Build Your Realistic Team - Draft COMPLETED

[Ryoga Hibiki]

Ah!

Okay, 6th pick for me:

Nicolas Batum

Will edit post to make prettier a bit later.


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I was not expecting him to be taken before me, like this.
I was flip flopping till the end between him and Harris, and I thought he had more of a chance of flying under the radar.

[Ryoga Hibiki]

There are no terrorizing swingmen like Mike or Kobe in this. The best players are centers (Embiid, Jokic, AD, KAT), big guys who play like perimeter guys (Giannis, KD, LeBron) or point guards (Steph, Dame, Luka,CP3, Dame, Herden). That's why I thought a primary defender with some bulk (Tucker) made more sense than some of the somewhat smaller defenders.

I think the most dangerous ones are Luka and LeBron, the others are much more manageable.

[eminence]

I don’t believe you can have too many plus passers.

Give me Ricky Rubio.

Can someone quote Dude?

[Ryoga Hibiki]

up again

[Doctor MJ]

I have his picks, but I am not really sure I understood it right.
As it's 8am in LA (I think he's from there) I will make the first and let him make the second. At the same time, asking eminence and His Dudeness to send their picks to me, unless they know they will be always available in the next few hours.

Anyway, Doctror MJ picks Royce O'Neale with the first one of his two.

Thank you Ryoga and sorry for the confusion.

Appreciate you taking the time to add a pick, and let me just say I'm a fan of that new Red Rocks color scheme. Geographically appropriate!

[Ryoga Hibiki]

There are no terrorizing swingmen like Mike or Kobe in this. The best players are centers (Embiid, Jokic, AD, KAT), big guys who play like perimeter guys (Giannis, KD, LeBron) or point guards (Steph, Dame, Luka,CP3, Dame, Harden).

That's why I thought a primary defender with some bulk made more sense than some of the somewhat smaller defenders. I wanted OG but Tucker somewhat fills the role.

But about defending those point guards....

I see what you did there...

[Doctor MJ]

I don’t believe you can have too many plus passers.

Give me Ricky Rubio.

Can someone quote Dude?

Strongly considered taking him with my 6th pick. Makes me sad to see him go, but I'm glad he's going to a good home.

[Doctor MJ]

Ah!

Okay, 6th pick for me:

Nicolas Batum

Will edit post to make prettier a bit later.


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I was not expecting him to be taken before me, like this.
I was flip flopping till the end between him and Harris, and I thought he had more of a chance of flying under the radar.

Sorry Ryoga! I wasn't really sure where people would place him, but after his performance in the playoffs followed by the Olympics. To me he's an impressive dude.

Something I hadn't even realized: Batum wasn't just the lead MPG guy for the Silver Medal French, he was their lead shotblocker ahead of Gobert.

Obviously as an older guy, you worry that any little absence could be the beginning of the end, but we've seen Batum playing superbly, repeatedly in 2021.

[His Dudeness]

With the 83rd pick in the Realistic Draft, His Dudeness selects Robert Williams

Back to you

[Ryoga Hibiki]

And I am shocking the world going for the "Dorture Chamber", Luguentz Dort.

you

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[confucius]

And I am shocking the world going for the "Dorture Chamber", Luguentz Dort.

you

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Love this pick... Dort's improvement from last season has been understated I think.

[trex_8063]

I had Conley somewhere between th3 high 30s to the 50s.
On one side it's clear that's hard to get high level creation as you go down the draft.
On the other I saw too many limitations last year in his perimeter defense, that might get exposed without a Gobert behind him.
As you are a spectator and you can be more "blunt" in your comments, what players you think FOR SURE should have gone behind him?

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Off-the-cuff, somewhere in the 25 to 40-42 is roughly where I'd have placed Conley in the league......and he's portable enough I would have thought he'd go somewhere similar (roughly in the 30-40 range).

It's not so much that I can say that certain guys should "FOR SURE" go behind him (especially when I don't know the final grand plan of some of the GM's). But some [mostly backcourt] guys who seem [to me] questionable picks ahead of him (that is: guys who I'm skeptical are "better basketball players" than current Conley) include.....

Dillon Brooks - solid defender on my limited eye-test [don't watch a lot of Memphis], scores nearly 20 ppg (in barely 29 mpg), but on mediocre-poor shooting efficiency, not much a playmaker, not an exceptional rebounding wing.......AND he's missed even more time than Conley so far this year. I know he had a great playoffs, but......sample size.

Anthony Edwards - Another guy who scores a lot of points, though on mediocre efficiency [clearly lesser shooter than Conley, fwiw] for a poor offense; not much of a playmaker and VERY turnover-prone. How good is he defensively? I honestly don't know, having rarely seen the TWolves play. Being a 2nd-year player, though, I'm skeptical he's any big separation from Conley on defense. Complete unknown in the playoffs, too.

