if you want another evaluation, i might not be your guy. if you want a different perspective, i seem to be your guy. let the guy whose team was rated worst in the league by two owners take a crack at it:
Kareem, Porter, Ant-Man, Burn Ward, Iblocka, Korver, C-Max
Kareem and Porter is a very nice start. I'm not really a fan of drafting guys between 20 and 22 Usg% with less than 2800 minutes. Inevitably, you're going to fill the backup minutes with guys like Kenny Anderson, Jrue Holiday, Beno Udrih, Cory Alexander, Jameer Nelson or Earl Watson (those being the best backups in that range). Fine, but so does everybody. You may not even get players that are that good if you have a really talented front court, but whatever. Porter's great player. (he's no Barros, though. jk)
Ant-Man was a very solid pick. Kareem's worth $11-12M, Davis is worth $7 or 8M. Average those out, and they're worth $8 or 9M on average, and are excellent scorers for the money. Don't know which C-Max season you're using, but you'll likely use him as a high efficiency forward backup, which gives you a very efficient and defensive front court. Rebounding may suffer. I would like 70-71 Kareem for this team, but I understand the argument for 71-72. The scoring volume is hard to resist. You can have Davis backup Kareem, or you can even have Kareem defend out of position and have Davis defend centers. I think it's a huge advantage to have a guy playing center with very low fouls like Davis, because so many of the best scorers are centers, and derive their scoring output from getting to the line.
Believe it or not, I think you may have problems with scoring. In a way, your team isn't unlike my team. I picked Yao because when Kobe was off the floor, I wanted Penny and Yao. When Penny was off the floor, I wanted Kobe and Yao, and when Yao was off the floor, I wanted Kobe and Penny. I wanted the usage and scoring. Sure, I could've picked Buck or Emeka, but for the 11 minutes that Penny was off the floor, nearly all of the scoring responsibility would've been on Kobe. That was what I wanted to avoid. I wanted high efficiency field goals.
You have the problem I tried to avoid. If I remember correctly, 14-15 Davis plays 28 minutes, which isn't a lot. For the other 18 minutes that Kareem is on the floor, you'll be relying on him to carry the offense. That's great, but I always preferred two guys to score. I might've wanted a guy like 23 Usg% Chris Mullin or Sidney Moncrief or Rudy Tomjanovich to fill in the blanks. Instead you went with a Ward/Porter combo. It's light on scoring. Sure, the usage technically fits, and sure, the assist percentage is wonderful. Put Ibaka, another reluctant scorer, in the mix, and you may have trouble making it to 115 pts. (I forget that you don't like up-tempo, for a reason I don't quite understand, but I don't think that'll make a difference. You may get outscored without options).
Ibaka's rebounding and blocks make your life easier, but I think that even with 14-15 Ibaka or whatever C-Max you're using, you'll be light on 3's. 220 from Ward and Porter + 40 (or 0, if you're not using that season) from Ibaka + 30 or 40 from C Max + some from your back up guards = closer to 300? you might be a bit light. factor in the fact that Ward will be passing more than he shoots, and you might get even less.
Though your defense and efficiency are on point, you don't have the best rebounding or scoring team (unless you use 70-71 Kareem. Then you have a decent rebounding team.....maybe still a little below average, given Davis's 7/22.7 Reb% numbers). You probably don't have enough shooting or scoring.
Outlook: skeptical, but what do I know? Apparently I have the worst team.
Update: I've learned of beachhouse's top secret plans which I won't disclose. They add some scoring at a decently efficient rate for 1900+ minutes. Cool. I like the first idea you mentioned to some extent (could've used that opportunity to address shooting and sacrifice D, on which you're pretty solid, but it is a very nice season). I don't know if it's what I would do, or that it's enough, but it addresses my concerns directly. Hopefully it is enough.
Update 2: DUH! I forgot about Korver. You'll be fine in the 3 pt category. Unfortunately, his usage is rather low. I do think that sort of thing will be your main problem, although Korver's obscene efficiency will help some. I really think it's a matter of usage. I could see it more since I've read your sitemail and seen Korver. You may very well have a playoff team, but you might be well served going with up tempo! I don't understand your aversion to it. It'll definitely help Kareem get his well-deserved FGA's.
8/26/2016 12:44 AM (edited)