Drazen Petrovic voted team MVP

and no, ankle injuries aren't "freak" in the NBA. they're common and happen all the time (especially to athletic players). dying from a car accident, and to a lesser extent, broken bones in hands, randomly torn ligaments, etc are "freak". most knee (cartilage/ligaments/meniscus) injuries are somewhat "freak", because certain (read: athletic) players are more likely to get them.

kind of makes me curious how many of us actually play basketball. not that there's anything wrong with not playing basketball, but those that do have a much different (not necessarily better, because some coaches never played but are geniuses) understanding of the game.

Again, I'm just not a fan of poor efficiency PGs who shoot a lot. I think that championship teams rarely have these type of players, and if they do then they excell on defense at least.

definitely agree here too

Miller was someone I was looking at for my next pick. Although out of those 6 I was looking at for my 4th rounder, 3 are still left surprisingly(to me at least).

here comes the assani "i just woke up" carpet bomb!

Yes, and he missed 3, 3, 6, and 0 games in his 4 years. I wouldn't say that makes him probable to miss almost 4 full year after six relatively injury free years in the league. I don't know, I guess Detlef playing a long time makes him likely to be durable in our league, but Hill having 6 relatively injury free years before suffering a massive freak injury is overrode by 12 missed games over a four year period which ended six seasons before the injury.

And yes, sprained ankles are not uncommon, but sprained ankles which require four surgeries and cause a potentially fatal infection are incredibly rare. Is Chris Simms more probable for internal organ damage than other players just because all football players get hit, and a hit caused a ruptured spleen?

You could even argue a player would have to have a particular disposition to injury for such a rare result to occur from a common injury......

the staph infection I agree is freaky. but besides that, what Cobra said.

or 1 in a million bad luck, which I concede is possible, but wildly unlikely. imo of course.

NCAA games have twice as much rest between them as NBA games, and the season is half as many games, not counting built up fatigue (the rookie "wall" that almost all rookies hit 2/3 of the way into the season)

I just merged all three of his posts together; bomb defused.

Brad Miller would of looked really good instead of DC.

How is a staph infection less freaky? Clearly if he could only sprain his ankle in a way that causes major damage, something about his white blood cells makes him clearly susceptible to a staph infection. You can't have it both ways, either both are going to happen, or both are freak injuries, you can't pick and choose which horrible calamities are driven by fate and which are driven by random chance.

Round 4, Pick 130: Samuel Dalembert



With my first homer pick of the draft, I'm taking the Haitian Sensation, Slammin' Sammy D. Ok, I admit, I don't know too much about role players in the 80s and early 90s, but looking through b-ref, I couldn't find any big men left with the defensive resume that he has already put up. The numbers speak for themselves: double digit defensive win shares four out of the last five years, a career two blocks per game, 10 boards per 36 minutes every year he has played, and a d-rating hovering in the high 90s/low 100s, all while hardly playing with defensive stalwarts in Philadelphia. He has also shown the ability to stay healthy after having some problems earlier in his career by starting every game the past two years.

Forget his respectable TS%, improved jump and free throw shooting, and a reasonably effective hook shot. The only thing I'm really going to need him to do in my offense is finish, something he can do extremely well with his lanky frame, as he has shown by being among the leaders in dunks recently. I have enough players who can create, and as long as he can slam the ball down when he gets it deep in the paint, the team should be great on that side of the ball.

I am continuing my trend of picking tall, athletic players who can run if necesary. Dalemebert has proven he can do that in last year's fast-break Sixers team, where he posted his best numbers of his career. I already have multiple options for going small because Kobe and Rashard can play the 3 and 4 effectively, while still having a very solid base defense in my standard lineup. My gameplan will be more defined once I pick a point guard and fill out my bench, but expect me to push the pace a lot with such an energetic team.


Team so far:

Kobe Bryant - SG
Al Jefferson - PF
Rashard Lewis - SF
Samuel Dalembert - C

ok, this has caused me to go on hyper-tilt and i'm not longer participating in this discussion for the time being

also, alex:
i really like that you decided to pick a center so you could play Jefferson at his natural position. I would have rather you pick an overall better center, but Dalembert is decent as a defense-only (with a little offense mixed in) center. like Biedrins, Chandler, etc.

I dunno about this one. I've always thought that Big Al would be best complimented by a big man who can shoot on offense and that can defend the paint on defense. Dalembert can do the latter, but having him there makes Big Al particularly susceptible to doubles in the paint and he is not a great passer. This is all from his Boston years though, so I'm curious as to whether he's improved this past season. Any T'Wolves fans (lol) care to chime in?

You guys think I reached for Calderon, but just wait until Alternate 2015.

man i think dalembert went too early. i was hoping hed drop to me in the 5th. i think hes a good player tho.

Interesting pick. I was considering filling another need with my last pick and hoping to pick up a centre with my pick late in this round (with Sammy D being one of the likely options there). Glad I didnt take that route.

also, there's a lot of people on right now, so if it's your pick, post it in this thread and then do the writeup so that we can pump out the picks before anyone leaves

I love that you guys are taking role players in the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th rounds, I will probably get another star in the 5th round lol

I really thought he was going to drop a couple more rounds - and I would be able to pick him up to compliment the player Im taking with my next pick.

My pick will be up in 10 minutes or so...

lets knock out some picks imo, the next 5 guys are online right now

Yeah I know I had several better offensive options available, but I felt that defense was such a pressing need right now that I needed to address at the center position that I couldn't go with a more balanced player. Plus I have a lot of scoring already.

i agree with this to an extent, but some "stars" don't have the skillsets that translate well into being a role player (although I think your pick of KM does), whereas some role players were (very) good role players for a reason.

One last thing on injuries. If Grant Hill's ankle blowing up isn't a freak injury, would someone please give me an example of an injury that can be considered freak? The rules of the draft clearly make a distinction between chronic injuries and freak injuries, and if Grant Hill landing wrong on his ankle isn't considered a freak injury, I don't think one exists.