Mid-Season Mock Draft

01/31/2011 4:57 AM - 

Contributed by Mike Gallagher and Max Rosenberg

I put together a little 10-man “expert” mock draft with a group of fellows I drafted with back in October to go with a few other guys I know from other leagues. The ground rules of this draft are that it has a laissez faire attitude. Which means there are no restrictions on rosters or activating players. It is also a weekly head-to-head standard eight-cat format. Moreover, drafting hurt players can really do damage to your roster. There were more than a handful of picks that were a bit off and I’m not the type to let them go unnoticed.
This draft was pretty chaotic since about a fifth of the owners were unable to stay within the 45-second pick guidelines. Nonetheless, it was a lot of fun and as always, I feel like I drafted the best team.

Round 1
1. Smitty (Fantasybasketballxtreme.com): Lebron James LeBron’s a beast, but can’t take over KD or CP3
2. Steve Alexander (Rotoworld): Chris Paul Best PG by far. Knee and ankle not enough to scare me away
3. Aaron Bruski (Rotoworld): Kevin Durant Steal!
4. Jamaal Gilbert (Fanball): Kevin Love Whoa! This league doesn’t do bonuses for 20-20
5. Brian Lucero (Fanball/Spursofthemoment.com) Dwyane Wade Unless he wears shades for all games, not a fan this early
6. Ted Ballgame (Fantasybasketballxtreme.com) Derrick Rose Derrick is the man, just not at 6
7. Ken Slight (Basketballmonster): Stephen Curry I’m worried about that perpetually injured ankle
8. Max Rosenberg (Fantasybasketball.com): Amare Stoudemire The recent knee trouble knocks him to about 12 in my book
9. Kevin Roberts (NBAsoup.com): Kobe Bryant Mamba is healthy and looked great today
10.Mike Gallagher (Fantasybasketball.com): Deron Williams A wrist injury is not enough to scare me away from the 3rd best player in fantasy

Best: Kevin Durant at three is silly to me.
Worst: As great as Derrick Rose is right now, he’s not a mid-first pick.
I was very surprised to see guys like Love and Rose come out too soon. Love and Roses too soon? That sounds like something a guy tries on a girl that’s not putting out. Besides those two, I thought it was S.O.P. (standard operating procedure) for most fantasy drafts. I can’t believe I got Deron at 10. It’s only a sprained wrist, not a knee injury. Geez.

Max‘s take: Round one looked similar to those from the beginning of the season with one notable exception. KEVIN LOVE! Taken fourth overall and the point is made that Love is a fantasy monster. Based on his production he is a top-five player and should have been taken as such. The same goes for the Derrick Rose who was rightfully the second PG off the board. Feel I got the best value with Amar’e eighth overall. He has been spectacular and the constant double-doubles mixed with great percentages paired with over two blocks per game make him a first-round pick without question. The pick that seemed the most off was Kobe Bryant at nine as he has not been a top-10 player this season. He showed he can still be a stud Sunday night (41 points) and it would have been weird to see a fantasy draft where Kobe didn’t go in the first round. Great round one overall.

Round 2
1. Gallagher: Dirk Nowitzki Dirk in the 2nd? Sure
2. Roberts: Russell Westbrook Westbrook is for real
3. Rosenberg: Pau Gasol Gasol cooled a bit, but still a great 2nd rounder
4. Slight: Al Horford % stud, but a tad too soon
5. Ballgame: Carmelo Anthony If he goes to NY he will lose slight value
6. Lucero: Dwight Howard Adios FT%! Still a great buy in 2nd half of round 2
7. Gilbert: Steve Nash Pretty safe pick
8. Bruski: Monta Ellis Bruski with back-to-back steals of the round (Durant round 1)
9. Alexander: Raymond Felton FG% falling apart, but besides that he’s near prototypical PG
10. Smitty: Rajon Rondo Personally, hammy, knee, and ankle injuries this season scare me away

Best: Monta Ellis was a no-brainer pick.
Worst: Raymond Felton shot 37% in January. Ruh roh.
This was a pretty safe round on the whole. I didn’t think someone would be privy to how great Al Horford was in the percentage cats and I must say I’m a fan. I really have to hand it to myself, Kevin, Max, Ken, and Ted for resisting on the D-12 train. Still a great pick by Brian even though Monta should have been the pick. I’m not sure if Steve and Jamaal were PG hungry, so it certainly made me feel good about taking Deron Williams. Although I wouldn’t have doubted it even if there were no point guards taken in rounds two and three. Yeah, nothing gets your team off on the right foot in percentages in the second round like Dirk Nowitzki. Love it.

