2008-09 FBA Draft Report Card

Well another FBA draft is in the books and as usual it was filled with a number of questionable and bizarre selections. It makes it hard to give it all up when I see so many boneheads to take advantage of.

Where to start, well I guess I’ll just tackle the teams in the order they drafted:

Team: Freight Train Draft grade: C+

They selected Amare Stoudemire with the first pick in the entire draft. An interesting choice. I don’t know how Yahoo ranked all these guys, and am not going to bother looking. Personally, I probably would have figured Amare for a late first round pick at best, and gone with a guy like LeBron, Kobe, or Chris Paul ahead of him. Pierce was a decent pick at the end of the 2nd round, and Jefferson was ok at the start of the third, but there were probably a couple of guys I would have taken at that point instead of Jefferson. Bynum as a 4th round selection seems like a stretch to me, he probably would have been available in a later round. Kevin Durant might just end up putting up better stats than some folks think and may have been a steal as a 6th rounder. Andre Miller was a solid choice in the final round.

Team: Jitterbugz Draft grade: C

I can’t fault the pick of Chris Paul with the 2nd choice in the draft, he’s a stud and should be solid for the bugz. However, they showed they’ve still got much to learn in my opnion with the pick of Gasol and Okur in the 2nd and 3rd rounds. I think they would have been waaaaay better off with any two of the following that were available instead of those two: Pierce, Ming, Carmelo, Baron David, Deron Williams, or Tim Duncan. Mark my words, those picks will come back to haunt the bugz. The middle round picks of Iguodala, Boguy, and Odom were ok, and they did make what I think were two great picks in the final two rounds in Gerald Wallace and Stephen Jackson.

Team: Dubbers Draft grade: B

It’s going to be tough to find a more potent guard tandem that the Dubers landed with their choices of Bryant and Iverson in the first two rounds. The key for this team will be the health of their third round choice Yao Ming. If he stays healthy they’re gonna have a nice year. Adding forwards Rudy Gay and Vince Carter to the first three give this team a pretty nice looking starting five. Depth could be a problem though, I think the Dubers would have been better off to take guys like Lamar Odom, Gerald Wallace, Kevin Durant, etc., instead of Mo Williams, Biedrins, and David Lee in the last three rounds. In fact, those three picks prompted me to give this draft a B instead of a B+ at the last second.

Team: FJ Bruisers Draft grade: B+

I thought it was a nice draft for this team. Landing Lebron with the 4th pick in the first round was sweeeeet. And then getting Bosh and Anthony in rounds two and three added two more big guns. Throw in Jason Richardson, Joe Johnson, Redd, Aldridge, and Kirilenko and this team has a lot of weapons, and some pretty decent depth. Well done grasshopper.

Team: FNU Ballers Draft grade: B+

Another nice looking roster. Landing Nowitski, Dwight Howard, and Baron Davis in the first three rounds gives this team a sound foundation. They were damn lucky to get Dwight Howard when they did in the 2nd round. A number of teams that had a chance to take him in that round and passed are going to regret doing so. Kevin Martin is a high scoring guard and was a nice pick in round four. And having Antawn Jaimson as your fifth best player says a lot about this teams strength. They also added some great depth in Kaman, Devon Harris, and Mike Miller. Kaman in particular is a guy that I predict a number of teams will end up wishing they’d taken as their center inside of the first five rounds. He gives the Ballers a nice trade chip if they ever need one, though if I was them I’d be tempted to stand pat and simply look for an upgrade over Devon Harris in the free agent market at some point.

Team: Clutch City Draft grade: D

Toby, Toby, Toby….if I didn’t know better I’d guess this was your first year in the league. Rumor has it that Tobias wasn’t able to draft live, and relied upon Yahoo rankings to make his selections, but I imagine he was able to setup a number of rankings for himself ahead of time, and as a result isn’t guiltless for this debacle. I think the choice of Elton Brand in the first round may prove foolhardy, and I bet he would have been available in the 2nd round if they really wanted him. Geez, they could have had Garnett, Boozer, Dwight Howard, or Wade instead of Brand with their first round pick, and I question the wisdom of instead taking a guy who came back late last season from a serious Achilles injury. Then in the second round they take Danny Granger of all people instead of Dwight Howard! What the hell, the teams drafting immediately behind Clutch must have been ecstatic. Then in round three they take Chauncey Billups instead of Deron Williams? Big mistake! David West was a decent pick in round four, but I’m underwhelmed with the rest of this teams draft. One of the worst teams in the league at this point on paper, and I’m not sure there is much I’d even want to trade for from my former farm club if I’d remained in the league.

