What this is: A best of the Big Ten rundown with a draft gimmick that some people like and some people hate and which happens anyway because the internet cannot win.
RULES
Everyone drafts a team of 8 Big Ten basketball players. Standard serpentine draft. As determined by RANDOM.org the order is:
1. Ace, 2. Alex, 3. Brian, 4. Seth
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| Now sans Dekker/Kaminsky [M.P. King/Madison State Journal] |
ACE: Round 1, Pick 1: Nigel Hayes, F, Wisconsin
I really didn't want the first pick, but since I have it, I'll go with the NBA prospect who'll step up to lead Wisconsin this season. I nearly chose a point guard but the league is so deep at that spot that I couldn't pass up Hayes, who's a matchup nightmare at the four. At 6'8", 235 lbs., he's got great size at the college level, and he's impressively athletic—he can hold up in the post or on the perimeter on defense. He continues to add to his skill level on offense; he averaged over a point per possession on post-ups last year and shot 40% from three after not attempting a single three-pointer as a freshman.
While there are several point guards who could play at an all-conference level this year, Hayes is a potential All-American, and the drop-off between him and the next comparable player—Maryland stretch four Jake Layman—is sizable. Hayes is a plus in just about every aspect: shooting, rebounding, passing, defending, and drawing fouls. It won't be hard to build a team around him.
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[After the JUMP we take bench players in the 2nd round. Seriously!]
ALEX: Round 1, Pick 2: Caris LeVert, SG, Michigan
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| [Upchurch] |
We all know Caris's game fairly well by this point: he's a jack-of-all trades on offense: spotting up off the ball, initiating the offense himself, creating shots in one-on-one situations, distributing out of the pick-and-roll, and he's capable of taking over the game offensively for stretches. His defense is average, though it's certainly easy to see the sky-high potential there. He's the perfect guy to build my theoretical team around - that versatility is nearly unmatched in the Big Ten (Denzel Valentine is the only other guy who comes close).
Something else to consider: in the last two NBA Drafts, only eight seniors were taken in the first round: Doug McDermott, Adreian Payne, Shabazz Napier, C.J. Wilcox, Frank Kaminsky, Jerian Grant, Delon Wright, and Larry Nance. Of those, six (McDermott, Payne, Napier, Kaminsky, Grant, and Wright) played at an All-American level in their senior years - a prerequisite for being rafted that high at that age. With LeVert's decision to return to school for his senior year, he could be a prime candidate to join those six as a senior college star that makes his way into the first round of the draft (where he's currently projected by many). At the very least, it's likely he'll return to his sophomore form with a more experienced supporting cast.
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BRIAN: Round 1, Pick 3: Yogi Ferrell, PG, Indiana
via 247
This isn't a hard case to make. Ferrell was a top-50 player in ORTG last year, played 35 minutes a game, and very solid (23%) usage as he drove the 9th-best offense in the country. Only one team was better in the league last year, and aside from the guy Ace grabbed at the top those guys are all gone. He's a 42% three-point shooter--something I don't have to remind Michigan fans of--and had outstanding assist and TO rates. He is the surest thing at point guard in the league.
Those are the numbers. Watching Ferrell play confirms them. He is silky smooth, lightning quick on both ends of the floor--Indiana's defensive deficiencies are more due to their total lack of post play last year than anything he did on the perimeter. Remember that game where he shut down Nik Stauskas? Yeah. Stauskas didn't let that last but the mere fact that he was enough of a pest to put Stauskas off one game is indicative enough of his ability to stay in front of opposing points and cut off penetration. That's step one in any effective defense.
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SETH: Round 1, Pick 1: A.J. Hammons, C, Purdue
Round 2, Pick 1: Diamond Stone, C, Maryland
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| [Upchurch] |
While I didn't envy Ace's pole position, I really wanted one of Hayes, Yogi or LeVert. Since I'm mad about that, and since I'm not a basketball expert and thus resigned to probably losing this anyway, I'm gonna be a jerk and draft two centers.
Here's the thing: I don't like either of these guys as standalone players. Hammons to date has been a half-effort dude with more potential than exploits after three years. Hammons with his ass on fire, however, is a 7-foot nightmare who can block anything and post up on anybody. His turnovers were a problem, but a lot of those could be attributed to having nowhere to go with the ball, at which point he'd travel or put up an ill-advised shot. Purdue brought in Caleb Swanigan to help; I'm hoping a golden freshman lottery pick standing over his shoulder will do the trick.
So: Diamond Stone, a top 10 national recruit this year, who is already NBA sized, and proved himself a prodigious scorer and rebounder with excellent feet against top prep competition. He can also play some 4. Draft Express has him going 10th, highest among Big Ten players (LeVert is next at 19th). Again, consistent effort is a question mark, and again I'm hoping competition minimizes that and sets me up with 40 minutes of aggregate star play at center in a conference that has none. It also sets me up for certain mockery whenever Valentine and Melo inevitably go off the board in the next two picks.
