2020 Historic Draft: How’s My Team Look: Conference Finals winners announced!!

[RPGenerate]

My Denver Nuggets!!!
---Starters---
PG: Gary Payton (1999-2000)
SG: Richard Hamilton (2005-2006)
SF: Carmelo Anthony (2012-2013)
PF: Draymond Green (2015-2016)
C: Tim Duncan (2001-2002)

---Bench---
PG: Kyrie Irving (2017-2018)
SG: Raja Bell (2006-2007)
SF: Glenn Robinson (2000-2001)
PF: Anthony Mason (2000-2001)
C: DeMarcus Cousins (2016-2017)

---Deep Bench---
PG: Steve Francis (2000-2001)
SG: Danny Green (2014-2015)
SF: Robert Covington (2018-2019)
C: Zydrunas Ilgauska (2005-2006)

---On Offense---
For the starters, I want my team to have a three-ponged attack of Melo, Payton, and Tim Duncan. Draymond and Rip Hamilton will act as the glue guys, supplementing my main scorers. Payton will be the main playmaker of the group, constantly using pick-and-rolls with Duncan and pick-and-pops with Draymond. Duncan will be able to feast on that pick-and-roll, along with utilizing his awesome post game to score. Draymond will act as a secondary playmaker to Payton, passing from the high post and spacing the floor. Rip will act as an off-ball scorer, also spacing the floor and using the gravity that my three main guys have to score. Melo will be the main bucket getter of the team, whether that means in iso or coming off screens

For the bench, I want Kyrie and Boogie to be the main drive. They are two of the best bench scorers in this draft, so I obviously want them to be the number one options. Kyrie can break down defenses with his handle, and Cousins can fight in the low post and even space the floor a bit. Robinson acts as a sort of Melo replacement, relying on him to be a strong bucket getter in iso. Bell spaces the floor, and Mason can function in the high post as a passer and scorer.

---On Defense---
I think the defensive side of the ball is where this team shine. Tim Duncan, one of the most underrated defenders ever, surrounded by two DPoYs in Payton and Draymond, is an awesome combo. Rip Hamilton is a good defender too. I think this team has more than enough defense to hide Melo's deficiencies.

Off the bench, Raja Bell and Anthony Mason are great, tough defenders. Kyrie and Cousins can be passable of defense when they try, and I think my team will motivate them to try. Plus I have Danny Green and RoCo is come in if my second unit struggles of D.

[hwangjini_1]

are you also going to organize some sort of TP betting pool for the rest of CSers?

That would help entertain us by inviting us to wildly spend TPs like were are drunken sailors. What fun!!! 

No...but please vote!

more than happy to vote. just please show me where and when.

[bdm860]

Man you guys are right.  The East is really tough to rank.

One team I feel has gotten no attention but I really like is Miami.  CP3 was a force that season with great efficiency for a point guard along with elite passing.  As was Dwight who completely dismantled Paul Pierce and Ray Allen's Celtics that postseason along with Lebron's Cavs.  Brandon Roy is a terrific three-level scorer, playmaker, and shooter while Jimmy Butler and Rashard Lewis are perfect fits into the offense.  The starting lineup has 3 top notch defenders (CP3, Butler, Dwight) alongside 2 players that aren't liabilities.  Then they bring AK47 off the bench who I absolutely love.  Here's a bit I found about Kirilenko that I was waiting to share after I drafted him:

When Dan Rosenbaum, then an economics professor at University of North Carolina at Greensboro, first successfully reverse-engineered Wayne Winston and Jeff Sagarin’s proprietary Adjusted Plus/Minus (APM) metric in 2004, a few of the usual suspects topped his player rankings: reigning MVP Kevin Garnett and statistical legend Tracy McGrady. But third on the list was a surprise: Kirilenko, then a third-year player with modest traditional numbers. It was no fluke, either: Kirilenko showed up third overall in the combined 2005 and 2006 APM ratings computed by Rosenbaum disciple Dave Lewin, and Kirilenko peaked at second overall in Jeremias Engelmann’s Real Plus/Minus (RPM) ratings for 2006. During his best years, you could count on one hand the number of NBA players who more positively influenced their team’s performance than Kirilenko.

Source: https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/ode-to-the-underrated-andrei-kirilenko-edition/

Yeah its just one article and some stats, but I feel that AK47 truly is the kind of player that significantly influences winning and can do it on any team.  This is just one team that he'd fit great on to.

Guys like Arenas, Josh Howard, Kevin Love are more guys that when you tighten up the rotations make for a really strong core 9 players.  They could use a better backup C IMO, but other than that I really like the Miami Heat.

