Usually when fantasy drafting you decide whether you want to draft a veteran team that can win right away but will need rebuilding after a few seasons or to draft a team of young players that will struggle for the first few seasons and then become a contender if you are patient enough to wait it out. However, I have put together a team that will not only be one of the best teams EVER assembled after 3-5 seasons, but can also be a championship contender right now. Here are my draft results:
Round 1: SF- Kevin Durant (Obviously if you have pick #1 go with LeBron. If not, resist the temptation of drafting CP3, Superman, or an aging yet still elite D-Wade or Kobe and go with KD. If you just can't stand the thought of having Durantula on your team then there are other good options but then that would affect who you would draft in the remaining rounds as well. Other good 1st round options are Derrick Rose, Blake Griffin, and Russell Westbrook.)
Round 2: Kevin Love (James Harden is another solid choice because he is one of the best scorers in the league as he can shoot the three and is almost unstoppable driving to the basket. He does lack defensively however. The reason I take Love is because KD will be my main scorer so I'm not in need of scoring as much I am a big man that can rebound. Plus Love can provide scoring with a nice three point shot which is especially rare in a big man. You could also take LaMarcus Aldridge here.)
Round 3: Stephen Curry (Now you see why I avoided CP3, Rose, and Westbrook in the first round. Curry is a steal in the 3rd round! Give him a couple seasons and he just might be the best jump shooter in the NBA, you can already score 25+ points per game with him pretty easily.)
Round 4: Marc Gasol (Centers are hard to come by and Gasol is a pretty darn good one! Other 4th round options are Jrue Holiday or one of the best sixth men in the history of the NBA in Jamal Crawford.)
Round 5: Jeff Teague (This is one round where I don't have one clear choice. I alternate between Teague, Kyle Lowry, and Demar DeRozan all depending on who I prefer at the time.)
Round 6: Roy Hibbert (Hibbert is a tree that can clog up the paint and have a block party. He is not an impressive scorer yet as he is not even guaranteed to make easy shots under the basket but I am sure his offensive ability will improve in the coming seasons. Other good options are Joakim Noah if you have an early 6th round pick or Brandon Jennings assuming you don't already have several point guards on your roster at this point.)
Round 7: Nicolas Batum (Batum is a well rounded player that can be inserted into the starting lineup or provide a spark off the bench, whichever you prefer. He makes for good trade bait as well. Other options to consider in Round 7 are JaVale McGee and Marcin Gortat.)
Round 8: Matt Barnes (Really you can go with anyone you want in round 8. There isn't a player in round 8 that stands out to me more than the others. Barnes is a veteran player that can score, rebound, and play defense so he is usually my choice. Once in a while I will go with Robin Lopez for a big man.)
Round 9: Goran Dragic (Dragic is a great young point guard that can really score and I can see him really developing into one of the better point guards in the league. If you prefer to add more defense to your team with a little more veteran leadership then go with Tony Allen although what you gain on the defensive side of the ball, you will certainly lose on the offensive side with Allen.)
Round 10: Daniel Green (Round 10 is packed full of young talent. Green is my pick because he is a valuable part that can play multiple positions. He is a good swingman at the small forward position that can also be an oversized shooting guard. He is a decent shooter and pretty good defender. My other picks in round 10 include George Hill, Darren Collison, Mike Dunleavy, and Hasheem Thabeet.)
Round 11: James Johnson (I usually have a ton of guards on my roster and very few big men so I take Johnson here. If you want to add some three point shooting then there aren't many better than Daequan Cook.)
Round 12: DeAndre Jordan (A nightmare to guard if he has a PG that can lob the ball up to him. Also a force on the defensive end and an excellent rebounder. Shaun Livingston could be a decent pick but DJ is the obvious choice here and maybe the most underrated player in the game.)
Round 13, 14, 15: Kyle Korver, Demarre Carroll, Taj Gibson, JJ Redick, (Beginning with round 13 I usually start taking players who will go undrafted because I find them to be more valuable than the remaining guys that will go in the draft. If you really want to boost your team's "overall rating" which doesn't mean a whole lot, then you can go with someone like Aaron Afflalo, Nick Collison, or Ryan Anderson in round 13, Gerald Green in round 14, and Danilo Gallinari in round 15.)