Darius Garland - Arguably a better scorer than either of the above [better shooter, anyway], though still not as good a shooter as Conley, fwiw. Decent playmaker, a bit turnover prone for a PG, though. How is he defensively? Again, I don't really know. But he suffers the same size issues as Conley. Also a complete unknown in the playoffs.

Kyle Lowry?? - Surprising to say, perhaps, though he is going to be 36 in a few months. He's not having a good shooting year, and at his age [with the wear and tear] there's no guarantee it's coming back. He's also having a somewhat turnover-prone season thus far. Defensively I'll certainly give him the edge, though he's not what he used to be either. And he's missed as many games as Conley.

Miles Bridges?? - He's turned into a capable [but not great scorer], though limited in terms of shooting/spacing effect. Does take care of the ball very well and not a bad passing forward. Rebounds very well for his size, too, and good motor. I'm not convinced he's anything to write home about defensively, particularly given he plays mostly PF (undersized for the role), though I could be wrong there. I know his defensive on/off is good, but that's for the rock-bottom worst defense in the league.


idk, that's a few off the top that I'd question, anyway.

[Ryoga Hibiki]

And I am shocking the world going for the "Dorture Chamber", Luguentz Dort.

you

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Love this pick... Dort's improvement from last season has been understated I think.

What's really overlooked are his percentages from the corners, well over 40% in the last two years.

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[Dutchball97]

I'm happy with the defensive identity of my starting line-up with Allen as an anchor and four guys who are at least solid defenders on the perimeter. I don't really have a prototypical elite wing defender though so that seems like the way to go for my first bench player. There are still a couple very good perimeter defenders available so I'm going with someone who has proven himself as elite on that end this year without giving up as much offensively as most of the other defensive specialists.

Deni Avdija

Up

[flaco]

I'm all over the place right now. Gimme some time to make up my mind.

[eminence]

I'm not sure I agree with that description of Deni, but I do like him, was a guy I was hoping might make it all the way to my next picks, but no dice.

Current roster:
Curry/Rubio
Haliburton
DeRozan
DFS
Simmons

[Ryoga Hibiki]

I'm happy with the defensive identity of my starting line-up with Allen as an anchor and four guys who are at least solid defenders on the perimeter. I don't really have a prototypical elite wing defender though so that seems like the way to go for my first bench player. There are still a couple very good perimeter defenders available so I'm going with someone who has proven himself as elite on that end this year without giving up as much offensively as most of the other defensive specialists.

Deni Avdija

I think "elite" is stretching it, especially if you want to use him as a man defender on the opponent's bigger perimeter threat.
That's a word I would use for guys with actual ALL NBA consideration

[Dutchball97]

On the defensive end EPM has Avdija as a + 2.7 (tied 9th), RAPTOR has him at +4.9 (5th) and LEBRON shows him as a +2.07 (14th). I don't expect him to be seen as prime Kawhi defensively but Avdija has definitely had an elite impact statistically so far this season.

[Doctor MJ]

I had Conley somewhere between th3 high 30s to the 50s.
On one side it's clear that's hard to get high level creation as you go down the draft.
On the other I saw too many limitations last year in his perimeter defense, that might get exposed without a Gobert behind him.
As you are a spectator and you can be more "blunt" in your comments, what players you think FOR SURE should have gone behind him?

Sent from my Nokia 3210 using RealGM mobile app

Off-the-cuff, somewhere in the 25 to 40-42 is roughly where I'd have placed Conley in the league......and he's portable enough I would have thought he'd go somewhere similar (roughly in the 30-40 range).

It's not so much that I can say that certain guys should "FOR SURE" go behind him (especially when I don't know the final grand plan of some of the GM's). But some [mostly backcourt] guys who seem [to me] questionable picks ahead of him (that is: guys who I'm skeptical are "better basketball players" than current Conley) include.....

Dillon Brooks - solid defender on my limited eye-test [don't watch a lot of Memphis], scores nearly 20 ppg (in barely 29 mpg), but on mediocre-poor shooting efficiency, not much a playmaker, not an exceptional rebounding wing.......AND he's missed even more time than Conley so far this year. I know he had a great playoffs, but......sample size.

Anthony Edwards - Another guy who scores a lot of points, though on mediocre efficiency [clearly lesser shooter than Conley, fwiw] for a poor offense; not much of a playmaker and VERY turnover-prone. How good is he defensively? I honestly don't know, having rarely seen the TWolves play. Being a 2nd-year player, though, I'm skeptical he's any big separation from Conley on defense. Complete unknown in the playoffs, too.

Darius Garland - Arguably a better scorer than either of the above [better shooter, anyway], though still not as good a shooter as Conley, fwiw. Decent playmaker, a bit turnover prone for a PG, though. How is he defensively? Again, I don't really know. But he suffers the same size issues as Conley. Also a complete unknown in the playoffs.

