Precious Roy

If we'd done this thing 10 years ago Damon Stoudamire, Tom Gugliotta and ? would be getting drafted ahead of hall of famers. That's basically my problem with drafting current players early. And aside from the no-brainers like Duncan and Kobe notice that it's the younger stars with upside like Paul, Amare and Howard who are getting drafted early, and not the guys who have reached their early 30's and are sort of yesterdays news because they've not quite lived up to all the hype they had when they were younger. I don't want to name names of undrafted players, but you can probably guess some of the guys I'm referring to. If this draft had been done 3 or 4 years ago there would have been a different batch of rising young stars picked early. Anyway, it's not that I think that some of those guys picked were bad choices, I just won't rate them as highly as comparable guys who've proved themselves over longer stretches of time.

Time to draft my point guard. Amazing that this guy is still out there when Chris Paul is already drafted. This guy was doing what Chris Paul did this season for almost a decade. Kevin Johnson # Johnson is one of only three players in NBA history (Isiah Thomas and Magic Johnson are the others) to average at least 20.0 points and 12.0 assists in a season. # Johnson is one of only three players in NBA history (Oscar Robertson and Isiah Thomas are the others) to have averaged at least 20.0 points and 10.0 assists in three consecutive seasons. # Johnson is one of only four players in NBA history to have averaged at least 20.0 points and 10.0 assists per game in three different seasons. # Johnson is one of four players to have averaged at least 15.0 points and 10.0 assists per game over the course of a season while shooting at least .500 from the field. # Johnson is one of only two players (the other is Magic Johnson) to have averaged at least 20.0 points and 10.0 assists per game over the course of a season while shooting at least .500 from the field. # Johnson is the only player in NBA history to have averaged at least 20.0 points, 10.0 assists, a .500 field goal percentage, and 2.0 steals in a season (in '90-'91). # NBA record holder for minutes in a finals game, playing 62 minutes in 1993 vs. the Chicago Bulls.

I'm looking over the teams and I think The OOG has my favorite so far

Power Forward, Jerry Lucas - Elected to Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame (1980) - One of 50 Greatest Players in NBA History (1996) - NCAA Champion (1960) - Olympic gold medalist (1960) - College Player of the Year (1961, 1962) - NBA champion (1973) - All-NBA First Team (1965, '66, '68) - All-NBA Second Team (1964, '67) - All-Rookie team (1964) - Seven-time All-Star (1964-69, 1971) - All-Star MVP (1965) Not only is he one of the greatest rebounding and shooting power forwards of all time, he's a freaking genius!

I was going to take Thurmond with my next pick. Cowens was my back up.

I don't know about D'Antoni and the Knicks On one hand I'm happy because it truely signals a fresh start for the franchise, Donnie Walsh a former executive of the year hiring D'Antoni a former coach of the year and lead practitioner of the style de jour in the NBA right now, a istyle the Knicks as a franchise haven't employed, well, in a long time if ever. Also, I think he's a guy who players around the league look at and say, "I want to play for him". He's a players coach with a free, open style, but he's also a guy with a bit of a temper and a short leash. That could play well with this group, well, most of it anyway, there's a couple guys who might be too far gone for anyone to reach. Also, I think the knock about D'Antoni teams not being able to play defense is a bit reactionary based on the personnel he had. I think, given his pedigree in the Euro leagues, that D'Antoni knows how to preach defense, but his two best players in Phoenix just aren't naturally gifted on that end, and he had them expending so much energy on offense that it was futile to try and get them to expend that energy on defense. He found a rhythm that worked, and he had Bell and Marion playing 1-1 D, so they rolled with it. I actually think his penchant for a short rotation could be a good thing, as Brown/Thomas had so many rotation changes and so much fluctuation in minutes that some of the younger players and veteran bench players didn't know if they were coming or going. The Knicks are actually pretty deep talent wise, so some guys may get the short end of it, but ultimately it would be good to have a solid 8-9 man rotation with defined roles and units for everyone. On the other hand, he had more talent in Phoenix than he'll probably ever get in New York, and he couldn't get over the hump there, got exposed by the Spurs year after year. So even if he does well in New York, I think ultimately he's coaching to develop players and a put a culture in place where the next guy can succeed, because really that's all you can expect right now with this team, and I question hiring such a high profile name to such a big contract where undue pressure to instantly succeed will just come naturally from the fanbase and the media. The hiring of D'Antoni says "we can compete right now and be among the contenders in 3-4 years" and I'm not sure if that's the right message for Walsh to send, though surely he's already feeling some internal pressure to succeed just because Dolan & co. are completely fucking backetball retarded. In short, I'm not ready to write him off as a one dimensional coach that needs an exact replica of the talent he had in Phoenix to succeed, but I also need to see him prove that he can adjust with a different roster, he's got a ton of pressure on him IMO,

I can not believe this hasn't been posted here yet! http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/news?slug=ap-f...p&type=lgns

Eh, I'm not going to really take injuries into account when judging teams, that overcomplicates everything. I'm looking at these players as if they were at the peak of their abilities.

