GMTR Mock Draft: Final Analysis

Here are all the teams in the GMTR Mock draft with their complete rosters and a few comments. Remember that we agreed to play out the draft in Yahoo league with no trades or free agent pick ups. We also agreed to play out ALL the players we drafted, so there will be no bench spots and in the end 5 Util slots instead.

For those of you who just found this post, I did a round by round, pick by pick analysis of the first 8 rounds of the draft. Here they are:

ROUND 1; ROUND 2; ROUND 3; ROUND 4; ROUND 5; ROUND 6; ROUND 7; ROUND 8

If you want to read comments made the drafters regarding their picks, check out the Mock Draft Board.

TEAM 1: Epicte

PG: Chris Paul

SG: Jamal Crawford

G: Randy Foye

SF: Ron Artest

PF: Rashard Lewis

F: Corey Maggette

C: Andrew Bynum

C: Chris Kaman

Util: John Salmons

Util: Kenyon Martin

Util: Ryan Gomes

Util: Jordan Farmar

Util: Ronny Turiaf

Comments:

It looks like a small ball team. But aside from Chris Paul, its talent lies in its 3 forward slots with 3 pseudo-specialists: Artest (Stls), Lewis (3s), Maggette (FT%). Kaman and Bynum have decent FT percentages for big men and that’s a good thing for small ball teams. Epicte also can win in the rebounds category against some more focused small ball teams. Among his later picks, I like Crawford and Salmons.

TEAM 2: 2nd Round Reach

PG: Jose Calderon

SG: Monta Ellis

G: Andre Miller

SF: Marvin Williams

PF: Amare Stoudemire

F: David West

C: Andris Biedrins

C: Zydrunas Ilgauskas

Util: Ronnie Brewer

Util: Joakim Noah

Util: Anthony Carter

Util: Hakim Warrick

Util: Kyle Lowry

Comments:

He went for efficiency. A modified big man strategy without sacrificing FT% and TOs, while still trying to contest in Assists and Steals. He is theoretically just giving up points and treys. I found it ambitous that he went and targeted so many categories. It looks very well thought of in terms of goals and also pretty well executed. At first I was a bit iffy about him picking Monta Ellis, but in the end, Monta fit his strategy too well to pass up. The only player I probably don’t like about this team is Kyle Lowry. That being said, I do consider Brendan’s team to be one of the top contenders to take home the Gold trophy in this league.

TEAM 3: Jeff’s Jawai-nots

PG: Steve Nash

SG: Manu Ginobili

G: Jason Terry

SF: LeBron James

PF: Tim Duncan

F: Hedo Turkoglu

C: Al Horford

C: Kevin Love

Util: Leandro Barbosa

Util: Earl Watson

Util: Matt Barnes

Util: Andrea Bargnani

Util: James Posey

Comments:

I rate Jeff’s team as having the best executed small ball strategy. In fact, I consider this team to be the team to beat in this league. He was able to build around LeBron James pretty well and focused on his FG% strength instead of languishing about his poor free throw shooting. He followed up by picking players who had good assists for their position – which to me was more of the initial central theme of his draft until the 4th or 5th round. I don’t like his Bargnani and Posey picks, but you can’t fault him for grabbing Il Mago. – I think Jeff’s Canadian or something. Overall, I take my hat off to this drafter for a team well drafted.

TEAM 4: REAL Batman

PG: Jason Kidd

SG: Josh Howard

G: Kobe Bryant

SF: Tayshaun Prince

PF: Gerald Wallace

F: Danny Granger

C: Brad Miller

C: Emeka Okafor

Util: Raja Bell

Util: Brendan Haywood

Util: Nate Robinson

Util: Jarrett Jack

Util: Derek Fisher

Comments:

I would describe this team as a small-ish ball strategy execution. Kobe and Danny (Granger) were a good start. Actually, so was the follow-up with Jason Kidd. I like Brad Miller as a Center choice for small ball because of his good %s and above average assists for his position. However, I did not like the Okafor (poor FT%) pick neither did I like the Brendan Haywood one a bit later. No, not because Haywood is ending up being gone for a long stretch; but because he didn’t really contribute to the small man numbers which the team needed.

