thanks for the write ups, but I think you belong in the upper echelon of owners too.

I think it would be cold if we had a mid season write up.

Posted by dontburnearl on 5/19/2025 11:52:00 AM (view original):
thanks for the write ups, but I think you belong in the upper echelon of owners too.

You are too kind. It's really just what I call "creative plagiarism". I really pay attention to the types of players that the Elite 5 select.
I still have a losing playoff record. But I pretty much refuse to go with less than 19,400 total minutes and play my stars until they get tired and then tank a game to get them rested. That's not real basketball that I grew up watching. Let's say I am in the upper echelon of owners who isn't smart enough to know how to use computer spreadsheets and still can't calculate what a "weighted average" is. :) Everything I have is handwritten down in college ruled notebooks.
"Chewy-lite" :)

I'm a lower echelon owner and I drafted Harden 40 USG% which really is a challenge. If I draft
Penny or McAdoo then my usg% skyrockets to
120%.
Poor drafting on my part and not a very good
plan on how to build around The Beard. I try to live and learn but sometimes just living is satisfaction enough.

Posted by seapilots on 5/19/2025 12:29:00 PM (view original):
I'm a lower echelon owner and I drafted Harden 40 USG% which really is a challenge. If I draft
Penny or McAdoo then my usg% skyrockets to
120%.
Poor drafting on my part and not a very good
plan on how to build around The Beard. I try to live and learn but sometimes just living is satisfaction enough.

You've won a lot in your career. Nothing wrong with a high usage big man like Amare. You want an inside-out game, is what I am told. You don't have to back Amare up with another high usage guy necessarily as long as Harden has a high usage back up. I was at 118.1 when SGA and McAdoo were on the floor together

thanks for the write up!

Posted by oddson on 5/19/2025 12:12:00 PM (view original):
I think it would be cold if we had a mid season write up.

I like this idea a lot. It’s a lot to throw on the person who already wrote evals, but I’m thinking maybe the four division leaders could do a retrospective of evals vs. results at the All-Star break. If someone doesn’t have the time we could ask for volunteers. This would have been a lot of fun during the season when K123456789 put together the team that a lot of us thought didn’t have enough defense, but they were great from start to finish.

Posted by riftonapple on 5/17/2025 11:01:00 PM (view original):

Posted by Midge on 5/17/2025 10:55:00 PM (view original):
Can you tell the people in the back row who the Elite 5 are?

Plus, thank you very much for writing these.

Raggedclaws/beloud/benhoidal/robusk/chewy

if you just wrote down the names of the players these guys draft in any of these themes for 3 seasons and then only drafted players that they had once drafted, you would make the playoffs every time.

Anyone got the balls to try this? It would be pretty funny. I just might haha

Posted by riftonapple on 5/19/2025 12:19:00 PM (view original):

Posted by dontburnearl on 5/19/2025 11:52:00 AM (view original):
thanks for the write ups, but I think you belong in the upper echelon of owners too.

You are too kind. It's really just what I call "creative plagiarism". I really pay attention to the types of players that the Elite 5 select.
I still have a losing playoff record. But I pretty much refuse to go with less than 19,400 total minutes and play my stars until they get tired and then tank a game to get them rested. That's not real basketball that I grew up watching. Let's say I am in the upper echelon of owners who isn't smart enough to know how to use computer spreadsheets and still can't calculate what a "weighted average" is. :) Everything I have is handwritten down in college ruled notebooks.
"Chewy-lite" :)

Glad I am not the only one.

I have a whole formula for grading players that I based on Chewy's scoring system but I calculate it all on a calculator and on google docs. I am sure there is a way to put it into a spreadsheet but alas I am not that intelligent.

Posted by riftonapple on 5/17/2025 10:22:00 PM (view original):
8) berkelon----SGA, Embiid, T. Chandler, Marion, Nash, Dale Davis, Melton-----Bravo! A master class in drafting for the $52, except for just one piece. Listen, I like Nash and have no problem with him being drafted in the 5th round or later. But SGA is your PG. He is a cheat code. He frees you up to go a little lighter on D at the SG position. (this will sound crazy, but I'd rather see you take a Ray Allen-type here than Nash) Klay T was available as were: CJ McCollum, Jalen Wms, etc...personally, this was a perfect spot to take Bob McAdoo. He could back up Embiid and T. Chandler. SGA, Embiid, T.Chandler, Marion, McAdoo, Beal, Melton = Chip contender Draft Grade: B++ Prediction: Playoffs for sure.

Thanks for this! I knew the Nash pick was dubious, but I was scared I'd be too light on assists otherwise. If memory serves, I also underdrafted assists the savage season I got relegated, so still nightmares about that.

and I'm a nash homer

So Midge has tasked me with the mid-season reviews for the Atlantic Division, so here we go.

