2023 CS Historical Draft Write Up
or: why my team would eat another team for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.TL;DR : Guys who can stay on the floor. A variety of scoring from every position, elite team and individual defence, High BBIQ end to end, and passionate players.
Generally speaking, I’ll be referring to some guy's other seasons as anecdotal evidence for how they could have performed on a different roster (like this one) - so if someone was on a fairly middling team and got swept in the first round of the playoffs by the eventual champions that given year, I don’t personally hold that against them too much.
The Starters, Part One.
~~Rasheed Wallace, 2000-20001: PF
https://www.basketball-reference.com/players/w/wallara01/gamelog/2001
Sheed is one-half of the engine that makes this machine run. He’s almost certainly one of the most skilled big man in this draft when you factor in both sides of the ball (if not the most), and since we’re evaluating how they’d perform in the modern game, one of the things that strikes me is that, watching it back now, 2000-01 Sheed looks a bit like Draymond Green… if Green had a jump shot, a post game, and three point range. When engaged, 2001 Sheed is more than capable of going up against the best bigs of the era (draft eligible or not) and he’s going toe-to-toe with them.
Another way to think about his game with regards to this draft: he’s a saner Kevin Garnett in terms of talent - we’re effectively trading KG’s ‘dawg’ for actual, proven three-point range. He’s got everything you’d want from a modern-day four (as well as a do-it-all-five in a pinch), elite team defence, and the ability to play 38 minutes+ per night.
Witness:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVDT9ahSLEkYou need someone to drop 40+ points? Sheed can do that.
https://www.basketball-reference.com/boxscores/200102200POR.htmlYou need someone to pull down 15+ boards? Sheed can do that:
https://www.basketball-reference.com/boxscores/200101010POR.htmlYou need someone to respond in the face of adversity and step up when the referees are obviously in the bag for the opposition? Sheed can do that:
You want a guy who can give you 100 threes and 100 blocks per season? You want Rasheed Wallace.
Now, some people will say “well, your best player isn’t A SUPER MASSIVE ALPHA BASKETBALL GUY. He hasn’t got the undeniable urge to go up against the other team and jump on them until they’re in tiny little pieces and jump on them again.” Again: Kevin Garnett syndrome.
That’s true. But that makes him a much better teammate, insofar as it comes to being positioned to help his teammates shine. Consider: Because he’s not the guy with the burning need to score an arbitrary number of points per game, or pull down every single board, or dominate the ball, he’s much more malleable offensively, and a great fit next to the aggressive scoring I’ve got from my guard positions.
~~ Tim Hardaway, 1990-1991, PG
Let’s address the most significant point right at the top: Tim Hardaway crossed up everybody. Payton? Crossed. Stockton? Crossed. Jordan? Crossed. If you wound up guarding him, Tim Hardaway crossed you up.
And if Sheed’s problem is that he didn’t have a burning desire to be ‘the guy’ Hardaway more than makes up for it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ezs0Ra3uUcw2.6 steals per game, 23-4-10, 38% from deep with 3:1 Assist to turnover ratio whilst playing over 40MPG for more than half the season.
And we know his game would translate into different eras and different stages of athleticism, because he was still playing at a high level on massive minutes on a very successful Miami Heat team when he was on the wrong side of 30 . TMC Hardaway translates better to the modern game, but in a possible post-season, when the games get slower, there’s no doubt he’d be able to thrive.
~~Joakim Noah, 2013-2014, C
If we think about our defensive-minded frontcourt that needs to be in the position to make the right pass on offence, set great screens for our ball handlers, and get points on the board if we need to, it would be foolish to go with someone who isn’t Joakim Noah. Probably the best defensive center of his era, the anchor of those Bulls teams, and another iron man when it comes to minutes played (and before Thibs ground him into dust). But he’s also a singular player, and this description of him from this season really sums it up:
One of the great things about watching Joakim Noah is that he is totally a new breed of player. That's rare in the NBA; most stars are, at the very least, homages to legends gone by. Kevin Durant is a smoother Larry Bird, or a longer George Gervin, or something in between. LeBron James is an explosive, strong Magic Johnson. Stephen Curry is Steve Nash with a selfish streak. Chris Paul is Isiah Thomas.
