As I said earlier, gambitnut is making my picks as of now. And despite the selection of Jack Sikma who was near the top of my list, I know he'll round out a solid team for me.
Cheeks was picked three rounds too low. He was a terrific ballhandler and distributor and he is one of the best defenders at that position ever.
I certainly would have taken Gus Williams over him (and did), and I can think of several guards I'd pick over Cheeks. I won't name them, obviously.
Don't know what you have against Cheeks. His role wasn't to be a scorer, but people are picking Bruce freaking Bowen. This guy could guard anyone and was very intelligent and efficient running an offense. He wasn't a scoring zero, either. He could get to the rim. I could see Cheeks going in the 50s or 60s in a draft like this. Look at the backcourt of Cheeks and Moncrief. I doubt you could pick a better perimeter guard duo than that to disrupt offenses. The incredibly imposing frontline of Duncan and Thurmond allows them to be as aggressive as they want. It's a very good combination and makes my team extremely difficult to score upon - even for the players in top half of the first round.
I'm not a fan of the Bowen pick either, so at least I'm consistent. He'd have been a good late round pick as a situational player, IMO. Moncrief was a better defender than Bowen and a complete player at the offensive end. There's still a lot of those kinds of players undrafted at every position (2-way players). I watched the 76ers in the 70s and 80s a lot. They had a tremendous array of talent, especially from the ABA draft, yet only won the one championship with Moses Malone leading the way. It's not like they didn't have defense in guys like Dr. J, Bobby Jones, and others who've not been drafted yet. My last two picks were teammates on an NBA championship team at a time when nobody repeated. Interestingly, your last two picks were Cunningham and Cheeks; Cunningham was Cheeks' coach in Philly.
The Celtics and Lakers were just better. In fact, if it weren't for Sid the Squid, those Sixers probably would have no titles.
Agreed. Moncrief isn't talked about in the glowing terms a lot of players are, but that should not diminish how fine a player he was. He just played in a small market and on a team that played nellie-ball (only one big on those team stands out). You asked earlier about my pick of Archibald and why his offense is important. In a draft like this, there's no excuse to have a guy out there that you can leave to double team. That's my answer. I didn't particularly pick my bigs with any other criteria but BPA. It is interesting that all three can play high or low post, are outstanding passers, bang the boards on defense, have won NBA titles, but can follow opposing bigs to the 3pt line and defend there if need be.
BTW, found this: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/62422-top-10-nba-point-guards-of-all-time 10. Kevin Johnson Johnson is one of the most underrated guards of all time. In his career, he averaged 18 points per game, nine assists, 3.3 rebounds and 1.5 steals per game. He also shot a great 49.3 percent from the field, and 84 percent from the free-throw line. He was selected to three All-Star teams. He was selected to four All-NBA teams, three of those being second-team selections. He ranks sixth all-time in assists per game, and was also a solid defensive guard. He was also one of the main players on the Suns team that made the Finals in 1993.
Big Frame was supposed to go on the clock at 9:51 PM ET, but I gave him til 8AM rather than 3AM. It's just 9mins before he hits that grace period so I decided to give it to him, and I've been doing that to people who have been close to the 10PM time also...I hope you guys don't mind, I just don't want 9mins to screw him over....
