GMTR Mock Rounds 4+5

The third round in the Give Me The Rock Readers Mock Draft was a tough one to wrap your head around. Point guards Jameer Nelson, Rajon Rondo, and Tony Parker all jumped off the board (as well as Memhet Okur, a good but not great small-ball team center), while more established wings and power forward types came off in round 4 (Josh Smith, Vince Carter, Kevin Garnett, Shawn Marion, Carmelo Anthony, Tim Duncan, and Elton Brand). So after 47 picks, the order of players picked may not have been perfect, the right players were mostly off the board. I had a glimmer of hope that some former 1st round picks with question marks may still be on the board (Brand, Garnett, Marion), but that all happened right before my pick. C'est la mocque.

As the fourth round was rolling around, I could see some teams clear strategies, mainly big ball, small ball, mid ball/across the board, and whatever pick 12 (Project Spurs) is trying to do.

Here are the small ball teams I wanted to attack:
Pick 3 (Kardashian Babymaker) Dwyane Wade, Joe Johnson, Gilbert Arenas
Pick 5 (Ncizzle) Kobe Bryant, Chauncey Billups, Kevin Martin, Al Harrington
Pick 6 (Killer Instincts) Danny Granger, Jose Calderon, Mehmet Okur
Pick 10 (pwangsta) Deron Williams, Steve Nash, Antawn Jamison, Jason Terry

At this point in the draft, I wanted with my back-to-back picks to make dents in both big ball and small ball teams by taking one of each. I had one big in mind, and if he was taken, I'd go with 2 guards. Those 2 guards were Ray Allen and Monta Ellis. I knew at some point, Allen would have to come off the board because of his threes and FT%. While his FT% is over 90%, the volume isn't there. But coupled with a big who is mediocre from the stripe but with not a lot a volume, it smooths out into a palatable figure. Anyway, I knew that Ray had to be a target eventually (at least before my pick 72 in round 6) for either the small ball teams to lock down 3's or big ball teams who wanted some 3's without taking a big hit in FG%. So with Allen and Murphy, I had a nice block of threes where I can definitely hold my own week to week. If I wanted to come back with Monta Ellis, I would be solidifying FG% from the guard spot, getting more points, and adding to steals (with little to no addition to threes). In the end, while I thought this would be a good piece, I wanted to get another center since not many had been taken, and I thought there would be a run on C's in the next 10-15 picks.

I thought Nene would be my strongest option for my team. He shot over 60% from the field last year, and I have to believe he can get near that high again. Rebounds are decent but not spectacular. Free throw percentage is fair/good for a center. The big thing for me was that he led all center eligibles in steals last season (even more than Dwight Howard). Since Denver will be playing at least 3 games a week every week of the season, I figure that he should give me 4 steals a week from the center position. That's going to be a bonus that teams who get centers later won't get. So while Monta Ellis would have been good for me in steals, I believe that Nene + a later round guard can give me just as many if not more thefts as Ellis + a later round center who probably won't steal much at all.

Three players I looked at were taken with the next three picks: Al Horford (who can be good for a double-double and a not-bad assist guy for a center eligible), Monta Ellis, and Paul Pierce who made it into the 5th round. While I like PP, I thought the negative he brings would take too much away from what I'm doing so far, namely in FG% and TO's. I have a feeling there are enough SF's out there who can approach his scoring but won't turn it over/miss as many shots.

Right now, things I need to work on are points and assists, possibly more steals, could always use more rebounds, and would not like to lose much in FT%. Is that so much to ask?

GMTR Mock Draft rounds 2+3

Lopez & Murphy

Well, I wanted Jose Calderon if I got Chris Paul in a Head to Head league - NO plays 2 games in weeks 5 and 6, while Toronto plays 4 games in each of those weeks. Since I am counting on doing solidly in assists, I wanted the back-up for that. So my initial plan was to get another top tier PG (with Calderon being my #1 choice) and pairing him with whoever was left of Brook Lopez or Troy Murphy. I figured that whichever PF/C I got would start to mold my team off of the Chris Paul framework. With Lopez, I'd get some boards, great FG%, very good blocks, and very little drop off in FT%. With Murphy, I'd get the boards, FG% that is not a drag, and those delicious threes from a big man that I know that teams who had drafted two guards in the first two rounds would target (teams with picks 3, 5, 6, and 10).

