2011 CB draft: How does my team look?/division rankings

[Evantime34]

Thoughts on my team. They are listed in my sig below.

Evantime, as we've all said you have a real fun team up there in Michigan.  2 questions for you:

I really like the dynamic play of your 2 guards, but whats your reasoning for starting harden over derozen? harden certainly spaces the floor better but it's not like you'll be feeding the post too often.  Harden seems to enjoy coming off the pine.

Who is the outspoken leader of this team? Okafor has the years, but being the least "skilled" of this group kind of omits him from being a true leader.  Is J-smoove ready for that kind of roll because i'm not so certain of it?.

Defense is very important to me. Although DeRozan has shown the athletic ability to some day become a good defender he has not shown that he is currently one up in Toronto. If we come into camp and works hard on defense he will start. However, as of yet Harden has proved to be the better defender so he will start.

Okafor is currently the team leader. Okafor was the defensive leader of New Orleans last season. Since this team stresses defense he will also be the leader of the team for Detroit. Under Okafor and coach K I believe that Josh Smith will take more of a leadership role as the season goes along.

With three picks today I expect my team to get much better.

[Who]

Not very good with constructive criticism but willing to put myself out there after a long weekend haha.

Curry
Martin
Thad Young
Ibaka
Lee


Thoughts?  I know people aren't huge fans of David Lee at the 5, but if you take a look at how golden state played last year they hands down played their best basketball with lee at center.  I think i unintentionally built a strong candidate for best team of the future as well.

Most of the time, opposing teams will put their PF on Lee and their C on Ibaka. PFs being more effective than Cs at slowing D.Lee down and Ibaka not being enough of an offensive threat to stop them from doing so.

So, you are planning on using D.Lee as a C defensively and Ibaka as a PF defensively?

[Fafnir]

I mean, really, ask 100 basketball fans who is the better distributor and 99 will say Billups.  I definitely would have said so.  It's kind of a trump card in this argument for nick.  

The best way to win an argument is based on what 99 hypothetical people in your head are telling you to think.  

I think Chauncey's a better offensive facilitator, but not a better playmaker than Lowry. Does that make sense? Lowry can still create off the bounce with his quickness, Chauncey has to either post, or hit a very accurate pass to do so.

The main thing holding Chauncey back in my view is his awful shot selection. He just chucks up long jump shots at the worst times, I was screaming at him during the FIBA tournament when he just kept shooting. Fortunately Durant asserted himself eventually.

Its very strange to have an efficient .600 TS% guy be such a chucker.

[jgod213]

Not very good with constructive criticism but willing to put myself out there after a long weekend haha.

Curry
Martin
Thad Young
Ibaka
Lee


Thoughts?  I know people aren't huge fans of David Lee at the 5, but if you take a look at how golden state played last year they hands down played their best basketball with lee at center.  I think i unintentionally built a strong candidate for best team of the future as well.

Most of the time, opposing teams will put their PF on Lee and their C on Ibaka. PFs being more effective than Cs at slowing D.Lee down and Ibaka not being enough of an offensive threat to stop them from doing so.

So, you are planning on using D.Lee as a C defensively and Ibaka as a PF defensively?

Who, first off thanks for the questions.

Your comments seemed to be initially focusing on the offensive end of the court but then your question shifted to the defensive end, so i'll address both briefly.

Offensively, i'm not too concerned with whom another team places on David Lee as his 17pts/10boards kind of speaks for itself as far as what he brings to the table on that end.  Millsap/Odom/Nowitzki are all terrific players, but i don't think they would be classified as lock down defenders. Lee will get his.

Ibaka is still coming into his own offensively, so he will be a wildcard to some extent, but with so much offensive firepower already on the court, Ibaka will be tasked with lurking around the rim, which is what he is elite at.

Defensively, my goal was to aquire players who could match up in the Division as i'm dealing with Dirk and LeBron.  Lee isn't ideal as a defensive matchup with Dirk, but if you look at the head2head its suprisingly impressive.  I plan to detail those matchups in my presser.  Add to it the option to run a look of Lee and Ibaka at Dirk (maybe even some Thad Young) and you might have something that a lot of teams don't.  Obviously "stopping" Dirk and LeBron is out of the question, but when you have guys in the paint like an Ibaka and T. Young to bother shots you give yourselves a chance to really mitigate the damage.

[indeedproceed]

Ibaka is still coming into his own offensively, so he will be a wildcard to some extent, but with so much offensive firepower already on the court, Ibaka will be tasked with lurking around the rim, which is what he is elite at.

Actually, I think you're selling him short. 42% on long 2's. He's no Kevin Garnett but considering he jumped up from 39% to 42% and doubled his attempts from that range, Ibaka with Lee makes a ton of sense.

[jgod213]

Ibaka is still coming into his own offensively, so he will be a wildcard to some extent, but with so much offensive firepower already on the court, Ibaka will be tasked with lurking around the rim, which is what he is elite at.