It was 909 with the pick, not VX! I'm still here McHale is a great pick, I thought about him too, but I didn't want to do the Bird-McHale thing, no fun in that anyway This might be a 'controversial' pick. I'd love to hear some y'alls on it. This guy was one of the 5 best players in the league in his time, incredible all around player, bonafide superstar, hall of fame bound, could do just about anything on the court until injuries cut his career short. There's a lot more conventional picks on the board, bigger names, bigger scorers, including a few of his contemporaries, but for the type of team I'm building he's exactly the player I want. I've got Bird at the 3, so Hill is slotting at the 2 as a point-forward type

Nice picks. I seriously thought about Walton over Reed but wanted more of a rebounder/defender to compliment Bird, and Kidd would have likely been my next pick if he was still on the board. I said I was going to bed hours ago, but I seriously am now, damned insomnia. If VX makes his next pick I'll try and get mine in tommorow morning/early afternoon.

I love the Miller pick, I was considering him, but ultimately I decided to go with this man Willis Reed The first player to win NBA MVP, Finals MVP and All-Star game MVP in the same season. Also won Finals MVP in 1973. Beat Chamberlain and the Lakers in the finals twice, and at 6-9, 235 more than held his own against bigger, more celebrated opponents like Wilt and Kareem. Tenacious defender and rebounder, absolute workhorse, he had a deadly jump shot, one of the first centers with a true inside-outside offensive game, one of the NBA's 50 greatest team, would be even more legendary if his career wasn't cut short by a major knee injury.

Yeah, I was going to take Drexler/Frazier too :mad: Anyway, it's your pick, hurry up so I can get my next one before I hit the sack

Mike Fratello?

I'm going to make my pick in an hour if VX doesn't show. Anyone got a problem with that?

Fuck TJ Ford. Major injury risk and he's undersized.

I was surprised Karl Malone lasted so long. I know he's unpopular, but still. I would have taken Barkley ahead of him though. Also, people need to stop dropping names of undrafted players.

If you have the right players and right role for Robinson he can be really valuable. He can be really valuable to the Knicks, they just need that big all-around PG to allow Nate to play his game. Someone like Andre Miller or Jason Kidd would be perfect, just that type of PG who has some size and strength to guard a 2 and is a natural on offense. Ideally he would be the 6th man, looked at as a primary scorer, play around 25-30 minutes a game, and could be paired with Crawford or the theoretical point guard or a 3 guard lineup depending on matchups. He's definitely a guy who needs to be managed and coached and put in the right situations, and some might say he's not worth the hassle, but he's a legit weapon, there's nobody else like him in the league.

Nate Robinson is a dynamic player. Outside shooting, driving, steals, rebounds, he can get shit done. He gets on hot streaks where he just dominates, and looks like the best player on the court. The problem is he's a two in a one body. Pairing him in the backcourt with Crawford can work for stretches because Crawford is a good ballhandler and can initiate the offense, but it doesn't play to his strengths to do that, he's too shot oriented to run point for a whole game and he's not particularly good in a set half court offense. The ideal pairing for Robinson would be a big natural point guard who's good enough on defense to guard the other team's SG. Robinson could be himself on offense and match up with the point on defense. But guys like that don't come along that often. Derrick Rose might be that guy, might not be. I could get with a 3 guard rotation of Crawford, Robinson and Rose coached by D'Antoni though.

I was sure I'd get Frazier or Drexler with my next pick. Bastards.

EDIT* 21 million The Knicks aren't going to flip his expiring contract unless they're getting someone else's expiring contracts back, at least I hope they won't. One of the first things Donnie Walsh said at his press conference was that he didn't want to take any more contracts on, that he wanted to shed contracts with the hope of acquiring a top level free agent in 2010 (LeBron). At the end of next season Marbury, Malik Rose and Jerome James come off the books, that puts us within striking distance of the cap. After the 09-10 season Q-Rich and Eddy Curry come off, which is like 17 million between the two of them, and that would put us far enough under the cap to be a player in the 2010 free agent market. If Walsh is going to trade Marbury and live up to his promise of not adding any more long term contracts he's going to have to get really creative, and I'm not sure if it's even doable. As far as buying him out goes, I'm all for it. All I know is he's an absolute cancer and I don't want him anywhere near this team. Pay him to sit at home or just to go away. He can go play in Italy a year earlier than he'd planned.

How much is left on Marburys contract? He's on his last year, thank God.

The Suns aren't trading Steve Nash. And Calderon is a free agent, the Raptors may not be able to keep him

Man, I was really hoping David Robinson would fall to me

Eh, that's not that dumb. Posey is strictly a jumpshooter and Cassell at this point in his career is basically the same. In that scenario Pierce is the only guy who can hurt you one on one, so you double him and rely on your team defense to make rotations onto the jumpshooters. That's not an endorsement for Mark Jackson as coach though. I'm still holding out hope that Jeff Van Gundy will come back Thats why its dumb. You double pierce and you leave guys wide open doing the only thing they can do in a close game. You don't leave shooters. Period. Wide open three from Posey or Cassell is a better shot than contested one on one shot from Pierce and it creates a stagnant offense when doing so. Its that kind of crap that will get you beat down in close games. Well, I really don't know the context of the comment since I didn't see that game, I can't imagine the Celtics would have only had Pierce on the court if it was a crucial point in the game, but as a general rule I would think in that situation you could shade with a second defender on Pierce to prevent penetration to the inside and still give your team the chance to rotate and cover the shooters, especially with the kind of athleticism that Atlanta has. Nobody should ever be left wide open, but you can throw more than one defender at the ballhandler without that happening if all 5 guys on defense are on the same page.