I am going on record that I don't think Hammons is anything like the 4th best player in the conference, and I think Melo is a better player than his freshman teammate. But there's plenty of point guards in the conference and nobody close to the upside of Hammons and Stone at the 1. Plus, these days your backup center plays 20-25 minutes.
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BRIAN: Round 2, Pick 2: Melo Trimble, PG/SG, Maryland
Team: Yogi Ferrell, PG, Indiana; Melo Trimble, SG, Maryland
Oooooooookay, Seth. You have apparently never watched the basketball. That's cool. For some reason you're not into a 6'3" freshman who has his own friggin' Grantland profile after shooting 41% from 3 and 86% from the line with an enormous FT rate. Trimble could have bounced into the second half of the first round of the most recent NFL draft but decided to come back.
Trimble will be Maryland's point guard this year but for college purposes he's a fine shooting guard; descriptions of his game generally describe him as a combo:
His game in 110 words: With deep range and a decent handle, Trimble is a prototypical combo guard. He leads the Terps in scoring and is a close second to senior Dez Wells in assists. Trimble can get to the foul line with impressive ease, and is leading the nation in made free throws, with 106.
At 6'3" defensive deficiencies I'm taking on are relatively minimal, and the prospect of two high-assists, 40%-from-3 guards is too much to pass up despite the slight duplication in skillsets. More open threes for either guy is death for opponents.
As a bonus, I've got this locked down:
Does he own the best name in college basketball? Undeniably. GET THAT WEAK STUFF OUTTA HERE, YOGI FERRELL.
All name team: secured.
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BiSB: There's no way Melo Trimble would have gone in the first round of the NFL draft.
/remembers the Lions and Raiders exist.
Objection withdrawn.
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ALEX: Round 2, Pick 3: Bronson Koenig, PG, Wisconsin
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| Alex is taking the guy on the left. [Marc Gregor] |
Team: Bronson Koenig (PG, UW), Caris LeVert (SG, UM)
It's really hard to leave Valentine on the board, but I'm comfortable taking a gamble on Koenig, who could blossom into one of the Big Ten's best players with a full season of playing time. When Traevon Jackson went down with an injury last season, Koenig ably stepped into the starting point guard role and outplayed Jackson by a significant margin, eating up the majority of minutes at the one even when Jackson was available. The talent was always there for Koenig (even though he was an average four star from Wisconsin, he reported offers from Duke, North Carolina, and Kansas) and now that he's a junior, it's reasonable to expect him to take a big jump as an upperclassman.
It's easy to shoehorn him as the typically efficient Wisconsin point guard and while he did post an impressive offensive rating in conference play (120.1, tenth-best in the Big Ten), it's easy to wonder how he would perform in a less-restrained system. Koenig boasts good size for the position at a listed 6'4, shot over 40% from three last season on over 150 attempts, and - predictably - maintained a low turnover rate all season. There are a few concerns, namely his low % on two-point attempts and minuscule steal rate (which: Wisconsin), but he's still the best point guard on the board, in my opinion.
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via MSU athletics
ACE: Round 2, Pick 4: Denzel Valentine, SF, Michigan State
Round 3, Pick 1: Derrick Walton, PG, Michigan
Team: Derrick Walton (PG, UM), Denzel Valentine (SF, MSU), Nigel Hayes (PF, UW)
Well, sure, I guess I'll accept this gift. Denzel Valentine may have been entertainingly shaky as an underclassman, but he flourished last year as a point forward with range. Last year he posted a top-ten defensive rebounding rate in the Big Ten, a top-ten assist rate with a very reasonable turnover rate—something that had been a problem for him in years past—and he posted 48/42/83 (2P%/3P%/FT%) shooting splits. It's hard to find many players in the country capable of stuffing the stat sheet like Valentine. He can be the lead ballhandler if the need arises; he can also be very effective cutting off the ball. While he may not be an NBA lottery prospect, he's an extremely valuable college player, and I'm frankly shocked he dropped this far.
To add to this, I'll happily take Derrick Walton as the fourth point guard to come off the board (enjoy filling that extremely critical spot, Seth). While I can see the argument for Koenig stepping into the lead guard role under Bo Ryan, there's so much to like about a healthy Walton getting a delayed second-year breakout under the time-tested duo of Beilein and Jordan. He's a fine distributor, a shockingly good rebounder for a point, and he can run a mean pick-and-roll with Hayes or provide a dangerous spot-up shooting option when Valentine takes control. I can't definitively say I've already won this, but I think I've already won this.
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NEXT TIME ON HOOPS DRAFTAGEDDON: Everyone explains why their guys are open for threes. Brian takes a Northwestern safety.