2025 CelticsBlog Fantasy Draft: '05-'25 Edition

[Roy H.]

Sliding doors moment ...

In round 4, Anthony Edwards was drafted one pick before me. He was my top target. I took Manu Ginobili instead. My hope was to draft Ant in the 4th and then take Jaylen Brown early in the 5th. Moranis picked Jaylen with the 1st pick of the 5th round (I had 3rd) so I would have missed out on Jaylen anyway. I likely would have ended up with Pascal Siakam as my backup option.

G: S Nash
G: Ant
F: Siakam
F: KG
C: Embiid

The idea was to try and get two athletic wings alongside Nash and the two bigs. That was my goal. Two way athletic wings. I liked Ant in particular because not only was he athletic & a strong defensive player but he was also a prolific 3pt shooter.

Anyway, Ant was off the table. Then the choice came down to Manu or B Roy. I went with Manu because I felt B Roy was more ball dominant and liked to play a slow-down game. Neither was a good fit with Nash. So I went Manu.

I then shifted the team building model from (1) Nash + two athletic two-way wings + two imposing big men to (2) two creative guards in Nash & Manu + two imposing bigs + glue guy SF. I wanted to keep the ball in the hands of Manu & Nash so a lower usage guy like Iggy worked well.

This in turn led to more of a skill-based team rather than a physically / athletically imposing team. Manu couldn't give the physical defense at SG I wanted. So I went with his strengths.

Interesting.  I really like your wing combo, obviously.  They're two of my favorite non-Celtics ever.  But, I do agree with you that the ideal guy next to Nash would be a powerful SG.  Did you ever reach out about trading for Ant?

[Roy H.]

G: Baron Davis, Gilbert Arenas, Isaiah Thomas
G: Jason Richardson, Desmond Bane
F: Rashard Lewis, Josh Howard
F: Boris Diaw, Lauri Markkanen
C: DeMarcus Cousins, Nene, I Zubac


Struggling at the PF position. I can't find what I want. Julius Randle & Paolo Banchero are alternate options. Carlos Boozer is an option against slower teams but not quick teams. Lamar Odom gives the defense & rebounding & passing but can't shoot well enough. Ditto for Ben Simmons. Ben Simmons may be a better option than Odom. Similar for Josh Smith & Kenyon Martin.

Did Jermaine O'Neal get picked?

[Who]

Sliding doors moment ...

In round 4, Anthony Edwards was drafted one pick before me. He was my top target. I took Manu Ginobili instead. My hope was to draft Ant in the 4th and then take Jaylen Brown early in the 5th. Moranis picked Jaylen with the 1st pick of the 5th round (I had 3rd) so I would have missed out on Jaylen anyway. I likely would have ended up with Pascal Siakam as my backup option.

G: S Nash
G: Ant
F: Siakam
F: KG
C: Embiid

The idea was to try and get two athletic wings alongside Nash and the two bigs. That was my goal. Two way athletic wings. I liked Ant in particular because not only was he athletic & a strong defensive player but he was also a prolific 3pt shooter.

Anyway, Ant was off the table. Then the choice came down to Manu or B Roy. I went with Manu because I felt B Roy was more ball dominant and liked to play a slow-down game. Neither was a good fit with Nash. So I went Manu.

I then shifted the team building model from (1) Nash + two athletic two-way wings + two imposing big men to (2) two creative guards in Nash & Manu + two imposing bigs + glue guy SF. I wanted to keep the ball in the hands of Manu & Nash so a lower usage guy like Iggy worked well.

This in turn led to more of a skill-based team rather than a physically / athletically imposing team. Manu couldn't give the physical defense at SG I wanted. So I went with his strengths.

Interesting.  I really like your wing combo, obviously.  They're two of my favorite non-Celtics ever.  But, I do agree with you that the ideal guy next to Nash would be a powerful SG.  Did you ever reach out about trading for Ant?

In the final rounds, Jvalin was interested in trading Ant for Manu but I was settled with my roster by that point.

[Who]

G: Baron Davis, Gilbert Arenas, Isaiah Thomas
G: Jason Richardson, Desmond Bane
F: Rashard Lewis, Josh Howard
F: Boris Diaw, Lauri Markkanen
C: DeMarcus Cousins, Nene, I Zubac


Struggling at the PF position. I can't find what I want. Julius Randle & Paolo Banchero are alternate options. Carlos Boozer is an option against slower teams but not quick teams. Lamar Odom gives the defense & rebounding & passing but can't shoot well enough. Ditto for Ben Simmons. Ben Simmons may be a better option than Odom. Similar for Josh Smith & Kenyon Martin.

Did Jermaine O'Neal get picked?

He didn't.

Jermaine O'Neal didn't have a great season post 2004 (3rd in MVP in 2003-04). He had those suspensions from the Malice in the Palace in 2005 that limited him to 44 games. Only 51 games in 2006 due to injuries. He did make the All-Star team in 2007 (2005-07, 3 ASGs) but I thought he was largely an empty stat guy by 2007. He fell off the cliff in 2008. Managed only 42 games that season. Injuries were destroying him. Traded to Toronto the following summer. Then traded to Miami midseason when that didn't work out. Played solid there but nothing special. Average starter. Then came to Boston.

The 2007 season is the best option. 69 games played. 19.4ppg 9.6rpg 2.6apg 2.4bpg but only 43% FG 50% TS. The team won only 35 games. They still had some decent players. J Foster, J Tinsley, a young D Granger. They had Al Harrington & Stephen Jackson for the 1st half of the season before trading them to GSW for Mike Dunleavy Jr and Troy Murphy. Marquis Daniels as well. They should have been better than a 35 win team. Last in the league in offensive efficiency that year.

