2016 CB Draft Washington WizardsGM: Dino Ganga | HC: Scott Brooks
Team Motto: We have LeBron.
Team Philosophy: Defense, Versatility, Toughness
Depth ChartPG: Darren Collison / Elfrid Payton / Tim Frazier
SG: Avery Bradley / Seth Curry
SF: Jae Crowder / Shaun Kilpatrick / Marcus Thornton
PF: LeBron James / Derrick Williams / JJ Hickson
C: Jusuf Nurkic / Meyers Leonard / Nikola Pekovic
Starters and Other Key PlayersLeBron James – PF, SF #23
30 years old | 6’8”, 250 pounds | St. Vincent/St. Mary
Nickname: King James / The Chosen One
Key Stats: 27.2 ppg, 7.2 rpg, 6.9 apg, 74% career FT
LeBron is a 3 time NBA champion, 3 time Finals MVP, 4 time regular season MVP, won 2 Olympic medals
LeBron has stated numerous times that the only thing left for him to prove, is that he can take home the CB Draft title. I believe I have surrounded James with enough talent to take home the crown. I built a team that plays good defense, can play multiple positions, and share the basketball. The offense will run through LeBron, of course, and I have drafted some shooters (2015/16 3 Pt %: Avery Bradley 36%, Darren Collison 40%, Jae Crowder 34%, Seth Curry), and players who can move away from the ball. We can run an effective pick and roll with many of my players, such as the Bosnian Beast (Jusuf Nurkic) and an effective pick and pop (Meyers Leonard). My players will create turnovers and love to run because they are tenacious defenders who are athletic. Scotty Brooks has proved he can handle superstars (Durant, Westbrook) so I believe LeBron will enjoy playing for him. Also, we have some serious beef up front with Nurkic and Pekovic. They won’t be afraid of meeting opponents in the parking lot after games and could star in the next Taken film as villainous Eastern Europeans.
The best players LeBron had as teammates pre-Miami were Larry Hughes, Mo Williams, and Carlos Boozer (for one year). In 2006 LeBron carried a mediocre Cavs team to the finals, that team had Daniel Gibson, Drew Gooden, and Larry Hughes. He has been to 6 straight finals. Let me show you the team I have surrounded LeBron with, and you can decide if it’s good enough for a 7th trip.
Jae Crowder – SF, PF #99
26 years old | 6’6”, 235 pounds | Marquette
Key Stats: Averaged 14 points and 5 boards a game last year with 82% FT
Big East Player of the Year (2012)
Jae came over in the brilliant Rondo trade and has far exceeded expectations. I mean, if you read Celtics Blog as religiously as I do, it’s easy to realize that he is considered to be, if not better than, on the same level as Jimmy Butler. He is a tenacious two-way player who will not back down from anybody. He has positional flexibility and a high motor. LeBron decided that due to how much he hated playing against Jae, that he would just put him on his team. If you can’t beat’em join ‘em, right Kevin Durant?
Avery Bradley – SG, PG #0
25 years old | 6’2”, 180 pounds | Texas
Key Stats: Averaged 15 ppg and 1.5 steals last year. 78% FT
Opponents Damian Lilliard and CJ McCollum have called him the best perimeter defender in the NBA. I heard that Steph Curry’s wife won’t let him play in games against Boston next year due to the likely humiliation he will face at the hands of Bradley. He has outstanding athleticism and explosiveness, having won the Slam Dunk Contest at the 2009 McDonald’s All-American game. I, and many on this forum, consider Avery to be an incredible fit next to the King. Avery moves well without the ball, can shoot from deep, and can help out with some ball-handling duties.
Darren Collison – PG #7
28 years old | 6’0” 175 pounds | UCLA
Key Stats: Career averages of 14.6 ppg and 4.9 apg, 85% FT
We all know about LeBron, Crowder, and Bradley so let’s dig deeper on my other players. I drafted Elfrid Payton to be my PG as I was looking for good defenders but received little support from CB posters in the discussion forum. One member said to wait and see, that maybe Elf would run my second team and someone else would start. I was thrilled to uncover Darren Collison lurking in the background. A couple days later, Rotoworld wrote an article naming Collison (and Nurkic who I also have) as potential breakouts for this year.
