2025 CelticsBlog Fantasy Draft: '05-'25 Edition

[snively]

I love the synergy between Tony Allen and Zach Randolph.  That "grit and grind" team was an entire vibe.  You know how certain teams will always be remembered even if they never made the Finals?  For me, some of those teams are the "Run TMC" Warriors, the early 2000s Kings, and the Zach Randolph Grizzlies.

Fear the Deer Bucks was a great name. The SSOL Suns.

[Who]

Z-Bo a good contrast to backup bigs Draymond Green & Ben Wallace. Z-Bo a guy who can get buckets.

[smokeablount]

Roy is up!

Followed by Snively, Jvalin if he?s here, and then Who, CFF, and Moranis

I have to take my cat to the vet at noon ET, so I need everyone but Jvalin + Mo?s picks in

Let?s finish strong? CelticsStrong!

[Timdawgg]

So Philly's bench will be:

G: Westbrook, J Wall
G: M Smart
F: Peja Stojakovic
F: K Love, B Griffin
C: M Camby

Interesting group. I am glad you added a SG in Smart. Balances out the bench.

--------------------

Wow, I just realized Philly have Rondo, Westbrook and John Wall at PG. Amazing athletes. Broken jump-shots. High assist genetrators. Each guy had 10+apg seasons, right? Did each guy lead the league in assists at one point?

John Wall had three 10+apg seasons but he finished 2nd each time. Westbrook had 5 such seasons and led the league 3 times. Rondo had 4 seasons of 10+apg and led the league 3 times.

Yeah now same old story. Just need to make sure Smart keeps his shot attempts in check.  lol. Yeah I am a sucker for true PG but I like my point guards to play defense. The only thing I don?t like is the fact the I have two guys you can sag off at the guard position on my bench. 

[Roy H.]

Jaylen Brown
Ray Allen
Manu Ginobili
Anthony Edwards
Kobe Bryant
Jrue Holiday
Klay Thompson
Brandon Roy
Dwyane Wade
James Harden

Most of those guys aren't that big.

* Ray is a finesse player. Manu is a finesse player. Klay is a finesse player.

* B Roy a ball-handling guard. Ant stays mostly on the perimeter. Harden has a lot of muscle but again is a ball-handling SG like Ant or B-Roy.

* Wade has a strong post game but he is no bigger than Jrue or Oladipo.

* Kobe & Jaylen Brown are the only ones with superior height and a strong post games.

On a side note, I was watching a Ron Harper clip the other day where he talked about the difference between Kobe & MJ and said they were almost identical because Kobe patterned both his game and his identity after MJ. One difference though was strength. MJ was much stronger than Kobe and could withstand more of a beating.

I have no issue with the size of Jrue or Oladipo defending Kobe. They had guys of similar size who defended Kobe well during Kobe's career.

And we are all going to have double team CLE's big perimeter guys when they post up our guards.

Roy's bigger issue is this league will offer no place to hide Curry/Brunson while Hedo can also be match-up hunted by quicker guys.

Honestly, I'm not worried about it.  As mentioned, Curry has been part of a #1 defense and his teams have been historically good.  If people think they have a PG advantage when Curry is on the court, they're just wrong. 

And, people are misremembering Hedo.  Again, he was part of a #1 defense with both San Antonio and Orlando.  He was guarding Lebron and Pierce when the Magic went to the 2009 Finals; Lebron shot 48% overall and 29.7% on 3PTs.  Nobody (except for Iggy) shuts Lebron down, but his efficiency was way off.  Hedo got DPOY votes that season.  And, he's got Giannis to take the tougher forward matchup.

[Moranis]

I think Boston will have to defend their own positions for the most part.

Steph is too small to switch over onto quality SGs or SFs. Hedo is too slow to switch over and defend quicker guards. So Hedo will have to defend his own spot at SF. Steph will have to defend his own position at PG. Jrue will be almost permanently be defending SGs as a result.

