LTB Posthumus Exam
SUMMARY
I had the 5th draft spot in 2nd savage season, but eventually traded down for the 12th spot in hopes of picking up the Admiral (ended up with Garnett at 12 which I think shocked some people). But if I had stayed with the 5th pick, I would also have taken Dwight Howard, so this eval is a “what if” scenario for me as well. You had a great start, weak middle, and then some great picks in round 9 and 10. Missteps choosing seasons of your strong picks led to reduced potential. When you use the 5th team as your dumpster, you’re guaranteed not to have 5 teams in the playoffs.
The DRAFT
Dwight Howard – For this league Dwight could be a top 3 pick IMO, but shouldn’t drop lower than 6th. With Dwight you get high usage-high efficiency scoring, rebounding, and defense… the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd priorities when drafting. You get 5 solid seasons to anchor all 5 teams so he gives you a chance to get all 5 teams in the playoffs. You don’t have to worry about a weak season or playing him out of position. But you should have chosen ’09 Howard instead of ’07. Your worst performing team used 06-07’ Dwight. (’09 gives more usage at a much higher efg% than your team average, more ORebs, and 20 pts more defense. That 20 DEF points is worth 3-4 FG% difference in opposing bigs)
Andre Drummond – The best player available. Drummond could go as high as the 30th pick, so getting him at 44 is great. An argument could have been made for Shawn Marion or Ben Wallace here, but Drummond is who I would have chosen also. SF’s are easier to find at the end of the draft and Wallace contributes less offensively than Drummond. All his top 5 seasons will contribute and give all 5 of your leagues a chance at the playoffs. But drafting his ’15 and ’16 seasons were a mistake. Your last place team used ’15 Drummond and ’07 Dwight, both seasonal drafting mistakes from your #1 and #2 picks. You should have chosen ’20 and then either ’17 or ’13. I’d rather have ’13 Drummond at 15 mpg than either ’15 or ’16 at 30 mpg. Quality over quantity. Putting ’20 on your Wild Mountain Nation team instead of ’16 might have been the difference to make the playoffs.
Gerald Wallace – Like this pick too, but he’s most effective as a SG, not at SF. Top guard available, and you chose the right 5 seasons. I have no problem with the lack of 3s.
Kobe Bryant - This is a crossroads decision, but I understand why you did it. Grabbing usage early doesn’t get you in trouble later when the best players available all have 10-15% usage and it allows you to get guys like Ward and Calderon without worrying about the usage penalty. Kobe does have 5 usable seasons, but the best SIM player available was Clint Capela. I would have gone with Capela here and gone for usage in the next two rounds. Dwight/Capela/Drummond. You would have ruled the boards. You don’t have to draft all 5 starters in the first 5 picks, but probably should have staters drafted by pick 7 or 8. For the first 5 picks you should just take the best player available.
Jose Calderon – Calderon gives 4 quality seasons in 07,08,09, and 13…. All of which you chose. The 5th season is really not good enough quality to give any minutes to. Since I would have taken Capela last round, I’d prob would have gone Conley here to make up the usage.
Charlie Ward – Charlie gives 5 usable seasons in 98, 00, 01, 03, and 04. Drafting 99 instead of ’00 was a mistake, and no surprise he’s on your worst performing team along with the other seasonal mistakes. For a guard, Charlie is a good pick, but a guard wasn’t the best player available. Since you only have Dwight and Andre as your bigs at this point I would have gone with Enes Kanter. These last two picks are good low usage guards, but you can get good guys like Patrick Beverly in later rounds, so it’s difficult to use a 5th and 6th round pick on these guys when better players are available.
Demarcus Cousins – Not a fan of this pick. I really only like his ’18 season with the Pelicans. ’14 and ’17 are usable, but the others don’t meet my quality standards. Had you swapped ’14 and ’16 you might have gotten Wild Mountain Nation into the playoffs. Brandon Wright would have been a better pick to start filling SF minutes.
Goran Dragic – Don’t like this pick at all, maybe as a 12th round pick. Only his ’15 season is usable, which you put on your 1st seeded Below the Hurricane. James Johnson, Russell Westbrook, Michael Cooper Toni Kukoc are all better and provide more than 1 usable season.
Richaun Holmes – Back on track. Solid pick to fill SF minutes.
Anderson Varejao – Excellent pick, but you didn’t draft his 5 best seasons. His best seasons are ’10 thru ’14. Drafting seasons ’06 and ’15 instead of ’10 and ’11 was a mistake. I assume you were worried about usage, but you have Dwight and Kobe, so I wouldn’t have sacrificed using Varejao’s best seasons.
Ryan Anderson – I only like his ’11 season at SF. The rest of the seasons are below quality standard even for SF. Terrance Jones would have been a better pick for SF, but Boban was best pick available.
Dana Barros – I know some guys like Barros. Gerry uses him a lot on his 76ers squads, but I only like his ’98 and ’99 seasons. Patrick Beverly or Jeff Hornacek would be a better choice.
1/14/2021 8:21 AM (edited)