I guess I will do one of the self-eval things, even though I already sort of talked about a few of my picks. But no funny pictures, I ain't got time for that ish.

1. Shaq: No brainer. Haven't used him in savage before; haven't used him in any league for a good long while. Pencil in 2500+ minutes (2900+ minutes on 4 of 5 teams) of 57%+ efg and tier 1/2 usage on every team; hard to argue with that. The drawbacks for a pick this high are lack of defensive flexibility, lack of elite D overall, FT shooting that will make the efg% play down a little, and defensive rebounds. But whatever, after Lebron everyone has some little flaws.

2. Tyson Chandler: The weaknesses I mentioned above led me to this pick. Needed good boards and good D with the same pick and that really isn't available after the mid 3rd or so (at least not without significant drawbacks in terms of efg%, fouls, or both). Chandler also adds that elite efg% as a bonus. The drawback: while oreb% is elite, defensive boards are light at times. I didn't account for that enough in the next couple picks

3. Mookie: This is where I wonder if I erred. I thought hard about Kobe here. Just couldn't bite the bullet on the high usg/low efg% combo, and when robusk took Lowry right in front of me it started to make my PG board look awfully thin. I think Kobe was the correct pick, though. But as to Mookie - I wanted to lock down a PG with good perimeter D, assists, and plenty of threes to balance Shaq. Good fit. Just think Kobe was better. (Also briefly considered Kyrie, who dBKC thought I should have taken here; the defense and lack of minutes is what scared me off.)

4. Jrue Holiday - If I had picked Kobe, someone else would probably have been the pick here. (Heck, it could have been Mookie, if he didn't go on the turn). Having picked Mookie, I like this pick. I get the concern about rebounding when playing two PGs together (more on that later) but I figured it would guarantee me a good PG with 70+ D on the court pretty much all the time.

5. Mike Conley: I'll be frank, I think this was a bad pick. Not because there's anything wrong with Conley or the value, just because I really painted myself into a corner on the boards. The plan was always to put a combo guard type with Mookie and Holiday. to keep the assists up. But Conley isn't a combo guard, he's just a straight-up PG. And in fact now, on some of my teams, he or Mookie will have to play some SG at only 99% effectiveness. Not a huge deal, just a silly mistake. He will only play major minutes on 3 of 5 teams. The good: he guarantees basically no assist issues; he's extremely clean in his high-usage seasons; he brings plenty of 3s.

6. Anthony Mason: Not a bad recovery, I hope. Exactly the kind of player I needed as a SF after taking too many PG; good boards, assists, and efg%. His best seasons are between 96%-98% at SF, so I hope that doesn't hurt too much. Tons of minutes, so I knew I could wait to fill in with elite players at SF. (Note: I didn't take advantage of this like I should have.)

7. David West. Yeah...about that. Did I wait until later for my luxury pick? No. I made it now. This is too high for West (though I doubt he would have made it back to me at the 9/10 turn), who has roughly 3000 elite minutes and the rest you hope you don't have to use (I won't use much of them). The pick here should have been Anderson Varejao, a perfect backup for Chandler who would have bolstered my rebounding.

8. Yao Ming: He went in the 10th last draft, but I wasn't comfortable waiting for him. I had been targeting him for a while because he allowed me to cover all of Shaq's backup minutes in one fell swoop. Sure, the boards and turnovers aren't great. But 50-55% efg, 80+ FT shooting, and 25%+ usage across the board to backup Shaq? A perfect fit.

9. Bismack Biyombo: This is who I ended up with instead of Varejao. He's not terrible. Elite boards in a couple seasons; pretty good in a couple others, usually solid D. But the usage is really low; no assists at all; and it meant I would need to use another later pick on a rebounder at the 4/5 to cover his worse seasons.

10. Gordon Hayward: Love this guy, love the value. His 16-17 is an underrated tier-2 usage season that should get more love in draft leagues than it does (27.6% usg, 53.6% efg, 14.5% dreb, 13% ast, super low turnovers and fouls) and will be starting for what may be my best team. His 19-20 season is 2000 minutes of an excellent role player (56% efg, 16.8% reb, 14.3% ast, only weakness is 47 D that is mitigated by being 98%+ at four positions). Those two seasons alone are worth it at this point of the draft, and his 18-19 and 14-15 seasons are getting minutes on other teams as well. Helps lessen the sting of the Conley misstep.

11. Jonathan Isaac: A couple high-D backup seasons at SF, toss in some threes as well. Fine pick at this point.

12. Will Perdue: The last piece of the Chandler backup puzzle. The D is meh but he brings great efg% and boards in several seasons. Only one season will play substantial minutes as of now, unless boards prove to be too big an issue.

Overall: Too eager to lock down good PGs, and in the process devoted too much draft capital to them in rounds 3-5, which cost me elsewhere. Not enough D or rebounds overall. Still think I can get the builds right and make a contending squad out of it, but could be headed for middle of the pack.

Posted by pexetera on 3/25/2021 2:38:00 PM (view original):
wow, no Lebron in top 10. Even bds took Lebron to a top 10 finish.

