QFBA Rag – 2008-09 Season - Volume Seven

New Menu Item: Dubber Chops

The Ekim Tudd team finally put a huge game together and gave the Blubbers a big, fat sirloin chop right in the kisser. The Meaty Meanies put up the weekly hgh score for the first time in the history of this young franchise despite Guard San Jose Calderon's lousy 19. Hey, Coach Mutt, I know you didn't have any other guards to play but my free agent pickup last week doubled that output. There are real players out there. Talk nice and I might even offer up a mercy trade.

Coach Jay-Dub's team was looking like one of the teams to beat this year until Kornhole Kobe finally decided to play a team game and Me-myself-and-Iverson got traded to Detroit, where he seems to be struggling to find his spot. Add to that the fact that one never knows what one is going to get out of Carter, like a lousy 10 this week, and suddenly the Drubbers are in the droilet.

Just to rub it in, Carter went of for 51 on Saturday, when it didn't count. That's exactly why I didn't draft Mr. Ego.

Okay! I Give Already

Gees, it's not enought that I taught the kid everything she knows. She can't be happy with running away with the league and beating her old man, she has to run up the score too! So okay, I give. Softie Boozer has one more chance to play this week but even if he does, he's not likely to have 73 points in him. I get it already, okay?

It wasn't looking like such a stretch for the Cap to get the kid until Anthony had to pop off for 63 while Brand performed so bad for the Cap at 19 that he got his NBA coach fired. Then Wade picks this week to finally decide to be human and suddenly, Cap'n Parrotdead is walking the plank. Cap could have improved his lot by leaving Lewis in the game and even by playing Bogut over Brand but it still wouldn't have been enough.

Nice work, kid. Thank God I have the Dubbers next week.

BugZ Don't Stop No Trains!

This one was really even closer than it looked. Both teams had nice perform ances overall with the exception of Hilario's 19 for the BugZ. Hilario was playing in place of the injured Wallace and tha was likely the difference in this game. Still, you could really chalk this one up to coaching error. If I had to choose between Nono Hilarious and Stephen Jackson to fill a slot, it would have been a no brainer to go with Jackson, who would have giving the BigZ 38, the weekly high score and the win. For that matter, I'd start Jackson even if Wallace weren't injured.

I'm sure the Trainers aren't complaining after dropping a painful rivalry game last week, the'll take this one even if they did have a little help getting it.

Ballers Catch a Break

It wasn't their strongest week ever, thanks to Superman leaving his cape at home but The Effers will take this Dubya. They've suffered badly from matchup bug bites so they were glad to have found some calamine this week beating the team that leads the league in starting Mr. M. Tee.

Crutch City has really suffered from their absentee ownership. Rumor has it Coach Tobias got caught up in one of those midwest twisters where he claims to have seen a pig fly by his window. Toby, come back, your team needs you. Just click your heels together and say "There's not place like home, there's no place..."

Moral Victory For the 'Bus

Finally, a week without a loss for the 'Bus. So far, Bye is 0-0-7 this season.

QFBA Rag – 2008-09 Season - Volume Sixish

The Bloody Freakin’ Matchup! Again!

What a difference a week (or two makes). Going into Week Five a dismal 1 and 2, JitterbugZ were looking like an also ran until they knocked off the Cap’n on his worst week of the young season while posting a respectable 173 points. The Capo had dismal performances from all, even FBA stud Wade to compliment a big fat zero from softie Boozer. I have two words for Boozer and his expiring contract after next season: Paul Milsap.

Then The Jizz follow that one up with the weekly high score to take down the second highest scoring team in the FNU Ballers. Suddenly the BugZ are a player while the powerful Effers can’t catch a respite from the Matchup Bug. Maybe I overplay that considering that only one team every week is destined to lose no matter what the matchup but it’s still got to be frustrating Cal Dave Ballzitch to lose when he puts up the second highest score. That bug does seem to bite him just a little more than anyone else. Maybe it’s that Bay Area water?

Now that’s What I Call Coaching

Conductor Andy had a lot to say going into Week Six against the wily Cap’n. I guess he was feeling his oats after clobbering the hapless Meat Puppets the previous week and seeing the Cap drop two in a row, including the Week Four heartbreaker when the matchup bug missed Cal Dave Ballzitch and got the Cap by accident. Funny though, the fruity farty train Conductor got real quiet once the Cap offered to wager a little hard-earned scratch on the Week Six matchup. Chirp-chirp. That’s cricket in the silent night you hear.

