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Just completed my first fantasy basketball draft, put up $40 to play/lose with some friends.

Overall, I really like this team. One of my keys is that I focus a little more on rank than Yahoo’s O-Rank. O-Rank is the 3 year history from the past, so it’s more stable in terms of assessing a player. But I say look at last year’s rank heavily as well. For example, Mike Dunleavy was ranked 20th last year and most people take him in the 40’s. Assuming you don’t think he’s a fluke (I don’t), you can get a lot of value by getting him.

I got rode for picking David Lee 61st, but last year that’s exactly what he was ranked- plus he’s going to be a starter this year (switching between both positions) and playing heavy minutes. So, if he were to just perform like he did last year, I got exact value, but I expect him to do better, so I think I did fine.

Overall, I focused on value. I think I may end up weak in steals and blocks but feel good about everything else (we’ll have to see once the season starts). This team is going to be pretty efficient, no volume shooters or turnover machines on the team.

I had the 2nd pick overall, which is exactly what I wanted, it was that pattern I wanted because I felt I could get some good picks in the 18-22 range that others didn’t see. I picked a fairly young team, other than Manu, a team I felt has improvement, and as you’ll see if some of them at least meet last year’s numbers, I’m going to be doing well.

Here’s how I picked, with commentary:

10 teams, 10 rounds, 100 players:

• #2 pick (ranked #2 last year), Amare Stoudemire: best center around, plays two positions, no real weaknesses. I expect his stats to continue to improve from last year
• #19 pick (ranked #12 last year), Danny Granger: I thought this was a great value here. A lot of people think he will go up as well, but I’d be happy with last year’s results. I actually wanted a PF here, like Dwight Howard or Al Jefferson, but they went #8 and #13, really surprising me. Someone also took Nash at #7, which amazes me.
• #22 pick (#29 last year), Jose Calderon: now that he’ll be playing 35 minutes per game, I think he’ll have no trouble earning his value, and at worst make up those 7 spots.
• #39 (#24 last year), Rudy Gay: I considered my 4th/5th round picks steals, honestly.
• #42 (#20 last year) Mike Dunleavy: I’ve always been a Dunleavy fan, not that I think he’s so good, just want him to succeed
• #59 (#47 last year) Andris Biedrins: Andris is pretty consistent, I don’t expect him to go that much lower or higher, but I do foresee 11 pts, 11 rebounds, 1-1.5 blocks at 60% shooting and 60% from the line if he can finally get 30-32 minutes per game.
• #61 (#61 last year), David Lee
• #79 (#224 last year, projected as #71 this year by Yahoo!), Randy Foye: this was honestly my toughest pick. There were other good players in this range. Jason Terry was picked 95th, and I was considering him with this pick. Foye is a bit of a risk, but he’s definitely the starter this year, so he will have his chances. He certainly has the talent, and the ability to fill up a lot of stats.
• #82 (#17 last year), Manu Ginobili: this is of course a risk, but from what I’ve read Manu will be back before Christmas, and he’s just worth it, to me. Another thing in getting Manu, was that I didn’t want to have to stress over who was going to pick him on the Free Agent list first. The rest of my team is actually fairly (I have no injury prone Yaos) durable (everyone, please don’t get injured!) so I’m taking the chance I can assume the risk of him on the bench.
• #99 (#76 last year), Francisco Garcia: I didn’t know Garcia was injured until after the draft, but he could be back by mid-Nov, so not too big of a loss. He’s another guy I expect to improve and play starter minutes. He has a lot of skills, and can fill up the stat sheet. Obviously, there a lot of good players still out there, and I was thinking about releasing him, but just not sure who to get.

I think it was awesome that I came down (and got right value) with Rudy Gay, David Lee, and Calderon, as though were the guys I really favored. I got 6 of the top 29 players last year. If everyone plays exactly (not even improve) as they did last year (no crazy injuries of course, Manu comes back before Jan), I have no reason to think I will fin outside of the money (3rd place to get your money back), and I would be happy with that considering I’ve never played.

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