The Final Countdown

Here's (Brad's) initial take on the draft and the way teams are shaping up.

Boz-Tang Alliance

Kevin Garnett. Don't really need to say much more about that, Garnett will be a fantasy force this year, he's always been a great passing big man, but he's never had anyone like Paul Pierce and Ray Allen to pass to. I've also heard that Boston might use him at Center which would help out Kiefer's team immensely. Andrew Bynum may be great someday, but he isn't today.

The forwards on this team are crazy good, I love Rashard Lewis playing with an inside presence like Dwight Howard. Ron Artest and Manu Ginobli fell a lot farther in the draft than I thought they would, and Kiefer's default autopicks netted him both of them.

Starting the season B-Tang is looking at some injury problems. Spending a second round pick on Wade was risky. But some solid value in the later rounds with Gerald Wallace, Ginobili and Artest may make up for it.

BTA's weakness is the guards after Wade and Ginobili. Even with Wade Kiefer's probably not going to win the assist category any week, and picks like Jamal Crawford and Cuttino Mobely won't really help.

The Alliance will be a tough team to beat every week. If Wade is healthy at the end of the year they'll have a chance to take it all.

Zombie Overlords

We can all call Mark names for taking Kobe Bryant, but it was probably the safest pick at the number two spot. (You suck Mark.) Kobe doesn't miss games and he piles up numbers. He'll help you in every category, he doesn't even turn the ball over that much when you compare him to other guards. Mark's second pick, however, can hurt him. Dwight Howard be great for points, rebounds and shooting % but his turnovers and FT % will hurt. He's one of my favorite young players, but the Overlords will have to hope they can make up for his shortcomings by having efficient players around him. I'm not sure they do. TOs and FT% will probably hurt Mark all year with players like Roy, Randolph, Marbury, and Wallace all bringing him down in one or both categories.

Those players all bring a lot to the table in other categories though, I like the pick of Wallace and later Paul Millsap to balance out the Overlords' prolific offense.

Overall I'd say the Team of the Dead made solid picks and should be competitive all year.

nell on earth

Besides having the best team name Nell, with the third pick, took the player I think will be tops in fantasy land this year. Ohio's own LeBron James. Deron Williams at 19 was probably a stretch, but T-Mac at 30 was a steal, so maybe those two picks balanced out. (Don't get me wrong, Deron will be great all year, better, even than Chris Paul, who was taken a round before him, if he continues to stroke from 3 point land like he has so far this year he will have been worth the 19th pick). I also like Josh Howard a lot with the 35th pick, but after round 5 Nell seemed to lose her way.

nell on earth made some quality picks along the way, (Rip Hamilton, Richard Jefferson, and I liked Nocioni and Garcia with her last two picks) but the good was overshadowed by picks like Andris Biedrins at 62 and Mike Dunleavy at 94 (though Dunleavy has been playing out of his head so far this season). Come to think of it, Nell may know something I don't, Damien Wilkins (who?) and John Salmons (again?) have played pretty well out of nowhere.

nell on earth have a lot of players with a lot of upside, so with a little luck the rest of us could be feeling the fantasy pain.

Quartz

Peter (aka Mark's dad) probably has the most fundamentally sound team in the league. Nash, Duncan, Bell, Mo Williams, Grant Hill. . . I wonder if that will translate into fantasy wins. You really can't argue much with Quartz' first few picks, you know what you're getting when you pick Nash and Duncan. Johnson was also a solid pick at 20. If Kirilenko can return to 2005 numbers he'll have been a steal at 29, if he can't he was a reach.

Luke Walton deserves to be slapped at least once a day, and I think he went too early at 45. I think Quartz will want more than 9 points and 5 rebounds from him per night, I'm not sure he'll get it. Darko could thrive in Memphis and make Peter (Mark's dad) look like the smartest (wisest?) guy in the league. Personally I think he started speculating too early, Darko, Hill, Jianlian, Magloire and Knight all seem like overly optimistic picks to me.

