My guy had a rough shooting year compared to normal, yes. LeVert was a negative player on a really bad team. I'm not a fan of guys who can't at least be a positive player for their own team when they are Brooklyn nets bad. Sure he could improve this season but it would take a solid leap to be a useful NBA player. As someone posted above, LeVert hasn't played a single minute that actually mattered.

I really can't believe you compared a backup on a bad team to the 2nd best player on a 49 win team.

I can't believe you commented on 2 things that my 5th round pick is better at than your 2nd round pick to tell me what kind of players you don't like.

I, for one, think CJ McCollum is better than Caris Levert.

100% agree. Although he was much worse in his 2nd season at the same age.

Scalding

Honestly I think when it comes to these young guys I like to listen to some of the dudes who watch a few more meaningless games than me (like Zach Lowe) who see flashes of goodness. And Zach has mentioned Levert a few times. And his numbers aren't bad.

LeVert was a great pick. Can’t believe he’s getting any hate. He showed good PG skills as a 6’7 23yo.

Also agree with charder that it’ll be sad when GOAToransky is playing 9 minutes a game next season and considering winning MVPs in Europe.

Levert and Allen made BK watchable in the second half of the year

Here's some Lowe articles with LeVert. Sorry for ugly formatting, on phone.

http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/2...etokounmpo-nba

http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/2...k-nowitzki-nba (found out just now that LeVert & Allen already have a great connection...bonus!)

https://www.google.com/amp/www.espn....3fplatform=amp (Zach says LeVert is going to make an all NBA defensive team some day [& FRANK too])

I'm just not a fan of his. Outside of that opinion, the rest of what I said wasn't untrue. I'm not the one comparing him to McCollum which is outrageous. I'd rather have Van Vleet than LeVert for my team anyway.

You said he turns the ball over too much & is inefficient. You said you don't like that kind of player.

I showed you that you in fact do like that kind of player. Nbd. If you meant something else & just didn't express what your actual issue was with LeVert using words, maybe try again.

12/29/17 Lowe:
12/8/17 Lowe:

Yes. If you can’t tell the difference in their roles, I can’t help you. I guess by your same broken logic, levert was better than prime Iverson. We can also ignore that CJM was much better the previous year shooting wise and is proven. He’s not a hopeful good nba player like levert. I won’t entertain this anymore so if you try to make up some irrelevant comparison, it will be ignored.

There's nothing wrong with liking inefficient players who turn the ball over. They definitely can serve a purpose. You're the one who said you don't like that type of player when apparently what you actually meant was that you don't like players who play for losing teams.

I think it's a bit early to characterize LeVert as an inefficient player who turns the ball over, but who knows? Maybe he'll never get any better & not be that useful. Keep in mind, though, in his 2nd season at the same age, CJ played 15.7 minutes per game, averaging 6.8 points, 1.0 assists & 0.8 turnovers.

Btw, 2 years ago was the outlier season, not last year. Not to say it's impossible for CJ to get back to that level, just that last season was in line with the rest of them in terms of efg% etc.

& I literally never said LeVert was better than CJ? In fact I said the opposite. But keep on keeping on.

Creating offense has a lot of value. CJ was very clearly a "tier 3" NBA player, somewhere between 20-50 last season. Levert is not there, but it's not all that unlikely that he could get there at some point. I'd say maybe 24% he's as good as CJ is right now at some point.

Interesting Levert shot profile #s: He moved ~10% of his shots from 3 to 4-14 feet. That seems bad (his eFG% went down 4%). Weird. (To be clear this says nothing of his skill, he actually improved his 3%, just of the system/context. Also noteworthy that he took almost exclusively above the break 3s, seems pretty likely he'll be a + 3 point shooter at some point, kind of a Will Barton type)

I wonder if in a true dynasty draft if BRAD would go #1.

now that we're deep in and my team is coming together, i'll try to lay out my vision.

overall philosophy:

basketball is all about the offense trying to create as big a mismatch as possible between the eventual shooter of the basketball and the defender of that shooter, and preferably in a fashion that is easy and quick to reproduce, and in such a way that if someone is passing the shooter the basketball, that it be a relatively low risk operation.

in the modern nba, there are a few approaches to easily getting mismatches:

• iso ball handler + shooters
• push hard in transition / get a lot of TO
• iso low post + shooters
• elite shooters + off-ball screens

defensively, teams have tended very hard towards switching screens as often as possible, and putting strong help defenders on non-shooters. having at least 4 strong defenders on the court at all times appears table stakes for making a deep playoff run.

my approach:

once the premier stars were off the board (the last went at pick 9), i felt it was necessary to take some risks in order to have equity to win at some point. in all honesty, my team will probably be below average, but i feel that ive got maybe a 25% chance of winning a championship.

the goal with my squad is to have multiple ball handlers with 1-2 strong threats to iso vs. a good matchup, be able to put out a lineup that can switch everything if need be and generally disrupt passing lanes or be able to effectively double in case team had weak spots (say your robersons of the world).

in terms of size, my team profiles great:

strategy

in the half court offense, the dinwiddie / collins PnR is my primary "boring" weapon (not necessarily the clutch play starter, but what we can grind out in the regular season).

my expectation is that fultz, tatum, and convincton will all be dangerous enough shooters that the defense has to try to play another offense 2v2. should the defense be out of position, or attempt to defend one of fultz or tatum with a sub-par defender, its easy to get that matchup going. most teams in the league dont have 3 effective wing defenders, so its easy enough to get 1/3 potential ball handlers into a PnR.

defensively, my general approach is to switch most action and try to aggressively disrupt passing lanes to ensure that the offense has to waste a fair amount of time before a good situation arises. in the event i play a strong post player, WCJ is tasked with playing the post D position. this is a bit of a risk as well, but his size and athleticism suggest he should be capable at this role.

potential weaknesses:
defensive rebounding. fultz remaining incapable of playing NBA basketball. big man D is a question mark, both in terms of managing the rim and 1on1 D on the perimeter. fultz and tatum might not hit 55-60% USG on offense (combined), in which case we'd struggle.

upside:
tatum has as good a chance as any of being a top tier player once lebron is diminished or gone. fultz has been working with the same shooting coach as tatum and bamba, and i estimate he has a great (50+%) of being a top 30-40 player within the lifetime of this draft, with a strong chance of being top 20.

from the rest of my team, i just expect slow improvement over the next 2-3 years. i'm very unlikely to even be above average until year 2/3, so year 3 is the year im targetting for a deep playoff run. by then, ill have several 23 year old players in a league where most of the elite players are now 32+. lets see how the dice fall.

Checked the spreadsheet and don’t see him taken yet.

With our 7th round pick, we’re taking PJ Tucker. He may be old for a 5-year dynasty but we have our pf of the future locked up in JJJ. We’re thinking of competing in the short term and he really shores up our top 5. He proved this past year he’s not only still a physical and defensive menace, but that he can adequately stretch the floor and grab some major boards.

RWB
Hield
Aminu
Tucker
Gobert

JJJ
Delon Wright

I, for one, think Allen Iverson is better than Caris Levert.

I think TQA has a pick before me but if he doesn't. I take the following guy:

I'd take him #1. You get like 30-40 years and right now is pretty weak in terms of a #1 pick. It'd be different if there were like a 25yo LeBron itl but there's not. Brow, Giannis, and Simmons are flawed.

In the theme of guys who are overpaid so they might be getting underrtaed in this, Im going with Allen Crabbe. Pretty decent bucket getter earlier in his careeer who took a dip in efficiency last year because of increased volume. I am expecting him to ball on my second team and will surround him with defenders. Still in his prime, should bounce back in this league.

Team:

Dejounte
Trae
Josh Jackson
Khris Middleton
Staps

Tristan Thompson
Allen Crabbe

crabbe another starting quality, young wing that I cant believe is still available

I also thought Zeller at 25 is a steal late in round 6.
If I know I can get Zeller at the 135th pick, I think hard about passing on Capela in round 1

Disagree. Iverson is 43.

I would have also probably not taken Capela early, but Zeller is never healthy and is still just a league average starting quality C when he is. That shouldn't sound too disparaging, because there aren't too many of those guys.

Also I really like Allen Crabbe, but idk if he's starting quality. And he's a little too light to play the 3 full time. He's fine but I've got a list of facsimilies that I might draft in the 8th that are comparable.

whose up?