Maybe it's a slow news day but I thought I would do a quick write up on the Rising stars draft. Here's the total pool:
| Name | POS | Min | WP48 | PoP48 | Drafted |
| Drummond | C | 986 | 0.35 | 7.8 | 5 |
| Leonard | SF | 896 | 0.256 | 4.9 | 6 |
| Faried | PF | 1431 | 0.242 | 4.5 | 4 |
| Davis | PF | 1021 | 0.198 | 3.1 | 2 |
| Tristan Thompson | PF | 1549 | 0.182 | 2.6 | 12 |
| Vucevic | C | 1589 | 0.166 | 2.1 | 14 |
| Parsons | SF | 1805 | 0.158 | 1.8 | 11 |
| Irving | PG | 1344 | 0.135 | 1.1 | 3 |
| Kidd-Gilchrist | SF | 1196 | 0.135 | 1.1 | 15 |
| Walker | PG | 1668 | 0.088 | -0.3 | 19 |
| Barnes | SF | 1226 | 0.088 | -0.3 | 9 |
| Lillard | PG | 1890 | 0.075 | -0.7 | 1 |
| Klay Thompson | SG | 1714 | 0.059 | -1.2 | 7 |
| Beal | SG | 1273 | 0.055 | -1.4 | 8 |
| Rubio | PG | 518 | 0.05 | -1.5 | 10 |
| Knight | SG | 1585 | 0.046 | -1.6 | 16 |
| Shved | SG | 1154 | 0.044 | -1.7 | 20 |
| Thomas | PG | 1140 | 0.025 | -2.3 | 18 |
| Zeller | C | 1235 | -0.016 | -3.6 | 17 |
| Waiters | SG | 1223 | -0.042 | -4.4 | 13 |
Giving these teams:
| Team Chuck | Team Shaq | ||
| Player | PoP48 | Player | PoP48 |
| Davis | 3.1 | Lillard | -0.7 |
| Faried | 4.5 | Irving | 1.1 |
| Leonard | 4.9 | Drummond | 7.8 |
| Beal | -1.4 | K Thompson | -1.2 |
| Rubio | -1.5 | Barnes | -0.3 |
| T Thompson | 2.6 | Parsons | 1.8 |
| Vucevic | 2.1 | Waiters | -4.4 |
| Knight | -1.6 | Kidd-Gilchrist | 1.1 |
| Thomas | -2.3 | Zeller | -3.6 |
| Shved | -1.7 | Walker | -0.3 |
| Avg | 0.87 | Avg | 0.13 |
My initial impressions:
- Under no circumstances should an NBA team ever (EVER) let Chuck or Shaq anywhere near their draft board, because.. holy hell. I like Lillard, but drafting him first instead of Drummond or Davis is just plain BAT. SHIT. INSANE. For that matter, taking him over Irving is WHAT. THE. HELL.
- The guards in this pool are terrible. There's Irving and Walker, and not much else. I wonder if any of the SFs will play shooting guard?
- On paper, I'd think that Chuck's team would destroy Shaq, because Shaq isn't likely to play Drummond anywhere near as much as Chuck will play Davis and Faried.
- On the other hand, much of why the bad players here are bad is because of turnovers. But turnovers won't be that big a deal until the fourth quarter, because until then, no one's going to be playing defense. Guys like Faried and Leonard are not likely to be nearly as impactful as they would be in a "real" game. Furthermore, Shaq also isn't likely to play Waiters or Zeller much, both of whom really skew his average player's PoP.
- WTF Damien Lillard first? REALLY? Lolz.