2025 CelticsBlog Fantasy Draft: '05-'25 Edition

[Moranis]

Haven't gone through everything, but as of now the way I'm leaning will stun this board.

[tazzmaniac]

Just being a witness of this fourth round I have to say that this was some superb drafting. I'm not sure that I agree with sentiment that the drop off to the 5th and 6th round isn't large.

Especially with teams having chosen a certain style, options become more scarce. Like 7 out of 10 guys who were picked today I expected to go this round. But I think the next rounds become very unpredictable.
This was a top class drafting round:

I can promise you that my upcoming picks the next two rounds are going to be all over the place.  I'll be taking 8th or 9th round value, haha.

Going to be really interesting to see who you take at 42.  The BPAs available may be guards but can you afford to wait until 54 and 55 to fill both SF and C. 

If Klay was available would you have still traded down? 

[tazzmaniac]

Haven't gone through everything, but as of now the way I'm leaning will stun this board.

I'll guess a really, really top-level player who isn't thought of that well on the forum. It is hard to guess who you could pick that would actually stun the board.  Now for your team I think I would go with a former Celtic.   

[smokeablount]

Regarding McGrady, I think it's a great pick for Dons. It was good value. In the 4th round to get one of your top 2 offensive guys on the team of 4 along with Dirk, while Dwight gets occasionally fed and Draymond does a little bit of everything, is quite good. TMac in his prime was a beast, though by this point in his career he isn't particularly efficient. He was more skilled than efficient overall.

When we did the draft 2 years ago with no Top 75 players, no pre-merger players and no current players, I traded up to #1 to get him. I took David Thompson in the 2nd round, and ended up with a starting 5 of Thompson, TMac, Nance Sr, Lanier, and a PG yet to be drafted. My logic was that in a league with no MJ, Pippen, Bird, Kobe, Lebron, Kawhi, Durant, PG13, Baylor, etc, that a T-Mac and Thompson pairing at their peak season would be unstoppable in a league where Paul Westphal was a top 5 wing, especially when they'd be more efficient witht the PG and Lanier facilitating the offense.

I had McGrady as much more valuable in that league because of the players that were removed from the equation, but I think in the 4th round on the team around him, it's a great pick here.

[smokeablount]

"THE COMMISSIONER'S FRIEND'S POWER RANKINGS" - ROUND 1

I had my buddy over yesterday, told him about the league and what we're doing and he thought it was cool. He's a pretty big basketball fan, his team is the Mavericks and he's big on fantasy football as a former D3 football player. He was interested to hear more about what I was thinking for my next picks and was curious to see the teams that had been formed, so I agreed to show him in exchange for him giving me a rudimentary verbal power rankings from an independent 3rd party.

I'm putting the teams in two tiers, 5 each, in the general order of his sentiment with a few thoughts on each. As goes without saying, this is subjective. I demanded he be honest with my team and what he thought of Rudy. I challenge you all to reorder the list, comment, make your own rankings- engage!

Moranis (Cavs) -

PG: Luka Doncic
SG:
SF: Lebron James (MVP)
PF: Victor Wembanyama
C: Shaquille ONeal (prior MVP)


CFF (Magic) -

PG: CP3
SG: Ray Allen
SF: Paul Pierce
PF: Chris Bosh
C: Tim Duncan (prior MVP)


Who (Knicks) -

PG: Steve Nash (MVP)
SG: Manu Ginobili
SF:
PF: Kevin Garnett (prior MVP, DPOY)
C: Joel Embiid (MVP)


Jvalin (Pacers) -

PG:
SG: Anthony Edwards
SF: Paul George
PF: Jayson Tatum
C: Nikola Jokic (MVP)


Snively (Bulls) -

PG: Chauncey Billups
SG: Kobe Bryant (MVP)
SF: Jimmy Butler
PF: Pau Gasol
C: Yao Ming
 

Roy (Celtics) -

PG: Steph Curry (MVP)
SG:
SF:
PF: Giannis Antetokounmpo (MVP, DPOY)
C:


SAB (Thunder) -

PG: SGA (MVP)
SG: Klay Thompson
SF: Kevin Durant (MVP)
PF:
C: Rudy Gobert (DPOY)

Dons (Bucks) -

PG:
SG: Tracy McGrady
SF: Draymond Green (DPOY)
PF: Dirk Nowitzki (MVP)
C: Dwight Howard

RodyTur10 (Raptors) -

PG: Dwayne Wade
SG: Kawhi Leonard
SF: Shawn Marion
PF:
C: Marc Gasol

Timdawgg (76ers) -

PG: Rajon Rondo
SG: James Harden (MVP)
SF: Andrei Kirilenko
PF: Anthony Davis
C:


Tier 1 - Early Contenders

Who - New York Knicks

Nash-prime KG is my favorite pairing. Embiid can be a two-way force, and has versatile scoring ability, but his usage will have to come down. He's more than capable of playing the Amare role in a Nash offense. Manu is historically elite and proven 3rd guy who can scale up his role as needed or come off the bench as needed. This 4 man unit in terms of talent and fit is elite, and Nash makes filling the 4th spot more flexibile than for some of the other teams that need to accommodate a certain style.