I think you'd want his 2004 or 2003 seasons - even his 2002 season - to draft JO in a fantasy league like this. Better off with someone like Marcin Gortat than the post-injury JO.

[Who]

Something I came across on Jaren Jackson Jr during the draft ...

I knew he was driving the ball more than ever this season but I was surprised to see just how much. Giannis was the top big man in terms of drives per game with 12.2 drives per game. Then Banchero at 11.9 drives in 2nd and Jaren Jackson 3rd with 11.0 drives per game. Durant is 4th with 10.5 drives.

Then there is a big drop to 8.0 drives per game with Towns in 5th place. Sengun 7.7 drives. E Mobley 6.6 drives. Embiid had 5.9 drives per game in his 19 games. Chet had 5.3 drives in 32 games. A Davis had 5.0 drives per game. Jokic 4.9 drives. Wemby 4.6 drives. Aldama 4.5 drives.

Impressive numbers for JJJ. One difference between JJJ and some of the other top guys is how little he passed the ball on his drives. He did to get a scoring attempt. Not facilitate ball movement. Not a surprise given he is a bad passer. So he passed on roughly 1 out of 7 drives. Others in that 10-20% range were JJJ, Towns, Embiid, AD. The other guys were up around 25-30% passing out on their drives. Chet was an outlier at 36%.

[smokeablount]

After one more voting ballot is cast, I will provide an update as to current voting standings early on

Think of it like national Election Day voting result coverage- in the first hour of a 6-8 hour long broadcast

Thank you to those that voted early!

Team roster thread:
https://forum.celticsstrong.com/index.php?topic=109542.0

Voting/Sim thread
https://forum.celticsstrong.com/index.php?topic=109553.45

Starting over the weekend or next week, there will be a whatifsports.com simulated 54 game regular season (Commissioner Smokeablount cares about player safety) and playoffs, eventually crowning a 2025 Celticsblog fantasy draft champion!

For now, we are voting on the best teams. List of 9 teams in order not including your own if a GM. 

We welcome voting from lurkers and fans! Just rank your 10 best teams

Let?s get those ballots in! PM me

[smokeablount]

We are now only waiting on 1 ballot!

Previous Voting Update:

We are 2/3 complete with voting, less than 4.5 hours in!

The first five ballots in had five different top ranked teams.

Here are the tiers, and the highest and lowest rank for each team so far:

Tier 1: between 2.6 and 3.6, no order

CFF - 1, 5
Who - 1, 6
SAB- 1, 5
Roy- 1, 6
Jvalin- 1, 7

Tier 2:

Snively - 1, 8
Moranis - 4, 8

Tier 3:

Timdawg - 7, 9
Donoghus - 6, 9
RodyTur - 7, 9

[Roy H.]

Wow.  I didn't love some of the fit on Mo's team, but 8th seems low to me.  They've still got Prime Lebron, who went to the Finals 100 straight seasons.

[smokeablount]

Voting results are complete!

Starting at 8:30am tomorrow, we will begin counting down the top 10 teams for 60-90 minutes,

Culminating in the crowning of our 2025 voting champion,

And kicking off the beginning of our simulation 2025-2026 historical draft 54 game regular season!

Check in before work, or get to the office or your remote work chair early- this one was a nailbiter!

[smokeablount]

Countdown of our voting results begins in 25 minutes!   


Follow along in the post-draft thread, where our regular season simulation will also begin soon as we keep the momentum going: https://forum.celticsstrong.com/index.php?topic=109553.new#new

[Roy H.]

Moranis at 7th seems strange to me, and you guys know how much I love to hate on his team.

Not as strange as the Celts in 6th, though.

[Celtic Fan Forever]

Moranis at 7th seems strange to me, and you guys know how much I love to hate on his team.

Not as strange as the Celts in 6th, though.

I had both of you a little better than this but I get it. The fit for the Cavs seemed clunky, I think Jaylen does not play well as a third option with LeBron and Luka. Too much ball dominance. And Shaq would have struggled with the speed in this league.

For Roy, I loved the Giannis and Curry combo but I think the defense in the starting lineup on the perimeter would struggle. Jrue is awesome but I think teams could pick on Curry and Hedo.

[smokeablount]

Moranis at 7th seems strange to me, and you guys know how much I love to hate on his team.

Not as strange as the Celts in 6th, though.

I had both of you a little better than this but I get it. The fit for the Cavs seemed clunky, I think Jaylen does not play well as a third option with LeBron and Luka. Too much ball dominance. And Shaq would have struggled with the speed in this league.

For Roy, I loved the Giannis and Curry combo but I think the defense in the starting lineup on the perimeter would struggle. Jrue is awesome but I think teams could pick on Curry and Hedo.

FWIW, I had you both top 5.

Like I said about my TMac team two years ago, I think these things require a little imagination.

Imagining that even though Luka doesn't play off ball, he has the skills to be really good in doing it part time. That high usage guys could tone it down in some cases, and that when that happens efficiency usually goes up. That the 50-54% eFG 1st and 2nd round picks earlier in our timeline would be more like 55-58% today. Etc.

I don't think the imagination you need is as drastic as the Non Top 75, No Current Players Pre Merger draft, but I think that took so much imagination that it was entirely too subjective because it was like HBO's The Leftovers if all the elite talent, high efficiency guys with range, and modern wings disappeared into thin air which leaves an entirely different landscape and pecking order of stars.

Looking for something conclusive, and an alternative to a frustrating voting result when you feel your team is misunderstood, is why I'm introducing the sim. A flawed, but definitive, result

[snively]

In a league as stacked as this, the bottom 5 is gonna be great.

I did have Mo in my top 5 tho. Clunkiness nothwithstanding, the sheer size and talent was overwhelming.

[snively]

Some day I'd like to a do no 3-pointer league comprised exclusively of 21st century guys.