You too, huh? was that really necessary

You know what, I’m not wasting my time. Blocked

Wait who's blocked

Dikembe is out wagging the finger

Posted by pexetera on 3/25/2021 2:38:00 PM (view original):
wow, no Lebron in top 10. Even bds took Lebron to a top 10 finish.

Meh. Could happen but barring a devastating roster, I am ranking the coaches as much or more than anything else (part of why tarheel ranked so high for me besides me not loving the team). So far he hasn’t done anything in this format.

Self Eval

1. Steph. Traded up from 6, and couldn't resist the chance to use Steph.

2. KAT. My fate was sealed here. I will either finish near the top with a high eFG/low Defense team or I will crash and burn with a high eFG/low Defense team. If KAT hadn't fallen, I initially had Russell earmarked here. I may have been better off with Russell. If I plug him in to the Towns spot - playing him the same number of minutes and keeping all other draft picks the same, my top 2-3 teams are around 55% eFG, 70 Defense, 135-140% Creb, 650 3s. With Towns, its more like 57% eFG, 65 Defense, 130-135% Creb, 750-800 3s. The Russell builds might be more down the middle but these KAT builds are way more fun to see how it rolls.

3. Donyell Marshall. I struggled with this pick. There were a few directions to go in, but Marshall has been a longstanding unique SF and believe he remains so even with the influx of new talent. His combination of rebounding and 3s is a great fit for a team going all in on this approach, and his defense helps stabilize the potential freefall I started by opting for KAT.

4. Pau Gasol. Another tough pick. With KAT and Marshall, you don't get 5 robust minute seasons. Last year, the Stockton/DeAndre/Nance/Gasol combo really set me up to take strong 1-2 season players from there on out since each of them provided 5 seasons of 30+ minutes. Gasol is someone who has some flaws, but provides so much flexibility. And in building the teams I actually ended up with the 06-07 and 09-10 on the top 2 teams, and the 14-15 on team 3 where I needed to sure up defense and rebounding a bit more.

5. Paul Pressey. I couldn't completely sell out to eFG%. This is a tailor made backcourt mate for Steph, albeit one really focused on the top 2 seasons. Those seasons are 33+ min, 90+ def, 21-25% ast and one of them is even 52% eFG. An underrated player although the lack of 5 season players continues to be a theme and will significantly weaken my 4th/5th teams compared to last year.

6. Derrick Favors. He has 2 special seasons. One is a 93 Defense, 17 minute special which will boost defense. Another is a 63 defense, 39% CReb which will boost Rebounds. He also stretches out to all 5 seasons with respectable runs as a frontcourt rotation guy.

7. Richaun Holmes. Hunting for high eFG players the rest of the way. To maintain a high enough level to make sure this stays a strength.

8. Khris Middleton. One season special. Can be paired with Steph/Pressey to form a formidable rotation. Has high enough assists to make it work and is an absolute stud in 19/20. Sure, he doesn't play defense, but he fits the team theme.

9. Toni Kukoc. Has 2 good seasons, not nearly as good as Middleton. But can do a similar 3-way rotation thing with Curry and Pressey with enough assists, and has a decent overall offense/rebounding profile.

10. Jarrett Allen. Big fan of his profile. Again, why am I ignoring defense. But his eFG is great and I've got enough usage to slot him in up front.

11. Ivica Zubac. Step on down! You have a high eFG, and low defense and we need you.

12. Micheal Ray Richardson. He's a mini Pressey for a couple of teams. For the one slot I cared about defense.

Overall: I'm excited.
The top 2 teams are 57%+ eFG, which I hope to lead the league. 12%ish TOVs, 80% FT, 670 3s and 770s (at 40-42%) respectively, so the team hopefully plays up even to the already strong profile. Defense in the 65-70 range, CReb in the 130-135% Range. Obviously title hunting with these, and honestly can't tell if these are going to thrive or fall on their face.
Team 3 is a swing team. 55% eFG, 67 Defense, 127% CReb. Looking for like a 45 win team that can win a round (or two?!) in playoffs and help support the two title team approach.
Team 4 and 5 are not good. How bad can these teams be and me still contend?

Ultimately I feel I am short of truly competing for the title. I would be happy to touch the Top 5, and feel my floor should be around 8-10. Predictions have been remarkably consistent with my own expectations. It all comes down to whether a high eFG, high 3PM team can steal more games than it loses, and that gives some upside. A true test of how much defense matters, for someone like me who almost always prioritizes defense more than I did this year.

@jkaye24: I’d roughly agree with your assessment. At a glance, I’d say your third team is generally on par with my worst team so it being your pivot team is probably right. If I were baselining them against each other, it would come down to whether or not your two best teams outperformed my best two by a greater number than my worst two against you worst two.

I am excited by what your squad does as a thought experiment. Generally speaking, it seems like being elite at one category, extremely good at another and then just trying not to be too bad at the others is the right formula here.

@tarheel: I have some concerns about the rebounding and positional flexibility. From my vantage I think it will come down to if you get enough assists on the floor to make your frontcourt scoring truly devastating. If that happens the I could see you doing really solid.