TEAM 5: Bucko

PG: Mo Williams

SG: Ray Allen

G: Rajon Rondo

SF: Andrei Kirilenko

PF: Shawn Marion

F: Jamario Moon

C: Marcus Camby

C: Rasheed Wallace

Util: Shane Battier

Util: Thaddeus Young

Util: Nene Hilario

Util: Derrick Rose

Util: Jamal Tinsley

Comments:

Bucko’s team was somewhat of an engima to me from the start. As you may have noticed from my round by round breakdown of rounds 1 through 8, his team was a conundrum for me to analyze because of its counter-intuitive approach. He basically took the best players he could find when you take points out of the equation. I’m not exactly sure how his team will fare against the others in this mock league but I am definitely both intrigued and excited to see how his team does on a weekly basis. Heck, this team may even be a darkhorse to make it to the podium. Who knows? Only time will tell…

TEAM 6: Doneycat

PG: Dwyane Wade

SG: Kevin Martin

G: Mike Dunleavy

SF: Kevin Durant

PF: David Lee

F: Richard Jefferson

C: Chris Bosh

C: Mehmet Okur

Util: Jameer Nelson

Util: Nick Collison

Util: DeShawn Stevenson

Util: Rudy Fernandez

Util: Al Thornton

Comments:

This team’s strengths are its Points output and its solid commitment to quality Freethrow percentage. But after those 2 categories, its direction is not quite as clear cut. Good turnovers, some 3s and some boards perhaps. It came out looking a bit like a Nels-patented Mid-Ball strategy team. I’m not too impressed here.

TEAM 7: GiveMeTheRock

PG: Mike Bibby

SG: Michael Redd

G: Vince Carter

SF: Caron Butler

PF: Antawn Jamison

F: Anthony Parker

C: Elton Brand

C: Troy Murphy

Util: Fransisco Garcia

Util: Grant Hill

Util: Linas Kleiza

Util: Travis Outlaw

Util: Yi  Jianlian

Comments:

As Nels of GMTR so eloquently put it, this team is the epitome of mid-ball strategy. As you may have noticed, I did not discuss it as one my draft strategies for head to head. I even had to email Nels and ask him what the hell “mid-ball strategy” was. If you want to have a better understanding of what it is, you will have to email the mad genius himself and ask him to explain it to you. – and hopefully you don’t start to bleed out of majority of your orifices. It seems like a forward-happy strategy as everyone except Mike Bibby, is forward-eligible. I’m not sure how this GMTR team will do. I guess the best way to describe it is to quote Nels’ smack bubble over at our league: “Midball!!!!”

TEAM 8: OKC Colon Thunder

PG: Brandon Roy

SG: Mike Miller

G: Tracy McGrady

SF: Jason Richardson

PF: Dirk Nowitzki

F: Zach Randolph

C: Tyson Chandler

C: Kendrick Perkins

Util: Gilbert Arenas

Util: Rafer Alston

Util: Ramon Sessions

Util: Darko Milicic

Util: Jerryd Bayless

Comments:

This is a reasonably solid SG-centric, small ball team. Dirk – a guard like PF leads a team of solid SGs like Roy, Mike Miller, J-Rich, T-Mac. Forget his centers, I’m pretty sure Dennis already has. The nice thing about some of his SG is that they are generally good passers (4.5-5+ APG). So he can compensate for Agent Zero’s knee-rehabbing vacation in the interim. I like how he achieves the assist-by-committee concept. It’s interesting how he does not have top tier PGs, but he supplements his starring SGs with good back-up PGs with the likes of Alston, Sessions and maaaybe Bayless. Not a bad team and I personally dare not underestimate it.

TEAM 9: Sexy Time

PG: Chauncey Billups

SG: Joe Johnson

G: Devin Harris

SF: Luol Deng

PF: Kevin Garnett

F: Jermaine O’Neal

C: Yao Ming

C: Andrew Bogut

Util: Raymond Felton

Util: J.R. Smith

Util: Rashad McCants

Util: Mikael Pietrus

Util: Marc Gasol

Comments:

This is a good example of a balanced draft strategy. He focuses on PGs for his small man numbers and PFs and Cs for his big man numbers. He only has 2 SF eligible guys on his team. He will be trying to ride his small ball cats to defeat the big man based teams and use his big ball cats to defeat the small man teams. This is rather risky as there are no guarantees that he will be able to pull it off. – But since when has there ever been any guarantees in H2H, anyway? His strategy is most workable in a league like ours because most of the teams ARE specialized. He does, however, have the capability to beat mid-ball teams by 7-2 or even 8-1.