Miami was one my least favorite teams, didn't like the way pieces fit at the top.

Dwight Howard didn't get along with Kobe/Nash, didn't get along with Harden, I don't think he'd get along with Chris Paul.  I can just picture Howard yelling about Paul's passes like he did with Nash, and then Howard will be dead to Paul.

Then we have Butler not getting along with Towns, and based on that, I struggle to see Butler and Howard getting along either.

I also hear Dwight goes back to being a goofball as soon as the game is over, don't think that will mesh with the saltiness Paul and Butler carry around.

Paul and Butler, while I don't think they'll hate each other, don't think they'll mesh.  They're both the wrong kind of alpha for each other.  Don't know why, but I kind of think Paul/Roy/Butler at 1-3 will fit together about as well as the Triple J's in Dallas, not very well.

Loved the Kirilenko pick though, always one of my favs, and a perfect high level do everything guy for leagues like these.

[Donoghus]

Agree on the sentiment that the East is much more difficult to grade than the West.

[nickagneta]

are you also going to organize some sort of TP betting pool for the rest of CSers?

That would help entertain us by inviting us to wildly spend TPs like were are drunken sailors. What fun!!! 

No...but please vote!

more than happy to vote. just please show me where and when.

In the OP of this thread is a listing of every team's roster and instructions on how to vote. PM me your ballot but do not post your ballot here until I give the okay.

[action781]

Man you guys are right.  The East is really tough to rank.

One team I feel has gotten no attention but I really like is Miami.  CP3 was a force that season with great efficiency for a point guard along with elite passing.  As was Dwight who completely dismantled Paul Pierce and Ray Allen's Celtics that postseason along with Lebron's Cavs.  Brandon Roy is a terrific three-level scorer, playmaker, and shooter while Jimmy Butler and Rashard Lewis are perfect fits into the offense.  The starting lineup has 3 top notch defenders (CP3, Butler, Dwight) alongside 2 players that aren't liabilities.  Then they bring AK47 off the bench who I absolutely love.  Here's a bit I found about Kirilenko that I was waiting to share after I drafted him:

When Dan Rosenbaum, then an economics professor at University of North Carolina at Greensboro, first successfully reverse-engineered Wayne Winston and Jeff Sagarin’s proprietary Adjusted Plus/Minus (APM) metric in 2004, a few of the usual suspects topped his player rankings: reigning MVP Kevin Garnett and statistical legend Tracy McGrady. But third on the list was a surprise: Kirilenko, then a third-year player with modest traditional numbers. It was no fluke, either: Kirilenko showed up third overall in the combined 2005 and 2006 APM ratings computed by Rosenbaum disciple Dave Lewin, and Kirilenko peaked at second overall in Jeremias Engelmann’s Real Plus/Minus (RPM) ratings for 2006. During his best years, you could count on one hand the number of NBA players who more positively influenced their team’s performance than Kirilenko.

Source: https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/ode-to-the-underrated-andrei-kirilenko-edition/

Yeah its just one article and some stats, but I feel that AK47 truly is the kind of player that significantly influences winning and can do it on any team.  This is just one team that he'd fit great on to.

Guys like Arenas, Josh Howard, Kevin Love are more guys that when you tighten up the rotations make for a really strong core 9 players.  They could use a better backup C IMO, but other than that I really like the Miami Heat.

Miami was one my least favorite teams, didn't like the way pieces fit at the top.

Dwight Howard didn't get along with Kobe/Nash, didn't get along with Harden, I don't think he'd get along with Chris Paul.  I can just picture Howard yelling about Paul's passes like he did with Nash, and then Howard will be dead to Paul.

Then we have Butler not getting along with Towns, and based on that, I struggle to see Butler and Howard getting along either.

I also hear Dwight goes back to being a goofball as soon as the game is over, don't think that will mesh with the saltiness Paul and Butler carry around.

Paul and Butler, while I don't think they'll hate each other, don't think they'll mesh.  They're both the wrong kind of alpha for each other.  Don't know why, but I kind of think Paul/Roy/Butler at 1-3 will fit together about as well as the Triple J's in Dallas, not very well.

Loved the Kirilenko pick though, always one of my favs, and a perfect high level do everything guy for leagues like these.

I'm a rare Dwight apologist.

People say he couldn't get along with Kobe.  Well Kobe was a tough guy to get along with.  Kobe couldn't get along with Shaq.  Kobe had a feud with Karl Malone in their season together.  Bynum blames Kobe for stalling his development.  I won't place all the blame on Dwight there.