There are only a few teams that have perimeter guys who are low quality enough as scorers to switch across different positions. 90+% of the time guys will defend their own spot.

that is the issue. My critique is the bad point of attack defense. In this league in particular you cannot have 2 of you 3 small positions being bad defenders especially when the 1 good one is undersized.  I see it as a flaw that they won't be able to overcome.  Too small and too bad on defense.  You can get away with 1 bad defender from the 3 spots and most every team has 1, but not 2 especially being undersized on top of it . Curry and Brunson are going to get killed and there is no help coming. 

[Roy H.]

I think Boston will have to defend their own positions for the most part.

Steph is too small to switch over onto quality SGs or SFs. Hedo is too slow to switch over and defend quicker guards. So Hedo will have to defend his own spot at SF. Steph will have to defend his own position at PG. Jrue will be almost permanently be defending SGs as a result.

There are only a few teams that have perimeter guys who are low quality enough as scorers to switch across different positions. 90+% of the time guys will defend their own spot.

that is the issue. My critique is the bad point of attack defense. In this league in particular you cannot have 2 of you 3 small positions being bad defenders especially when the 1 good one is undersized.  I see it as a flaw that they won't be able to overcome.  Too small and too bad on defense.  You can get away with 1 bad defender from the 3 spots and most every team has 1, but not 2 especially being undersized on top of it . Curry and Brunson are going to get killed and there is no help coming.

Fat Luka + Fat Shaq.

[snively]

Jaylen Brown
Ray Allen
Manu Ginobili
Anthony Edwards
Kobe Bryant
Jrue Holiday
Klay Thompson
Brandon Roy
Dwyane Wade
James Harden

Most of those guys aren't that big.

* Ray is a finesse player. Manu is a finesse player. Klay is a finesse player.

* B Roy a ball-handling guard. Ant stays mostly on the perimeter. Harden has a lot of muscle but again is a ball-handling SG like Ant or B-Roy.

* Wade has a strong post game but he is no bigger than Jrue or Oladipo.

* Kobe & Jaylen Brown are the only ones with superior height and a strong post games.

On a side note, I was watching a Ron Harper clip the other day where he talked about the difference between Kobe & MJ and said they were almost identical because Kobe patterned both his game and his identity after MJ. One difference though was strength. MJ was much stronger than Kobe and could withstand more of a beating.

I have no issue with the size of Jrue or Oladipo defending Kobe. They had guys of similar size who defended Kobe well during Kobe's career.

And we are all going to have double team CLE's big perimeter guys when they post up our guards.

Roy's bigger issue is this league will offer no place to hide Curry/Brunson while Hedo can also be match-up hunted by quicker guys.

Honestly, I'm not worried about it.  As mentioned, Curry has been part of a #1 defense and his teams have been historically good.  If people think they have a PG advantage when Curry is on the court, they're just wrong. 

And, people are misremembering Hedo.  Again, he was part of a #1 defense with both San Antonio and Orlando.  He was guarding Lebron and Pierce when the Magic went to the 2009 Finals; Lebron shot 48% overall and 29.7% on 3PTs.  Nobody (except for Iggy) shuts Lebron down, but his efficiency was way off.  Hedo got DPOY votes that season.  And, he's got Giannis to take the tougher forward matchup.

I think Hedo has defensive value - I just think he's vulnerable to quickness. As a slow 3/ quick 4 defensively he's going to have some challenges especially on switches.

[smokeablount]

Hoo mama, 3+D SGs/wings going like hotcakes these last 6 picks or so

[smokeablount]

I think Boston will have to defend their own positions for the most part.

Steph is too small to switch over onto quality SGs or SFs. Hedo is too slow to switch over and defend quicker guards. So Hedo will have to defend his own spot at SF. Steph will have to defend his own position at PG. Jrue will be almost permanently be defending SGs as a result.

