My Savage V draft journal
Round 1
22? Get me the hell out of here! I drafted 24 last Savage draft and have no interest looking at the same players again. If I have to stay there, Gobert/Kawhi would be the dream start. Thank you midge! 11 is a nice spot. Hopefully 1 of the top 9 will fall to me. But realistically, I'm looking at Harden or Barkley. I haven't used either yet and think they would be pretty fun to build around. No one falls, Harden it is. I'm back in my comfort zone of having a player I can build 5 playoff teams around. I messed up last season thinking I could do that with Wade. I would have had more success loading up on 2-3 teams with Wade.
Round 2
Rodman is the pipe dream. Damn, came pretty close. Don't draft Steve Nash. Don't draft Steve Nash. Don't draft Ste...****...hes available. Don't do it dh, stick to the plan. Harden + defense + boards = playoffs. I had Chandler last season and Mutombo is overrated as a rebounder and only C eff. Fine, ok so Drummond or Whiteside? Minutes vs defense. Is Drummond the best boardlord in all of Savage? I hate to pass up defense in the 2nd but holy **** is that some amazing consistent rebounding and solid paint scoring over 5 seasons. Let's do it. We should be able to pick up some defense at the 4/5 later.
Round 3
This is the SF round for me. The Nance/Jones/Marion/Green/Grant/AK47/Marshall group is super appealing with their heavy mins and good def/reb. Miss out on that group and I'm probably gonna have to piece together the SF later on with a couple roster spots. I want someone from this group. Manu and Walton are the only other non SFs I'm looking at here. Nance and Jones gone. Feels like I'm gonna end up with my guy Ho Grant. But Marion keeps dropping. Am I gonna get him? No, tarheel or dbkc will definitely take him. Forget that pipe dream right now. Yup, there he goes. Looks like it's gonna be Grant. Or maybe Manu? I'd be on my way to a really great backcourt rotation. Nah, finding backcourt players will be much easier then finding a SF who boards/defends with low towels across 5 seasons. It's boring and predictable, but I think it's the right move.
"make the pick dh"
"Horace Grant"
"Yaaaayyyyy!!!"
Round 4
Alright, I ate my veggies with the first 3 picks. Now it's time for dessert. I can start targeting stud seasons to play next to Harden or Drummond. I want some defense at the 4/5 and those two recent Bam seasons are really standing out. Highly unlikely I'd get him in the 5th, so it's now or never. Penny would give me a huge boost for my top team, but I don't feel like his 2nd best season is good enough to warrant a 4th round pick. Lowry, Bledsoe, Rondo, and West are all intriguing options. Ok, I'm really on Lowry now. He's a better rebounder than I thought, and along with Harden, give me enough 3s to target someone like Alvin or Pressey for defense at the 1/2 later on. Lowry gonna make it to me? Yesssss. Liking my start a lot here.
Round 5
I gotta get defense at the 1/2 or 4/5 here. Guys with defense and good efg are drying up fast and I'm in danger of being weak on defense. Ahhh there goes Bam. No surprise, but it still stings. Alvin and Moncrief are guys I usually don't target due to lack of 3s that would work with Lowry/Harden. Would love one of those two guys. Bogut and Dale Davis(maybe the most underrated 4/5 in all of Savage) are my big men targets. Oooohhh Bogut's one high usg season with defense matches up nicely with the one low usg Drummond season I wanted to use. And even though their short on mins and high on fouls, those Bogut Warrior seasons are fantastic. Yup, it's Bogut.
Round 6
Sidney and Dale made it past the turn! 7 picks away and both are still available! Ouch...back to back gut shots from earl and robusk. Ok, I should go Pressey right? Great defense across 5 seasons and plenty of passing and boards. Ugh, after looking at potential lineups, I don't know if I'm gonna have the team usg I want if I go with Pressey or lower usg guards like Ward/Nate/Christie etc. Harden has the usg to carry any lineup but I just don't feel comfortable with Drummond as a 2nd scoring option in certain lineups. I think I'm gonna have to bite the bullet and sacrifice defense for some backcourt usg. You know who takes care of the usg worries? Our old buddy T-Mac. Draft him as a Harden backup and then we can fill in the backup Lowry mins later on in the draft with the super deep pool of modern guards. I think I can get him in the 7th so lets grab some more def/boards while it's still available. I'd love to use 96-97 Mason as a starter and his other 4 seasons can be backups to Grant. Oakley is a great option as well. Buuuuut, what about Dan Roundfield? 80-90 defense that can cover 3-5 and he's got the usg to backup Drummond if I feel it's needed there. Great oreb% too which is definitely a theme I'm going for here. Captain Hindsight says I might have screwed this pick up though. I may only end up using 1-2 seasons due to his mediocre efg and super high towels.
Round 7
Nice. T-Mac made it to me. What do you think Captain Hindsight? Yea, your right. I shouldn't get too excited since I'm probably only using 02-03 and a handful of mins from two other seasons. But hey, I'm excited to see what 17-18 Harden and 02-03 T-Mac can do together. Should be fun.
Round 8
While looking at potential 4/5 bigs with defense during the Bogut pick, I saved two names for later. Nerlens Noel and Oliver Miller. I thought I could get Miller in the 10th or 11th but Noel would have to be 8th or 9th. robusk took him in the 11th last season and I was sure he would target him again based on his current team and Noel adding his 20-21 season. So Noel was initially the target there, But then I started looking at other options and just couldn't ignore Plumlee. He had several different seasons with varying usg, boards, and defense that I felt could really help when putting the teams together. I also started looking at my backup SF options became concerned how that was gonna shake out with rapidly declining roster spots. A.C. Green was a perfect backup to Grant and I really liked the idea of keeping SF super clean next to a 4/5 rotation full of towels. This was the hardest decision of the draft for me picking between Noel/Green/Plumlee. Ended up going with Plumlee for the versatility.
Round 9
Holy ****. Green and Noel are still there. But after the Plumlee pick, A.C. is more important for this team so gotta go with him. Hah I was right, robusk did end up taking Noel.
Round 10
Ok, time to grab Oliver Miller or Larry Sanders to round out the frountcourt. Damn, there goes Sanders. Ah well, I wanted Miller anyway. Whew! Robert Williams went - that could have been Oliver. Noooooo! dammit albi! Ugh, well at least Varejao is still out there. He doesn't have any standout defensive seasons like Miller or Sanders but he does have 5 seasons that could crack the rotation. Hmmm maybe I should take another look at guard. Plenty of options with low defense or weak reb/ast. Can I find anyone with the usg/efg/def/ast/reb combo I want? Nah not really. But Lonzo Ball is pretty damn close. Two solid seasons to throw into the backcourt rotation.
Round 11
Varejao is still there.
Pick em up!
Round 12
I need two seasons to fill out the backcourt unless I want to use some sub 50% efg McGrady seasons. Narrowed down the numerous options(Reggie Miller still out there!!!) to Brandon Roy, Gordon Hayward, and Brandon Ingram. Happy to get Ingram here. Backcourt defense will be shaky when he's in but he does everything else really well for a 12th rounder.
Overall I'm very happy with the draft. I should be able to put out 5 teams that can compete for a playoff spot and possibly make a run. I really like the floor balance I've got and the rebounding could be a real strength. I do feel a little uneasy about not having a consistent 2nd scoring threat to Harden. The towels are also probably gonna be a problem. I cant wait to see how it all turns out. Fingers crossed for some division luck! haha