After a long hiatus… Kelder is back baby! Usually I’m focusing on rotations, but given that there’s no games or rotations yet, we’ll go draft for a few weeks. I’m also in September in a heat advisory. It’s HOT and I’m cranky. So we gonna start of negative, got it? No, look, make eye contact. Do. You. Understand? So after a few mocks, and reading lots of stuff, my guys are still in development. But there are a few I certainly do not want at their draft cost. It’s not about the players (well, a little bit), but mainly these are guys being drafted too high for me to get any shares of.
Walker Kessler – I’m not falling for the Laker hype. If you take Kessler where he’s being drafted, you are counting on all of these happening:
- Health
- Big blocks numbers
- Big minutes
- The threes from his five game sample last year carrying over.
This could all come to pass. It probably won’t, not all of it. And if it doesn’t, he doesn’t reach his drafted value.
He’s the classic guy that is going too high to tap into outside, and the floor is so low that he could tank your season. Give me any number of bigs later at a safer spot (Paul Reed, Nic Claxton come to mind).
Josh Giddey – Josh Giddey put up numbers last year. The offense was heliocentric at times, setting him up for the third most touches per game in the league. That will likely change. Norman Powell and Matas Buzelis are worthy of more usage, let alone prized rookie Caleb Wilson. Giddey’s scoring will be less than in the past in Chicago. Rebounding has been a cheat code for Giddey as well, but the young frontcourt in Chicago won’t be as accommodating for Giddey to swoop in and grab loose ball rebounds. If you’re taking Giddey expecting last year’s numbers, you’ll be disappointed.
Lauri Markkanen – Nothing against the player. He’s quite productive when he plays. Trouble is, he’s missed nearly 40 games each of the past two seasons. At nearly 30, asking this guy to be healthy for an entire season is a tall order. I know the Jazz want to win now. Cool. I’m not paying a premium for this injury prone guy. Consider yourself warned.
ROOKIES NOT NAMED BOOZER…
Darryn Peterson: inefficient shooter, not a playmaker, smaller role on a team that wants to win
AJ Dybantsa: fifth option with veterans, not ready to win
Caleb Wilson: sure, but wait till February for the unleashing, teams don’t wanna get a bottom 3 pick.
See what I mean? I think teams will play rookies less in order to avoid the bottom three draft slot. Rookies aren’t winning players, and they’ll sit more than we are used to. I’m gonna sit this class out, regardless of how good last years was. Things have changed,