At any rate, Don’t-call-me-Andy knew what he was doing keep that ten-spot in his pocket as he falls to the Parrotheads 171-145. Lucky for the Trainees that the Dead Heads had injury troubles this week or they’d have lost even worse.

‘Bus Encouraged in Loss Part Deux – Okay Part Six

If the ‘Bus had any hair going into the season, it’s all been pulled out by now. Stinkybus Coach Clay says he’s feeling pretty good about his team these days, despite dangling trade offers to virtually every team in the league in an effort to improve. Still, he thought he had a pretty good shot at the Dubya against the Dubious Dubbers and he came oh so close at 154-150.

The truly frustrating part for Inky is that he could easily have won this game with the right personnel decisions. I had thoughts that ‘Bus might make some good moves and get this team into contention this year, making him a Coach of the Year candidate. At this rate, even if he does improve his lot, a more appropriate award might be Guesser of the year.

In years past he has proven himself a master at the art of the trade but it’s a lot tougher pulling off trades without any decent bait. Coach ‘Busted knows Coach Cap’n wants D-Will in a major way but can’t find a trade combination to make that one work. Anyone want to make a lopsided trade with the Bus and reward him for helping us out by taking on Crazy Haydukes team? Bruisers could afford to...

Bruised Meat

Man, what can I say about the Bruisers? Me thinks I taught the kid too well. A quarter of the way into the season, the one thing that is cringingly clear is that the Bruiser are the class of the league this year. We could hope for the injury bug to bite this team but then, they’ve won with John Salmons in the lineup and with Michael Redd on the bench so it’s going to take a LOT of injuries to matter.

Meanwhile, the Meaties are the most consistent team in the league with their scores falling consistently into the 150ish range. Not sure how much attention Coach Dike Mutt is paying to his team but I think I’d want to get Calderon out of the starting lineup in favor of Me-Myself-and-Maggette and anyone else in for Marion. But that’s just me.

Looking ahead, it’s The Captain and the Kid in Week Seven. With two of his big men questionable next week, the Cap’s going to have to risk that they’ll play and play well if he hopes to knock the kid off the throne.

QBFA Rag - 2008-09 Voume Four

Speakin’ of The Short Bus

This bus is definitely short: short of players. Coach Moyle is currently experiencing his personal version of hell, trying to make Mental Breakdown Boy Hayduke’s team into a winner. So far, he has led the league in personnel moves, some of which appear to be panning out, but hasn’t yet managed to pull this group of misfits together into a cohesive team. I know Coach Circumciser had high hopes going into this week and Coach Andrew ‘Don’t Call Me Andy’ K. certainly left the door wide open, posting the 2nd lowest score of the weak. What’s next for the ‘Bus? Maybe, in the spirit of fairness, one of you losers should take ‘Bus up on one of his lopsided trader offers?

Fortunately for DCMA, he was playing the lowest scoring team of the weak, proving once again the tired old QFBA adage that it’s all about the matchup. Give Coach Andrew some credit though, he’s the only one of you losers that has even tried to throw out some trash talk... something about his team averaging more than mine. HAHAHA. Good one. Kinda reminds me of the Geico commercial where the caveman plays Billy Jean King and thinks he's winning until he looks at the scoreboard. Andy gets it. He quits, but he gets it.

Injury Depleted Cap Falls to F’nU

A lousy eight points is all the Cap fell by after All Star Forward J. Smith succumbed to injury this week. In a stunning reversal of fortune, the good Cap’n traded places with the Effers by posting a better score than all but two other teams, one of which happened to be the one he was playing. Even without Smith, Cap’n Parrotdead would likely have gotten this one if stalwart Boozer hadn’t gone down in the third quarter. Like the greatest NBA team of all time, the Utah Jazz, the Zombies have really felt the injury bug early in this soon-to-be championship season.

Of course, being the gracious Pirate that I am, I must give credit to my worthy opponent, who put up the second highest weekly score on a week when he really needed to. The Ballers got 44 from Dirk ‘not dead yet’ Nowitzki and 43 from Jamison, allowing the rest of the team to cruise to the win with low-thirty showings. The good news for The Ballboys is that they can’t lose next week as they’ve drawn the weekly bye. Enjoy the golf course this week, Cal Dave. Yer walkin’ the Cap’s plank next time.

