Anyways, the 2016 Draft kind of sucked, right? Of all the recent classes to re-draft, it might be the most interesting, since the #1 pick has yet to play a single second of basketball and the consensus best player from it is a 24 year old second rounder from Virginia. I was going to re-draft it myself, just to see what it would look like, but then something interesting happened: I had no idea who to take.
To that end, I enlisted the help of some Twitter people, and last night we all jumped in a google drive document and re-picked the ENTIRE 2016 NBA Draft. Instead of letting people pick for their favorite teams, I randomized every team and assigned them all to my volunteers by a roll of the dice. In the interest of just focusing on the picks, there were no traded picks, and the selections were made with the teams as they were entering last season in question.
Here's what we did. It might be terrible!
First Round
1. Philadelphia 76ers: Ben Simmons- F
1. Philadelphia 76ers: Ben Simmons- F
2. LA Lakers: Thon Maker- C
3. Boston Celtics: Jaylen Brown- F
4. Phoenix Suns: Marquese Chriss- F
5. Minnesota Timberwolves: Malcolm Brogdon- G
6. New Orleans Pelicans: Jamal Murray- G
7. Denver Nuggets- Brandon Ingram- F
8. Sacramento Kings- Skal Labissiere- C
9. Toronto Raptors- Juan Hernangomez- F
10. Milwaukee Bucks- Guerschon Yabusele- F
11. Orlando Magic- Caris LeVert- G
12. Utah Jazz- Dragan Bender- F
13. Phoenix Suns- Taurean Prince- F
14. Chicago Bulls- Patrick McCaw- G
15. Denver Nuggets- Domantas Sabonis- C
16. Boston Celtics- Ivica Zubac- C
17. Memphis Grizzlies- Derrick Jones Jr- F
18. Detroit Pistons- Buddy Hield- G
19. Denver Nuggets- Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot- G
20. Indiana Pacers- Yogi Ferrell- G
21. Atlanta Hawks- DeAndre' Bembry- G
22. Charlotte Hornets- Tyler Ulis- G
23. Boston Celtics- Ante Zizic- C
24. Philadelphia 76ers- Wade Baldwin IV- G
25. LA Clippers- Jakob Poeltl- C
26. Philadelphia 76ers- Furkan Korkmaz- G
27. Toronto Raptors- Pascal Siakam- F
28. Phoenix Suns- Dejounte Murray- G
29. San Antonio Spurs- Georgios Papagiannis- C
30. Golden State Warriors- Kris Dunn- G
Not a surprise to see guys like Ingram, Dunn, and Sabonis drop, but a big shock to me was Jakob Poeltl, a top 10 pick in real life who played very well in limited minutes for the a playoff team, fall so far. He's not exactly the most exciting guy in this class, I understand, but he'll be around for awhile.
Second Round
31. Boston Celtics- Dorian-Finney Smith- F
32. LA Lakers- Malik Beasley- G
33. LA Clippers- Paul Zipser- F
34. Phoenix Suns- Damian Jones- C
35. Boston Celtics- Deyonta Davis- F
36. Milwaukee Bucks- Shawn Long- C
37. Houston Rockets- Chinanu Onuaku- C
38. Milwaukee Bucks- Denzel Valentine- G
39. New Orleans Pelicans- Demetrius Jackson- G
40. New Orleans Pelicans- Wayne Selden- G
41. Orlando Magic- David Nwaba- G
42. Utah Jazz- Gary Payton II- G
43. Houston Rockets- Zhou Qi- F
44. Atlanta Hawks- Henry Ellenson- C
45. Boston Celtics- Malachi Richardson- G
46. Dallas Mavericks- Cheick Diallo- C
47. Orlando Magic- Jake Layman- F
48. Chicago Bulls- Troy Williams- F
49. Detroit Pistons- Brice Johnson- C
50. Indiana Pacers- Joel Bolomboy- F
51. Boston Celtics- Petr Cornelie- F
52. Utah Jazz- Abdel Nader- F
53. Denver Nuggets- Stephen Zimmerman- C
54. Atlanta Hawks- Kay Felder- G
55. Brooklyn Nets- Isaiah Whitehead- G
56. Denver Nuggets- Ron Baker- G
57. Memphis Grizzlies- Diamond Stone- C
58. Boston Celtics- Isaia Cordinier- G
59. Sacramento Kings- Fred VanVleet- G
60. Utah Jazz- Bryn Forbes- G
I won't pretend like most of the foreign guys taken in the second round were me trying to stabilize things when they were getting a little out of hand. Also really interesting to me that most of the undrafted players went in Round 1, and most of the long-term projects went in Round 2. Malachi Richardson was overdrafted, anyway.
Thanks to @thom_not_tom, @RetepAdam, @NBAtalkcb, @alexanderflam, @ShafftyBro and @PoarchDaniel for taking like three hours to do this dumb shit
Thanks to @thom_not_tom, @RetepAdam, @NBAtalkcb, @alexanderflam, @ShafftyBro and @PoarchDaniel for taking like three hours to do this dumb shit
