2025 CelticsBlog Fantasy Draft: '05-'25 Edition

[snively]

Look, the fit of Lebron and Luka sucks, but the talent is undeniable.  He's the guy I had at #6 in my ratings.  Clearly, I overrated him based upon our league consensus, but he had a pretty bad team in the Finals last year.

Weirdly, I like him more in the first round than I do in the third.  I think he needs to be the alpha, and right now he's third to two other alphas.  To some extent that's inevitable in a superstar draft, but it's hard for me to see as much value in Luka if he doesn't have the ball in his hands consistently.

I don't see an issue with Luka and Lebron.  They played pretty well this year.  Now I get Lebron isn't the same player as he is in this league, but even Miami Lebron had no issue sharing the ball and working well with Wade (who is basically a lesser Luka offensively).  In fact, Lebron has never really had an issue sharing the ball with other players that do well with a lot of touches see Davis in LA, Luka in the small sample size last year, and his stints in Cleveland (well the 2nd one, he had no one in his 1st Cleveland stint).  Luka is a superb rebounder, passer, and an excellent shooter.  I think the 2-man game between them (with Shaq cleaning up down low) is going to work very well offensively.  I do need to pick up a great guard defender to help cover Luka some, but Lebron and Shaq both received DPOY votes in the seasons picked, so 2 excellent defenders in the first 3 rounds is a good start there.

Think Lebron, Embiid and George would have been significantly better than Lebron, Shaq and Luka.  Luka will get abused defensively and I don't think Shaq at 32 was good enough defender to help much.   

The quality and extent of the size in this league I think should make the style of play a little more old school. Twin towers, big forwards. A lot of paint and mid-range oriented scorers. Too much scoring quality in general to making going small all that desirable.

Quickness still important of course, but I think the pacing and spacing will be a little less contemporary.

[smokeablount]

Look, the fit of Lebron and Luka sucks, but the talent is undeniable.  He's the guy I had at #6 in my ratings.  Clearly, I overrated him based upon our league consensus, but he had a pretty bad team in the Finals last year.

Weirdly, I like him more in the first round than I do in the third.  I think he needs to be the alpha, and right now he's third to two other alphas.  To some extent that's inevitable in a superstar draft, but it's hard for me to see as much value in Luka if he doesn't have the ball in his hands consistently.

I don't see an issue with Luka and Lebron.  They played pretty well this year.  Now I get Lebron isn't the same player as he is in this league, but even Miami Lebron had no issue sharing the ball and working well with Wade (who is basically a lesser Luka offensively).  In fact, Lebron has never really had an issue sharing the ball with other players that do well with a lot of touches see Davis in LA, Luka in the small sample size last year, and his stints in Cleveland (well the 2nd one, he had no one in his 1st Cleveland stint).  Luka is a superb rebounder, passer, and an excellent shooter.  I think the 2-man game between them (with Shaq cleaning up down low) is going to work very well offensively.  I do need to pick up a great guard defender to help cover Luka some, but Lebron and Shaq both received DPOY votes in the seasons picked, so 2 excellent defenders in the first 3 rounds is a good start there.

Think Lebron, Embiid and George would have been significantly better than Lebron, Shaq and Luka.  Luka will get abused defensively and I don't think Shaq at 32 was good enough defender to help much.   

The quality and extent of the size in this league I think should make the style of play a little more old school. Twin towers, big forwards. A lot of paint and mid-range oriented scorers. Too much scoring quality in general to making going small all that desirable.

Quickness still important of course, but I think the pacing and spacing will be a little less contemporary.

I agree, and is a reason I picked Rudy at #27, tho I expected I could get Draymond at 34, whoops.

Do people hate the Rudy pick? I didn?t get any response so figure people either hate it or they?re jealous. I figure the best defensive player in the pool, with crazy rebounding and efficiency with Rob-like vertical spacing, and the low usage that I need (tho limited offense) is exactly what?s needed to complement a 65% usage elite duo of SGA and KD.

Did I miscalculate? Do people think Rudy is not a winner, even tho this is a twin towers format, and those Utah teams with only a young Mitchell were insanely good, and Rudy was the primary driver of success with far from a championship roster around him? All he does is go to the WCF no matter who the often unseasoned offensive #1 and #2 options on his team are. This draft has been much tougher than the first one I did in 2023 and I?m still learning

[theswitch]

This is a fun draft for an observer because every team is so talented that the combinations are endless. Sharing some observations as a neutral -- although I would say every player in this draft is so absurdly good that the distance between tier 1 and tier 3 is effectively marginal. Not much to put between anyone in the league so far. Congrats to everyone on nobody pulling the trigger on a 7th round talent too early .

Tier 1
Orlando Magic -- The most understated team. Love the idea of putting CP3 next to heart of champions type players in Duncan and Pierce. Needs a little sizzle but it's maybe the smartest trio (in terms of players and in terms of fit).

