Summer 2021 Fantasy Draft: Draft Thread

[theswitch]

With the 11th pick in the 3rd round, the Memphis Grizzlies select Julius Randle.

Talk about an unguardable team! Excited to see who you add to this.

[RPGenerate]

With the 12th pick in the 3rd round, the Memphis Grizzlies select Shai-Gilgeous Alexander.

Was debating between LeMelo and Shai. Both are great young players on the rise.

[gouki88]

With the 12th pick in the 3rd round, the Memphis Grizzlies select Shai-Gilgeous Alexander.

Make that 4 guys who shoot around 40% from deep!

[theswitch]

With the 11th pick in the 3rd round, the Memphis Grizzlies select Julius Randle.

Nice choice. I put Randle in the same category as Young, in the sense that they a weird fits on teams like these. Randle is great value here though.

I thought hard about Randle. I probably should've taken him, but it just didn't feel right. It's going to be interesting to see if last year was an aberration or the real deal! With Lillard, SGA, Randle, KAT...I don't know how you play defense on that. Going to be a tough team to stop the opposition but that firepower is immense.

[Who]

With the 12th pick in the 3rd round, the Memphis Grizzlies select Shai-Gilgeous Alexander.

Excellent pick. If I had of gotten Jaylen next to Luka, SGA was my next pick early 3rd round.

I was less sure of his fit next to LaVine. LaVine seems ... I don't know ... more needy than Jaylen (more touches, more shots, more time on the ball). I don't know, something about it just felt off. I couldn't quite pinpoint it but something didn't sit right with me about the SGA / Luka / LaVine combo. Too much in each other's way.

[Who]

With the 11th pick in the 3rd round, the Memphis Grizzlies select Julius Randle.

Nice choice. I put Randle in the same category as Young, in the sense that they a weird fits on teams like these. Randle is great value here though.

I thought hard about Randle. I probably should've taken him, but it just didn't feel right. It's going to be interesting to see if last year was an aberration or the real deal! With Lillard, SGA, Randle, KAT...I don't know how you play defense on that. Going to be a tough team to stop the opposition but that firepower is immense.

I'm the same way. I simply do not know how to value Randle. Can he maintain those shooting numbers? Can he adjust to a smaller role on this team vs being the main man in NYC? I have no clue.

Agreed on that team. It is amazing. I love the SGA pickup next to Towns and Lillard. Randle is a question mark to me but the rest is immensely strong. Randle might be too.

[Roy H.]

7:20 - 9: Toronto Raptors (RPGenerate): LaMelo Ball
7:30 - 10: Oklahoma City Thunder (Somebody): Draymond Green

Personal preference only, but I think these might be the two biggest reaches of the draft, and they went back-to-back.

[tazzmaniac]

With the 12th pick in the 3rd round, the Memphis Grizzlies select Shai-Gilgeous Alexander.

Make that 4 guys who shoot around 40% from deep!

They also have 6+ FTAs at over 80%. 

[theswitch]

With the 11th pick in the 3rd round, the Memphis Grizzlies select Julius Randle.

Nice choice. I put Randle in the same category as Young, in the sense that they a weird fits on teams like these. Randle is great value here though.

I thought hard about Randle. I probably should've taken him, but it just didn't feel right. It's going to be interesting to see if last year was an aberration or the real deal! With Lillard, SGA, Randle, KAT...I don't know how you play defense on that. Going to be a tough team to stop the opposition but that firepower is immense.

I'm the same way. I simply do not know how to value Randle. Can he maintain those shooting numbers? Can he adjust to a smaller role on this team vs being the main man in NYC? I have no clue.

Agreed on that team. It is amazing. I love the SGA pickup next to Towns and Lillard. Randle is a question mark to me but the rest is immensely strong. Randle might be too.

Randle's defensive statistics from last year are incredible, but I can't shake that he's short and he's not a great team defender or stat-padder. It's probably just personal bias because his advanced stats and the Knicks' performance last year was incredible defensively. He's All-NBA second team for a reason but for some reason there's a bias against him.