Max: Best value in this round has to be Rajon Rondo with the last choice. The league leader in assists per game is also tops in steals. If his injuries are behind him that is easily the best value pick here. Felton going ahead of Rondo just speaks to how amazing Felton has been this season. No bad value picks, but interesting to see Nash still going ahead of Felton and Rondo as many would put Nash at least tied with those two. Nash’s 53.1% shooting with 11.6 FGA per game does validate the pick however.

Round 3
1. Smitty : Chris Bosh Slow start and hurt the same ankle pretty bad last year
2. Alexander: Josh Smith J-Smoove in the 3rd helps the PG-PG combo (CP3-Felton)
3. Bruski: Tyreke Evans Beware of the plantar fasciitis
4. Gilbert: Joe Johnson People are starting to remember how much of a stud he is lately
5. Lucero: Blake Griffin Dwight and Griffin makes this officially a punted category
6. Ballgame: David Lee After a slow start, he’s putting it together
7. Slight: LaMarcus Aldridge He has truly taken a huge fantasy leap this year
8. Rosenberg: Al Jefferson Not surprised Max took him
9. Roberts: Gerald Wallace Crash still producing D
10. Gallagher: Danny Granger Granger at 30? Wow

Best: I’m trying to avoid making my picks as the “best” but Granger at 30 is absolutely ridiculous.
Worst: Chris Bosh was terrible a couple months ago and he’s the third option on his team.
We’re moving forward here as only two guards were taken in this round. I was surprised to see guys like Aldridge go this soon, although it is completely justified with the way he has been playing. I’m a bit weary of L.A.only because the hip he recently had an MRi on the very same hip tha cost him a season back at Texas. I thought Blake and Tyreke were a bit too soon. All the other picks were spot on though.

Max: My pick got sniped in this round as Brian Lucero took Blake Griffin ahead of me. The fantasy machine known as Blake Griffin is easily third-round value and if he can get more consistency in his FT%, he could go even higher next season. I ended up grabbing Al Jefferson but kicked myself when Mike took Danny Granger at…… 30 overall! This is a huuuuge slide for Granger and was way to low as one would think he should go before Bosh and G-Wallace.

Round 4
1. Gallagher: Rudy Gay The Most Interesting Man in the NBA in the 4th? Stay stealing, my friends
2. Roberts: Brook Lopez Gets some much needed rebound help here…….
3. Rosenberg: Zach Randolph 9 20-20 games in Memphis. Clearly not the same player he was in NY
4. Slight: Dorell Wright To think he went 100 picks later in October. Great pick though
5. Ballgame: Andre Iguodala Achilles will bother him once again
6. Lucero: John Wall Thought someone would take him sooner. This is about right
7. Gilbert: Manu Ginobili Fantastic pick by Mr. Gilbert here. Manu #8 in 8-cat
8. Bruski: Stephen Jackson Bru and the Cap’n, make it happen
9. Alexander: Paul Pierce A bunch of pathological liars in this draft for letting The Truth slip like this
10. Smitty: Tim Duncan He’s not sexy, but the man can still play ball

Best: Manu Ginobili should not have slipped into the late-fourth round.
Worst: Andre Iguodala’s Achilles is probably the second scariest thing in Philly to the Phillies’ rotation.
This was probably the most conservative round of all of them. Obviously I was very excited to get Gay in the fourth round. Usually when a guy that was taken outside of the top 120 in just about every league, like Dorell Wright, and goes this soon it is usually an abomination. I remember when someone traded Chris Shelton and a player for Alex Rodriguez a couple season ago in a baseball league. Yeah, you remember. Wright is not Shelton and Ken made a great pick here.

Max: I capped my “drafting only bigs” strategy (which wasn’t a strategy, as I just took what I thought was best value) by grabbing Zach Randolph. He’s fourth in the league in total rebounds and is one of four 20 and 10 guys in the league (with Boozer sitting at 19.9 ppg). This solidified my PF/C core and I was shocked Brook Lopez was taken before Z-Bo. The biggest surprise was clearly Dorell Wright, with top value going to Duncan/Pierce who are still balling like it’s early 2000’s.