People say Dwight couldn't get along with Harden.  I think Harden would be a really tough guy to play with, especially for a guy like Dwight who places a value on defense.  CP3 also didn't like playing with Harden and CP3 is a guy who's opinion I'd put a lot of value in.

The clashes Dwight has a history of can't be ignored, but I think they can be excused to some degree and I feel like they shed an unfair amount of blame on to Dwight.

[RodyTur10]

Man you guys are right.  The East is really tough to rank.

One team I feel has gotten no attention but I really like is Miami.  CP3 was a force that season with great efficiency for a point guard along with elite passing.  As was Dwight who completely dismantled Paul Pierce and Ray Allen's Celtics that postseason along with Lebron's Cavs.  Brandon Roy is a terrific three-level scorer, playmaker, and shooter while Jimmy Butler and Rashard Lewis are perfect fits into the offense.  The starting lineup has 3 top notch defenders (CP3, Butler, Dwight) alongside 2 players that aren't liabilities.  Then they bring AK47 off the bench who I absolutely love.  Here's a bit I found about Kirilenko that I was waiting to share after I drafted him:

When Dan Rosenbaum, then an economics professor at University of North Carolina at Greensboro, first successfully reverse-engineered Wayne Winston and Jeff Sagarin’s proprietary Adjusted Plus/Minus (APM) metric in 2004, a few of the usual suspects topped his player rankings: reigning MVP Kevin Garnett and statistical legend Tracy McGrady. But third on the list was a surprise: Kirilenko, then a third-year player with modest traditional numbers. It was no fluke, either: Kirilenko showed up third overall in the combined 2005 and 2006 APM ratings computed by Rosenbaum disciple Dave Lewin, and Kirilenko peaked at second overall in Jeremias Engelmann’s Real Plus/Minus (RPM) ratings for 2006. During his best years, you could count on one hand the number of NBA players who more positively influenced their team’s performance than Kirilenko.

Source: https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/ode-to-the-underrated-andrei-kirilenko-edition/

Yeah its just one article and some stats, but I feel that AK47 truly is the kind of player that significantly influences winning and can do it on any team.  This is just one team that he'd fit great on to.

Guys like Arenas, Josh Howard, Kevin Love are more guys that when you tighten up the rotations make for a really strong core 9 players.  They could use a better backup C IMO, but other than that I really like the Miami Heat.

Miami was one my least favorite teams, didn't like the way pieces fit at the top.

Dwight Howard didn't get along with Kobe/Nash, didn't get along with Harden, I don't think he'd get along with Chris Paul.  I can just picture Howard yelling about Paul's passes like he did with Nash, and then Howard will be dead to Paul.

Then we have Butler not getting along with Towns, and based on that, I struggle to see Butler and Howard getting along either.

I also hear Dwight goes back to being a goofball as soon as the game is over, don't think that will mesh with the saltiness Paul and Butler carry around.

Paul and Butler, while I don't think they'll hate each other, don't think they'll mesh.  They're both the wrong kind of alpha for each other.  Don't know why, but I kind of think Paul/Roy/Butler at 1-3 will fit together about as well as the Triple J's in Dallas, not very well.

Loved the Kirilenko pick though, always one of my favs, and a perfect high level do everything guy for leagues like these.

On the other hand Butler could get along great with Wade and Embiid. Certainly doesn't need to be the focal point of the team. He puts winning above personal accomplishments. And to me young Dwight Howard was coachable and playing in a winning culture under Paul, Pippen, Butler he'd be okay. Playing with Chris Paul is a lot different than with James Harden or Kobe Bryant. 

Personally I hate to watch the constant complaining to referees and privileged attitude of Chris Paul, but as a teammate and leader I think there are few downsides with him.

[nickagneta]

THANK YOU.

Everyone involved in the game, and others that were only following along, all sent in their ballots.

So....If you want to make your ballot public and discuss it. Go right ahead.

Reminder: No matter where your team ends up being ranked, every team in this game is great. The teams in this draft are only separated by degrees of greatness. Every team in this league would go undefeated if substituted into the NBA for an existing NBA team. And you, the GMs, made making out a ballot this year probably more difficult than any year I can member. Job well done by everyone.👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏

[bdm860]

Man you guys are right.  The East is really tough to rank.