When the draft comes to an end your roster will look something like this:
Starters:
PG- S Curry
SG- D Green
SF- K Durant
PF- K Love
C- M Gasol
Bench/Reserves:
PG- J Teague
PG- G Dragic
SG- J Redick
SF- N Batum
SF- M Barnes
SF- K Korver
PF- J Johnson
PF- T Gibson
C- R Hibbert
C- D Jordan
Saturday, April 30, 2016
My NBA2K10 Association: New Orleans Hornets
So I love sports games. My main three go-to games are NBA2K (Xbox 360), MLB The Show (PS3), and Madden (Xbox 360/PS3). I've been playing NBA2K10 a lot lately which means the boredom is beginning to set in. My favorite game mode by far is the Association. Although I love the idea of drafting my team in Fantasy Draft, this seems to be the part of the game that I get the most bored with and usually only make a few games into the first season. My other preference is playing an association in 2K with my loaded up Miami Heat (Yes I am a Miami Heat fan and always have been!). You can play at least a season, maybe several, depending on how into the game you are when you get to play with King James, D-Wade, and Bosh. The new thing I am now trying is playing an association with a young team that requires building to be a contender. To do this I have chosen to play with the New Orleans Hornets. Not only do they have A LOT of young talent worth building a team around, but they are also the only NBA team without an owner which makes it even more fun and puts kind of a realistic fantasy spin on things as you get to act like you have just bought the Hornets. Of course even though I will be playing games as the Hornets and they will be my main focus, I obviously had to control all 30 teams to make the offseason more realistic by controlling player contracts for all teams. I had the choice of playing with a team with virtually no talent (Orlando Magic, Sacramento Kings, Philadelphia 76ers) or an above average aging team that will need to be rebuilt in a season or two (Dallas Mavericks, San Antonio Spurs, LA Lakers) but the Hornets were my choice. The Hornets offer three of the elite young talents in the game to build around along with a huge salary cap to spend in the upcoming offseason.
Here is the Hornets default roster that I began the season with:
PG- Jrue Holiday
SG- Tyreke Evans
SG- Eric Gordon
SG- Anthony Morrow
SG- Trey Johnson
PF- Lou Amundson
PF- Pops Mensah-Bonsu
PF- Ryan Anderson
PF- Jason Smith
PF- Lawrence Roberts
C- David Andersen
C- Alexis Ajinca
After a few trades and free agent signings before the first game of the season this is the roster I am going with:
Starters:
PG- Jrue Holiday
SG- Eric Gordon
SF- Tyreke Evans
PF- Jordan Hill (Received along with a '10 2nd Rd Pick from the Lakers for Amundson)
C- DeAndre Jordan (Received for Mensah-Bonsu in a trade with the Clippers)
Bench/Reserves:
PF- Ryan Anderson
C- Brad Miller (Signed to a cheap 1 year deal in Free Agency)
SF- Peja Stojakovic (Signed to a cheap 1 year deal in Free Agency)
SG- Morris Peterson (Signed to a cheap 1 year deal in Free Agency)
SG- Anthony Morrow
SG- Trey Johnson
SG- Sonny Weems (Signed to a cheap 1 year deal in Free Agency)
PF- Jason Smith
C- David Andersen
C- Alexis Ajinca
I signed Miller, Stojakovic, and Peterson because they were all among the best players I could have signed for under $1M from Free Agency (I set my budget at $1M per each player to save money for the offseason and did not offer more than 1 year because of their age). These were three key veteran players that I feel can help my team win some games by providing valuable minutes off the bench, help my team chemistry, and possibly help lure other good players to my team. I signed Sonny Weems because he is a cheap young player with potential to develop, though he won't be seeing many minutes. I am already looking ahead to my plans for the offseason as I am not expecting to make the playoffs in a very difficult Western Conference and if I do happen to barely get in, then I'm not counting on being able to make a deep run for a shot at the championship. So instead of focusing on a championship in my first season, I am looking at how I can improve my team in my first offseason.