Eh, I don't have the clout to eval all of our teams. And, there are always a few over and underachievers. I think most had my S2 team pegged as middle of the pack, maybe up to 10, and I horribly under-performed. S3, I didn't take the league by storm, but I won a ring and finished higher than I think everyone who posted pre-season rankings thought I would.
There's probably someone we'd consensus-rate as 16 right now that could finish 9th. One of those top-10 names will probably finish closer to 20. That's part of the beauty of this league. Drafting is the biggest, because that gets/sets your tools for the jobs. But, what 5 jobs will you get, and which set of tools will you use in each job? Do you try to have all 5 sets of tools even, where they can do the same thing in every league, or do you make a couple sets of tools stronger by making a couple sets weaker? Do you wonder on how many other people are taking that route, 3 great teams/2 bad teams, and does that change your mind on how to approach your tool-sets? After games get going, do look for trends/tells for any of your teams looking,,, unwell? Did you draft possible emergency guys, or have an idea in mind of a major rotation change?
Personally, I like all of these questions, because I need to improve to eventually get to 3rd and beyond. My biggest problem is drafting. I draft heart over head a lot. This is the first time I'm playing without at least 1 true PG as a main rotation guy. (Rose is a 1600min backup in 1 league, that's it for him, unless another team hits the skids), as I prefer to stick to some realism. I'm bending what I like towards what works for most of the great owners that are in this league. If ever enough people go out of their comfort zones all in the same SAVAGE season, we could see an epic 18-way battle for the crown. Going by the few rakings put out this season, it's another 6-way slap-fight for glory.
It looks like I'm ranked about 11 right now. I could fail, end up much, much further down the standings... But I'm going be to fighting for a top-3 spot. I let myself down in S2. I gained a little self-respect in S3. Using those 2 moments, that means I have a 50/50 shot of becoming Emperor JP, or becoming the pauper that the real SAVAGE King relieves himself on. Sounds good. My meds are smoothing out, which means it's time to end this rant.
GL to everyone

league #s have been sent by sitemail

cant wait to see what your teams look like...always some surprises with the season choices

Posted by robusk on 3/25/2021 5:35:00 PM (view original):

Posted by pexetera on 3/25/2021 2:38:00 PM (view original):
wow, no Lebron in top 10. Even bds took Lebron to a top 10 finish.

Meh. Could happen but barring a devastating roster, I am ranking the coaches as much or more than anything else (part of why tarheel ranked so high for me besides me not loving the team). So far he hasn’t done anything in this format.

I hope that wasn't pex's approach

I have a point system for all players by season. Players are given points for their advanced stats multiplied by the number of minutes that player is on the floor. You get points for different things, so players get points for having a high efg%, points for defense, points for rebs%, assists%, and so on. So in my system...
12-13 Lebron is worth 28,194 pts.
13-14 Lebron is worth 23,671 pts.
09-10 Lebron is worth 22,616 pts.
66-67 Wilt is worth 33,570 pts
08-09 Chris Paul is worth 23,676 pts
07-08 Chris Paul is worth 16,782 pts
etc, etc. for all 24,423 player seasons in the database.
In a way, my point system represents players relative value to each other based on the "considering everything" sum total of what they contribute in advanced stats. I compare guards with guards and big men with big men.

I sum the top 5 seasons of Lebron to get Lebron's total point value for this crazy league. Then I just take your rosters and add up all the points for the players you drafted. I drafted a total of 574,147 points. Kinoa drafted 510,894 points (which is pretty good considering he had the 20th draft spot) dBKC drafted 473,533 points. ben drafted 389,700 points. mikee drafted a total of 336,521, etc, etc. There is no way a team that drafted 350,000 points can beat a team that drafted 550,000 points consistently. This is a game of statistics after all and points are assigned by advanced statistics. But anyone can still stack a team with all their best players to win one league.

A players salary in WIS is based on a dollar value ascribed to each of the advanced stats summed up and then multiplied by minutes. Very similar to my point system, but I adjusted it to remove usage%. So for example, Dr J's MVP season was 80-81. His total points including usage% that season was 22,532. But if I adjust it to remove usage% his points only add up to 13,650. Shows you how much the SIM makes you pay for usage as part of how they calculate salary.

I’m just really disappointed, pex. I’ve never done anything to you but ask your advice and sing your praises. Even you could refrain from starting a spat, instead of indulging in conflict for the sake of your own ego. Not today, though. Today, it seems, you’ve chosen the path of most resistance.

Even bds can build the most finals teams without a title and hold that record for several years. Even bds can be the victim of variance. Even bds can see the value of Westbrook in the 6th. Even bds can start Majerle at the 3 and get away with it. Can you? You can be satisfied with winning. You do it as much as anyone. I have to be satisfied with process. And I’ve seen things that worked that you didn’t. Even I can do that.

but, most importantly, even I can appreciate you without such a backhanded comment. Even I know what fights just aren’t worth starting for any reason, even if I might find them easy to win. Even I know better. Even I can do better.