TEAM 10: SA Spurscasters

PG: Baron Davis

SG: Andre Iguodala

G: Tony Parker

SF: Josh Smith

PF: LaMarcus Aldridge

F: Stephen Jackson

C: Dwight Howard

C: Luis Scola

Util: Richard Hamilton

Util: Kyle Korver

Util: Russel Westbrook

Util: Udonis Haslem

Util: Daniel Gibson

Comments:

This is another balanced strategy, of sorts. Well it throws its percentages and TOs to the trash bin and tries to win at everything else. Strong in blocks, OK in boards; and he’s got some assists, steals and treys thrown into the mix. I really do not like Rip Hamilton for this team. Other than points, he does not really help in other categories. He detracts from the team’s focus and muddles things up. The same can be said of the injured Udonis Haslem, who technically just chips in the boards cat. He doesn’t shoot at a high enough volume to help either of the percentages, nor does he really block or steal the ball enough to make a considerable impact in those cats.

TEAM 11: Points in the Paint

PG: Deron Williams

SG: Paul Pierce

G: Allen Iverson

SF: Peja Stojakovic

PF: Michael Beasley

F: Rudy Gay

C: Samuel Dalembert

C: Al Harrington

Util: Ricky Davis

Util: O.J. Mayo

Util: Charlie Villanueva

Util: Chris Quinn

Util: Cuttino Mobley

Comments:

Overall, I’m pretty happy with the way my team turned out. I think I was able to execute a small ball strategy reasonably well considering that this was my first attempt at a mock draft. What would I do differently? (1) I would have gotten a solid 3rd PG instead of Chris Quinn. (2) I would have targeted a more small ball oriented center like Brad Miller, Troy Murphy, Mehmet Okur; instead of Samuel Dalembert. (3) I would have drafted Mike Miller instead of Peja Stojakovic. (4) At the time of the mock, I didn’t know that Rudy Gay was PF eligible. If I knew that, I wouldn’t have bothered drafting Michael Beasley and gotten another true small baller instead.

TEAM 12: Alpha_Terrance

PG: T.J. Ford

SG: Ben Gordon

G: Mike Conley

SF: Carmelo Anthony

PF: Carlos Boozer

F: Pau Gasol

C: AL Jefferson

C: Greg Oden

Util: Rodney Stuckey

Util: Drew Gooden

Util: Lamar Odom

Util: Kirk Hinrich

Util: Beno Udrih

Comments:

Alpha-T started the draft strong by going for 3 straight big men in the first 3 rounds. He followed it up with 2 decent rebounding forwards. So it appeared that was truly committed to a serious big man strategy. Towards the end of the draft, however, as he was filling his small man roster spots; he suddenly goes on a virtual 180 degree spin move and starts grabbing multiple PGs. He opened up a back door for contention in the assists cat. His addition of many guards shifted his team to a more balanced approach. He was no longer a “pure” big man team. Was his last minute shift a good one? I suppose only the unraveling of the season will tell.

o0o

I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but I colored the team names differently. No, it’s not just to make the post look prettier! It has a more functional purpose than that. It was a way for me to unobtrusively rate the teams. The rating key is as follows: Hot, Pretty Hot, Not Bad, Decent, I don’t know how to rate this team.

Yes I know! I was too chicken poop to call any team a bad team. Besides, as I emphatically stated in the very first round’s analysis; I have nothing but respect for my co-drafters. We would not have been granted the honor to participate if we weren’t deemed worthy by the guys over at GMTR.

I was a bit taken aback by the lack of O-Rank type of picks by teams – which we normally encounter during Live Drafting as other teams are on Auto-pick mode.

I learned a lot from participating in this draft. I got a better look at where people want to pick certain players. In fact I personally call GMTR’s Mock Draft Round-up – “The Reach Guide” because it aids me in finding the right/exact rounds to reach for the players I want to get.

I also got to see various executions of different drafting strategies for head to head. This led to my writing the n00b guide to Draft Strategies for Head to Head.

Well I guess that’s it for my take on the GMTR mock draft that was… So I leave you with the immortal words of a great cinematic icon…