20ks EVALUATION
Executive Summary:
The draft started out strong, then ended weak. Jordan and Dikembe are a strong start, however, you waited too long to draft scorers to complement Jordan and were left with players who could score, but provided little else to the hustle board. You drafted 392 mins per team, when you only needed to draft closer to 240 min per team. By comparison, I drafted closer 260 min per team. You are drafting way too much quantity, and not enough quality. Best strategy would be to focus on 3 teams to try to win a chip in 2.
The DRAFT
1. Michael Jordan - I like this pick. Even though Kareem was still available, MJ at 6 is still solid. The quality of guards drops off quicker than the quality of bigs throughout the draft, so it's easier to find a functionally decent big (IF you don't need usage) later in the draft than a decent guard. Locking up 40% of your PG/SG minutes in one pick is not a bad way to start. And you chose the right 5 seasons of Jordan to use.
2. Dikembe Mutombo - I like this pick too. Going top half of the 2nd round the first two savage leagues, he's a steal late second round. Good pairing for Jordan, so we're off to a strong start. And you chose the right 5 seasons of Dikembe to use.
3. Donyell Marshall - Donyell in the 3rd round is a little early, having gone in the 4th the first two seasons. You reached for him, but he's still a good pick because all his minutes are usable, and you chose the right 5 seasons of Donyell to use. When I drafted him, I played him at SF, but I think you should be using him at PF. more on that later.
4. Danny Green - He's a little early to draft, ben took Danny in the 5th round last season. Kirilenko was still on the board, so was Capela. I just think those are better choices in terms of overall quality. Danny does give you quality minutes though, so it's not a bad pick, and you chose the right 5 seasons to use.
5. Nate McMillan - You're starting to get in trouble with usage with this pick. It seems like you took Jordan with the first pick, and then ignored usage for a while. Dikembe doesn't give you usage. Neither does Danny Green. Only 1 of your seasons of Donyell gives you 4 points of usage, the rest are 2 points. Since it's so important to have high quality usage, I try to figure out where my scoring is coming from in the top half of the draft, and then use the bottom picks in the draft to get role players. This is the pick where I would have started to focus back on usage again. Kevin Love, Enes Kanter and Arvydas Sabonis were available. And you also took Nate one full round early, being a 6th round pick both of the 1st two seasons. That's the 2nd guard you took a round early, so I feel like you're overprioritizing guards especially considering you already had Jordan. If you had taken Kareem with the first pick, then grab a scoring guard here... but with Jordan, then grab a scoring big here. That being said, Nate does have usable minutes (he's not a pariah), although, I would have made 95-96 one of my 5 seasons though instead of 88-89, prioritizing higher quality minutes over his more quantity minute seasons. The pick itself is functional, but it doesn't meet your greatest need at the time (scoring) and creates a drafting problem later with usage.
6. Emeka Okafor - Emeka has 1 standout season and then 2 other seasons that meet my quality standards '07, '09, and '11. I would have tried to pair them with MJ's three best seasons you could try to be a contender in 3 leagues. Could have built a strong team by putting '07 Emeka on Artificial Amateurs in World 1 with 88-89 Jordan.
7. Don Buse - No. Just No. See Nate McMillan. If you truly needed PG minutes, you could have gotten a PG of this quality further down the draft. I think I took Mark Jackson in the 12th round in season 1.
8. Peja Stojakovic - Finally starting to draft usage. Unfortunately, Peja brings usage and efg% to the table but little else. This is what happens when you wait on usage. By round 8 if you need significant minutes of scoring, then you're stuck with drafting "just scorers". By round 8, you can generally only get very limited minutes of quality players who are also scorers. It's a game of tradeoffs at this point.. and with Peja you traded most everything else off because you needed usage.
9. Grant Hill - This is a good pick. One standout season, and some other serviceable seasons. I like to play most of his seasons at SG, which you already have way too many of. I generally play big. SF's playing at SG. PF's playing at SF.
10. Elvin Hayes - Swing and a miss. Elvin is an undraftable player IMO. High usage, low efg% is a poison pill. I like his defense, but the most important thing to take care of in the draft is that players who have >22.1% usage must also shoot >50% efg. Hard to win otherwise. Play him as little as you can without falling into a usage penalty. Play Donyell at PF, Emeka at PF, even play Grant Hill at PF. A better choice at that time would have been Yao Ming. He sill gives your usage, and provides all the backup minutes to Dikembe at C. Then you just have to play Emeka and Donyell at PF.
11. Michael Ray Richardson - Not another guard! Considering you could have played Peja (SF) at SG, probably better to go for a big here. Of the season's you drafted he has one season '84 with 16 minutes of what I would consider usable. The rest are below my threshold for draftable.
12. Alex English - See Peja. Scoring but little else. Also, I would have made 77-78' one of my 5 seasons even though it only provides 19mpg, prioritizing higher quality minutes over his more quantity minute seasons.
TEAM STRUCTURE - You drafted 567 minutes of strong quality. 410 minutes of good quality, and 983 minutes of players that I wouldn't draft or use. If given these players with the seasons you chose, I would have focused on putting all my best players on 3 teams. Jordan provides 5 strong players, but there is a clear top 3 in '89, '90, and '91. Both Dikembe and Donyell provide 5 strong players, so all teams get a good Dikembe and Donyell. Danny Green provides 5 good players, but there is a top 3 in '12, '14, and '15. Emeka has 1 standout season and then 2 other seasons that meet my quality standards '07, '09, and '11. Guys like Peja, Alex English, and Elvin are not players I would draft or use, but you have to use them because you need the usage.
Your world 3 team Canopies Collapsing has a full 240 min of mostly strong or good quality players, so I expect that will prove to be your strongest team. However, I haven't looked at the other teams in your division, so I don't know how you stack up against them. Your worlds 2 and 4 teams are your weakest, even though your world 2 team has one of your strongest Jordan's on it. I think you tried to spread it out to get 5 balanced teams putting your best Jordan's in worlds 1,2,3 and putting your best Grant Hill in world 4. But you didn't have a solid draft start to finish, so getting 5 teams in the playoffs isn't realistic. Your best strategy would have been to focus on 3 worlds and try to win 2 chips.
Suggestions for next time: Don't wait so long to get complimentary usage to your 1st round draft pick. Focus more on rebounding and don't reach so much for guards. Try to get players that were drafted in the same round as the previous drafts. Avoid players who are >22.1% usage and <50% efg. (Elvin)
11/22/2020 3:17 PM (edited)