Fantasy Is Now A Reality

by Brett Edwards

Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in. Just call me The Godfather now that I have been officially sucked back into the underbelly of the fantasy sports world: fantasy basketball.

You may recall my recent statements on how I was staying away from fantasy hoops this year. My main reasons were the obscure categories and the long season, the latter being my biggest problem. Being someone who thrives in this ADD society we live in, I couldn't focus for the entirety of the NBA regular season. But I could focus on my lineup once a week, and I was able to get the league to include a head-to-head component, where you play against another team each week. In addition to there being the total points prizes, at the end of the season there are playoffs to determine a head-to-head league champion. I figure this way it will be similar to the NFL fantasy leagues in that I only have to worry about my lineups once a week, thereby allowing me to actually have a life and not needing to stay up until 12:01AM to pick up that next rising star.

So here's my team, in the order that I drafted it: Lebron, Jermaine O'Neal, Lamar Odom, Marcus Camby, Raymond Felton, Mike James, Josh Howard, Luol Deng, Mike Miller, Shaun Livingston, Antoine Walker, Chris Wilcox, Rajon Rondo, Melvin Ely, Flip Murray.

I basically drafted based on 3 factors:

(1) Obvious choices. I had the number one pick overall, so Lebron was a no-brainer.
(2) Players I like. That's where Josh Howard, Mike James, and Chris Wilcox came in.
(3) The Bill Simmons factor. As much as I enjoy most of his writing, you have to admit the guy has absolutely no life, is a HUGE basketball fan, and spends all day on the internet. So when Simmons says he got all the players he wanted and then listed a bunch of sleepers, you can bet that was an easy place to look for draft advice. You'll notice that I got several of the players he likes, so if Simmons has a good season (likely) then so will I.

Anyone else into fantasy hoops and had your draft yet? I'm not much of an expert in this and I'd love someone who knows this stuff to critique my team. Let's just hope that mid-season I don't get taken out like Sonny Corleone.

Comments

[Nels]

I also had the first pick and went with LeBron. I too picked up Jermaine O'Neal with one of my next two picks. I kind of went overboard with Dwight Howard instead of someone like Lamar Odom (good pick) or Boris Diaw.

Following up with Marcus Camby was also a good choice.

I'm not sure Rajon Rondo will do that much, but I picked Delonte West, so I can't really say much.

I think Flip Murray in the last round could be a great pick; I just saw an article saying Coach Flip might be running Player Flip at SG with Chauncey, Rip, Tayshaun, and Rasheed. If that lineup works, Flip could turn out to be an awesome sleeper.

[Jack]

I like your frontline, but why, oh why did you choose Antoine Walker?!?! You have some other smart picks...why him?

[Brett]

Two reasons for Antoine Walker:

1- It was the 11th round, not much left.

2- With Shaq and Wade guaranteed to miss 15+ games each this season, 'Toine will have a chance to get some decent stats picking up the scoring slack.

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