'Splain yourself, Lucy!
Round 1 - Dwight Howard. After all the bullshit I spun earlier about having him ranked slightly behind Shaq & Kareem, I honestly had him third on my true board after Lebron & Wilt, but I knew so many people valued Shaq & Kareem ahead of him that I might hopefully be able to make a trade for better draft position the rest of the way, which worked. Why do I have him so high? He's three things you need all wrapped up into one: A legitimate board lord with five seasons at or above 40% crb, a defensive stopper that's 100% at the 4 & 5 with 4 seasons of 90 defense & one of 80, and a bonafide paint monster with 3 seasons at or above 59% efg% & two more above 57% (and then there's his 06-07, which I almost used, but I went with the higher defense, better rebounding, lower turnover 11-12 version). Honestly, there's no way I'm getting all three of these things by taking Shaq or Kareem and then using my second on a guy to get the other two things AND still being in a position to take the best available player from that point on. So yes, I value Dwight absurdly high because I can draft better guys from round 2 onward. And since I got crushed on the boards last time, I really wanted to make sure I got a head start on that.
Round 2 - Walt Frazier. I really, really, REALLY wanted Gary Payton here. Similar to Dwight, the Glove would have given me a combo guard that I could play at either guard spot to cover both backcourt positions at 90 defense while giving me consistent 20%+ ast and 50%+ efg. But mikee took Glove. Damn you, mikee! That left me looking at three guys: Frazier, who had less ast% & 3s than Glove; Paul George, who didn't play the point and had even lower ast% but I was damn tempted anyway, and Whiteside, who I could have put next to Dwight to have unequivocally the most dominant frontcourt scoring, defense, and rebounding in the league - for like 3.25 seasons. I though that maybe Whiteside would slip, so I could take a chance, and that Frazier truly gave me the most options later on. I really wanted to get that superior defense at the 4/5 & 1/2 covered early, as last season I picked reasonable defenders for the most part all over, but if you looked at the champ, he usually had one elite defender and one completely average defender per position group. This would allow me the freedom to take 50 defenders later on with being able to matchup ideally against most teams.
Round 3 - Kyrie Irving. Well, that Whiteside pipe dream didn't last very long. Camby, Parish, and Buck all seemed to be slipping, so I thought maybe I'd get one of them to really solidify my rebounding presence. But they got gone (poor English on purpose) in a hurry, so it left me looking at a plethora of point guard choices & Draymond Green. I really liked Green here, as I feel he would have given me even more choices in the back court come round 4, but I also believe that SF is the easiest place to build a solid rotation later in drafts. Also, my first two picks were pretty high turnover guys, and so Draymond would have compounded that issue even more. There were approximately 7 point guards I liked here, but I really felt he gave me the most offense out of them, which is what I wanted here. I was hoping against hope that Lillard would slip to the 5th again to put together a dynamic back court rotation, but that blew up.
Round 4 - Jerry Lucas. I wanted Noah or Draymond here, but they both went before. I've always loved that 3075 minute season, but the rest of his years had always looked like hot garbage to me. Upon further examination, I discovered that they were not like that. He gave a nice mix of rebounds, decent assists (some seasons), tons of minutes, average defense (even good defense one season), with a pretty nice efg% & tov% to boot. With tons of minutes drafted and all of my main concerns addressed, I'm feeling really, really good about the rest of the draft.
Round 5 - Kemba Walker. I wanted to finish my back court rotation here, as I thought there'd be ample SFs available the rest of the draft to piece something together, and I figured Kemba would be gone before he got back to me. If your guy's there, and you don't think he will be next time you're drafting, pull the trigger. He's the perfect rotation piece with Kyrie; similar usage, similar dimes, tons of threes, very few turnovers.
Round 6 - Bill Bridges. Tons of minutes, great rebounding for a 3, solid to good defense, solid dimes. I'll snag other SFs that may be better for a season or two to try and make stronger lineups, but if nobody great is there, I feel good about him starting in five leagues at the three. If I do get someone, he has a really nice PF season for depth.
Round 7 - Javale McGee. Four seasons that are pretty much the perfect backup for Dwight. The usage doesn't quite match up, but that's part of why I have so much of it in the back court.
Round 8 - Clifford Ray. I almost took him in round 7, but I just saw nobody like Javale still around but saw quite a few board lords left. Fortunately, he was still there. He immediately replaces Lucas as starter for three seasons, giving me superior rebounds and dimes, with superior defense two of the seasons. If I had nothing but rookies or garbage the rest of the way, I feel like I can field five competitive teams with just these 8. Everything else is literally icing on the cake.
Round 9 - Mason Plumlee. I was hoping his 19-20 season would be better at SF (89% effectiveness after 97% the previous three seasons?!), but even if we never got the 19-20 seasons, he gave me great depth. Turns out he'll be more than depth, as he'll start a couple of seasons where he starts half the game. Quality efg%, quality dimes, quality boards, quality defense at the 3. I'm now eyeing one guy the next round...
Round 10 - LARRY SANDERS! He's literally only there for half the game in one season, but I love that season. We're playing him where he's supposed to be played this time - at small forward. His dimes are low, so I'm not sure how it'll all work out, but I knew I wanted him on the squad somewhere.
Round 11 - Ron Harper One of my all-time favorite players, that one Cavs season is fantastic. I considered him last year, but I didn't think he fit. This one season of goodness allows me to pick that crazy elite 750 minute Kyrie season instead of that lackluster 48.5% efg Kyrie season, and - more importantly - it hamstrings that owner picking behind me that took Ben Simmons and is looking for exactly this type of player to make a team 4 go.
Round 12 - Amir Johnson I had my eyes on literally four of the new 19-20 releases here, and they all went in a series of like 8 picks. Bds took two of them. So, looking at everything available and what my team could use depth at, well, high efg%, average-ish defense, decent boards at the three? Sure. Between him, one season of Sanders, and three seasons of Plumlee, I can absolutely use that delicious Bridges PF season and get away with less Bridges overall, upping my efg% significantly.
All in all, I was exponentially more happy with this draft than the previous one. My splits are absurdly better as well. I don't know how things'll play out, as I think most people drafted better than last season, but after days of tinkering with lineups, I have built two teams I think are championship contenders, two that I think are in the playoffs with potential to go a couple of rounds deep, and one squad that I am not sure what exactly to expect from it, but it's better in every way than my best team last season, so it's pretty safe to say I'm quite optimistic about this upcoming season.