Offseason Beat: Draft Guide Preview: Mocks
Media Days kicked off across the country on Friday, marking the official start of the fantasy basketball season. From time to time we’re going to bring you a teaser of what we’ve got going on in the Rotoworld NBA Draft Guide, because this year we’ve really beefed it up. Aside from an insane amount of articles we have:
- 350 player profiles
- Customizable projections (I jumped on those this year)
- Double-digit mock drafts encompassing just about every format imaginable
- Positional tiers
- Relationship advice (not included)
- More (descriptive, yes)
You can check it all out right here and let us know what you think or what you might like to see added in the future. In the meantime, here’s a taste of a 9-cat Head-to-Head mock we did that Doc wrote up!
You can follow Doctor A on Twitter here. Follow Bruski on Twitter here.
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There was plenty to learn from this draft, which only featured a single auto-pick due to a dog-walking incident. Some things we learned were that point guards and small forwards get thin quickly this year, the first round is loaded with elite talent, Aaron Bruski is not afraid of old guys, and if you want rookie Karl-Anthony Towns, you better be ready to roll on him in Round 5.
Something else we learned (the hard way) was that if you set up a co-owner in Yahoo! to draft for you, it’s not going to happen. If you are going to have someone draft for you in a Yahoo! league, use the actual team owner’s login, as the other guy’s login will not allow you to pick, and it will be auto-draft city.
I love these early drafts with my old friends from the industry and several of my co-workers at Rotoworld.
The Participants
Nick Raducanu of Rotoworld got the No. 1 pick.
Chris Towers of CBSSports.com picked second.
Yours truly got the No. 3 pick.
Dave Gawron and Randy Dean of eXpertleagues.com picked 4th.
Kyle McKeown of Rotowire.com had the No. 5 pick.
Matt Stroup of NBCSports.com picked No. 6.
Aaron Bruski of Rotoworld had the No. 7 pick.
Tommy Beer of Basketballinsiders.com picked 8th.
Mike Gallagher, Jared Johnson and Jonas Nader, all of Rotoworld, had the next three picks.
ESPN’s Tom Carpenter finished Round 1 off with the 12th pick.
This is a 12-team, nine-cat Yahoo! head-to-head league with 13 rounds.
If you haven’t already checked it out, Gallagher, Ryan Knaus and I break down the first two round of players this year in an in-depth podcast you can listen to it here.
Round 1
1. Anthony Davis (NO – PF,C) – Nick Raducanu
2. Stephen Curry (GS – PG,SG) – Chris Towers
3. James Harden (Hou – SG,SF) – Steve Alexander
4. Kevin Durant (OKC – SF,PF) – Dave Gawron
5. LeBron James (Cle – SF,PF) – Kyle McKeown
6. Russell Westbrook (OKC – PG) – Matt Stroup
7. Chris Paul (LAC – PG) – Aaron Bruski
8. DeMarcus Cousins (Sac – PF,C) – Tommy Beer
9. Kawhi Leonard (SA – SG,SF) – Mike Gallagher
10. Jimmy Butler (Chi – SG,SF) – Jared Johnson
11. Damian Lillard (Por – PG) – Jonas Nader
12. Kyrie Irving (Cle – PG,SG) – Tom Carpenter
My Favorite Pick: Carpenter getting Kyrie Irving with the last pick shows you just how deep the talent level is this season. It’s hard to be upset regardless of where you pick this year, so don’t stress about it too much. Of course, having a Top 3-4 pick gives you MVP talent, but the bottom half of Round 1 is also solid.
My Least Favorite Pick: I honestly don’t dislike any of these picks, so I’m not even going to pick one. I will tell you that having to choose between Kevin Durant and James Harden at No. 3 is no easy task. I went with Harden in the end simply because he’s not coming off a major injury.
Round 2
1. Paul George (Ind – SG,SF) TC
2. Klay Thompson (GS – SG,SF) JN
3. Rudy Gobert (Uta – C) JJ
4. Paul Millsap (Atl – PF,C) MG
5. John Wall (Was – PG) TB
6. Serge Ibaka (OKC – PF,C) AB
7. Blake Griffin (LAC – PF,C) MS
8. Victor Oladipo (Orl – PG,SG) KM
9. Carmelo Anthony (NY – SF,PF) DG
10. Marc Gasol (Mem – C) SA
11. Al Horford (Atl – PF,C) CT
12. LaMarcus Aldridge (SA – PF,C) NR
My Favorite Pick: I kind of loved the Rudy Gobert pick here, not only because he’s going to be a fantasy monster, but because this ensures Gallagher won’t own him in every league this year. I just assumed it was Gallagher who got him and was a surprised when I saw that Johnson sniped him. Well done!
My Least Favorite Pick: We spent a good five minutes destroying Paul George in the aforementioned podcast, so Carpenter’s pick gets my nod for least favorite. Sure, George could return to form after his broken leg and make us look like idiots (and Carpenter look like a genius), but I am just not feeling PG this year.
You can head on over to the Draft Guide by clicking this link.
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