explain yourself...
1. Wilt - I was very excited to take a chance at figuring out the Wilt mystery. I briefly thought about Steph because I loved the idea of pairing him with Frazier in the backcourt. But it was pretty much always gonna be Wilt here.
2. Paul George - The winning formula for a lot of years in the 52 was pairing Wilt up with a good high usg backcourt. Looking ahead to my 3/4 picks I really liked the guard group of Manu/Billups/West/Lowry/Drexler/Mookie that goes in that range. So i was kinda leaning towards going guard heavy with my first few picks. Klay was the pipe dream and I was strongly considering Nance as well. But then Nash falls to me and I had a tough call to make. I love Nash but it probably would have been turnover suicide to pair those two up together. Not to mention it really limits my other guard options to pair with him due to his defense and rebounding. I've never been a huge PG13 guy but I loved the 3pt/dreb/def combo he gave at the 2 as a starting point in the backcourt.
3. Zo - I had already put together Billups/West/PG backcourts by the time ncih ended that plan. Got excited for a second I might actually get Manu before seapilots jumped on that steal. Then was crushed when albi took West one pick ahead of me. I looked at other backcourt combos but decided Zo was too talented to pass up. I kinda regret this pick. I lost all rebounding edge I gained from my first two picks and Zo isn't a great fit with my two high usg Wilt seasons. I think I should have stuck with my original plan and took Lowry, Drexler, or Mookie.
4. Ibaka - As far as getting consistent defense at the 3 across all 5 seasons, it was either take Ibaka now, hope to get Bo next round, or try to piece together a rotation later. I didn't feel like taking that gamble and was happy to grab a player I haven't had a chance to use yet.
5. Charlie Ward - Porter or Harper would have been a nice pick here but I just missed out on them. I knew Ward would end up being the guy after I passed on guards last round. There just isn't that many guards left at this point who offer 3s and defense with the amount of ast% I wanted. I also wanted to watch my usg at this point. I felt I didn't need any more with PG/Zo already on the team or else the falling Mike Conley would have been the pick.
6. Calderon - This was the hardest pick of the draft. I couldn't decide between Calderon, Domantas, Reed, and John Henson. I love Henson in this league and thought he would be a perfect backup to Ibaka. Reed and Sabonis were both guys who would end up wasting mins from Zo but ultimately improving my rotation immensely at the 4. In the end though, Calderon's combo of 3s/ast/tov% with the perfect usg i was looking for was too good to pass up despite the def/reb flaws. Looking back now, I'm thrilled with the pick as I ended up really needing his ast% on a few teams.
7. Brandan Wright - Ok this is where I take the perfect backup to PG - Khris Middleton. He has two great seasons I can pair up with the two great lower min PG seasons. He also has the 3s/reb/ast combo I was looking for. mptrey you suck! Oladipo and his one great is still out there though. But I messed up and took Wright first instead of looking at goetz's team and realizing he's more likely to take Oladipo over Wright.
8. Spoonman - Or did I mess up? Turned out to be a blessing in disguise as I ended up realllly needing Spoon and his one great 00-01 season. I had originally planned on trying to get him in the 9th but I'm not so sure he would have been there. His 00-01 allowed me to use the awesome 19-20 PF Ibaka season. I also really needed low usg on that team since it's using 63-64 Wilt. Spoon also nicely filled in any other missing mins I had at the 3 behind Ibaka/Wright on the other teams.
9. Gordon Hayward - I had pretty much settled into Hayward and Gortat as my main backups to PG and Zo at this point. Neither player was drafted last season so I felt like I could take a swing on a 1-2 year stud here and wait on those guys. I got cold feet with Hayward tho as I didn't like the looks of the players I would be getting if someone did take Hayward. He's got great tov% which was really needed and the usg/reb/ast/3s combo I was looking for.
10. SGA - Decided to roll the dice on Gortat as I felt good about the other options in Bellamy, Zelmo, and Monroe. SGA and those amazing 16 mins will backup one of the lower minute PG seasons on my 66-67 Wilt beast team. His other useable season will also back up PG at the 2 for one team.
11. Marcin Gortat - Incredibly underrated mins eater in Savage imo. He had 5 seasons at 2 points usg around 54-56 efg% with solid rebounding. He's playing more than I'd like but that was always going to be the tradeoff for strengthening other positions at the expense of a backup 4.
12. Kirk Hinrich - I had Jamaal Tinsley penciled in here since the Calderon pick to backup the top Ward season on my high defense team. But after looking at my 68-69 Wilt team, I decided I needed a little more usg at the 1. I'm also playing Hayward and his bleh defense 29mpg at the 2 that season, so getting Hinrich and his 80 defense in the backcourt was important.
I have no idea what to make of this team. I loaded up on the 66-67 team. If that team doesn't win 50+ I'll be shocked. I also really like the 67-68 team that I loaded up with great defense. I'm not so confident on the other 3 teams tho. Rebounding feels lighter than a Wilt team should across all 5 teams and I think towels could be a problem. But I love the inside-out combo I've got going and think the frontcourt defense is top notch. Backcourt isnt quite as good with Calderon but still pretty solid. Ultimately I just can't get too excited about a PG/Zo led team. As awesome as Wilt is, I still feel like your high usg guys are always going to matter more at the end of the day and I don't fully trust either of them. I think that may be the biggest problem with Wilt. It's just easier to build around high usg studs. Kyrie has been tried twice. Kobe has been tried. PG and Zo get their chance now. I'm just not sure who that high usg guy is that would make it totally work. It's so much easier in single draft leagues where you can always find at least 1 high usg stud season. 5 is a different story.