Offseason Beat: Bruski's 30-DEEP Draft Review

We’re getting down to the wire here and believe me I’m hearing you guys about the Bruski 150.  It’s a race to the finish to get the final touches on this first submission, which is being released Monday.  I will give a second update on Friday around midnight, and touch it up one last time on the following Monday or thereabouts. 

To get news and updates as the news hits the wire, you can click here to follow me on Twitter. 

For projections that help form the Bruski 150, strategy articles, more rankings, player profiles and more, you can click here to check out the Draft Guide. 

Lastly, I’ve been doing Season Preview podcasts with beat writers in every NBA city, and we’ve put up links to each of them right here. 

30 DEEP

We had a conversation a few years ago about introducing an entry fee and prizes into the 30-DEEP mix.  But, the 30 owners that comprise this expert league shot the idea down overwhelmingly because they wanted it to be about pride and nothing more.  I like to think of it as some underground street fighting ring, but with modern-day abacuses and pithy chat room comments instead. 

First off, a big shout out goes to Matt Satten a/k/a last year’s champion, and a huge shout out to CBS Sports for helping us to organize and run the league with their new draft software. 

We’ll go round by round here and talk some winners and losers real quick, and then I have to get my head back into the spreadsheet. 

RULES:  9-cat, Head-to-Head league, eight active roster slots (PG, SG, SF, PF, C, G, F, UTIL), four bench slots and two all-important IR slots. 

ROUND 1

Kevin Durant falling to Gallagher at No. 6 was just incredibly fortunate.  Paul George was autodrafted and because of the size of the league we weren’t able to go back and change it without mass chaos, so Satten was gracious enough to keep George like a good soldier.  Chris Paul at No. 8 is a really good look for Jeff.  I was thrilled to get my boy Kawhi Leonard at No. 11.  Likewise, I had a real hard time passing on DeMarcus Cousins and Towers also had to be thrilled.  Doc kicked off his punting strategy with Andre Drummond, who looks really sharp in what I’ve seen of him this preseason.  LaMarcus Aldridge was autodrafted at No. 29 and you’ll see in my B150 that he won’t be on any of my teams. 

ROUND 2

This was a fairly vanilla round until we get to Polito at No. 41 overall with Kyrie Irving, which is just incredible value.  I’m good with Andrew Wiggins speculators.  One thing about this league is that if you like a guy you just have to take him because you’re not going to be able to get him on the way back in most cases.  This is pretty high for Wiggins, but he has a chance to be a very special player in this league.  I landed Danny Green and now I’ve got all the wings in San Antonio, which is probably going to kill me in the playoffs when Pop rests the both for the same week.  You’re seeing some interesting markers on guys like Karl-Anthony Towns (No. 54) and Emmanuel Mudiay (No. 57), and in the case of Mudiay we’re seeing Tracy Fay execute a punting strategy otherwise this would be too high in a 9-cat league. 

ROUND 3

I was surprised to see Giannis Antetokounmpo last this long and it’s possible the hype came too early for him and everybody got worn out by a relatively low profile preseason.  I’ve said it on podcasts and I’ve taken my hands off the reins on our player news updates for the preseason, but I am not on the C.J. McCollum hype train.  I think he’s going to score a ton, hit a bunch of threes and get some nice assists.  But everything else is a huge question mark and that’s if we assume he can play at the level he showed during an outstanding playoff series vs. the Grizzlies.  Derrick Rose is a head-scratcher here.  Ryan Knaus and I stole each other’s picks all draft long.  Jahlil Okafor would be doing well if he earned this draft position, but that’s his ceiling and I don’t see it. I think Zach LaVine is just an interesting pick at No. 90.  If he’s off the ball his turnovers won’t be nearly as bad, and the Wolves are begging him to be a superstar.  He just needs to walk through that door.  I’m not sure I’d be this high, but I know some sharps that are hip to LaVine this season.

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