Meet the GOI Fantasy Basketball League 2010-2001 Season

Were in the middle of December and haven't talked about this year's Game Of Inches Fantasy basketball League for the 2010-2011 season. This is the 2nd annual GOI Fantasy Basketball league, which drafted almost two months ago at the end of October a week before the 2010 Basketball season started. Like last year, TBO and myself are the only two Contributors from GOI that wanted to play in a competitive fantasy basketball season. Both of us really get into the basketball season and Fantasy basketball. Don't get my off on the tangent on why fantasy basketball isn't that popular and not many good outlets on it. For this reason I am going to try and convince TBO to do a all fantasy basketball podcast soon.

Back to the the GOI Fantasy Basketball league. It is a 10 team Rotisserie league with 10 starting spots and 5 bench spots. It sounds like a shallow league with 10 teams, but with all the roster and bench spots the players become pretty scarce on the Free agent market. You can argue that many of those players can hurt your team because they are so one dimensional. The Players Stat Categories are: Field Goal Percentage (FG%), Free Throw Percentage (FT%), 3-point Shots Made (3PTM), Points Scored (PTS), Total Rebounds (REB), Assists (AST), Steals (ST), and Blocked Shots (BLK). Most notably we do not have Turnovers count. That is the one big difference between this league and Standard leagues.

Now to the point of this post, to talk about how the draft went in general, my team, and TBO team. I know we have some loyal GOI readers in the league. If you would like me to talk about your team in future GOI Fantasy Basketball League Updates please e-mail us or post in the comments section letting me know. In Fantasy Football we give a weekly update, but for football we will try to give monthly updates.

I had the 7th pick in the draft and TBO had the 8th pick. Then when we flipped back arround he picked in front of me by a pick. It was hard to have him so close to me because I was worried he may steal some players I wanted which he did with Andray Blatche. This was a Live Snake draft and we were on the phone together for the whole draft talking about the flow of it and which players we were targeting to some degree. TBO and myself have big strategy differences in Fantasy basketball and many players we have different opinions on. So we both knew the players the other's wouldn't take (me with Dwight Howard).

With Fantasy Baseball and Football I can tell confidently tell you what players I would want to take with my first pick. I think I can find the safe solid picks with your early picks. In basketball it isn't that clear to me. If I had the first pick I would like Kevin Durant, but I see risk with Chris Paul, LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Dwight Howard, Kobe Bryant, Danny Granger, Pau Gasol, and Amar'e Stoudemire. Obviously I am doing this post draft summary two months late so my concerns about Pau Gasol, and Amar'e Stoudemire not being good 1st or 2nd round picks is obviously wrong by their strong play so far. I saw Gasol, Granger, and Wade as injury concern. The rest I could see just underperforming the justification for a top pick. There were many middle round guys I liked a lot, many as you will see I didn't get.
About Cubsfan4evr1 and TBO Picks

With my first round pick (7th overall) it was a no brainer for me to take Deron Williams. Stephen Curry went the pick before or I would have taken him. TBO drafted Dwight Howard 8th overall. I didn't even think of taking Howard because of the terrible FT% and sporadic point totals in the past. The other guys I liked I was hoping would fall back to me with my second pick. There aren't many Small forwards I am a big fan of, and one of them was Carmelo Anthony who TBO took right before me with his second pick. Anthony can obviously help in PTS, FG%, FT%, and 3pt so he is a solid all around shooter. With my second pick I took Brook Lopez. That way I have a point guard and center to anchor my team. I was hoping Lopez would be similar to Howard helping in all the categories finishing second to Howard in Blk's and rebounds with a better ft%, but that hasn't happened yet.

With my third pick and 27 overall pick I made a BIG mistake. I was hoping to add another PG or a center. Rajon Rondo went off the board 19th overall so then I was hoping for Al Horford who would be a good complement to Lopez, but he went right before me. So then with not much time I had to decide between Darren Collison and Russell Westbrook. I liked both a lot and was hoping I could get both with the other falling to my 4th pick only 4 picks away. I asked TBO and he said to take Collison and that was a big mistake. Collison barley plays, especially in the 4th quarter. He looks nothing like he did at the end of last season when he filled in for the injured Chris Paul and was great. Westbrook who did not fall back to me has been amazing. Considering how great Westbrook has been and the lack of much contributions from Collison who was a terrible 3rd round pick, my team would be so much better with Williams and Westbrook as my 2 point guards. If I don't win this league I will be kicking myself for that move, because I should have played it safe. TBO took Derrick Rose with his third round pick.

In the 4th round TBO took Tyreke Evans and I took Zach Randolph who I thought was a steal for the 4th round a double/double machine with good shooting percentages. In retrospect LaMarcus Aldridge who went 6th picks later and Marc Gasol who went 8 picks later might have been a better option. Both were on my list of players to target, but I had Randolph higher. I like Randolph, but both would have helped me better in Blk's and rebounds, a weakness of my team.

In the 5th round I needed a small forward so I took Stephen Jackson who does a little of everything and TBO got a stud shooter in Kevin Martin. Then TBO took Andray Blatche one pick before I was going to take him. I wanted some inside shooting, rebounds, and steals. So then I settled for Blake Griffin who has been underperforming so far. he helps in pts, rebounds, and assists, but not blocks, rebounds, or steals that I need from my centers. With my 7th round I was really hoping for Andrew Bogut, but he went 66th overall, so with my 67th pick scrambling I took Rashard Lewis. I passed up Paul Millsap. With my next pick I took Eric Gordon if I really needed some shooting and TBO surprised me with taking Chris Kaman who I thought he didn't like. My 9th pick was Andre Miller who has been amazing and has saved me because of Collison's bad play so far. Miller was supposed to be my 2nd point guard, but has played like I thought Collison would. TBO took Michael Beasley if he needed some big men. After that my final 5 picks have not been so hot.

Here was the team I drafted:


Here is the team TBO drafted:

Hope you enjoyed reading about the GOI Fantasy Basketball draft! TBO, please add your feedback.


An update on the league standings is coming soon.

2 comments:

Dmitry said...

fantasy basketball may be the most difficult of the top 4 ports. I havent mastered how to create a balanced team quite yet

I could have Lebron, Melo, and Howard on the same team and still be in the middle of pack, even though in real life that team would be unbeatable

Cubsfan4evr said...

Balance is key, but finding good balance to fill out all the categories are hard. There aren’t many complete players that can help that won’t hurt you in some areas. Especially do you over pay to take guys earlier that would help. In retrospect that’s what I should have done to avoid my hole with Blk’s and steals.