Round 5
1. Smitty : David West He’s boringly consistent and was a nice pick in the 5th
2. Alexander: Andrea Bargnani Anyone who has read a thing I’ve written knows I love this pick
3. Bruski: Andrew Bogut He’s the most talented player on the board, but the DNP factor is scary
4. Gilbert: Carlos Boozer After the Love Fest going Joe Cool, Manu, and Booze makes perfect sense
5. Lucero: Brandon Jennings After killing FT%, Brian might be committing percentage suicide
6. Ballgame: Mike Conley Steals are plummeting and he’s not even in the top 5 for available PG
7. Slight: Chauncey Billups Great pick in the 5th
8. Rosenberg: Kevin Martin The injuries make this about right on Kid-Mart
9. Roberts: Marc Gasol Starting to come around and is best available center
10. Gallagher: Jason Kidd I had to pounce on Kidd at 50

Best: Andrea Bargnani is one of the biggest pieces of fantasy kryptonite in my fantasy rock collection.
Worst: Brandon Jennings is a disaster from the field and only drops five dimes per night.
While Jason Kidd is the butt of several fantasy jokes, I needed a point guard and he was easily the best available while helping me in steals and threes. Plus with Dirk, Granger, Gay, and Deron, I could afford to take the hit in points. This round was kind of odd with a lot of guys with injuries on their 2010-2011 resumes. I really was hoping to land the Italian Stallion over my next pick, but at least I didn’t have to sweat it out for the whole round. Marc Gasol, Kid-Mart, Billups, Boozer, and West were as sound as it gets. I thought Conley and Bogut were a bit too soon.

Max: My favorite picks in this round were Bogut, Boozer and K-Mart. Bogut and Booze are great bigs to build a team around if you didn’t have a big by round 5. While Kevin Martin has been a top-10 shooting guard and was taken as low as round 8 or 9 when drafts were happening in October. He was my first guard and helped give me a super reliable source of threes. Kidd and Billups slipped to this round and there were PG’s that went in round 6 that a fantasy team may be better off with.

Round 6
1. Gallagher: Paul Millsap I needed a big and I love me some Millsap
2. Roberts: Tony Parker Parker flirting with top-30 numbers so far
3. Rosenberg: Jrue Holiday Great pick even though he isn’t lighting it up like he did in 2010
4. Slight: Elton Brand One of the better picks in October and this was nice value, too
5. Ballgame: Antawn Jamison He’s carrying the load on the wing for the Cavs
6. Lucero: Michael Beasley Beasley has been great, but there are some better players on the board
7. Gilbert: Ray Allen Strengthen 3PM without hurting FG%? Check!
8. Bruski: Danilo Gallinari If Melo doesn’t get shipped to MSG, this will be a nice pick
9. Alexander: Wilson Chandler He’s dealing with two minor injuries and should be OK
10. Smitty: Aaron Brooks Another player that I was very curious about. I thought 80-85

Best: Ray Allen is having a huge year and will help 3PM like nobody’s business without hurting FG%.
Worst: Aaron Brooks’ struggles make this a major gamble with so many good player still on the board.
I made the pick for Mr. Roberts and Max took Jrue Holdiay to put a major dent in the PG depth. It was pretty smart since we (including me by taking Kidd at the end of the fifth) knew the PG well would dry up by the time it make it back. I was a bit surprised to see two Knicks go in this round since the two that were selected (Gallo and Chandler) would be the two biggest guys hurt in a Melo deal. Although should either be moved, they’d maintain their value. For what it is worth, I like the Gallo pick more when you consider the two minor injuries.

Max: Mike and I completed our Millsap vs. Jefferson feud as he took Millsap in this round. The standout pick was Michael Beasley who had and average draft position (ADP) on ESPN of 83.6 at the beginning of the season and is seeing a deserved bump. Other guys in this round who saw their ADP jump up were Wilson Chandler and Jrue Holiday while Gallinari and Brooks went much earlier in October. I was shocked to see Brooks go this early (and before Kyle Lowry) but if he regains his shooting stroke this would easily be the steal of round 6. That is, unless Jrue Holiday ever puts everything together, which is looking increasingly unlikely due to fantasy inconsistencies.