There are only a few teams that have perimeter guys who are low quality enough as scorers to switch across different positions. 90+% of the time guys will defend their own spot.

that is the issue. My critique is the bad point of attack defense. In this league in particular you cannot have 2 of you 3 small positions being bad defenders especially when the 1 good one is undersized.  I see it as a flaw that they won't be able to overcome.  Too small and too bad on defense.  You can get away with 1 bad defender from the 3 spots and most every team has 1, but not 2 especially being undersized on top of it . Curry and Brunson are going to get killed and there is no help coming.

Fat Luka + Fat Shaq.

lol

Fat chance

[Donoghus]

Bowen pick is perfect for Roy's squad.

[Moranis]

The Cavs absolutely hunted Curry. In the Cavs title season, not only did Irving far out perform his season averages in the finals, the physicality they inflicted on Curry caused him to be significantly below his season averages across the board.  He could not handle them muscling him up and that is with a relatively small and weak PG in Irving.  Even the first year when Irving was out after game 1, Curry was way below his season averages.  The Cavs went at him relentlessly, they just didn't have the talent without Love and Irving to pull out the series win (which is partly why Curry despite being league MVP was not Finals MVP). Durant changed the dynamic as the Cavs could no longer play the same way, but even still in 17 when Irving was there, he was better than Curry basically across the board.  Curry is a small poor defender. Putting a small SG next to him and an equally small and poor defender behind him is not a recipe for success.

[Who]

Gallinari = that is another guy I never thought of.

Nice pick.

[Moranis]

I do like the Bowen pick for Roy.  Solid team value as he needed the 3 and D guy.

[Roy H.]

Jaylen Brown
Ray Allen
Manu Ginobili
Anthony Edwards
Kobe Bryant
Jrue Holiday
Klay Thompson
Brandon Roy
Dwyane Wade
James Harden

Most of those guys aren't that big.

* Ray is a finesse player. Manu is a finesse player. Klay is a finesse player.

* B Roy a ball-handling guard. Ant stays mostly on the perimeter. Harden has a lot of muscle but again is a ball-handling SG like Ant or B-Roy.

* Wade has a strong post game but he is no bigger than Jrue or Oladipo.

* Kobe & Jaylen Brown are the only ones with superior height and a strong post games.

On a side note, I was watching a Ron Harper clip the other day where he talked about the difference between Kobe & MJ and said they were almost identical because Kobe patterned both his game and his identity after MJ. One difference though was strength. MJ was much stronger than Kobe and could withstand more of a beating.

I have no issue with the size of Jrue or Oladipo defending Kobe. They had guys of similar size who defended Kobe well during Kobe's career.

And we are all going to have double team CLE's big perimeter guys when they post up our guards.

Roy's bigger issue is this league will offer no place to hide Curry/Brunson while Hedo can also be match-up hunted by quicker guys.

Honestly, I'm not worried about it.  As mentioned, Curry has been part of a #1 defense and his teams have been historically good.  If people think they have a PG advantage when Curry is on the court, they're just wrong. 

And, people are misremembering Hedo.  Again, he was part of a #1 defense with both San Antonio and Orlando.  He was guarding Lebron and Pierce when the Magic went to the 2009 Finals; Lebron shot 48% overall and 29.7% on 3PTs.  Nobody (except for Iggy) shuts Lebron down, but his efficiency was way off.  Hedo got DPOY votes that season.  And, he's got Giannis to take the tougher forward matchup.

I think Hedo has defensive value - I just think he's vulnerable to quickness. As a slow 3/ quick 4 defensively he's going to have some challenges especially on switches.

That's fair.  I just don't agree with the "bad defender" narrative that Mo is trying to push.  Hedo was a good defender, who can't cover every SF without help.  But, Giannis is going to cover the best forward on the other team primarily.

And, I like the plug-and-play types I have off the bench.  For instance, if I need a stop in a crucial moment of a game, I can throw out:

Jordan / Giannis / Bowen / Jrue / Oladipo.  Or, if I want more athleticism, I've got Amen Thompson.

And, regarding my PGs, I think I'm winning the net-scoring battle every time I've got Curry or Brunson on the court.