“As long as Collison can stay healthy, he’s guaranteed to have a bounce-back, and perhaps career-year as Sacramento’s starting point guard. Currently Collison’s only backup is rookie Isaiah Cousins, and simply put, Cousins is not good enough to realistically challenge Collison for minutes. Through 45 games during the 2014-15 season, Collison compiled averages of 16.1 points, 5.6 assists, 1.5 steals, 1.3 triples and just 2.5 turnovers per game on 47.3 percent shooting.”
Jusuf Nurkic – C #23
21 years old | 7’0” 245 pounds | Croatia
Key Stats: Career averages of 7.3 ppg and 5.9 rpg, 1.2 bpg
LeBron seems to like playing alongside big physical centers (Zydrunas Ilgauskas, Timofey Mozgoz, etc). I believe Nurkic would fit in very nicely with the King. Nurkic only managed to get on the court for 35 games during his 2015-16 campaign, although he did flash his upside in the three starts he earned putting in averages of 12.7 points, 9.3 rebounds, 2.0 assists, 2.3 steals and 2.3 swats per game. Nurkic has fully recovered from the knee surgery and he’s one of the few centers out there that can rack up both steals and blocks. Jusuf Nurkic has already lost 35 pounds this offseason.
The BenchElfrid Payton – The CARMELO NBA player projections, the same system that loves Marcus Smart’s potential, also loves Payton. It identifies him as a breakout player for next year, and a potential All Star worth 109 million dollars over 5 years. Elfrid has good size for a pg at 6’4”. He is a great defender and distributor. Elfrid averaged almost 7 assists per game last year. He will run my second unit and look to drive and kick to the shooters.
http://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/carmelo/elfrid-payton/Seth Curry - In the Kings' final seven games of the season, the former Duke standout averaged 16.4 points, 5.3 assists, 3.0 rebounds and shot 45.9% from the field, 48.9% from beyond the arc and played 32.4 minutes per game. More importantly, he showed that he's capable of playing at basketball's highest level.
Meyers Leonard – Leonard is a legitimate 7-footer who has unusual offensive finesse to his game, evident in his 37.7 percent shooting clip from beyond the arc this past season on 228 total attempts. The 24-year-old's size and athleticism also make him a versatile defender and a strong post presence
Derrick Williams – From Posting and Toasting: “In late December Derek Fisher began playing Williams more, and Williams began producing more, scoring 10 or more in five of the last seven games of 2015. In January the scoring continued, particularly after Carmelo Anthony injured himself stepping on a referee's foot, and Williams showed more all-around skills, including a 31-point barrage at Brooklyn and 19/14/4 and 19/10/4 slash lines in back-to-back games vs. Charlotte and Oklahoma City. He hit double-digits in 10 of the Knicks' final dozen games. One of the biggest improvements the 2015-16 Knicks showed was defending the three-point line, where opponents shot 3.1% worse from distance on average when guarded by Williams.”
Sean Kilpatrick - After making the Big East conference team multiple times and earning a second-team All-American nod after his incredible senior season at Cincinnati (he was named as one of the 10 finalists for the Naismith Award, college basketball’s highest individual honor), Kilpatrick went undrafted and spent the majority of his first two seasons hopping between D-League teams with short stints with the Timberwolves and Nuggets in the meantime. He was signed to the Nets’ roster on February 28th, and proceeded to average 23.2MPG and 13.8PPG for the rest of the season. Kilpatrick’s success on the Nets showed not only that he has a place in the NBA, but also gave some insight into how the Nets can right the ship going forward. He's been very consistent as one of the best bench scorers in April. In his last five, Kilpatrick averaged 17.8 points, 2.6 boards, 1.6 assists, 0.8 steals and 2.2 treys on 47.0 percent from the field and 88.9 percent from the line.
Tim Frazier
Marcus Thornton
JJ Hickson
Nikola PekovicBest Move / Worst MoveMy best move may have been to draft Darren Collison, which offset perhaps my worst move which was drafting Elfrid Payton too early. PGs were flying off the board and I wanted to lock in one so I took Payton. I realized that he may not be the best fit on my starting lineup, as he is not a great shooter and is ball dominant. I plan to use him on the second team and as a defensive weapon. My second best move was to trade up for Avery Bradley who I think is a great fit next to LeBron.