NY Knicks -- I don't love Embiid in this format but Nash and KG is maybe my favorite duo. Younger KG getting up and down the floor with Nash would be so tantalizing, and KG can serve as a defensive sweeper to cover for Nash. I loved that. I'm not sure I love how Embiid fits in (injury history, less likely to run with Nash and KG, lives in the same areas of the offensive system as Embiid) but with the right construction you can probably create a few combinations that work really well (e.g., Embiid-centric second unit). That would be cool.

Boston Celtics -- It's only two guys, but they are the best duo or second-best duo in the game. Probably the best. I think there's plenty of talent left. Obviously Roy needs to nail the next couple but that's true for everyone.

Tier 2
Cleveland Cavaliers -- This team probably has the highest potential but just needs to really nail the next 2-3 picks. Insane talent but I agree with some of the defensive questions and have some quibbles around spacing (likely Lebron years was iffy, plus Shaq, plus Luka is low key just an okay three-point percentage shooter). Put the right glue there and you've got something unique.

Chicago Bulls -- The throwback team! I really do love the Chauncey and Kobe pairing, I think that's an incredibly smart backcourt. What a frustrating duo to go up against. Kobe got some reputation-based All-Defense teams but they are long, strong, and frustrating. Chauncey can play off ball and let Kobe be more dominant. Smart. Gasol and Yao both can give each other space and let there be room to operate. I have them here because they're just so slow and they don't as obviously have the three-point shooting. Can they translate to today's game with that frontcourt? Maybe. It'll depend on the matchups I think.

OKC Thunder -- I like the Durant and SGA pairing although I agree with the commentary about them being both ball dominant and SGA not succeeding as well in a #2 role. I fall on the "meh" side of the Gobert pick, metrics be [dang]ed.

Philadelphia 76ers -- Just AD and Harden so far, right? This is more of an "incomplete" one for now.

Toronto Raptors -- I love Wade, Leonard, Marion, Gasol. Man, what a hard team to play against. Good luck for 48 minutes. Together...something just feels...missing, still. The shooting is just okay. Wade can playmake but playing him at PG and Leonard at SG feels like it's missing cohesion and facilitation. Gasol helps with some of that because he's so good at it as a center. I can't quite place it, just feels a bit too clunky and reliant on Wade magic.

Tier 3
Indiana Pacers -- Jokic is a monster. This is going to get me banned from the forums but I'm not sure I love the "it" factor between Tatum and George, and George in particular I feel like I just rate lower than where he was picked. He had one really great season but I think people will reflect on him as chronically overrated and someone who can't make it in the final stages. Maybe that's just me being down on him.

Milwaukee Bucks -- Draymond is great, but I don't see it as a small forward. And I think it's a struggle next to Dwight offensively. I loved the Dirk and Dwight combo...a little lost with what to do with Draymond. I do think Draymond will have lots of trade value so I could see the Bucks being a mover / shaker later on and he's a valuable asset.

[Timdawgg]

Rudy is a great pick.  He was next on my list.   The one year where his offense was pretty solid along with his insane defense.  Well worth the pick in my opinion.  My next two picks might make you feel better as I am reaching early on a couple of guys but it?s all about fit. 

[snively]

I don't rate Rudy as highly in this league because I don't think his offensive value is very high in this context. I'm also not crazy about his man defense, which is at a premium given the kind of big men threats he'd be facing. Team D and rebounding will translate well, but I don't think he's a DPOY candidate in this league.

[smokeablount]

OKC Thunder -- I like the Durant and SGA pairing although I agree with the commentary about them being both ball dominant and SGA not succeeding as well in a #2 role. I fall on the "meh" side of the Gobert pick, metrics be [dang]ed.

TP, thanks for the write up! It?s an SGA led team even though he was my 2nd pick, with KD playing primarily off ball where he excels, but also getting plenty of offensive spotlight.

[Moranis]

I get that Luka is not a good defender, but he wasn't exactly abused defensively when the Mavs beat the Clippers (with Harden+), Thunder (with SGA and basically the same team that just won), and Wolves on their way to the Finals.  And while the Mavs lost to Boston, it isn't like anyone on the Celtics out-performed their season averages (Luka didn't either, but he was much closer and actually had 2.6 spg in the Finals).  And when you start looking around at the PG's that have been drafted there are a whole bunch of defenders right in Luka's range i.e. Nash, Curry, Harden, and a few others that are likely going to be drafted that aren't good defenders either. Guys like Chris Paul and SGA (if you consider him a PG) are more of the exception as great 2-way PG's.  So the way I see it, is while Luka is not a good defender, I think he may very well be the best offensive PG in this thing (Curry is a better shooter, but he isn't a better passer or rebounder and Luka is just better than SGA on offense - SGA is a much better defender and better overall because of it). So I would expect Luka, because of his shear offensive brilliance, to win the positional battle most every time even with his subpar defense.