2025 CBlog Historical Post-Draft Season: Sim & Voting

[Who]

I thought for sure Boston was going to take Brandon Roy in the 4th round on that Jrue Holiday pick. I was surprised when that didn't happen.

B Roy was a top 10 player at his peak. I thought that would have big for them. Given them a Big Three to work with. Steph, B Roy and Giannis.

[Roy H.]

I thought for sure Boston was going to take Brandon Roy in the 4th round on that Jrue Holiday pick. I was surprised when that didn't happen.

B Roy was a top 10 player at his peak. I thought that would have big for them. Given them a Big Three to work with. Steph, B Roy and Giannis.

Roy would have been a good selection, but I prefer Jrue for my team.  An elite defender next to Steph who has shown that he can thrive as a third (or lesser) option.

Comparing them at the selected seasons:

Roy:  22.6 points, 4.7 rebounds, 5.1 assists, .512 eFG%
Jrue:  18.3 points, 4.5 rebounds, 6.8 assists, .570 eFG%

I always favor fit over talent in these things.  For example, I could have taken Anthony Edwards as well, but I just don't think having three primary, ball dominant starters in a lineup makes sense, even in these historic drafts.  But, I can certainly provide that look if the situation calls for it:  Oladipo at his peak was about dynamic as Roy, and although he was smaller, he was a better defender.  (23.1 points, 5.2 rebounds, 4.3 assists, .537 eFG%).

[Who]

I would have loved to have seen Kyrie on the Milwaukee Bucks.

I thought Kyrie would be great playing off of Brandon Roy & Tracy McGrady. Imagine those two playmaking wings with Kyrie on one side, Dirk on the other side, and Dwight rolling down the middle off the PnR. That would be a nightmare to cover.

That extra shooting punch as well. Dirk is an elite shooter. Roy is a good but not great shooter. McGrady was an average shooter in that period. Dwight a non-shooter. A 2nd elite shooter in Kyrie along with Dirk would have been great for team's floor spacing.

Kyrie would have been my choice over Tony Parker. Or after taking Tony Parker, I would have chosen Kyrie in the next round and moved Tony to the bench. They could have been a great 1-2 punch. The shooting / scoring PG with the driving / scoring PG.

[Moranis]

Wemby is the one playing out of position.  According to tracking data, in his career he's played exactly 0% of his minutes at PF.

Wemby is a guy I had a tough time with.

He shot only 32.5% from 3 as a rookie. Every team will be doubling off of him and trying to funnel the ball to him at the three point line in order to keep it away from LeBron, Shaq, Luka. I wasn't sold on how well WEmby could exploit that.

I thought Wemby would get bullied at center in this competition. I liked the idea of switching him to PF.

When Wemby played PF next to Gobert in the Olympics, it worked great defensively but it was a struggle offensively. As the tournament went on they used it less and less. They couldn't create quality offense with it. Their best combo was Wemby / Yabu. Wemby was just more comfortable at center. More comfortable alongside a skilled perimeter big man.

I don't know how well Wemby will work at PF when Shaq is clogging the paint and Luka / LeBron want driving lanes open for them. LeBron struggled in Cleveland with Shaq because he had PFs who couldn't make shots (Varejao, B Wallace, JJ Hickson) so the paint was clogged with two paint-only big men. Wemby isn't that but he also wasn't a perimeter marksman either. Not in his rookie year.

Wemby's defensive impact will help but I am not sure to what degree. Defending a different spot. Different types of threats. Playing more in open space. Having to get low and slide his feet more often. Maybe it works great. Maybe it only works good.

Shaq & Luka are two slow footed defenders to compensate for / that Wemby needs to cover for. LeBron is awesome. Jaylen is an awesome 1on1 SF defender but he will be asked to defend PGs here. Tough assignment for Jaylen. I wasn't sure about that. And then the question is how much does Wemby protect that? I wasn't sure what the answer to that was.

It is also why I loved Melo & Donovan Mitchell. Mitchell gives them a true small guard defender. Melo gives them a guy who can reliably make jump-shots and space the floor. I thought both of these guys would be more important to the team's success than Wemby.

had Wemby played about 10 more games last year, I certainly would have used that year as he developed a much better outside shot.  46 games played just wasn't enough minutes to really use well.  He was better in year 2 though and perhaps I should have just done it and played Melo more.  That would have opened it up more as Wemby's shot improved signficantly between his 1st and 2nd year (him playing with more talent also helped I think).  In a league with Dwight, Yao, Shaq (though on his team), I just feel like Wemby would have been a PF.  Not big enough to play in the paint against those type players.  So even under modern rules, I don't see him as a center against true centers of the past.  In today's league where the bigger guys are either terrible offensive players like Gobert or much more outside oriented like Embiid and Jokic, Wemby is ok playing center, though I think they added Kornet and KO for a reason (and Wemby/Collins worked pretty well when they were actually healthy which wasn't much).  I'm guessing KO and Kornet are both going to play decent minutes with Wemby and I believe those 2 guys will be the center with Wemby playing more PF.  His game is much more suited to that position, similar to Holmgren. 

[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!