[gouki88]

With the 12th pick in the 3rd round, the Memphis Grizzlies select Shai-Gilgeous Alexander.

Make that 4 guys who shoot around 40% from deep!

They also have 6+ FTAs at over 80%.

So far only one guy on your team (Randle) had a TS% of below 60% last season.

Nice!

[RPGenerate]

7:20 - 9: Toronto Raptors (RPGenerate): LaMelo Ball
7:30 - 10: Oklahoma City Thunder (Somebody): Draymond Green

Personal preference only, but I think these might be the two biggest reaches of the draft, and they went back-to-back.

That's a fair assessment. However, I will say the we are doing this draft in the context that we start playing next season. LaMelo's rookie season was amazing, and he pretty much proved all the doubts about him wrong. His defense? Surprisingly good. Outside shot? Still a work in progress, but definitely not a liability. His shot certainly isn't broken. As a 19 year old rookie, I feel like a huge step forward next season is pretty likely.

[Roy H.]

With the 12th pick in the 3rd round, the Memphis Grizzlies select Shai-Gilgeous Alexander.

Make that 4 guys who shoot around 40% from deep!

They also have 6+ FTAs at over 80%.

Very impressive. 

[gouki88]

7:20 - 9: Toronto Raptors (RPGenerate): LaMelo Ball
7:30 - 10: Oklahoma City Thunder (Somebody): Draymond Green

Personal preference only, but I think these might be the two biggest reaches of the draft, and they went back-to-back.

That's a fair assessment. However, I will say the we are doing this draft in the context that we start playing next season. LaMelo's rookie season was amazing, and he pretty much proved all the doubts about him wrong. His defense? Surprisingly good. Outside shot? Still a work in progress, but definitely not a liability. His shot certainly isn't broken. As a 19 year old rookie, I feel like a huge step forward next season is pretty likely.

I am very curious about how you envision Harden and LaMelo sharing the load on offence. Both thrive with ball-in-hand, and LaMelo is not the off-ball weapon that Kyrie is.

I know we'll see a lot of lobs from your offence though!

[tazzmaniac]

With the 11th pick in the 3rd round, the Memphis Grizzlies select Julius Randle.

Nice choice. I put Randle in the same category as Young, in the sense that they a weird fits on teams like these. Randle is great value here though.

I thought hard about Randle. I probably should've taken him, but it just didn't feel right. It's going to be interesting to see if last year was an aberration or the real deal! With Lillard, SGA, Randle, KAT...I don't know how you play defense on that. Going to be a tough team to stop the opposition but that firepower is immense.

I'm the same way. I simply do not know how to value Randle. Can he maintain those shooting numbers? Can he adjust to a smaller role on this team vs being the main man in NYC? I have no clue.

Agreed on that team. It is amazing. I love the SGA pickup next to Towns and Lillard. Randle is a question mark to me but the rest is immensely strong. Randle might be too.

Randle's defensive statistics from last year are incredible, but I can't shake that he's short and he's not a great team defender or stat-padder. It's probably just personal bias because his advanced stats and the Knicks' performance last year was incredible defensively. He's All-NBA second team for a reason but for some reason there's a bias against him.

Randle has been a good on-ball defender.  I expect last year playing for Thibs forced him to focus more on defense.  He even got 4 votes for all-NBA defense.   

Another reason I took Randle was that 20.5% of his shots were catch-and-shoot 3s and he hit them at 41.7%.  That would only get better playing with Lillard and Towns. 

[Somebody]

Re: Randle's defence, he did improve last year on that end of the court, he's no longer a negative. But I do want to stress that his defensive metrics are inflated by the Knicks having no viable defensive backup at PF: his 'replacements' in adjusted +/- metrics this season are defensive legends Taj Gibson and Obi Toppin, which adjusted +/- has no way to account for (APM usually works well because teams typically have players who're closer to replacement level, but guys like Gibson and Toppin are probably some of the worst defensive PFs in the league).

Edit: Gibson weirdly has insane DAPM values this season, but play-by-play data has him playing at C a ton so I guess it's Toppin who was Randle's backup this season.