Kyle Lowry?? - Surprising to say, perhaps, though he is going to be 36 in a few months. He's not having a good shooting year, and at his age [with the wear and tear] there's no guarantee it's coming back. He's also having a somewhat turnover-prone season thus far. Defensively I'll certainly give him the edge, though he's not what he used to be either. And he's missed as many games as Conley.

Miles Bridges?? - He's turned into a capable [but not great scorer], though limited in terms of shooting/spacing effect. Does take care of the ball very well and not a bad passing forward. Rebounds very well for his size, too, and good motor. I'm not convinced he's anything to write home about defensively, particularly given he plays mostly PF (undersized for the role), though I could be wrong there. I know his defensive on/off is good, but that's for the rock-bottom worst defense in the league.


idk, that's a few off the top that I'd question, anyway.

So since 2 of my guys are on this list I’ll respond.

I think the key thing here is that I’m drafting on the fit I can imagine based on the guys I already have. So I picked Garland and Brooks to put with Jokic and Mobley.

Why did I do it?

Well, with Garland there’s the fact we’ve all already seen how well Garland plays with Mobley and another big. Jokic isn’t Allen of course, but that’s largely a good thing I’d say.

What I see from Garland that I like in particular is that he’s really gotten good at dynamically making things happen and trusting his bigs to improvise with him. Not something you want to do with all bigs, but it’s huge when you’ve got guys you can do it, Mobley has shown he can do it, and of course Jokic is on a entirely different level than everyone else.

I’ll add that I think Garland at this point is a strong candidate for all-star. While going forward I think Mobley is the Cavs franchise player, Garland seems to be the MVP right now. That’s no small thing.

So then, if you’re going to make your first perimeter guy a small offensive dynamo like Garland, defense on the perimeter is a priority. So my next two picks were Brooks and O’Neale, defensively focused guys.

For Brooks in particular I see a guy who is just ferocious, which is particularly valuable if you’ve got bigs behind him…which I do.

I think Brooks is a monster in transition and a quick thinker. I think he’ll love playing offense with Jokic for the transition opportunities, cutting opportunities, and for both of my D perimeter guys they are adept from trey.

Brooks shot section is admittedly iffy, but that has a lot to do with him taking on an offensive primacy beyond what is ideal. To me he’s best served as an offensive role player, and in that capacity being guided by Jokic and Garland, I think he’ll have clear modes of attack and his efficiency will go up. I also think Brooks’ identity is so focused on defense that ego won’t be an issue.

Back to Conley. As I mentioned before I seriously considered him before picking Garland. I like him a great deal and always have. If my two team-defining players (Jokic & Mobley) we’re different, I may well have picked Conley over Garland.

In particular I’d note that I think that the older Conley at this point is a great fit next to a younger more explosive guard, a la Mitchell.

Also I can see the argument for preferring Conley to be the mature veteran leader of your offense, but for me Jokic is going to be my fulcrum and I’m not too worried that I need a traditional floor general.

In the end, I’m happy with my team, as I always am in these. I expect to be disappointed in how others view it, because I also always am, but the process of team-building is so educationally worthwhile to me I’m glad to do it when I have the time and the timing this time turned out to be just about perfect.


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[flaco]

With the 86th pick, the Rethymno Cretan Kings select Christian Wood.

• He's 6' 9.25'' w/o shoes with a 7' 3.25'' wingspan.
• He can shoot the 3.
• He can set picks on the perimeter and either roll hard to the basket or pop for 3.
• He can protect the rim thanks to his length and athleticsm.
• He can switch ball screens on the perimeter. Btw, he ranks 8th in the league in contested 3pt shots!
• He can even put the ball on the floor and create his own shot!

All in all, he's a versatile, mobile, modern big (probably the last one on the board). His advanced stats are relatively unimpressive, but he's playing for a tanking team. Obviously, he cannot carry the offensive load on a good team. That said, he's a terrific complementary star. I reckon he's good enough to be the 3rd option on a championship team. If you surround him with the right pieces, he's an impact player on both ends of the floor. For instance, he was scoring 1.50 PPP (!) as a roll man during his breakout season with the Pistons. It's not his fault that the Rockets lack a reliable PnR ball handler. Their main shot creator is a score-first knucklehead who's a turnover machine (can't name him cause he's draft eligible). I bet Wood would transform into an elite PnR/PnP big if he were paired with Luka. For the record, he still scores a respectable 1.08 PPP as a roller this season which ranks in the 54th percentile.

PG: Luka
SG: Brown
SF: Hayward
PF: Anunoby
C: Capela - Wood

(Wood can also provide cover at the 4)

.

You are on the clock.