get a bunch of all-star teams thrown together, so that makes it more challenging and fun. You have to try and build a team that is more reflective of the reality of constructing a team in real life, where you might have one big star and several more minor stars around him, and then you build around those guys, so having depth and suitable role players are key.

I like the Rondo pick a lot. I thought pretty hard about him too, because in my opinion he is the best pure PG in the NBA. Offensively, he plays an old-school game at the point that is really appealing, just a pure passer and distributor and man can he lead a team up the floor. He's an excellent player, and he's got the heart of a lion beating inside that chest.

The funny thing was I almost did that. I had it all saved onto Word and had the thread open at the spot where Rose had been picked and was just going to paste it in and post it. Thank god I refreshed the thread beforehand, else I'd have felt like a REAL idiot, heh. :biggrin: Anyway, I am going to have to take Mr. Dwayne Wade. He's one of the last of the A-listers still on the board and I'd be happy to have him on any team I owned. The one hesitation I would have if I were starting a team would be his age and past injury issues, but he is only 29 and might still have years of greatness ahead of him. He's definitely got that 'It' factor going on, he's got serious star quality, and he's a player I'd pay money to go and see play, so why wouldn't I want someone like that on my team? He has proven without a doubt that he can be The Man, that one guy so good he's able to elevate his team to a championship. His performance in the 2006 playoffs and Finals was a signature moment in NBA history, and John Hollinger has rated his performance in the 2006 Finals as being the greatest postseason performance in NBA history, bringing his team back from the 0-2 deficit like that by going for 34.7 points, 7.8 rebounds, 3.8 assists and 2.7 steals in a slow paced series in which neither team ever cracked the 100 point barrier- and that whole playoff run was all on Wade, as Shaq was hobbled and injured and barely even himself. Wade picked that team up and carried it on his back all the way to a championship, and he was just 24 years old. He's the total package on both ends of the floor. He's got quicks, he's got hops, he's a fricken deadly shooter and terrific scorer (25.5 PPG, 4th in NBA) and his ability to drive to the hole gets him to the line a LOT (8.8 FT attempts per this season ranked him 3rd in the NBA, and career-wise he gets to the line over 9 times per game)- and defensively he ranks only behind LeBron among all SG, and he's also got the quickness and playmaking ability to play PG exceptionally well, and that includes defensively. He's just a fantastic player all around and on both ends of the floor. Oh yeah, and I have no idea how to PM anyone here. I've never used that feature and wasn't even aware this board had it, so if someone else wants to PM the next up, go for it please.

Darn you, Nicholasp. I had gotten the draft order all mixed up in my head and thought I was picking 8th, so I was gonna take Griffin there and had even written up all the reasons why I wanted to take him, but doh! My bad. :swoon: Wicked space cadet.Now I have to go back to the drawing board, hmmm. Give me a little bit please, fellas. I am in the process of moving this weekend and am a little bit overwhelmed with that, but I will get this pick in ASAP, by this evening at the latest.

Joe isn't the only one. Lots of overpaid players in the NBA. JJ was 'only' the 16th highest paid player in the NBA this past season at $16.3M per, and you see players like Vince Carter and Andrei Kirilenko and M. Redd and Gilbert Arenas and Rashard Lewis all making even more money than JJ did, and you realize that we're not the only ones. I'd take Joe over any of those guys obviously, but Joe is also turning 30 years old next month, and the fear is in thinking about what his game might be looking like when he's in his mid-30s in the latter part of that contract, cause that might be a real drag for us.

I didn't realize that we were supposed to be building a team for the long haul, but anyway I agree. There's nuttin wrong with picking Kobe. With how hard he works at keeping himself in top physical condition and with the motor and drive he's got for success, I would never bet against him.