Round 7
1. Smitty : Luis Scola Upper-middle class version of David Lee
2. Alexander: Nene This is one of the best picks in the draft right here
3. Bruski: Eric Gordon I love EJ, but a huge gamble with Bogut and Reke on the roster
4. Gilbert: Andre Miller Never gets hurt and Patty Mills hype has subsided
5. Lucero: Kevin Garnett Old guys on playoff teams is a recipe for disaster
6. Ballgame: DeMarcus Cousins Another guy I was curious about. I was thinking like 75-80
7. Slight: Rashard Lewis Great pick if the sore knee doesn’t bother him
8. Rosenberg: D.J. Augustin He and Silas have a nice rapport. I wanted him bad right here
9. Roberts: Baron Davis The director of offensive material in LA like Mel Gibson
10. Gallagher: Andray Blatche I need some D and a center. Done and done

Best: Nene was one of the best picks in this draft. Outstanding.
Worst: Eric Gordon is hurt and in this format it doesn’t pay to stash.
Age is just a number in this round. Andre Miller, Kevin Garnett, and Baron Davis were all taken and the value was certainly there. I seriously can’t believe Doctor A pulled Nene in the 7th round. Maybe I’m biased because I champion percentages. If he didn’t take Nene, I thought Max and Mr. Slight had fantastic picks with Augustin and Lewis, respectively. I knew someone was going to pounce on Chug DMC and, quite frankly, I’m not surprised to see Senor Ballgame have that dubious distinction. I was really happy to add some defense with Blatche and he was the next guy on my list after Nene.

Max: Aaron Bruski of Rotoworld took Eric Gordon here and if he comes back to full force, this is tremendous value. Though he’d have to be able to carry the injured player for a few more weeks it would be well worth it as Gordon is at least a 4th round value player. There were big men to be had in round 6 with Scola, Nene, Garnett and Cousins all getting taken. I don’t know if I’m crazy, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Cousins (20 and 10 in back to back games) ends up being the best of those four by seasons end, which would make him easily the best value in this round. I grabbed Augustin to fill my need for guards and would be starting him at SG, loving his dual eligibility and getting some great assist numbers from that SG spot.

Round 8
1. Gallagher: Darren CollisonPG drying up and hopefully Vogel gives Collison more control
2. Roberts: Lamar Odom Safe pick right here
3. Rosenberg: Devin Harris He’s a huge risk, but has shown the ability to be a nice asset
4. Slight: Jose Calderon Ditto
5. Ballgame: Kyle Lowry I thought he would go later, but no denying he’s been solid
6. Lucero: Vince Carter The anti-Tank Black pick. This has nothing to do with Carter and stealing
7. Gilbert: Luol DengHe’s pretty safe, but his value takes a hit with the next guy
8. Bruski: Joakim Noah Noah, Bogut, Reke, and Gordon as risky as it gets
9. Alexander: Jason Richardson Looks like he’s addressing a need here. Good pick
10. Smitty: Jeff Green He looked like a whole new player this past weekend

Best: Jeff Green is really a great pick here given with how he played this past weekend.
Worst: Vince Carter is getting to old and there’s really no way he is part of their future.
This was another weird round. I like the Odom, Harris, and Green picks here. I like Calderon a bit, but he is just hurt way too much and it’s part of the reason why I spent three of my first eight picks on a point. Question marks are all over the place. Kyle Lowry is a puzzling pick, but he’s been performing at that kind of level to make it a decent pick. He probably would have been there in the round nine or 10 though.
I’m not too sure what to think of J-Rich since every Magic guy has been doing the Cal Norton by saying, “now ya see me, now ya don’t!” Obviously the upside is there and it isn’t a bad pick though. I liked Max taking Devin Harris a bit since he was clearly the best available point guard. I think Jamaal went safe again by going for Deng, but if you watched the game against the Pacers, it seriously looked like the Bulls had two Dengs out there.