Before I get started, I'd like to provide a quick breakdown of how I will proceed. First, you will have the opportunity to see my York score for the team. I reverse-engineered Chewy scores to give each player what I call a “Dork Score”. I am not going to write out the formula unless someone really wants to know, but basically, I give a rating that is calculated by your Usage-eFG% ratio, TReb%, Ast%, TOp48, PFp48, and Def rating. Then that rating is multiplied by expected MPG/48 to give that player/season a “Dork Score”. I will then add the Dork Scores together to give the team a “York Score.” Here is my team as an example:

Dwyane Wade- 7

Donovan Mitchell- 3.5

Ron Harper-0.3

Luka Doncic- 9.1

Jarred Vanderbilt- 5.4

Xavier Tillman- 3.3

Chris Andersen- 4.4

Jerry Lucas- 11.6

Isaac Austin- 0.2

Dikembe Mutombo- 12.1

Joakim Noah- 2

David Greenwood- 0.3

Scoring Guards York Score- 59.2

Then I will add commentary.

First up is Jethroeg’s Bird’s Tablets.

Bird’s Tablets

Gary Payton 94-95- 4.9

Mikal Bridges 24-25- 3.2

Larry Bird 86-87- 8.6

Moses Malone 82-83- 10.9

Pau Gasol 14-15- 9.1

Jaden McDaniels 22-23- 1.1

Caldwell Jones 82-83- 3.4

James Johnson 19-20- 0.6

Art Long 02-03- -0.2

Dru Smith 24-25- 0.3

Lindsey Hunter 07-08- -0.3

York Score- 41.6


So, looking at your team, I have several thoughts. Obviously, this team hasn't gone the way you like, and I have some ideas that might help you improve in the future. First, I don't think you picked the optimum team for who you drafted. For my starters I would of had: 99-00 Gary Payton, 21-22 or 20-21 Mikal Bridges, 84-85, 86-87, or 87-88 Larry Bird, 78-79 Moses Malone, and either 10-11, 08-09, or 14-15 Pau Gasol. I would also have an entirely different bench. Your current team has too much usage from the starters for my tastes. Too high usage takes shots away from efficient scorers like Bird. I try not to have over 115 usage on the floor at any time if I have an efficient scorer. Higher usage often times means more turnovers, especially if your high usage players don't have low To%. Your defense rebounding is also very low for this cap. I would never let it go below 90, especially from my starters. Defense is functional though, and your offensive rebounding is ok, but your Def rebounding could use some higher numbers. The biggest glaring struggle I see is your usage penalties and assists. Your starters have no problems but when your bench comes out it looks like to me you are hitting the usage penalty big time. Even worse though, is the low assists you have on the floor at times. From what I can see your starters cumulative assist% is 69.1 which is good. No penalty there. However, looking at your bench, there is probably times where your team is going to have a cumulative assist% of 36, which is going to have a major impact on your FG%. I feel like I have dogged on your team this whole time but keep in mind this is just my opinion and the criticism is all meant to be constructive. If I was you I would avoid building a team like this again. My advice for future teams? Prioritize eFG, Rebounding, and Def over everything else. Just make sure you have 50 assist% (if running up tempo) or 60% to make sure you never see a drop in FG%. Also, make sure you have your bench players mimic the usage of the starters they play behind. For example, IF you are using that Pau Gasol with (24.7 usage) try to have the players who play behind him be in a similar usage range (22.1-27.1), with the higher cap in this league you can afford to have the extra usage coming off the bench. On a positive note I actually like your starters and they had the potential to possibly compete with the right bench. Unfortunately I think this team may continue to ride the bottom of the standings :(.

Writes ups for the Midwest. As requested by CommishMidge I will eval the team out of the draft without looking at the mid season outcome, then update. Note the preseason prediction will be without having looked at other teams or divisions because I’m too lazy.

Copernicus: Curry; Claxton; Ho Grant; Bill Russell; Bledsoe; K Love; Herro.

Curry is the right pick. I would consider the new SGA season. The very good shooting great perimeter D is tempting, but Curry at his best is one of the most valuable assets in a high cap league. I’ve struggled with higher cap leagues because I tend to lean defense and clean teams, but with a high cap I think the best offense wins a little more than the best defense, all other things being equal.

Claxton is fine in the 2^nd. Even with 2200 minutes he gives very good D, solid boards and the increasingly sought after super high eFG. With so much talent in the sim you can go low minutes and grab quality post draft.
Looks like you traded you swapped your 3^rd and 4^th for oddson’s 3^rd and 4^th to grab one of oddson’s 6^th, if I got that right. Easier to assess this trade now, but even in the moment dropping in the 3^rd to move up a little in the 4^th is a pretty good move. The talent starts to flatten a bit. Using hindsight you gave up the chance to get guys like Robert Williams, Tyson Chandler, Jarrett Allen, Derrick White, Jalen Duren and took Ho Grant and then with the earlier 4^th pick took Bill Russell. Evaluating the players you lost the trade, by which I mean you moved up to get Russell in the 4^th and missed out on those guys in the 3^rd. On paper the trade is fine, but I think the wrong players.

