Shaq had amazing athletic ability for his size... And amazing size. I remember him leading the break in one of his first allstar games. I think he is fairly picked where he is and Shaq at his absolute best would compete with anyone.

By the way, are we settling anything with this draft?  Will we run a tournament and vote on outcomes, or something like that?

With 16 owners that would be fun and work well. I will set that up if snydpie isn't up for it.It does get a little confusing at that point with this career vs. single season thing. I think we just need to assume that for tournament purposes everyone is playing at their prime.

Maybe the long-time fat, lazy version of Shaq has erased my memory of his earlier athletic days, but I still think people comparing him to Wilt, either athletically or as a player, are way off base.  Could / should he have become as dominant?  Probably.  Did he?  Not even close.

Comparing all the stiff "Centers" Shaq played against to the guys Wilt played against is even another argument. 

Now the next 2 picks do seem obvious. Hoping one drops to me.

With only five rounds this draft should probably go ABBAB or maybe ABABB?

Posted by longtallbrad on 8/11/2011 7:33:00 AM (view original):
By the way, are we settling anything with this draft?  Will we run a tournament and vote on outcomes, or something like that?

Run a tournament? Do you mean matching up teams vs eachother like a tourney with each of us voting on who advances? Yes I can definately set up a vote on which team is the best tournament style. The evaluation should be how great a player is in their prime along with their career so that people don't get confused that this has nothin to do with simbasketball. One season does not define a players career. This is a great idea to make it all worth while. 

The sim at times turns great players into average players and average players into great players. I am totally anti-sim with this draft cuz I don't want guys like Donyell Marshall, Troy Murphy, Rodney Mccray, Zach Randolph, Mookie Blaylock, Larry Nance and many other overrated players showing up in this draft if you know what I mean. Everyone in this draft seems knowledgable enough about basketball to understand what this draft is all about so I don't see any players like these poping up anyways. 

yeah that's the proposed idea snydpie. I have another idea on something we can do with the rosters too. I'll post it in a few minutes. Voting in the forums would require a couple weeks of checking in and voting.. I have an idea I've used before that could settle the question much faster.

Posted by logain on 8/11/2011 10:20:00 AM (view original):
yeah that's the proposed idea snydpie. I have another idea on something we can do with the rosters too. I'll post it in a few minutes. Voting in the forums would require a couple weeks of checking in and voting.. I have an idea I've used before that could settle the question much faster.

Cool, faster is much better

WIS MOCK DRAFT TOURNEY BRACKET

The cool thing about that is the site allows people to make predicitons. So we could have everyone fill out a tourney sheet, set a deadline (I put september 1 for now but I can move it). Then we can assign points to each round like
1 pt  for rd 1 win
2 pts for rd 2 win
4 pts for rd 3 win
8 pts for championship game win
maybe 2 pts for winning the 3rd place game.

Then once everyone has predicted we just add up the scores and we have a champion.

Posted by all3 on 8/11/2011 8:48:00 AM (view original):
Maybe the long-time fat, lazy version of Shaq has erased my memory of his earlier athletic days, but I still think people comparing him to Wilt, either athletically or as a player, are way off base.  Could / should he have become as dominant?  Probably.  Did he?  Not even close.

Comparing all the stiff "Centers" Shaq played against to the guys Wilt played against is even another argument. 

You mean guys like Hakeem, Ewing, Robinson and Mourning?  Lasting memories were created when Shaq tore up the league during the Lakers' turn-of-the-millenium three-peat, but he had plenty of serious competition during his early years.  Hakeem arguably schooled him in the Finals.  What would the outcome have been five years later when O'Neal was stronger, more efficient and much craftier? 

Posted by snydpie on 8/11/2011 10:30:00 AM (view original):

Posted by longtallbrad on 8/11/2011 7:33:00 AM (view original):
By the way, are we settling anything with this draft?  Will we run a tournament and vote on outcomes, or something like that?

Run a tournament? Do you mean matching up teams vs eachother like a tourney with each of us voting on who advances? Yes I can definately set up a vote on which team is the best tournament style. The evaluation should be how great a player is in their prime along with their career so that people don't get confused that this has nothin to do with simbasketball. One season does not define a players career. This is a great idea to make it all worth while. 

The sim at times turns great players into average players and average players into great players. I am totally anti-sim with this draft cuz I don't want guys like Donyell Marshall, Troy Murphy, Rodney Mccray, Zach Randolph, Mookie Blaylock and many other overrated players showing up in this draft if you know what I mean. Everyone in this draft seems knowledgable enough about basketball to understand what this draft is all about so I don't see any players like these poping up anyways. 

We do need clarity on whether we are supposed to be drafting for prime or for career.  Or, we could just leave the question open recognizing that voting will vary depending on what most owners are thinking.  Personally, I've been approaching this draft as a game of building the best team possible for a moment in time, thinking of how these players would perform on the floor together.

Personally, I was looking at it as the 5 guys I would want to build a dynastic championship run with over 5-10 years.

Ah, I see.  I'm happy enough either way, although if you go your way I would argue for a 5 year window to allow consideration of some players that had shorter primes.

Posted by logain on 8/11/2011 10:41:00 AM (view original):
Personally, I was looking at it as the 5 guys I would want to build a dynastic championship run with over 5-10 years.

Exactly logain, you hit the nail on the head!