Max: Of course Mike grabbed preseason darling Darren Collison who saw a massive drop from his number 39 ADP to getting picked 81st in the midseason pool, yikes! It is possible the coaching change could be good for the growth stunted Pacer youth of Collison, Hibbert and Rush. The best value in this round had to be the last pick with Jeff Green who had a great weekend and could be back to his old self. If he is, his unique skill set of points, rebounds, 3’s and defense makes him a great glue player for any fantasy team. The worst value in this round was Vince Carter who has shown some semblance of offense since joining Phoenix, but not enough for me to draft him this early.

Round 9
1. Smitty :Jonny Flynn Yes, I asked to make sure this wasn’t an auto pick
2. Alexander: Ramon Sessions I did not think he’d go this soon, but best available guy for assist
3. Bruski: Hedo Turkoglu Why are so many Magic players so inconsistent?
4. Gilbert: Channing Frye Frye Guy might as well play for the Magic with his inconsistency
5. Lucero: Emeka Okafor I’ll set the O/U at 71% for Brian’s FT%. Still a nice pick though
6. Ballgame: Tracy McGrady GREAT PICK! Oh wait how many knee injuries does he have?
7. Slight: Tyson Chandler I have a hunch he gets hurt. Check his GP for last 3 seasons
8. Rosenberg: Landry Fields He can’t be a top-5 rookie in this year’s class, can he?
9. Roberts: Rodney Stuckey Terrific pick. Well because I made it for him
10. Gallagher: Wesley Matthews What starts with V and rhymes with Matthew?

Best: Rodney Stuckey should be ready to rock and was a huge steal.
Worst: Jonny Flynn? I haven’t seen a Flynn deprive someone of respect this badly since Larry (I know it‘s Flynt).
Tracy McGrady was an honorable mention in this round since I haven’t seen knee this banged up since my last trip to Atlantic City. I was mildly surprised to see guys like Ramon Sessions and Channing Frye go this early, but they were actually right on time. Lucero and Slight get some credit for getting centers this late (I’ve got something for ‘em later though). Landry Fields has been hot lately, but I thought this was a bit early by a round or two. I seriously can’t believe I was able to pull Wes Matthews this late. He did nothing for a month and he is 61st in eight-cat leagues.

Max: This was a round of guys getting drafted who may have been pickups in October draft leagues with Johnny Flynn, Ramon Sessions, T-Mac, Landry Fields and Wes Matthews all getting taken; players on no one’s radar at season’s beginning, all getting drafted in the top 100. The best value was from Brian Lucero who snaked my top queued player in Emeka Okafor, leaving me to select Landry Fields. Love my pick though as Fields is the league leading guard in total rebounds with 331, a 49 board lead on second place Dwyane Wade.

Round 10
1. Gallagher: Nicolas Batum It’s not Batumor!
2. Roberts: Jason Terry Did the Flight Boys from the Jets steal this from JET?
3. Rosenberg: Andrew Bynum Let’s see how those knees hold up in March and April
4. Slight: Beno Udrih Nobody talks about him, but he produces
5. Ballgame: J.J. Hickson I actually thought he’d be gone by like 75. Nice pick
6. Lucero: Grant Hill Age is just a number
7. Gilbert: Boris Diaw No Tyrus spells “Se magnifique” for the Frenchman
8. Bruski: Ryan Anderson He surprisingly sneaks into the top 100
9. Alexander: Marcin Gortat Lord have Marcin! He’s truly divine
10. Smitty: Roy Hibbert Block party at Roy’s lately. Takes a slice of crazy to take him though

Best: Marcin Gortat has to get the nod here for his ridiculous week. He has a vaulted ceiling in Phoenix.
Worst: Grant Hill not a terrible pick, but he was the worst in this round.
I pulled the shocker of the week by taking my boy Batum. Kidding. I love to be with Batum like a hamburger likes to be with French fries. He’s French, get it? Doctor A took another guy I was preparing to draft in the next round for the fourth time or so and Aaron’s pick of Flyin’ Ryan is looking better by the minute. 25 & 16 with five triples? Wowza. I still like Marcin more than Anderson by the slimmest of margins. Both are absolute must-add guys. Seriously, I’d cut some guys that were taken in the sixth round for either of those fellows. This was a pretty nice round and nobody had a bad pick.