But once Calderon came off the board with the seventh pick of the second round, I had to change my strategery. Calderon is a part of a tier of PG's worthy of being drafted in round 2. Luckily, the next 4 picks before mine were PG-eligible players - Billups, Kidd, Johnson, and Harris. But those players are all under 45% from the field. I am looking to hold onto FG% with Chris Paul as long as I can. I love Lopez this year because of that. And if he can block 2 shots a night, so much the better.

The first pick of the third round may be the one I regret down the road, but I like it from a league strategy point. 10 guards were taken in the 22 picks between my #1 and #2. Three teams took 2 guards (Johnson/Wade, Billups/Bryant, Williams/Nash), along with teams that came back with guards after drafting Durant and Granger. That's 5 teams I know could have used Troy Murphy in round 3. One of them will have to take Al Harrington at some point for their center, and that will pull down their already damaged FG% (by the likes of Harris, Billups, etc.) Also, Lopez, Murphy, and a good for a guard rebounder Paul put me right up there with teams going big ball.

Basically, I'm going a little roto in this H2H league. This year, I think that's a good idea with Chris Paul and it's because of their schedule. This year, New Orleans has the most weeks with 4 games, 13. That also means that they have the most minimum game weeks, 4. So in those max game weeks, you can load up on assists and steals with Paul by himself, then add on the big man's work with the PF's and C's. In those 2 game weeks, it's like a pooch punt in assists and steals (CP3 could still blow up in 2 games though) but you've got the big-ball cats to fall back on. So even in those min game weeks, you can be 5-4, 6-3, or even 7-2. Now if this year New Orleans had a schedule like Denver (no 2 game weeks, least amount of 4 game weeks), I might lean more toward a strategy of guys who can build more on what Paul can do - steals, 3's, points, assists if they are there.

There were a bunch of guys who I was thinking of taking at 24 and 25. I'll discuss them in the comments after they are picked in reality. For a round by round discussion, check out Give Me The Rock recaps written by 2nd best Filipino fantasy guy (sorry E, but this guy is living the fantasy). Later haters!

PS When you put in "Mario Lopez" into Google image, you have to go down a good ways to find one where he's wearing a shirt. I'm scared to do a search with safe mode off.

Eight is Enough. Maybe Nine.

Was it Kierkegaard or Dick Van Patten who said, "If you label me, you negate me?" My money's on Dick - he was a true genius. Perhaps he is best remembered by his ABC "hit" "Eight is Enough", starring future tattooed freak and Scott Baio compadre, Willie Aames and future typical child star Adam Rich. Thanks for your continued contributions to society, sirs! Yes, as a child of the 70's, I watched this show. It's amazing what you could get kids to watch if you have enough likable characters and maybe a few kids on it - are they doing this today? Is this why there is a Bill Engvall show?

Anyway, "Eight is Enough" took place in one of the loveliest little glens that the NBA likes to call home, Sacramento. I drove through Sacramento once. It was foggy. Is their arena deal done? Because I would love for this team to move to Las Vegas, be the Las Vegas Kings, have at least 4 jerseys (club, diamond, heart, spade, maybe Elvis too). Nobody in their right mind gambles on the NBA, you can take it off the books. But back to the Kings and all their Arco Arena splendor. This is another crappy NBA team (John Wall, start your condo search now), but has people worthy of drafting in a standard 12 x 13 league.