One is the Loneliest Number

It’s always tough to lose by a single point, especially when the game was so unbelievably winnable. Newcomer J. Crawford puts up the only single-digit game of the week and the BugZ still look to be headed for a win until G. Wallace joins his teammates in posting one of their worst collective games ever. And still the BugZ only fall into the “L” column by a single point. Coach S. was so distraught that she was found wandering the mean streets of Onalaska in her pajamas and pink fuzzy slippers, clutching her security blanket and muttering “Crawford wasn't even puking at the end”. Your guess is as good as mine about what that means.

As for M. Pete Dutt, I’m pretty sure he’s been hitting the bong a little too much lately and staring at flowers on the wall instead of coaching his team. Lucky for him, these guys seem to coach themselves. He has not made a single substitution or personnel move this season, not a speck of trash talk (like the rest of you losers), no indication that he has ever read the Rag or even checks his scores, and currently sits at .500. You can’t get much more ho-hum middle of the road than that.

Bruisers Crush the Clutch

On a week when the Bruisers have Redd and Richardson sitting on the bench with injuries, they still manage to clobber their opponent and put up the weekly high score – again. Increasingly it’s looking like the QFBA this year consists of the Bruisers and everyone else. Of course, when the Parrotheads have everyone healthy, that may be another story but for now, the Bruisers look unstoppable. Much as the Cap likes to think that the Bruisers new-found power is a result of good DNA and the Cap’s tutelage, something tells me B.A. had a hand in this year’s draft.

As for Coach Tobias, HEY, WAKE UP!! Oh, and thanks for taking injury prone McGrady off my hands.

QFBA Rag – 2008-09 Season - Volume Three

Toro Toro Big Bad Bull

Cap takes the Whopper off the Meatadors menu and leaves them with only the dried up bargain burger. Here it is week three and Cap already has two of the weekly high scores. Considering that his opponent had the lowest score of the weak, it was kind of a wasted effort. The good news for the Cap is that he did it with a player he brought up from the D-League for the injured Smith. Coach Cap’n was also pleased to see rookie Rose continue to put up big numbers, pulling down 42 for the pirates.

The Meatheads got nice performances out of Butler and Duncan but I think I’d be looking to sit Mr. Locker Room Marion for, I don’t know, maybe ‘Sheed? Calderon’s 11 points after an early exit with a tight hamstring killed the Meaties but it’s not likely that even a healthy Jose would have been able to help them to a win. The good news is he appears to be okay for next week’s match up with the Jitzters.

Train Spews Load of Auto Parts

A week after Freight Train drops his load while playing by himself, he still has enough juice left to squirt past the Clutch. This one took until Friday to resolve while the Lonely Conductor waited for Durant to come off injury. When he did, his 29 was more than enough to shoot to the Dubya.

Clutch continues to suffer from inconsistent Center play. Miller and Gasol seem to be taking turns alternating good games and bad. If Coach Tobias could guess which one is going to have the good game on any given week, he might have more than one win. Of course, with guys like the rejuvenated Billups and Artest warming his bench, I think he’d be well advised to figure some way to package a player or two for a Center upgrade.

‘Bus Encouraged in Loss

What’s this world coming to when big bad scary Stincubus is reduced to playing for moral victories? The self-proclaimed Executive of the Year has been working the wires hard to turn his inherited team into a winner and has to be encouraged by the play of Garnett, O’Neal and Randolph. Rookie Mayo was a bit of a disappointment in his first QFBA start but with guys like the injured Ellis and D-Will both soon to be healthy, look for much improved guard play on this team.

Jitz was anchored by top rated C. Paul who pulled down 52, flanked by new comer Crawford’s 33, while Gasol had his best game of the year at 35.

Sucks to Be FNU

It’s always frustrating to be in the top half of the weekly scoring and still come up empty. Especially when it’s already happened to you once and the season is only three weeks old. Still, it could have been a lot worse for the Effen U’s if Superman hadn’t put up a monster 62. Damn that Disco Dave for grabbing Howard before Cap'n could.

Coach You-Can-Call-Me Jay-Dub told this reported that he would be off in the wilderness this week and unable to monitor his lineup. Apparently, getting the hapless coach out of their hair must have been just what the Dr. ordered because the Dubious Dubbers put up their season high score, just four points shy of the weekly high. Iverson led the way with 48 while Ming and Carter finally found their games this season with each putting up 36.