Max: Waiver-wire darling Ryan Anderson went at pick eight in this round and no one can argue, as he has been the 17th overall player the last two weeks according to ESPN’s player rater. Round 10 also saw another huge fall for Roy Hibbert who had an ADP of 89.7 but has fallen off the map. Best value has to go to J.J, Hickson who has explode since Anderson Varajeo went down for the season. Also, a part of Mike died inside when someone not named Mike Gallagher drafted Marcin Gortat.

Round 11
1. Smitty : Troy Murphy Another pick I had to make sure wasn’t auto. Flummoxed. Completely flummoxed.
2. Alexander: Andrei Kirilenko Might have a knot in his back. I better not mention that again
3. Bruski: Nick Young Maybe the calf injury is why he slipped? Or coaching criticism?
4. Gilbert: Darko Milcic Manna From Heaven and Love
5. Lucero: Shawn Marion The Matrix: Regressing
6. Ballgame: George Hill Great pick to handcuff Manu or Parker? Wait. He doesn’t have ‘em?
7. Slight: Jamal Crawford Government funding is needed to determine the drastic climate change of his value
8. Rosenberg: DeMar DeRozan Barbosa could hurt him a bunch and only a scorer
9. Roberts: Daniel Gibson Help lock up some triples and has some nice upside
10. Gallagher: JaVale McGee “Across 110th street, pushers won’t let the junkie go free.” Was fiending to make this pick (at 110. Hopefully you‘ve seen Jackie Brown or heard the song to get the reference)

Best: I hate to toot my own horn, but getting McGee at 110 is absurd. You can find it all in the street!
Worst: Murphy’s Law: If something goes wrong, it’s your fault for drafting him.
Seriously? Troy Murphy? There were a few nice picks in this round including AK-47, Young, and Boobie. Guns, youth, and boobies? Too bad there isn’t a player name Nathaniel MonsterTruck for the ultimate man round. I like the Crawford pick a bit, but he is just a bit too inconsistent for my liking. I wasn’t a fan of Max’s pick with Double-De and thought there were some better upside options out there. Darko isn’t a horrible pick, but he probably would have been there in a round. Blocks are blocks, I guess. Or it’s not as odd as starting a sentence with the word “or.” Huh?

Max: Standouts in round 11 had to be Nick Young the waiver-wire darling and the resurrected Darko Milicic. I liked my pick of DeMar DeRozan who has started to score in bunches and if he can start to contribute in somewhere other than points and FT’s, he could drastically outplay his 11th round value. Also really like McGee in this round as he can single-handedly carry a fantasy team in blocks.

Round 12
1. Gallagher: Serge Ibaka Ibaka by Baby following McGee. Eradication Station right here
2. Roberts: Ty Lawson He holds some nice value after the deadline
3. Rosenberg: Carlos Delfino 5 threes in a game recently makes this an interesting pick
4. Slight: Chuck Hayes Another boring pick. But it’s a nice one. Check the numbers.
5. Ballgame: Brandon Roy Who the heck needs any meniscus anyway?
6. Lucero: Tayshaun Prince Never been a fan of Prince’s
7. Gilbert: Marcus Camby Not bad value this late
8. Bruski: Arron AfflaloAaron picking Arron? Didn’t think he’d play 35 MPG. Value only can go up
9. Alexander: Ben Gordon Maybe someone was watching Pistons @ Knicks?
10. Smitty: Trevor Ariza This might be his best pick

Best: Arron Afflalo was a great value and has one of the highest upsides of any player taken for the remainder of this draft.
Worst: Tayshaun Prince was too boring at this point. Upside is the name of the game here.
These are the types of rounds were people show their true colors. I’ve always been huge proponent of going for upside after round 10 and that’s exactly why I went for Ibaka by Baby. He’s been the 12th-best center in eight-cat and one of the better block contributors in the leagues. I really like Aaron’s pick of Double-A and Jamaal’s pick of Marcus Camby. He probably won’t play as many minutes when he comes back, but it should it close. I wasn’t a fan of the Ben Gordon pick since his recent outburst was a product of Stuckey being out. It was still a decent pick though. I had to make sure the soft drink I was drinking during the time of the draft didn’t have a hallucinogenic in it because Smitty actually made a nice pick with Ariza.