Team: Front Runners Draft grade: C

Well things started off well for this team, snagging Kevin Garnett in the first round, although I think I would have taken Carlos Boozer, or even Dwight Howard or Dwayne Wade instead. Then all of a sudden with the 3rd pick of the second round they take Marcus Camby??? First of all the guy is injury prone, and second of all there is no way in hell that he’s a better pick then guys like Dwight Howard , Chris Bosh, Iverson, Paul Pierce, etc., etc. The Camby pick was a baaaaaaaaaaad move at this point. They somewhat redeemed themselves in the third round by wisely snagging Deron Williams, but then took Rashard Lewis in the fourth round when I think a number of guys (David West, Joe Johnson, V. Carter, Rudy Gay…) would have been better choices. In round five they took Jason Kidd who is getting a little long in the tooth. Although he’s injury prone I probably would have taken a chance with Tracy McGrady, who remarkably was still available at that point, or Brandon Roy, Kaman, Redd, or Kevin Durant. This draft could, and should have, turned out much better for this team.

Team: Cap’n Parrot… Draft grade: B+

It’s hard to fault the Captain’s first two picks, Dwayne Wade and Carlos Boozer. In fact, in my opinion he was very fortunate to be able to get both of those guys, someone should have snagged one or the other before he could get both. If he could have landed Deron Williams in the third round he would have exploded for joy, but luckily for the rest of the league the FrontRunners nabbed him with the pick right before the Captains. So the Captain went with Steve Nash. Nash is a solid pick at that spot and might end up doing very well for the Captain. I personally would have been tempted to take Tim Duncan there and take my chances on adding a 2nd quality guard in one of the next two rounds. The Captain then added a couple of quality guys in the fourth and fifth rounds with Josh Smith and McGrady. Now McGrady could really be the key for the Captains season. He always seems to get hurt and miss a number of games of late, but frankly, I’m still amazed he lasted until the fifth round because when he’s healthy he’s an FBA scoring machine and a friggin steal as a fifth round pick. Oden was a solid backup center selection in round six, and who knows he might end up being good enough that he’ll prompt the Captain to move Boozer over to forward at some point. The Captain couldn’t resist rolling the dice in the seventh round and picked up injured guard Gilbert Arenas. Arena’s was essentially out all of last season, and had more surgery that will keep him sitting on his butt at the start of this season. But the rest of the league better hope this guy doesn’t return to anywhere near close to form at any point during the year because if he does, and McGrady stays healthy (a big if), then the Captain could potentially field a pretty damn high scoring lineup, at least on paper.

Team: Meatadors Draft Grade: D/D+

Ouch! This team didn’t do themselves any favors on draft day. Now I’m told they didn’t participate in the draft live, and had to let Yahoo make their picks for them, but once again like Toby, I have to think they did some pre-ranking of the players in Yahoo ahead of time, and if they didn’t, they should have. I don’t like the pick of Shawn Marion at the end of the first round. Personally, I would have snagged Carlos Boozer with that pick, and if they didn’t like him then take Dwight Howard. And then they compounded that error by taking Caron Butler with the first pick of the second round. Sheesh, they probably could have found Butler waiting for them in the fourth or fifth round if they wanted him. Passing up Boozer or Dwight Howard for Butler was just a season killer for this team. They did luck out a bit and made the right choice, or Yahoo did, by taking Duncan with the last pick of the third round. But then Jose Calderon with the first pick of the fourth round? But when all the dust settled I guess a potential starting lineup of Duncan, Marion, Butler, Roy, and Maggette doesn’t sound real pathetic, but they could have done so much better.