That Shaq O'Neal can be picked in the second to last round says a lot about how many steps he's lost, but I think he'll produce some good weeks for Quartz if their manager (Mark's dad) can be patient enough to wait until January for him to show up. I like Kapono with the last pick. Immediately after I picked his teammate (Garbajosa) with my last pick I wished I had picked Kapono.

Quartz have a solid and well-rounded team, I don't really like the way Peter's (Mark's dad's) Util and bench spots are looking right now, but if a couple of those speculative picks pan out he'll be sitting pretty.

NBASUX

Patriot lover (and puppy kicker) Trevor Lindsay brings his fantasy football skills to the basketball arena. Can Trevor be the two sport star that Bo Jackson was? In short, no.

Just kidding, Trevor ended up with a pretty good team. I was surprised to see Marion fall to number 5. Chris Paul at 12 was a real reach and only a Bostonian could pick Al Jefferson when Tracy McGrady is still on the board, but Danny Granger could be the next Gerald Wallace, and how can Rajon Rondo not pile up assists with the Big Three catching passes in Boston? Brad Miller will bounce back this year (I think) and Al Horford could challenge Durant (picked 6 rounds earlier) for rookie of the year. (stranger things have happened). But Chris Kaman T? The guy looks like Golem bred with that huge guy in the superman shirt from Goonies. No way he continues to get 18 points and 16 boards a night, look for 10 and 8 and maybe look elsewhere.

I'd be willing to bet that NBASUX doesn't win the Turnover category more than 3 or 4 times this year.

NBASUX's manager may have the charm of Bill Bellicheck, but he's pretty good at winning too, not to be overlooked.

Shot Callaz

I guess I shouldn't give Trevor any grief for picking ugly players when my first choice was Dirk Nowitski. But come on, what doesn't the guy do? Pts, rebs, 3s, both %s, even a few assists and a block per game. I think my second pick Amare Stoudamire will be in the top 5 fantasy players at the end of the season and was glad to see him make it back around to me at 11. I'm also really excited about Josh Smith this season, although 22 might have been too early to take him. He blocks like Kirilenko but rebounds better and has an offensive game. And he's only 21. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

It's difficult to critique my own team, of course I liked it, I picked it. I did find myself worrying about assists and Barbosa, Ford and Conley Jr. were all probably taken a bit early. I'm counting on Luol Deng to have a great year, and maybe I banked too much on Kevin Martin's numbers last season, or he may just be the best player nobody's ever heard of. Kevin Durant should have a good year, but he might have gone early too.

I think ya'll better watch out.

Dribbling

I should thank Ian, because without him I'd probably have the worst team name in the league. And we can all thank Ian's autodraft for taking guys like Mike Miller when much better players were still on the board. But, Dribbling do have a solid foundation. Gilbert Arenas is no schlub, Yao Ming will be huge if he can stay healthy (same with Camby). Carter, Billups and 'Sheed might be getting older, but they can still produce solid fantasy numbers.

If Ian's aging and injury prone team can escape the injury bug (and if Ian checks in once every few weeks) this team could surprise people.

Docktor Schooliosis

Personally I'm not high on any of the good Docktor's first 3 picks. They certainly won't be total bust, and Logan wasn't there for the first part of the draft, so he can't be held completely accountable, but they're just not quite what I would have hoped if I were managing Schooliosis.

Logan did make up for taking an aging but still solid point guard with the first pick by picking only point guards with the rest of his picks. Hinrich, Miller, Harris, Jack, Duhon, Blake. If you need a PG talk to the DR.

There are some great players on this team, if Gasol does what many experts are projecting him to do he'll be huge for Schooliosis. And I, for one, LOVE Iguodala this year, Anthony will score a ton of points if nothing else. Aldridge will be off the chizain. There's definitely something to work with here. With a little tweaking this team will challenge anyone.