One team I feel has gotten no attention but I really like is Miami.  CP3 was a force that season with great efficiency for a point guard along with elite passing.  As was Dwight who completely dismantled Paul Pierce and Ray Allen's Celtics that postseason along with Lebron's Cavs.  Brandon Roy is a terrific three-level scorer, playmaker, and shooter while Jimmy Butler and Rashard Lewis are perfect fits into the offense.  The starting lineup has 3 top notch defenders (CP3, Butler, Dwight) alongside 2 players that aren't liabilities.  Then they bring AK47 off the bench who I absolutely love.  Here's a bit I found about Kirilenko that I was waiting to share after I drafted him:

When Dan Rosenbaum, then an economics professor at University of North Carolina at Greensboro, first successfully reverse-engineered Wayne Winston and Jeff Sagarin’s proprietary Adjusted Plus/Minus (APM) metric in 2004, a few of the usual suspects topped his player rankings: reigning MVP Kevin Garnett and statistical legend Tracy McGrady. But third on the list was a surprise: Kirilenko, then a third-year player with modest traditional numbers. It was no fluke, either: Kirilenko showed up third overall in the combined 2005 and 2006 APM ratings computed by Rosenbaum disciple Dave Lewin, and Kirilenko peaked at second overall in Jeremias Engelmann’s Real Plus/Minus (RPM) ratings for 2006. During his best years, you could count on one hand the number of NBA players who more positively influenced their team’s performance than Kirilenko.

Source: https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/ode-to-the-underrated-andrei-kirilenko-edition/

Yeah its just one article and some stats, but I feel that AK47 truly is the kind of player that significantly influences winning and can do it on any team.  This is just one team that he'd fit great on to.

Guys like Arenas, Josh Howard, Kevin Love are more guys that when you tighten up the rotations make for a really strong core 9 players.  They could use a better backup C IMO, but other than that I really like the Miami Heat.

Miami was one my least favorite teams, didn't like the way pieces fit at the top.

Dwight Howard didn't get along with Kobe/Nash, didn't get along with Harden, I don't think he'd get along with Chris Paul.  I can just picture Howard yelling about Paul's passes like he did with Nash, and then Howard will be dead to Paul.

Then we have Butler not getting along with Towns, and based on that, I struggle to see Butler and Howard getting along either.

I also hear Dwight goes back to being a goofball as soon as the game is over, don't think that will mesh with the saltiness Paul and Butler carry around.

Paul and Butler, while I don't think they'll hate each other, don't think they'll mesh.  They're both the wrong kind of alpha for each other.  Don't know why, but I kind of think Paul/Roy/Butler at 1-3 will fit together about as well as the Triple J's in Dallas, not very well.

Loved the Kirilenko pick though, always one of my favs, and a perfect high level do everything guy for leagues like these.

On the other hand Butler could get along great with Wade and Embiid. Certainly doesn't need to be the focal point of the team. He puts winning above personal accomplishments. And to me young Dwight Howard was coachable and playing in a winning culture under Paul, Pippen, Butler he'd be okay. Playing with Chris Paul is a lot different than with James Harden or Kobe Bryant. 

Personally I hate to watch the constant complaining to referees and privileged attitude of Chris Paul, but as a teammate and leader I think there are few downsides with him.

Ha, now that you mention it, I think Pippen was a terrible leader.  Really struggled to co-exist in Houston with Barkley and Olajuwon in '99, and I thought he really failed to provide Portland with any leadership after that, and let's not forget him benching himself when he didn't get the ball as leader of the Bulls when Jordan was playing baseball.

Back to Paul/Howard though, while I feel strongly that they wouldn't get along and Howard was never really coachable, they did want to play together and team up, so the desire to play together was there.  I just think Paul probably envisioned Howard as a rim runner and defensive anchor, a much better version of Tyson Chandler or DeAndre Jordan that Paul actually played with.  But I think what Paul would actually get is Howard trying to tell Paul how to run the offense, and be telling Paul to get him the ball in less than ideal situations.  I think Paul with his very high bball IQ would get sick of Howard trying to tell him how to run an offense very, very quickly, and it would look like that Nash/Howard clip I posted above.

If you told anytime from '08-'12 that Howard and Paul would have teamed up, I would have thought they'd be dominate.  Everything I've seen from Dwight Howard since then though tells me it would have been a disaster.

[Celtic Fan Forever]

THANK YOU.

Everyone involved in the game, and others that were only following along, all sent in their ballots.

So....If you want to make your ballot public and discuss it. Go right ahead.

