Hardcourt Season

I won't be devoting a ton of blog space to hoops this year (unless there is more demand), at least until football is over, but I thought I'd share the results of my recent fantasy hoops draft being that it's opening night.  There are 12 teams in the league, and I have to start a center, three guards, three forwards, and two utility players.  I have four bench spots, and the eight scoring categories are points, rebounds, assists, blocks, steals, threes, FG%, and FT%.

Here is my team, with each player preceded by the overall pick I took him with.

2-Chris Paul
23-Brook Lopez
26-David West
47-Tony Parker
50-Carlos Boozer
71-Mike Bibby
74-Anthony Randolph
95-Paul Milsap
98-D.J. Augustin
119-Richard Jefferson
122-Danilo Gallinari
143-Kendrick Perkins
146-Carl Landry

I love Paul with the second pick.  He was a no brainer, of course, after LeBron went one.  Lopez is going to be big this year.  I like him for blocks and he is a good free throw shooter.  I bet he has comparable numbers to Pau Gasol this year.  West was a nice safe pick in the third.  I wanted to lock in assists, so Parker was my next choice.  Boozer was just begging someone to take him, so I did and I think he could provide top three round value if he stays healthy.  If he doesn't, I protected myself later with Milsap.  I also really like my Augustin, Jefferson, and Landry picks.  Randolph was a reach, but I had no one else I liked there.  I just hate Don Nelson and am afraid Randolph's minutes are going to be a bit schizo this year.  Gallinari was an auto pick.  I ran out of time.

Overall, I'm strong in assists, both percentage categories and I should be okay in rebounds.  I have the league leader in steals and I may compete in points also.  I believe my two weakest areas are blocks and threes.  Hopefully Perkins can score enough to justify a roster spot.  I need his blocks to go along with Lopez and Randolph.  Jefferson and Bibby will help out on threes, and Augustin could be huge all across the board if he starts beating out Ray Felton for more minutes.

As far as the rest of the draft, I'll list five picks I loved and five picks I hated.

Loved...

56-Andrew Bynum
68-Jeff Green
78-Luis Scola
102-Leandro Barbosa
108-Jason Thompson

Hated...

4-Danny Granger (over Kobe, maybe, over Durant, no way)
17-David Lee
28-Gilbert Arenas
36-Michael Redd
37-Andrea Bargnani

Cheers,
TFAM