Martin! Kevin Martin is second/third round talent. You need to know that. Here are the pertinent numbers from last year: 24.6 ppg; 86.7 FT% @ 10.3 ftapg; 2.3 3pg. There he is, your pure shooting guard to plug in your SG spot. Of course, you'll notice that I mentioned only three categories - chances are you'll have nine, so I guess you're about six shy. Excuse-flippin'-me, we can't all be LeBron James! He'd be a really good roto pick, in that he could counteract a lot of, say Dwight Howard's deficiencies. Then again, he has played 51 and 61 games the last 2 seasons, so that may not work so well either. You'll have a lot of hand wringing with Kevin this year if you are debating drafting him. If it gets to be late in the 3rd round and he's available, go ahead and grab him if your team is set up to handle him. Or maybe you can go for the Kevin-Heaven strategy by picking Durant, Garnett, and Martin in the first 3 rounds. That will work for ya.

Depending on how you rank players, possibly the next best King is Francisco Garcia. Everyone likes players who can average 1 steal/1 block/ 1 three-pointer a game, right kids? Well Garcia done did that last year. You know who did that last year? LeBron, Wade, Granger and Garcia. So if you're stuck on who to pick in the first round, you should go with the Dominican, right? Um, yeah. He may not start, but he will get minutes. He's not a scorer, and while he gets the counting numbers, he won't rack them up. He's got more value in roto, too, but if you've got a strategy where you're punting points, he's a definite have. For instance, you're picking in the middle of round 1 and you start off with Danny Granger (I know, you're punting points, but still he does other things well), come back with Gerald Wallace, maybe a Josh Smith and/or Shawn Marion, grab a decent mid-tier PG who can pass, pick up Wilson Chandler in rd. 6 or 7, then you've got a lineup that can do some damage in any week. Oh, and when you draft Garcia, you have to say "Bring me the head of Francisco Garcia." It's one of Yahoo's new rules.

If you do your rankings another way, the next best King is Spencer Hawes. This guy will get thirty minutes a night probably. He can score a little, board a good amount, decent but not great from the field, not a FT shooter, should get slightly more than a block per game. Not bad numbers for the center position. But there are a couple sneaky things there with Hawes. Dude had 40 three's last year - look at who went all Memo Okur on us! And after Brad Miller was traded, he went for 20 points/10 boards five times and had several other games where he was close. I'm telling you, no one will come into your draft thinking of explicitly grabbing Hawes. And when he comes off the board, you likely won't even be thinking of him - not because he will be overdrafted, just that he's so far off of the consciousness of the NBA fan. At least tell me you'll think of him, okay?

Jason Thompson plays basketball for the Sacramento Kings as well. He's another one of those PF/C's who doesn't score much and can rebound and grabs some of your counting stats. Free throws, not so much. The things that stands out for me was that after Brad Miller was traded, Jason had 10 games of where he grabbed 10 or more rebounds. Man, was Miller a drag on this team or what? Again, this is another King you won't necessarily be thinking of come draft day. Keep him on your watch list in those shallow leagues.

Man, I would have loved to have seen Ricky Rubio in Kings purple. I guess Tyreke Evans ain't so bad neither. Anything that will push Beno Udrih further down the bench is okey dokey with me. The big thing with Evans is that he should get to the line a ton as that's his calling card. It would certainly help things if he could learn to hit the NBA 3, as Martin is really the only threat from long range. I'm rooting for him, just not about to draft him.

He's gritty, he'll hustle, and dammit, he'll work his way into the lineup. Keep living the dream, you 42% shooting Andres Nocioni. Oh, and Sean May sweats hollandaise sauce. There, that's eight Kings, that should be enough. Okay, nine. Kenny Thomas has one significant number - $8,553,125, the value of his expiring contract. That could shake up the lineup come February, when the Kings should be out of it, so watch their numbers at that time.

Give Me The Rock mock draft

The mock draft for readers and whatnot has just started, and this humble writer has selection #1. Even though it's being done be Google spreadsheet, I took less than the allotted Yahoo time of 90 seconds to make the 1.1 selection of Chris Paul. It's a shame that I have to wait so long to back him up, but with picks 24/25, I can do some serious damage - 2 more guards, 2 bigs, one of each, or 2 scorers, or 2 hustle cat guys. I'm really excited about what CP3 can do this year. Now dance, Honey Bees!

(picture from SI.com)