2011 CB Draft Best and Worst Picks

[The Walker Wiggle]

We really should have a 'hindsight voting'.

We should, but we don't. Some years we do have -

THE Walker Wiggle's
THE Best and Worst Picks by Round.

PLEASE NOTE: CB Draft 2012 is still taking managers. Earn the begrudging admiration of your fellow forums members! Risk their abiding scorn! Erm, get a lot less accomplished at work.

Best Pick: Okay let's just get this out of the way, Rondo2287 and NickAgneta - Lebron James (2). James went second in the draft, and I was fine with it. Everyone knows what followed, James dominated the lockout shortened season, averaging 27.1 on 53% shooting, 7.9 rebounds, and 6.2 assists, while leading the league in Win Shares, and win he did, his third MVP award, First Team All-NBA and All-Defense honors, his first NBA championship and Finals MVP.

Honorable Mentions: The TruthForIt18 - Chris Paul (8 ). CP3 was drafted eighth but his 26.82 efficiency rating was second only to James, despite how unforgiving that particular measurement is to ball dominating point guards. He returned the Clippers to the playoffs for the first time since 1992, lead the NBA in steals per game (2.53) and was league's top scorer in the final five minutes of games within five points.

The Walker Wiggle - Kevin Garnett (12) I had exactly two draft highlights last summer, both picks were widely panned. The first was drafting KG to be my starting center. Of course, we know how it worked out, Garnett thrived, saw his stats rise across the board from 2011-12, posted a +267 on court/off court +/- and the Celtics came within one win of knocking off the eventual NBA champions.

Worst pick: IndeedProceed - Amare Stoudemire (10). A Physically and emotionally exhausted STAT averaged a career low in rebounds, and couldn't find the range, shooting 27% from 10-15 feet, leading to his lowest scoring average since his rookie year and his lowest field goal percentage since his second season. Do we even need to add insult (fined 50K at the end of the season over a twitter feud) to injury (missed Game 3 of his team's playoff series punching out a fire extinguisher)?

Dishonorable Mention: Edgar - Deron Williams (9). Stern's gauntlet of an NBA schedule wreaked havoc on NBA and CB franchises alike, Rose, Randolph, Ginobili, and Horford missed long stretches, but I'm not inclined to single out managers for difficult to foresee injuries. I was tempted to call out Howard for undermining his coach and GM while alienating his teammates, only to opt in to the final year of his contract. But Dwight didn't phone it in out on the court. Williams did though, and mostly saw his team take the flack. D-Will was sloppy on offense, posting career lows in assists, turnovers and efficiency, and disinterested on defense. Two fun facts, Deron is shooting just 39.8% since joining the Nets and THE Walker Wiggle now has a third of a share of two season tickets to the team's inaugural season in Brooklyn. Wait, what?

[indeedproceed]

Deserved. Coming off a great year when healthy (and without melo) made sense at the time.

Not surprisingly, THE Walker Wraggle managed to mention something he predicted that came true.

[The Walker Wiggle]

Deserved. Coming off a great year when healthy (and without melo) made sense at the time.

Not surprisingly, THE Walker Wraggle managed to mention something he predicted that came true.

I'm getting predictable aren't I? I don't even promise to continue past Round 7 where I draft my starting point guard Ricky Rubio to warm approval by everybody much disdain.

[Kane3387]

Don't forget who eventually made the shrewd trade for KG.  

Honestly if we were to do a revote with hindsight I wonder how badly Utah beats Portland.

[The Walker Wiggle]

Yeah, that was the last in a string of voter appeasing trades that didn't even work.

Anyway, on to...

Round 2

Best Pick: Rondo2887 and NickAgneta - Tyson Chandler (12/36). (I'm going to continue to list Rondo first. But I don't want this to become a Lennon/McCartney situation. Let's just hope it doesn't even come up again…) If you draft the Defensive Player of the Year in the middle of the second round you deserve a pat on the back. Chandler's box scores  weren't so remarkable, although he did lead the league in FG% (67.9%). But he was 5th in Win Shares and defensively he was the Knicks' rising tide. He also yielded a FG% of just 27.3% in isolation last season.

Honorable Mentions: CelticPride07 - Steve Nash (3/27). All-Star-again Nash wore down in the second half of the season but he was still worth 22.4 points per game in the pick and roll, 1st in the NBA. He was 2nd in assists, 4th in FT%, 11th in FG% (tying a career-best mark) and missed extending his already historic record of four 50-40-90 seasons by exactly two missed three pointers. This while being Dwight Howard's opposite as a teammate and franchise player. And in one of the most perfectly scripted moments of the season not involving Jeremy Lin, guy hit a game winning shot on his 38th birthday.

