League Update: Post-Draft Results

Exciting morning as the first major step in the season occurred with the 2012-2013 Draft.  Sausage mcmuffins and hard-boiled eggs were provided to the participants who came armed with their laptops and excel docs.

I forgot that I had prepared to yell out may the odds be ever in your ever, but you guys get the idea.


Round by round coverage after the jump.

 In Attendance at Sleeper Squad's home:
Clipper Nation
The Flash
Challah
kobeking
Sleeper Squad
gmachine

Drafting Remote:
ROB(Norwalk)
 k1d k0be (Los Angeles)
skiptomylou (Yorba Linda)
Revenge on Jon To (Sacramento)

Round 1

Sleeper Squad, Challah, gmachine, were still meeting in their Men's Small Group so their picks were made by preset rankings.

ROB, Clipper Nation, The Flash made the predicted first four picks by fantasy pundits everywhere.  kobeking and Challah followed the example of the 2008 NBA Draft by selecting R.Westbrook and K.Love at 4 & 5.   skiptomylou opted for Dwight although last pick of the first round, Al Jefferson (selected by gmachine) as well as second round pick, Andrew Bynum (selected by Sleeper Squad) were expected to produce more this season.  Dwyane Wade is selected 8 by Sleeper Squad and k1d k0be backs up his team name by taking Kobe Bryant at 9.

Round 2

Proof that this is a league of experienced and well-studied general managers?  Big men (PF's and C) are taken in 8 of the 10 slots in this round. As sexy as it is to have a team of point guards/shooting guards, investing in bigs early is the way to go. Millsap and Ibaka go 16th overall - 17th overall respectively.  Neither are even the top 3 options on their teams but in a h2h league these guys contribute big-time in the %'s, rebounds, blocks with low turnover rates.  Rajon Rondo goes behind James Harden (who should have a big year since it is his contract year), followed by Ty Lawson to end the second round.

Round 3

Challah, gmachine, Sleeper Squad join the draft so that all 10 gm's are now live chatting & selecting their rosters.

ROB takes Kyrie Irving, with the second of his back-to-back picks and Clipper Nation, The Flash, kobeking rush to take the remaining tier 1 & 2 big men.  There is a time out called by commissioner Sleeper Squad so that the remaining members of the league can get their excel sheets, scouting reports, bar graphs and diagram ready

First GOL (groan out loud) from draftees as k1d kobe takes Brook Lopez and then compliments are dished out to gmachine as he takes most cute/looks like a teddy bear SG, Eric Gordon, at end of 3rd round.

Round 4 - 5 - 6

gmachine shows his confidence in a player we don't get to see that often here on the west coast in selecting Greg Monroe.  Looks like he might have been reading my "Replacement for Love" analysis (WINK WINK).  Sleeper Squad is unphased by Curry's once a year ankle injuries and selects him this round.  Goran Dragic is cued up on SS's feed, but skiptomylou proves he's also been watching Dragic's production and selects him.  Mad man-flirtation occurs as Sleeper says that skiptomylou has got some good picks.

Revenge on Jon To causes a ruckus as he selects Blake Griffin.  RJT makes it clear Blake is on his squad just for his production and not because of any emotional ties.  Also, because Clipper Nation clearly had BG on his cue, RJT decides to rub some salt in the wound by adding:

"I'm going to drop him when I'm in the finals so no one can have him"

A mad dash for sg/sf's follow as Batum, George, and John are selected.  Sleeper Squad quips that he would select a fantasy squad of all Brooklyn Nets (Lopez, Johnson, Humphries, Wallace) and league gm's verbally agree. 

ROB shows a pattern in his drafting as he goes PG, PG in rounds 2/3 and then in rounds 4/5, he takes PF/C, C in Gortat and Noah.    WOL (Whoa's Out Loud) are heard as Ant Davis is selected by Clipper Nation.  Some suspect he is still reeling from Blake being taken from him.

"He is going to be a block machine.  He averaged 4 blocks in college".

Eduardo Najera was a 18-10 threat in college.  Adam Morrison.  Who knows Clipper Nation?  You and I have been rooting for the Clips for a while,  so maybe our sense of reality is a bit skewed at this point.

Leaning on past production and banking on still untapped potential type picks are made by The Flash and kobe king as they select Nash and Wal.

