http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/basketball/nba/draft/ultimate/draft-results.html Pretty interesting, basically a bunch of writers make teams from an all-time draft and have them go at each other in simulations. The results are surprising.
They apparently ran this in a stats program to see what team would win it. As soon as I saw Lebron as the ppg leader shooting 40% from 3 pt range, you knew it was bs.
Robert Horry was picked before Kevin Durant, Carmelo Anthony, and Vince Carter. I mean, I know he has a lot of rings. But wow.
Remember the other day when people were discussing 'is Nowitski an all-time great?' Just a week after he won his first championship he got passed on 41 times by SI writers.
Keep in mind that drafting for a team. They would have already gotten their superstars in the earlier rounds, and it makes sense to fill in super-role players in the later rounds.
Team Forrester: Shaquille O'Neal / Artis Gilmore Bob Pettit / Elvin Hayes Dominique Wilkins / Kevin Durant Walt Frazier / Tracy McGrady / Joe Johnson Jerry West / Kevin Johnson / Chauncey Billups Very versatile team. I think his team can match up with any other team and still create match up problems.
The team Hakeem wound up on is poorly constructed, somehow he's starting Hakeem, Duncan, Garnett and 2 PG. The guy with MJ picked Wade over Pippen, some of these writers would make horrible GMs.
Hakeem 11th. Respectable by any means for an all time list and all the players in front have a valid reason for being there.
I love this article! Upon looking over the teams, I thought the best team was obvious - Joe Posnanski's team (also one my fav bloggers!). Wilt, Dirk, Julius, Isiah??? With Cooper as the wing defender, prime GHill, VC as the wings, Dhoward as a backup rim defender. Mark Price the sharpshooter... I Love this team! It has everything! I was shocked this team placed 2nd to the Russel, Lebron team placed, but Joe Pos team did win the title! Complete agree with their teams being poorly constructed. Picking Duncan, Hakeem, Garnett with 3 out of the first 4 picks was fine, but by picking 4 small guards in Cousy, Payton, Iverson, Sam Jones, that writer destroyed any chance at building a well rounded team (comparatively). After drafting cousy and KG Dietsch should have drafted sg/forwards with range, such as Reggie Miller, Ray Allen, Ginobli, Gervin or Pierce when they were available, instead of iverson and payton. Totally agree with you, that he should have drafted Pippen over Wade... Wolfe who had the 1st pick made the same mistake as Dietsch IMO, drafting mutliple players at the same position when he still had huge holes to fill. the hell did he draft Wade for, he had MJ! Wade is a horrid complement to MJ as he has no range and is a bad spot up shooter. Wolfe should have drafted.... the following 1. SG MJ 2. C1 Robinson 3. SF Pippen (instead of Wade) 4. PF Nowitzki (instead of cowens) 5. C2 Howard ( instead of Dumars) 6. SG TMac (instead of Nate Thurmond) 7. PG Cp3 8. PG Deron Williams 9. SF Horry This team has the perfect balance of defense, offense, range, rebounders, ball handlers, shooters, off the ball players and all lead by MJ. Starting Jordan, Pippen, Dirk, Robinson, Cp3 or Dwill this team will have 4 3pt shooters on the flr, 5 capable spot up shooters, 1 beast of a finisher in Robinson, 2 unstoppable mid/high post player in MJ & Dirk, and 3 great ball handlers/penetrators. Defensively this team is second to none with Robinson/Howard forming the highly athletic defensive interior core to pair with Dirk (the lone weak link) while Pippen Jordan and CP3 or Dwill serve as the primary and best perimeter unit. Weakness - player guarded by Dirk. No truely elite post up game from bigs. Deitsch should've selected 1. PF Duncan 2. C1 Hakeem 3. PF Garnett 4. SG RMiller (over Cousy) 5. PG Payton 6. SF Pierce (over Iverson) 7.8.9. Mark Price, Mutombo, Durant (over Jones, Hawkins,Lanier) Basically surrond Duncan Hakeen with deadly 3pt shooters in Reggie Miller, PPierce, Durant & Mark Price, with Garnett, Payton & mutombo as the lockdown defensive 2nd unit. With a rotation of Hakeem, Duncan, Garnett and mutombo, this team would dominate the paint, offensively and defensively. Pierce, Reggie, Price and Durant would complement with four of the deadliest shooters in the NBA. Weakness - lack of elite penetrator . lack of elite perimeter wing defender.
One thing that shocked me was how soon Bosh went. The thing is, this draft is by the players prime. Therefore, Wade over Pippen makes sense individually but still not for the fit of the team. If you go by prime I don't think Bill Russell should be in the first round. T-Mac should have gone earlier too, IMO
Mutumbo should have gone earlier than 87. He was a defensive monster in his prime and could have anchored any team's low post d.
The funny part is, the dude who drafted Hakeem is the same dude who drafted Duncan, so it's essentially like they were picked at the same time, since the guy had two picks back to back (a la the snake style draft).
I bought this magazine the other day on eBay. Made me very happy when it came in. I think that Dietsch's team would win it all in real basketball. Put in a line-up of Hakeem, Duncan, KG, Cousy, and Gary Payton. That is an insanely good defensive team. They could keep the original Dream Team to 70 points. By the way, Michael Jordan was asked who he'd pick first in this same type of game. He picked Hakeem, even over himself.