QFBA Rag – 2008-09 Season - Volume Two

Bye Bye Freight Train

Oh, this one has to hurt. Train Wreck draws a bye on the week he has two players crack the 70 point barrier and another at 50. Of course, one of those 70+ performances wouldn’t have counted anyway since it came on the heels of a 26 point showing on Tuesday. Still, starting the right five could have yielded over 270 fantasy points. This yellow journalist was too lazy to actually check but I’m pretty sure that would have been an all time QFBA record.

The irony is that this comes just after Coach Andrew “Yo Mama” complained about the Bye situation, pointing out the he and Jitterbugz had one more Bye week than everyone else. This has just got to stick in the big guy’s craw.
The sad thing is that the Train Wreck isn’t really that good and it’s unlikely that this fluke will ever repeat. Tsk tsk, ‘tis a shame.

Meatadors Just Miss

Meatadors were in this one right up until Thursday, when D. Howard posted a nearly human 27 fantasy points. Not the numbers we’ve come to expect from Superman but enough to get the Ball Babies past the Meat Beaters 171 to 164. Truth be told, 171 for the Ballers may be on the low end on the spectrum with this lineup. Davis is likely to average better than this week’s 31 once he fully healthy and gets his feet under him in his new home and Howard routinely goes off for double this week’s output.

Never let it be said that the Cap is too big to admit when he’s wrong though. Jose Calderon might turn out to be better pick at guard than reported last week, though he’s going to need to find some consistency if he’s going to help Coach Dutt have a successful rookie season.

The guy I’d be concerned about now, if I were coaching the Egg Beaters, is Marion. He’s capable of big numbers but I don’t think he’s in a situation that lends itself to seeing Mr. Locker Room Poison go off. Maybe a healthy Maggette is a better choice in that slot? Just sayin’...

Bruisers Bop Dopey Dubbers

How does a team with Kobe Kornhole, Me-Myself-and-Iverson and Ya-ouchie Ming get hammered by 66 points? Well, it doesn’t help when Ming comes in at a measly 15 against a stifling Celtic defense. Everyone for the Dubbers looked to just be going through the motions while their opponent became the first team this season to crack 200 behind Bron-Bron’s 60.

Anthony and Bosh both put up 41 for April and the Bruisers while their worst player came in at 30. Right now the teams to beat this year look like The FJ’s and the Ballers- besides the Cap’n, of course. Look for these Dubbers to make a little noise too, at least until I talk them out of Kobe. I HATE that bastard but I LOVE winning even more.

Cap Takes It Easy On ‘Bus

I’m trying to keep ‘Bus from getting discouraged this year, knowing how frustrating it is trying to turn this “C” draft team into a winner but it’s tough to hold this crew back. I told my guys to cruise, and most cooperated, but Wade just couldn’t resist banging out 50.

I’m sure Inky was frustrated when he started D-Will behind reports that his return was imminent and then he didn’t play. It didn’t matter too much since he was unlikely to put up the needed 51 in his first game of the season.

The good news for the Stinky One is that the wise folks at Yahoo! made Wife-Beating Randolph Center eligible this week, solving the ‘Bus biggest dilemma. Move Randolph to Center, D-Will plays and this one coulda been a Dubya. Look out, ‘Bus is making his case for Executive of the Year and will likely find his share of wins before it’s all done.

‘Bugz Blow Chance

I see some real weaknesses on this Clutch the Tittie team but they managed to pull this one off. Frankly, I didn’t expect much from Brad “Roll Me Another Joint” Miller in his first game back from suspension and he didn’t exceed expectations but did manage enough to get Coach Tobias past the JitZ by a measly four points.

Iguodala was the real weakness for Coach S, coming in at all of 9 points. His 20 point average isn’t a whole lot better than that but it would have done the job this week.

If da Cap were coaching that team, Iggy would be gone and I’d be looking for a replacement for Gasol, whose 25 might be as good as it gets for him in his new home. The Flakers just have too many weapons for him to put up the kind of numbers he has in the past. But that’s just me, I could be wrong... Nah.

QFBA Rag – 2008-09 Season - Volume One

Yippee! I mean, Yahoo! Week One Done

The ‘Bus is Back

It’s been a pretty interesting start to the season after one Coach has a mental breakdown and throws his team to the wolves prompting a former Champion to step in and save the day. Kinda like Mitt Romney in the 2002 Olympics. After much tribulation, we have managed to get the Coach Moyle full access to the FrontRunner team and to change their name to Incubus.

