NBA Draft Night: You Have 15 Points To Draft Your Own Squad. Who Ya Got?

In honour of tonight’s NBA draft, let’s do a little revisionist history shall we?

Jamie Mah @grahammah

The NBA draft is a crapshoot. Luck plays a big part in determining a team’s ultimate future. You may think you have the player of the draft, like when Cleveland drafted Andrew Wiggans first overall back in 2014. When in reality, you might have just landed upon the next Rudy Gay. Ouch!

Not picking Joel Embiid hurts, which is why draft night is so fun to watch and revisit.

Zion Williamson is projected to go number 1 overall tonight. He’s a 6'7" power forward with that rare combination of size, speed and athletic ability of which few players have ever had. Think of a modern day version of Charles Barkley. His upside looks tremendous.

** This highlight video of Barkley is awesome.

From there, everything is up in the air. Which is why the draft is so insane as missing upon a player X here of player Y there can cause many a General Manager to lose his or her job.

In the past these mistakes have come to haunt teams for decades. Think Sam Bowie over Michael Jordan in 1984 or Greg Oden over Kevin Durant in 2007. One misstep and your team’s fortunes can be lost to a painful reality.

We just drafted a dud. Fuck!

Therefore, so as to have a little fun with tonight’s endeavour, let’s revisit a bit of draft lore and pick a team for the ages. This pic/draft board comes courtesy of the NBA on TNT Instagram feed.

Let’s see what I can come up with.

First Pick:

Some big heavyweights here to choose from. Ha, Iverson definitely seems out of place. At first I was leaning towards either Shaq or Duncan. Size up front is hard to come by and both are the rare specimens who can control and dominate in the paint. However, as I look further down the field, snatching a point guard looks to be the most obvious choice here. Therefore, it’s down to either Magic or Lebron. Since both are essentially the same type of player, you can’t go wrong here with whoever you choose. I love Magic but it’s hard to not pick Lebron.

Lebron James it is.

Second Pick:

This one is a bit easier. I love Jason Kidd and Isaiah Thomas as both are two of the best point guards to have ever played. Jerry West is the logo and a man who seriously dominated the late 1960’s NBA. But come on, this is definitely a two man race between Durant and Russell. I love Durant, but Russell’s prowesses defensively is hard to ignore. He was essentially Tim Duncan before Tim Duncan. Eleven championships in thirteen years speaks volumes to his talent. Can’t ignore that.

Bill Russell it is.

Third Pick:

Do I really have to explain this one?

Michael Jordan it is.

Fourth Pick:

Okay let’s see here. I have a point guard in Lebron. A shooting guard in MJ. A center in Russell. Now all I need is a small forward and power forward. Rasheed and Bosh are similar in that they can play down low and space the floor. However, I do love Westbrook for his tenacity and his ability to speed up the game. Plus he and Lebron can swap positions if need be.

Westbrook it is.

Fifth Pick:

Out of all the rounds, this is the toughest. I love every player here. Wade is a beast. Allen is lights out. Garnett’s crazy. Pippen is a monster on the defensive end. And Barkley has that big old butt. Defence is what I’m looking for here and with that I either want Pippen or Garnett. If I go with Pippen I’m risking size as I won’t have anyone on my team taller than 6'10". However, in today’s NBA that isn’t such a bad thing. Going with Garnett will provide that size and pairing him with Russell would make this team hard to score on.

Garnett it is. But I don’t feel comfortable with it.

Okay here’s my team.

Russell Westbrook, Michael Jordan, Lebron James, Bill Russell, Kevin Garnett.

We have speed, scoring, passing and tremendous defensive ability. I think we could beat the Raptors.

Now who you got?