Actually, I think you're selling him short. 42% on long 2's. He's no Kevin Garnett but considering he jumped up from 39% to 42% and doubled his attempts from that range, Ibaka with Lee makes a ton of sense.

Yeah his jumpshooting is one of the stronger suits of his offensive game, but he won't have a lot of plays run for him.  I'd see his offense coming in virtually the same way it does in OKLA, which is great seeing as what we're asking him to do is what he's already comfortable with and improving upon.

[wdleehi]

Since I am done picking for the day


Washington Bullets  wdleehi
PF Lamarcus Aldridge
SF Danny Granger/ Shane Battier
C Marcin Gortat/ Ryan Anderson
SG Landry Fields
PG Raymond Felton


Head coach:  JVG


Weakness - need to fill out the back court.  Battier can defend most SGs. 

[Lucky17]

Since I am done picking for the day


Washington Bullets  wdleehi
PF Lamarcus Aldridge
SF Danny Granger/ Shane Battier
C Marcin Gortat/ Ryan Anderson
SG Landry Fields
PG Raymond Felton


Head coach:  JVG


Weakness - need to fill out the back court.  Battier can defend most SGs. 

Solid roster. Fields does a little of everything, good glue guy.

Still not crazy about the bench big situation, but that can be easily addressed in the coming rounds.

Will be interesting to see how the real-life Blazers combo in Felton and Aldridge meshes next year.

[wdleehi]

Since I am done picking for the day


Washington Bullets  wdleehi
PF Lamarcus Aldridge
SF Danny Granger/ Shane Battier
C Marcin Gortat/ Ryan Anderson
SG Landry Fields
PG Raymond Felton


Head coach:  JVG


Weakness - need to fill out the back court.  Battier can defend most SGs. 

Solid roster. Fields does a little of everything, good glue guy.

Still not crazy about the bench big situation, but that can be easily addressed in the coming rounds.

Will be interesting to see how the real-life Blazers combo in Felton and Aldridge meshes next year.

I am happy with the big man rotation at this point.  The C minutes are going to be split mostly between Gortat and Aldridge.  Anderson at this point would take the rest.


PF is split between Aldridge, Anderson and Granger. 


There are still plenty of big men I feel comfortable plugging into the 4th and 5th big man spot. 

[Who]

Washington Bullets  wdleehi
PF Lamarcus Aldridge
SF Danny Granger/ Shane Battier
C Marcin Gortat/ Ryan Anderson
SG Landry Fields
PG Raymond Felton

Head coach:  JVG

I love Fields, Battier and Granger. I think they make a very good three man wing rotation. I wouldn't put another wing player in there as a regular rotation guy.

I love Aldridge and Gortat. Not wild about R.Anderson.

I like Felton. I think there is great value left on the board at the backup PG slot so I reckon you'll get a very good player there and have a nice 1-2 punch at the point.

Jeff Van Gundy was a very good pickup at Head Coach.

Possibly a title contender.

[indeedproceed]

Since I am done picking for the day


Washington Bullets  wdleehi
PF Lamarcus Aldridge
SF Danny Granger/ Shane Battier
C Marcin Gortat/ Ryan Anderson
SG Landry Fields
PG Raymond Felton


Head coach:  JVG


Weakness - need to fill out the back court.  Battier can defend most SGs.  

Yeah the biggest problem I see is that a lot of the guys Battier would struggle with are the same guys Fields will struggle with.

[Who]

Since I am done picking for the day


Washington Bullets  wdleehi
PF Lamarcus Aldridge
SF Danny Granger/ Shane Battier
C Marcin Gortat/ Ryan Anderson
SG Landry Fields
PG Raymond Felton


Head coach:  JVG


Weakness - need to fill out the back court.  Battier can defend most SGs. 

Yeah the biggest problem I see is that a lot of the guys Battier would struggle with are the same guys Fields will struggle with.

What type of offensive players do both guys struggle with?

[wdleehi]

Since I am done picking for the day


Washington Bullets  wdleehi
PF Lamarcus Aldridge
SF Danny Granger/ Shane Battier
C Marcin Gortat/ Ryan Anderson
SG Landry Fields
PG Raymond Felton


Head coach:  JVG


Weakness - need to fill out the back court.  Battier can defend most SGs. 

Yeah the biggest problem I see is that a lot of the guys Battier would struggle with are the same guys Fields will struggle with.

What type of offensive players do both guys struggle with?

TA   

[indeedproceed]

Since I am done picking for the day


Washington Bullets  wdleehi
PF Lamarcus Aldridge
SF Danny Granger/ Shane Battier
C Marcin Gortat/ Ryan Anderson
SG Landry Fields
PG Raymond Felton


Head coach:  JVG


Weakness - need to fill out the back court.  Battier can defend most SGs. 

Yeah the biggest problem I see is that a lot of the guys Battier would struggle with are the same guys Fields will struggle with.

What type of offensive players do both guys struggle with?

Quicker (and usually smaller) guards that can beat them off the dribble.

They're both more than adequate defenders against a very large majority of the league though.

[Lucky17]

Anyone have a problem with Beasley as my starting SF?