Sleeper Squad gets back on his soap box and questions why there is no love for perennial all-star Paul Pierce.  He has a chance to back up his words and he does so by taking the Truth with his next selection.

gmachine has had Jeff Teague cued up all morning and he takes him in the 6th round to presumably back up Jrue Holiday who he took at the end of the 5th.  Jeremy Lin who was was ranked in the 300's (i'm only estimating) in his first two seasons in the NBA, is drafted in this round by k1d k0be.  He then makes a joke as if this was a mistake, and this writer is tempted to slander k1dkobe but I just shake my first silently. 

last year's MVP finalist, Tony Parker, is taken by Challah as the steal of the 6th round.   kobeking grabs Roy Hibbert which was on many gm's cue and the second rookie of the draft is selected in Kidd-Gilchrist by The Flash.

It should be noted that bags of chips are being opened this round as brain fatigue sets in for the gm's.

Round 7 - 8 - 9

Lots of love and lots of hateration passed around this round as Wesley matthews is taken by kobeking.  Raymond Felton is chosen by RJT and Sleeper Squad says out loud that he hates New York point guards.  Hall of famer Walt Frazier, future HOF Jason Kidd, and Vaseline-eater, Stephon Marbury shake their head.

k1d k0be takes a break in playfully talking tash and takes JaVale McGee.  Lots of potential here but according to Karl's preseason strategy and interviews, it looks like Kosta Koufos, Mosgov and Mcgee are going to be splitting minutes in forming this three-headed monster at the center position instead of having one clear starter and two backups.  In fact, Javale's minutes dropped from 27:23 to 20:30 since coming from Washington to Denver, and sources with the Nuggets have been giving Koufos the nod as the starter with Mcgee as his backup.

Clearly I am still salty at k1d k0be's Jeremy Lin joke from round 6.  

International players are are represented well in round 8 as Deng (GB), Ginobli & Scola (ARG), Gallinari (ITA) Hilario (BRA) are selected.  Sleeper Squad and skiptomylou seem to be kindred spirits as the whole morning Sleep has been complimenting skip on his picks.  Challah gets a bit nervous after selecting Darren Collison, but he is reassured of Collison's role as the main point guard with cukoo Delonte West backing him up and Rodrigue Beaubois playing more of a 2 than pure point.

Surprise picks galore in round 9.  Greatest PF in the history of the NBA, Tim Duncan is finally selected (looks like no bias for our childhood heroes here).  Perhaps people forgot about him or are still anxious about his injury as Derrick Rose slips to The Flash in this round.  Both Duncan and Rose are former MVP's yet they are selected next to DeAndre Jordan and pixie-point guard Isaiah Thomas.  These are some cold-blooded fantasy owners.  Kenneth Faried is taken in this round, a exciting pick as a Ben Wallace type contributor.  Bradley Beal is taken by skiptomylou (Sleeper hoots out loud for this pick, of course).

Round 10 - 11 - 12

Solid picks in the 10th round and Kevin Garnett is finally selected.  Earlier in the draft k1d k0be had made fun of the fact that these former top-flight players (Duncan, Garnett) were being selected so late.  If this was fantasy based on their career contributions KG would have been a first rounder, but this is 2012 and round 10 is a bit low, but about right for a 10 man league.

The Flash makes a high risk, but also potential high reward pick in selecting Demar Derozan in the 11th round. I have already left so I'm assuming people are starting to day dream about whats for lunch with some of the picks that are made in this round.

Round 12, Revenge on Jon To picks JJ Redick (nuff said).

Just kidding, Sleeper Squad takes Mike Beasley which could be a killer pick based on Beasley's skillset and free offensive reign he'll have in phoenix.  However, Beasley does seem to be easily distracted so even boring phoenix might entice him with  their cactus's..and stuff.

Round 13 - 14

Sleeper Squad backs up his name with the George Hill pick in the second to last round.  Jose Calderon, once touted as a top 5 fantasy point guard goes to kobeking.  Noone knows who the heck is gonna be contributing on the Orlando Magic this year and perhaps that is why Al Harrington is also selected this round (5 Magic players have been selected in rounds 11-13). 

Everyone digs deep and some real quality picks are made here.  Most of these picks will probably be dropped but I am impressed by the selection of Walker, Fields, Stuckey, Mullens, Valanciunas.

Thanks everyone in attendance for letting me hover around you in taking a look at your draft boards. Thanks also to those drafting remotely for responding to my text messages when I was requesting insider information.