Noah is ... Ben Wallace with guard skills? That doesn't make sense, because part of what made Ben Wallace Ben Wallace was that he had no skills. None that weren't related to rotating and rebounding, at least. Tim Duncan with fast-twitch muscles and a Chardonnay buzz? That's not quite right -- the results may match that definition, but the style isn't remotely close. And that's the whole thing with Noah: the style he plays in no way matches his production. He plays like an erratic Bond villain, yet he puts up Duncanian lines. On Monday, he finished with 13 points, 11 rebounds, four assists, two steals and a block.
Noah's wild man energy makes him one of the league's most valuable defenders. The work he and Butler did to aggravate LeBron was mesmerizing. Noah is really the perfect on-court embodiment of Tom Thibodeau -- as close to the defensive mania of Kevin Garnett as we've seen. (Is that the right comp for Noah -- Weird Garnett? Hmm.) Over the past two years, JoNo has added a great deal of skill to the package of energy and smarts. He's always known his way around the court, but he's now crisp. He flails into mystifyingly solid screens. He puts his head down, gets his limbs cranking in a fashion reminiscent of QWOP and somehow ends up with a textbook layup. He watches the lane with that crazed look, wiry arms holding the ball high... and he hits the cutter like a prime Divac.
https://www.sbnation.com/nba/2013/5/7/4307964/joakim-noah-bulls-vs-heat-2013-unique12.6-11.3-5.4. 73% from the line with that incredibly awful free throw form. You can't look away. Monster on defense. Noah makes the game of basketball look like a Hieronymus Bosch painting, and I'm here for it. So are you.
~~Glen Rice, 1996-1997 SF.
Truth be told, this is one where the numbers could do all the talking. If we’re putting together a modern-day team with Roscoe, Noah, and Tim Bug, you need a sharpshooter on the perimeter who can chase guys through screens and keep defenders honest. Glen Rice is the best player available to fit that role.
And, yeah, given the draft format
of course I’m going to pick the shortened three point line season where he shot 47% beyond the arc, I’m not that stupid - but that’s not the catch-all explainer people think it is, because:
G Money averaged 40% from deep for his career, and the league overall shot 36% from deep that season - so even with the shortened line he was still 11% over the average.
But even his insane deep shooting doesn’t do him justice: this isn’t a guy who sat in the corner waiting for his shots - he’s not Steve Kerr. Take a look at these highlights, and his 60% TS really starts to evolve. Rice was a pure scorer, period:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GTPlvbTzuawIn terms of fit, he’s obviously capable of being a championship-calibre player (2000 with Los Angeles), and even when he was lighting it up he’s still a pretty low-usage player (27% on the season selected, but his effectiveness doesn’t diminish with a smaller role as evidenced by his career.)
~~ Alvin Robinson, 1985-1986, SG
Most modern NBA teams rely on a lockdown wing defender and head-on-a-swivel defence from the bigs. Between Sheed and Noah, I’m not at all worried about our interior defense, so it’s time to look to the wings.
Consider this: the only reason the guy isn’t a hall-of-Famer is because he’s reputationally repugnant. Averaging 17-6-5 with 3.7 steals this season, he’s not much of a three-point shooter at this point in his career but that’s more or less the only knock on him you can have, especially since he clearly could shoot (almost 80% from the line, and over 50% from the field.
I am terrified that this novel is going to get 86'd by logging out, so I'm going to share this now. The bench writeup will be coming at some point? And hopefully it's a bit shorter - much more interested to hear what everyone else things.
Topic: 2023 CS Historic Draft - How's My Team? (Read 26689 times)