Miller, Stojakovic, Peterson, and Weems will all be unrestricted free agents after the first season and I have no plans of re-signing any of them. Instead I will just add the $2.5M to my offseason spending budget in Free Agency. Eric Gordon, Ryan Anderson, and Alexis Ajinca will all have team options. I plan on accepting Gordon and Anderson's options and may accept Ajinca's option as well since it will only cost me roughly $500K and will fill out a roster spot. This will leave me around $35M to spend in Offseason Free Agency. I really like my current starting five. The one thing I feel I am really lacking is someone that can come in and score off the bench and fill the sixth man role. So my plans are to land a sixth man in the draft or if I get a good enough draft pick I may insert that player into my starting lineup and move either Gordon or Evans to my bench for some firepower when my starters need a rest.
I am planning on having a decent draft pick (at least a mid-round if not better), however, I just blew the Orlando Magic out by 30 points in my first game. Orlando is one of the weakest teams in the league so it's hard to tell if I am really one of the top eight teams in the West that will make the playoffs or if this game was just a fluke with Orlando being so bad.
Update after first 5 games:
4-1 (5th in the West)
vs Orlando W 87-53 (3-8)
vs LA Lakers W 98-96 (6-1)
vs Atlanta L 65-55 (5-4)
@ Milwaukee W 88-68 (2-6)
vs Phoenix W 97-92 (2-4)
Although I am 4-1 to start the season off I still am not very confident that I will be much higher than a 7 or 8 seed in the West. It seems that the Hornets have one of the easiest schedules at the beginning of the season. The Lakers and Hawks are the only two teams I have played so far with winning records and the five teams have a combined record of 18-23 with the Lakers being 6-1. Until I string together some wins against big opponents I will not be convinced that my team actually has a shot at being a championship contender. Here are my stats through the first five games of the season. This is with 10 minute quarters.
Jordan Hill 16.4ppg/5.0rpg
Jrue Holiday 14.4ppg/8.0apg/1.4spg
Eric Gordon 13.2ppg
Tyreke Evans 12.2ppg/4.2apg
DeAndre Jordan 8.0ppg/11.4rpg/3.0bpg
Peja Stojakovic 5.8ppg
Morris Peterson 4.2ppg
Brad Miller 4.2ppg/4.2rpg
Ryan Anderson 3.6ppg
Trey Johnson 3.0ppg
Anthony Morrow 2.4ppg
Sonny Weems- hasn't made an in-game appearance yet
As a team, I am second in the league in FG% (52.2%), third in assists (20.2), second in block (7.6), and first in turnovers (8.8). I am also the ninth highest scoring team in the league (85.0 ppg) and the fourth best defensive team giving up 74.8 ppg. My one weakness seems to be rebounding as I rank in at 22nd in the league with 32.6 rpg.
Evaluation after five games:
I had no idea Jordan Hill would have been one of my top five scorers, well alone my LEADING scorer! He is a much better post player than I had expected. DeAndre Jordan is a beast on the boards averaging over 11 rebounds per game and swats everything within reach of him in the paint. Eric Gordon and Tyreke Evans can be very streaky shooters. If they are struggling it's time to look for other options but if they catch fire then watch out! Jrue is definitely the leader of this team as he is great at controlling the tempo and creating offense for himself as well as his teammates. In my opinion, Jordan and Holiday are playing at an all-star level and could be receiving max contract offers in the near future.
Update after 10 games:
9-1 (1st in West)
Next 5 games:
@ Washington W 88-67
@ Charlotte W 96-77
vs San Antonio W 78-73
@ Sacramento W 80-75
@ LA Clippers W 90-70
I am now starting to believe I may be one of the better teams in the West with an actual shot at winning the title despite how youth and inexperience on my team. I won two key games against title contenders in the Spurs and Clippers.
Here are the stats after 10 games:
Eric Gordon 16.8ppg/1.2spg
Tyreke Evans 14.2ppg/3.0rpg/4.6apg
Jrue Holiday 13.9ppg/7.9apg/1.2spg
Jordan Hill 13.6ppg/4.8rpg
DeAndre Jordan 7.9ppg/9.5rpg/2.9bpg
Brad Miller 5.7ppg/3.3rpg
Peja Stojakovic 4.2ppg
Ryan Anderson 3.7ppg/3.0rpg
Morris Peterson 3.3ppg
Anthony Morrow 2.1ppg
Trey Johnson 1.5ppg
Sonny Weems- hasn't made an in-game appearance yet
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