NBA (NFBKC) Draft
with Sasha Liss
My 11.5 year old daughter is into basketball now — she plays five times per week and likes watching highlights of NBA greats. We did an NFBKC playoff pool last year, and this year I told her we’d do a real league.
Of course, I haven’t paid close attention to the NBA in maybe a decade. So I had her go through the RotoWire depth charts over the last month, make notes and build a cheat sheet. Then we scrapped her cheat sheet, downloaded the ADP, sorted by position and drafted off that.
She was a little annoyed after all the work she put in, but I told her it was just an exercise to get her up on the league. Kind of like in Karate Kid when Mr. Miyagi makes Daniel wash his cars and paint his house.
In any event, here’s the team we drafted below. I don’t know half the players in the league, but I do understand the categories, the NFBKC game, and how to make an ADP-based cheat sheet. I’m genuinely curious how the basketball-knowledgeable people think we did.
The rule I made was I’d give her a few ADP-appropriate choices and let her make the call. I mostly stuck to it, but might have swayed her on a couple picks.
We were Team 6:
1.6 Stephen Curry — it was either him or Luka Doncic, and she wanted Curry. I might have gone Doncic due to the age difference, but Curry is only 185 pounds, and his skill set is aging awfully well. Doncic also has a calf injury heading into the year and hurts your free-throw percentage. But there’s always that cliff risk with a player in his mid-30s.
2.7 Kevin Durant — we were hoping for Jaren Jackson to pair him with Curry, but we weren’t even close as he went 14 overall. So we had resigned to take Kyrie Irving, but somehow Durant made it back to us, so we snapped him up. (I don’t remember the strategy being to take two 35-year old players to start your draft, but I’ve been out of the loop for a while, so who knows?) I do love the free-throw base we got with those two, though.
3.7 Myles Turner — We needed a center and some blocks, and Turner was the guy. Sasha wanted Pascal Siakam, but I convinced her we should get the blocks first.
4.6 Pascal Siakam — What do you know, Siakam fell to us anyway. Having shored up threes and blocks, it was good to get another all-around stat producer in Round 4. We passed on LeBron James here, but toyed with the idea of having the oldest team of all-time (and three inner-circle Hall of Famers.)
5.7 Paul George — If we didn’t have the oldest team of all time already, we surely did after taking 33-year old George. But I’ve always found the forwards dry up more quickly than the guards, and now we already had three of them and a center, which seemed like a good build. I also felt like getting another all-around producer with threes, blocks and percentages put us in good shape.
6.6 Brook Lopez — This was a pick I regret, but I let Sasha make the call, and she wanted the second center over the injured Bradley Beal. Plus we needed another 35-year old player to set the NFBKC record for age.
7.7 Bradley Beal — Once again, the guy we almost took came back to us anyway. Beal himself is 30, so he’s not hurting our average that badly. I wanted to target players who can shoot, so we’d have flexibility later too.
8.6 Khris Middleton — Usually you want to eliminate the Middleton, lest you make a middling pick. This was actually a bad pick. We needed rebounds and had Austin Reaves (good rebounder for a guard) queued up, but he went two picks ahead of us, and I just took Middleton because I know who he is. He’s not a good rebounder for a forward, but he is 32 and lights out from the line, so the theme of the squad is intact.
9.7 Clint Capela — This is who we should have taken in Round 8. The biggest knock on Capela is the free-throw shooting, but I doubt he’ll make a dent in the base we’ve built. He’s a beast on the boards, and he gets some blocks, so he’s perfect for us, as our centers (Lopez and Turner) don’t rebound well.
10.6 Bennedict Mathurin — our first young player. We took him over Spencer Dinwiddie who Sasha wanted for some reason. Mathurin was decent as a rookie last year, and at 21 has some upside.
11.7 Russell Westbrook — We needed guards, and we needed rebounds, so Westbrook it was. I’m not concerned about the bad free-throw shooting because we’re built for it. He’s also 34, so he fits with the theme.
12.6 Jonathan Kuminga — I’m not sure why I marked him as a guy with upside, now that I’m re-reading his RotoWire outlook. But Sasha said yes, and I had marked him, so we took him.
13.7 Collin Sexton — We needed a guard, and he is one. Actually, I like that he used to be a big-time scorer and is still only 23.
14.6 Bilal Coulibaly — I marked him as a target after reading his outlook on RotoWire. It’s just looking for upside at this point.
15.7 Cole Anthony — We needed guards, and he is one.
16.6 Kyle Lowry — Had to finish the draft with a 37-year old. But maybe Lowry can get some minutes and hold down the fort if Beal is out for more than a couple games.
Our Lineup
G Stephen Curry
G Bradley Beal
G Bennedict Mathurin
G Russell Westbrook
F Kevin Durant
F Pascal Siakam
F Paul George
F Khris Middleton
C Myles Turner
C Brook Lopez
UT Clint Capela
UT Collin Sexton