Who - Andrew Bynum (7/31). There was little hint of Bynum's breakout at the end of the 10-11 season. In Game 4 of the Western semi-finals, he had just 6 and 6, good for a team worst -29, when he decided to clothes line J.J. Barea and undress on the court. Well, he still sulked and scowled his way to multiple team fines, but at least he earned what salary he wasn't made to give back. Bynum posted career-highs in points (18.7), rebounds (11.8 ) and minutes (35.2) in his healthiest campaign to date, and was the 10th most efficient player in the league (The top 9 were all drafted in Round 1). He recorded seven 30+ point games after having just one through his first six seasons.

P.S. For those who'd like to second guess me *sigh* you can find the Draft Board here.

[indeedproceed]

Don't forget who eventually made the shrewd trade for KG. 

Honestly if we were to do a revote with hindsight I wonder how badly Utah beats Portland.

Well considering my three of my four best players were hobbled by injury for a lot of the year, probably by a good amount.

[Rondo2287]

Thanks WW.  Funnily enough there was not alot of love for the chandler pick in the 2nd if i recall.

[Yoki_IsTheName]

Rudy Gay was the best 2nd round pick. Then he got traded.

[indeedproceed]

Thanks WW.  Funnily enough there was not alot of love for the chandler pick in the 2nd if i recall.

Chandler was a pretty good pick in hindsight. Again, a lot of the criticism made sense at the time, but he really turned a corner in terms of consistency.

[Rondo2287]

Thanks WW.  Funnily enough there was not alot of love for the chandler pick in the 2nd if i recall.

Chandler was a pretty good pick in hindsight. Again, a lot of the criticism made sense at the time, but he really turned a corner in terms of consistency.

IP when will you just accept that I know what the future holds?

[indeedproceed]

Thanks WW.  Funnily enough there was not alot of love for the chandler pick in the 2nd if i recall.

Chandler was a pretty good pick in hindsight. Again, a lot of the criticism made sense at the time, but he really turned a corner in terms of consistency.

IP when will you just accept that I know what the future holds?

Ha.

[StartOrien]

What round did Paul George go in and how haven't I gotten a medal for selecting him?

[Rondo2287]

Also it should be noted that Nick and I were hoping for a very long time that Lebron would go first and we could build a team around Dwight.  

Then when Durant went first we had many back and forths about whether or not we could bypass lebron at #2.  We even tried trading back to #3 but to no avail.  We REALLY REALLY did not want Lebron, but at #2 had to take him.

[wdleehi]

Yeah, that was the last in a string of voter appeasing trades that didn't even work.

Anyway, on to...

Round 2

Best Pick: Rondo2887 and NickAgneta - Tyson Chandler (12/36). (I'm going to continue to list Rondo first. But I don't want this to become a Lennon/McCartney situation. Let's just hope it doesn't even come up again…) If you draft the Defensive Player of the Year in the middle of the second round you deserve a pat on the back. Chandler's box scores  weren't so remarkable, although he did lead the league in FG% (67.9%). But he was 5th in Win Shares and defensively he was the Knicks' rising tide. He also yielded a FG% of just 27.3% in isolation last season.

Honorable Mentions: CelticPride07 - Steve Nash (3/27). All-Star-again Nash wore down in the second half of the season but he was still worth 22.4 points per game in the pick and roll, 1st in the NBA. He was 2nd in assists, 4th in FT%, 11th in FG% (tying a career-best mark) and missed extending his already historic record of four 50-40-90 seasons by exactly two missed three pointers. This while being Dwight Howard's opposite as a teammate and franchise player. And in one of the most perfectly scripted moments of the season not involving Jeremy Lin, guy hit a game winning shot on his 38th birthday.

Who - Andrew Bynum (7/31). There was little hint of Bynum's breakout at the end of the 10-11 season. In Game 4 of the Western semi-finals, he had just 6 and 6, good for a team worst -29, when he decided to clothes line J.J. Barea and undress on the court. Well, he still sulked and scowled his way to multiple team fines, but at least he earned what salary he wasn't made to give back. Bynum posted career-highs in points (18.7), rebounds (11.8 ) and minutes (35.2) in his healthiest campaign to date, and was the 10th most efficient player in the league (The top 9 were all drafted in Round 1). He recorded seven 30+ point games after having just one through his first six seasons.

P.S. For those who'd like to second guess me *sigh* you can find the Draft Board here.

Bynum is still just a tease.  Comes up small (and moronic) in LA elimination games. 

[indeedproceed]

Ugh, looking at the draft board, roughly all the big-money bets I made didn't pan out. STAT, Bogut, Lowry, Derrick Williams wasn't ready, blarg. I had some mid and late round gems, but for teh more part, blarg.