Reminder: No matter where your team ends up being ranked, every team in this game is great. The teams in this draft are only separated by degrees of greatness. Every team in this league would go undefeated if substituted into the NBA for an existing NBA team. And you, the GMs, made making out a ballot this year probably more difficult than any year I can member. Job well done by everyone.👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏

Thank you Nick for making everything run so smoothly and providing us with a much needed distraction in these tough times. TP to you sir!

[RPGenerate]

THANK YOU.

Everyone involved in the game, and others that were only following along, all sent in their ballots.

So....If you want to make your ballot public and discuss it. Go right ahead.

Reminder: No matter where your team ends up being ranked, every team in this game is great. The teams in this draft are only separated by degrees of greatness. Every team in this league would go undefeated if substituted into the NBA for an existing NBA team. And you, the GMs, made making out a ballot this year probably more difficult than any year I can member. Job well done by everyone.👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏

Thank you Nick for making everything run so smoothly and providing us with a much needed distraction in these tough times. TP to you sir!

I second this. Thank you Nick.

[RodyTur10]

My vote was:

League         
         
1.   East   A+   Milwaukee Bucks (Roy H.)
2.   East   A   Philadelphia 76ers (wdleehi)
3.   West   A-   Los Angeles Lakers (CelticFanForever)
4.   East   B+   Indiana Pacers (GreenFaith1819)
5.   West   B+   Los Angeles Clippers (gouki88)
6.   East   B+   Toronto Raptors (Somebody)
7.   West   B   Oklahoma City Thunder (Yoki_IsTheName)
8.   West   B-   Dallas Mavericks (Jvalin)
9.   West   B-   Utah Jazz (action781)
10.   East   C+   Brooklyn Nets (Donoghus)
11.   East   C+   Boston Celtics (Who)
12.   West   C   Denver Nuggets (RPGenerate)
13.   West   C-   Houston Rockets (freshinthehouse)

Please don't be offended if I gave your team a low place on my ranking. I feel for example that my team Miami should be around 4-6 (comparable in the East with Indiana and Toronto), but I expect that people will have very different rankings.

Oh and yes a TP for Nick (who deserves a lot). Thank you Nick!

[Roy H.]

THANK YOU.

Everyone involved in the game, and others that were only following along, all sent in their ballots.

So....If you want to make your ballot public and discuss it. Go right ahead.

Reminder: No matter where your team ends up being ranked, every team in this game is great. The teams in this draft are only separated by degrees of greatness. Every team in this league would go undefeated if substituted into the NBA for an existing NBA team. And you, the GMs, made making out a ballot this year probably more difficult than any year I can member. Job well done by everyone.👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏

I agree, there wasn’t a ton of separation.  My top four teams were Milwaukee, Boston, Utah and Philly, but all the teams were constructed well.

I thought it was interesting that we didn’t have more player for player trades this year.  Were there only two?  I explored some ideas, but I think GMs in general really seemed confident in their vision.

[Celtic Fan Forever]

THANK YOU.

Everyone involved in the game, and others that were only following along, all sent in their ballots.

So....If you want to make your ballot public and discuss it. Go right ahead.

Reminder: No matter where your team ends up being ranked, every team in this game is great. The teams in this draft are only separated by degrees of greatness. Every team in this league would go undefeated if substituted into the NBA for an existing NBA team. And you, the GMs, made making out a ballot this year probably more difficult than any year I can member. Job well done by everyone.👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏

I agree, there wasn’t a ton of separation.  My top four teams were Milwaukee, Boston, Utah and Philly, but all the teams were constructed well.

I thought it was interesting that we didn’t have more player for player trades this year.  Were there only two?  I explored some ideas, but I think GMs in general really seemed confident in their vision.

This is definitely the least amount of trades I've ever seen in one of these drafts. I think it's easier to build the team you want when there's only 13 other people.

[RodyTur10]

THANK YOU.

Everyone involved in the game, and others that were only following along, all sent in their ballots.

So....If you want to make your ballot public and discuss it. Go right ahead.

Reminder: No matter where your team ends up being ranked, every team in this game is great. The teams in this draft are only separated by degrees of greatness. Every team in this league would go undefeated if substituted into the NBA for an existing NBA team. And you, the GMs, made making out a ballot this year probably more difficult than any year I can member. Job well done by everyone.👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏

I agree, there wasn’t a ton of separation. My top four teams were Milwaukee, Boston, Utah and Philly, but all the teams were constructed well.

I thought it was interesting that we didn’t have more player for player trades this year.  Were there only two?  I explored some ideas, but I think GMs in general really seemed confident in their vision.

You couldn't vote for your own team, you know that right?    

I gave you a first team vote, but a little modesty wouldn't hurt you.