All that remained was to get Yahoo! to officially change ownership from Coach Hayduke to Coach Moyle. I received a message from the powers that be at Yahoo! informing me that they had done so but, I discovered, ‘twas not to be. Instead of replacing Coach Hayduke with Coach Moyle, they replaced the good Cap’n with Coach Moyle. When informed of the mixup, Coach Moyle uttered this classic line, “Even better, I prefer your lineup to the one I had.” Well duh! Who among you wouldn’t feel that way?

Housekeeping

Because we have an uneven number of teams, we have one BYE every week. Every team has two Byes over the course of the season except for JitterbugZ and Freight Train, who each have three. Each team plays eighteen games except those two teams who play seventeen. In order to remedy this and allow all teams to play eighteen games, JitterbugZ and Freight Train will square off in Week 10. This means that Freight Train will actually face two opponents that week, as they are also scheduled to play Dubbers. Sorry, but that’s the best solution I could come up with to even things out. I’m all ears if someone wants to propose a better solution.

Clutch Misses a Shift in Week One

Despite Cap’n Parrotdead setting the weekly high score (ho-hum), Clutch City had an excellent chance to win this one if Coach Tobias had managed to start five guys that were scheduled to play. Clutch’s starting Center, Brad Miller, is serving a 5 game suspension for being a pot-head, causing the Rocketmen to drop a 25- point decision. Of course, Miller is CC’s only Center so I’m not sure what they might have done about it. Let’s see, wasn’t Jermaine O’Neal floating around the free agent pool before Mitt snatched him up?

The good news is that Incubus will not use CC as his farm team this year. ‘Bus tells this reporter that the CC’s just have no one to raid.

Soph Gets Past Rookie in Cross-Office Rivalry

Dubers wised up this year and even managed to add the missing ‘B’ to their name. While they were at it, they had an excellent Sophomore draft, putting together a potentially high-scoring, if somewhat fragile, roster. Hard to go wrong with Kornhole Kobe anchoring your team and Ming at the pivot. If Iverson still has some gas in the tank and Ming can stay healthy, look out for Dub.

Meanwhile, the rookies drop their first contest but do have a good enough team to have a shot at the playoffs. Of course, with the new playoff format allowing seven out of nine teams in, you’d have to really suck to miss out. I wonder who those succubuses’s will be?

Rookie Team Beats Hybrid

This one has to just gnaw at the ‘Bus. It’s driving him crazy to be stuck with a team who he feels really blew their first and second round picks. For those of you who don’t know ‘Bus, he ran the old Lynden Air Freight FBA many moons ago. The current QFBA scoring and head-to-head matchup system is based upon that Lynden FBA format from back before we had Yahoo! to take a lot of the work out of doing this.

As far as the Good Cap’n is concerned, The ‘Bus IS fantasy basketball, so you can imagine my disappointment when ‘Bus decided to forgo the QFBA in protest of the crappy way the NBA and Sonics treated their long-time loyal fans. I fully understand his position and agree completely that what went on was a travesty.

Anyway, the fates must have had another plan when Hayduke had his little meltdown before the season and Coach Moyle was convinced to step in and take over the team.

Coach Moyle faces what may be the greatest challenge of his FBA Career: turning this “C” draft team into a winner. I know this was not the start he wanted but he has already made some very astute personnel moves and could well make the new Incubus into a force. Having only nine teams this year means there are a few decent free agents floating around out there and da Bus has capitalized on that fact pretty well so far.

As for the Meatadors, despite what I think was a horrible pick in Calderon for a starting guard, they are off to a nice win in Week One. We’ll see if Coach Dutt can match the success he’s having in Fantasy Football.


The Kid is a Quick Study

FNU Ballers look pretty good this year. Of course, Coach Sisti is a former QFBA Champion and has always fielded tough teams. Unfortunately, he faces the Cap’s kid, who has become a legit contender this year. The kid made some questionable picks last year, but fielded a nice team that was much improved from their rookie season. This year, she has drafted what will surely be her best team yet. Yep, the apple sure don’t fall far from that tree.

The Ballers put up the third highest score this week but managed to lose a game that came right down to with wire. It’s always been about the matchup in this league and it sure didn’t take long to prove that old adage this season. Look for this team to win a bunch before this season is over.

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.