As for Horace Grant, he’s fine. Nothing wrong with him but he doesn’t really differentiate you accept in Oreb a little and TO’s, but with a modest usage. He’s not really worth the pick here and looks worse when you could have had Robert Williams, Jarrett Allen or Duren.

I love Bill Russell in real life and I’m liking him more in the sim lately. But I don’t love it here because I believe in this league you can’t win with a guy playing a prominent role shooting that bad. Savage and if you can make the money work in the ODL, he’s great. Also – what’s the (10-0) in the draft board posting?

Eric Bledsoe is meh. I don’t like him much and not a fit for this team. I get you want some perimeter defense to cover Curry, but Bledsoe is a PG and he doesn’t rebound great. And while he has 90D, his stock’s are modest. I would estimate you have almost 50 combined ast% with Curry, Grant, Claxton and Russell – a 3 and D rebounder would have been a better choice. Gerald Wallace was the next pick – he doesn’t cover the PG position I don’t think but I would probably live with that and leave Curry on an island with his solid 68D. Though Wallace doesn’t give the offense. Even a Robert Covington type would have been interesting.

Kevin Love is fine. He’s a 6^th rounder so you can’t be too critical, but with Curry and now Love you’re inviting more +2 D settings. Maybe consider more inside threats and defense. Love’s offense isn’t so good in this league that I think it offsets his defense.

Herro’s new season is pretty good. Pretty good guys to back up Curry.

Draft Grade: C+
Prediction: playoff bubble

Midseason update:
On pace for 41 wins currently in the ~ 7^th spot right behind the guy you traded with.
Positives:

• Curry is being Curry
• Bledsoe is performing a little better than I’d have expected
• Russell is mostly outperforming, even if still shooting 45%
• Winning at the free throw line and 3points may help in the 2^nd half
• Team name

Negatives

• Herro has been pretty inefficient, probably due to lack of assists when he’s on the floor
• Losing on the boards with Bill Russell
• Doug McDermott and Tom Gugliatta have played 196 minutes. I hope they were all scrub time!

Undrafted

• Oden and Boban is quite a combo
• You’re not really playing anyone else from undrafted.You drafted over 18,000 minutes.Kind of a lot, which suggests lower quality players on average
• Patty Mills wants to know what’s up?

Revised Prediction:

No revision

Longtallbrad: Dwight Howard, KAT, Draymond Green, Billups, Brent Barry, Arvydas Sabonis, Jeremy Lin

Howard is a pretty good pick. I’d have been tempted with Gobert, but Howard has more usage that frees other things up later. Great rebounder and defender. TO’s a bit high but not terrible. Position flex is important.

KAT next to Howard is really good. You get all the efficiency and the 3’s next to Howard fits very well. Great pick.

Draymond Green is ok but it’s a lot of TO’s and you still don’t have guards so I’m not sure on this one. Stocks are great, he’s got the one season with ok 3’s. Boards are pretty good and of course the assists. If you can use him to your advantage to take advantage at guard and grab lower assist guards, maybe interesting. Or I suppose if you’re going high assist strategy, which with KAT you can maybe pull off.

Billups is fine. Doesn’t hurt you anywhere except boards if you need that from your PG. I think in this format you have to try and get as many impact players as possible and Billups isn’t bad, but not really impactful.

Brent Barry everything I said on Billups applies here. He does have the ~ 62-63% TS season which is nice. You have enough assists but not so much it will really make much of a positive dent in shooting. 3’s are good and that should help Howard.

Arvydas Sabonis I don’t really love anymore. Used to be one of the top usage bench guys but there are a lot better options.

Jeremy Lin Same as Arvydas..

Draft Grade: C+

Prediction: Just misses the playoffs. A lot may depend on the undrafted players

Midseason update:
On pace for low 20 wins and no chance of the playoffs. I thought this team could be better, I guess it emphasizes that you can’t take too many just ok guys like Billups and Barry. You need those super impactful eFG, D or maybe rebounders.

Positives:

• Howard is doing his part
• Draymond has been fairly impactful

Negatives

• Rough season from Billups and Lin.Expected better with the team passing
• I’m not sure DeMarcus Cousins was the answer unless the question was “who can pick me up some tech fouls!”

Undrafted

• I like James Johnson, Ward is ok
• Cousins is a hot mess

Revised Prediction:
Hopefully 20 wins