Moranis - Cleveland Cavaliers

This is the best collection of talent in the league, though Shaq is a little past his prime. Luka, Lebron, and Shaq's last dominant last year is a huge big 3. Though there are some fit issues, I have faith that they'd figure it out. Young Lebron didn't shoot a lot of 3's and he's probably taking the one year that Young Lebron and Luka shot kind of outlier 3 point percentages, and Shaq's offense and defensive ability would be questions. Luka meshes with old Lebron but meshing with young Lebron would be harder. Still, this collection of talent and particularly the big 3 is at the top of the league.

SAB - OKC Thunder

I think Rudy is fine with this team when your top 3 are SGA, KD, and Klay. Klay is the ideal #3 who plays D and can light it up off ball, not need the ball, and create space for SGA and KD. Your point about SGA being a proven championship engine is well taken, and of all the truly elite top 5-10 talent in this draft and timeframe, Curry and KD seem to be by far the best off ball guys and catch and shooters, etc if they had to play in a secondary offensive role or share the ball. SGA is a beast. I like Rudy here because the scoring comes from the perimeter and the midrange, and there's enough of it that you don't need Rudy to do more than screen, rebound and play D. I think if you don't like Rudy maybe they're at #5 and if you do, they'd be #3 until the Celtics team rounds out its roster more.

CFF - Orlando Magic

I like this team, the starting 5 is really good and it's clearly in the top tier, I just don't love it. I feel like the Knicks team is similar and I like that iteration of it better to stand up to the variety of problems the top teams will pose. All really good players here, and all kind of do it all players, but when I look at the high end talent on the other rosters and think about how they'd operate, I am not sure they'd be at the very top. CP3 may be the best PG in the pool and Duncan is an all time great so it's not like they lack top end talent. When any of their guys get the ball they can each pose a variety of threats. It's almost like the 08 Celtics and the 24 Celtics merged, I guess I'm not entirely sold on Pierce, Ray and Bosh as super competitive #3-5 starters, and I think the Celtics, Cavs, and OKC have a better 1-2.

Roy - Boston Celtics

I can't really rank this team. They have an elite 1-2. Based on who else has been drafted, there seem to be plenty of good players left. I expect after a day or two of drafting two players a day, this is going to be a top 2-3 team. Seems more than likely. But most teams here have 4 players and some have entire starting 5's and these guys have two elite guys. Clearly they're top tier, I'm putting them at 5.


Tier 2 - Right on the Heels

Snively - Chicago Bulls

I like this team. I like the starting five and how they mesh. Kobe is really good tho maybe not quite at the level of some of the other #1's in the league, and it's proven he works at a championship level with Pau. Yao is one of the best centers in the pool. Chauncy-Kobe is one of the top backcourts in a league with this much abundant scoring potentially. But I think this team struggles to guard the perimeter and is a bit slow and inefficient. I like the players and I like the fit, and I would put them at the top of tier 2. Most teams in tier 2 I would expect to be able to move up based on the next few days of drafting.

RodyTur - Toronto Raptors

Kawhi and Wade are beasts. I love Marion. With Gasol you have to pick between DPOY rim protector Gasol and 3 point shooting older Gasol. Because the former is more valuable, I think this team lacks shooting and might lack creation considering the traditional playmaking positions are filled. Elite defense though and Kawhi as a #1 give this team a lot of potential. I like the players. There's actually a guy not rostered who immediately comes to mind that would be ridiculous as your 5th starter given how elite the defense is, that would immediately lift this team. I guess it's hard to say teams are tier 2 or give a definitive opinion when even the starters haven't been rounded out.

Dons - Bucks

I love Dirk just as a Dallas fan. Dwight is gonna be quite good in a league with abundant scoring. TMac in a sim I'm not sure is going to be as good as TMac in real life, but if I'm grading it in real life he's just a little too inefficient vs some of the other elite scoring wings. I don't like Draymond at small forward. Dwight shoots no 3's and Dirk actually didn't shoot a lot of 3's, Draymond will shoot some 3's but not well, and T-Mac isn't going to hit 3's at a great rate either. Dwight and Draymond will make the defense good and cover for T-Mac and Dirk. This is a good team, it's just that every team here is good.

Jvalin - Pacers

Jokic has gotta be the best offensive player in the whole draft, but this team has him surrounded by PG13 and two guys that pretty much need to be handling the ball. The talent on the team is elite, I like the talent of the top 4 players here really as much as any team in the league so far outside of Cleveland. Based on talent alone, this team would absolutely be tier 1, but the fit seems like a problem to me. Either Anthony Edwards or Jayson Tatum need to go, but you can't have both in an offense where Jokic is creating the looks, and it would be crazy to move Jokic off ball. Both AE and Tatum are really good, can he trade one? Who needs primary offense and shot creation?

Timdawgg - 76ers

I like the Harden-AD pairing a lot and I like AK47, but among all the guys rostered I'd say he's the least of an all time great. The reason I kind of have these guys last is the Rondo/Harden backcourt. Of all the elite top 10 talent in the draft Harden would have to be the one who is worst off ball along with maybe Giannis, and Rondo was the type of PG to handle the hell out of the ball and get like a 40% assist rate. 9-11 assists a game. I don't know how those 2 guys mesh because Rondo doesn't shoot off the ball. I feel like I don't know how to solve that, and it's going to create issues like for the Pacers team.