Max: Brandon Roy was finally taken but this may have been virtue of a timeout and him being the highest ranked player. Roy should be a fantasy non-factor for the rest of the season as he attempts to come back from dual knee surgery. Great picks in this round included Ibaka, Camby (great round 12 value if he comes back), Arron Afflalo and grabbing Delfino for me here was great. He has come back from his concussion and looked superb contributing in all stat categories.

Round 13
1. Smitty :O.J. Mayo Sadly, games suspended is not a category
2. Alexander: Greg Monroe Yeah, I’d say he was watching the Pistons. I love this pick
3. Bruski: Jameer Nelson I haven’t seen this many injuries on a team since the Blazers. Still a solid pick
4. Gilbert: Chris Kaman Yeah, no thanks on the Unfrozen Caveman Center
5. Lucero: Mike Dunleavy No Rush certainly helps. We’ll see what my boy George has to say
6. Ballgame: DeJuan Blair There has to be a better big man out there
7. Slight: Amir Johnson Yeah, there was. Nice pick on Amir
8. Rosenberg: Shane Battier Max would take Mr. Battier.
9. Roberts: John Salmons Should be back soon. Should we care though?
10. Gallagher: Wesley Johnson Wesley propaganda still circulating

Best: Amir Johnson. Easily one of the best picks made in this draft. Well played, sir.
Worst: O.J. Mayo: I’d rather take a miracle whip to the back before I draft Mayo. Yuck.
There are a myriad of picks I really don’t like here. I wasn’t a fan of Kaman, Blair, Nelson, and Mayo. Freaking Doctor A took my boy Greg Monroe, but hey at least I drafted him in the October draft. Max took one of the Pick-N-Roll guys by taking Shane Battier in this round. Steal for sure. I’m sure you guys knew I wouldn’t go through a draft without drafting my boy Wesley Johnson. Proper propaganda.

Max: We’re basically at a talent drop off point but there were still come gems to be had. Steven Alexander snagged Greg Monroe for some second half upside while Mike went into the same boat with Wesley Johnson. O.J. Mayo went at first in round 13 and unless he gets traded or moved into the starting five, he should have minimal fantasy impact and should be dropped for a hot free agent. I took Battier as a great defensive stat guy, while DeJuan Blair was the most confusing pick to me with guys like DeAndre Jordan and Kris Humphries still lying around. Interesting to see Chris Kaman go ahead of Jordan as he looks to have locked down that starting center job with both stellar play and a youth movement in Clipper land.

Round 14
1. Gallagher: Randy FoyeLook at his stats from Jan and Feb from 09 and you’ll know why I picked him
2. Roberts: Ersan Ilyasova The Turkish Roller Coaster.
3. Rosenberg: DeAndre Jordan Easily the best big available
4. Slight: James HardenSort of thought he’d be better with Thabo hurt. Oh well.
5. Ballgame: J.R. Smith You know he’s begging for those extra shots when Melo is dealt
6. Lucero: Richard Jefferson How about that 7/8 on Saturday?
7. Gilbert: Corey Maggette Moons (0.0 stats) over my hammy at some point
8. Bruski: Josh McRoberts Maybe Mr. Vogel takes a likely to McBob
9. Alexander: Anthony Morrow he was running the point for NJ with Harris hurt. Nice pick
10. Smitty: Gilbert ArenasMr. Irrelevant has been just that lately

Best: DeAndre Jordan is an absolute steal this late. Well done, Max.
Worst: James Harden didn’t even show his upside with Thabo out of the lineup. No thanks.
Upside is the name of the game. The only real upside picks I like in this round are my Randy Foye to go with Ilyasova, Jordan, Smith, McRoberts, Morrow, and Gilbert. Which means I’m not a fan of R-Jeff, Harden, and Maggette.

Max: I grabbed the aforementioned DeAndre Jordan for more blocks power while fliers were taken on hot adds Josh McRoberts, Anthony Morrow, Ersan Ilyasova and Randy Foye. Gilbert Arenas could prove to be the pick of the round if he ever figures out how to play in an Orlando Magic uniform.

Thanks for reading and I hope this helps you evaluate some players.
Don’t worry! I’ll have Waiver Wire Scoops for you on Tuesday. Biggest fantasy basketball article ever?

Email me at mike@fantasybasketball.com or hit me up on Twitter @MikeSGallagher.Check out Max, too.