The second round has come to a conclusion, and I'm certain when I say that nobody escaped without making some form of a mistake. If you held on to all members of the Pacers AND Timberwolves, give yourself a pat on the back. I'm sure someone out there can say they did this. There are literally dozens of you. Dozens! If you held on to even just one of these two teams, you deserve a huge kudos. I'm not speaking about the players who panic picked from the team they thought would win (myself included with Brunson). I'm speaking about those genuine Pacer or Wolves believers who had one (or both) of them all the way until the end. You are now the favourites to win this whole thing.
For the majority of us, it's going to be tough. Especially if you also picked some Mavericks. We're going to be picking a few bench players and hoping for the best. If your league does not have a round multiplier, don't be afraid to pick some of your stronger players now. Injuries happen, and when they do other players step up and become more pickable. Save the best of the best (e.g. Tatum) for the end, but don't be afraid to grab someone like Jaylen Brown earlier, for example.
I fully expect Boston to win this series. I'll go with 5 games, with Indiana winning Game 2 on some unexpected hot shooting. This has happened both series against Boston, so let's make it three! Kristaps Porzingis will be out for the start of the Eastern Conference Finals. This is a good time to pick the Forwards and Centers from Boston before he comes back. If Boston plays Minnesota in the Finals, do you really want to pick the guys covered by Gobert and KAT? I'll be starting with Al Horford and going from there.
Dallas vs Minnesota should be the closer series. Minnesota is probably the favourite, but Dallas should not be counted out. Dallas is getting key contributions from their bench and 3rd-5th starters, and are no longer the two player team they were last season. If the series is close, don't be left without picking the big players from each squad. You might have already picked them from Minnesota, so you likely will just be picking a variety of Mavericks early and often.
Top picks from each team:
Boston
- Jayson Tatum
- Jaylen Brown
- Al Horford
- Jrue Holiday
- Derrick White
- Kristaps Porzingis (if healthy)
- Payton Pritchard (iff)
- Luke Kornet (iffy)
Indiana
- Tyrese Haliburton
- Pascal Siakam
- Myles Turner
- Andrew Nembhard
- Aaron Nesmith
- T.J. McConnell
- Obi Toppin (iffy)
- Ben Sheppard (iffy)
Minnesota
- Anthony Edwards
- Karl-Anthony Towns
- Rudy Gobert
- Mike Conley Jr
- Jaden McDaniels
- Naz Reid
- Nickeil Alexander-Walker (iffy)
Dallas
- Luka Doncic
- Kyrie Irving
- P.J. Washington
- Derrick Jones Jr
- Dereck Lively II
- Daniel Gafford
- Josh Green (iffy)
Who do you have winning?
Not just BOS bigs but also IND bigs, while KP is out. I'm saving Horford for G2 or G3. Knowing how fragile and at the same crucial KP is, I would recommend Boston to just hold him until the Finals. I believe they can handle the Pacers even without KP. Besides, Carlisle knows KP's weaknesses at should have plans already on how Turner and Siakam can handle KP.
ReplyDeleteMy pick for G1 is Derrick White, who in the absence of KP should have more boards to his name.
Mike Conley for WCF G1.
got brown tonight McDaniels tomorow
ReplyDeleteI want to save as many Celtics players as I can for the finals. I've already picked Hali, Siakam, Turner and McConnell from the Pacers, so the best 2 Pacers left for me are Nembhard and Nesmith. I'll pick them at home in G3 and G4. Starting with Horford tonight before KP returns. In game 2, I'm gonna get White or Jrue.
ReplyDeleteAs for the WCF, I have Conley, McDaniels and Naz from the Wolves, and everyone but Luka from the Mavs. I expect a long series, so I'll probably need to pick 6/7 of remaining 8 rotation players from this series. I'm starting with Kyrie in game 1.
Yesterday was our first off day in more than a month signaling the halfway mark of the playoffs! Unfortunately I'm already done in FP as I'm well over 200 out. The big story has been picking a bunch of players one game before they go off or in Trey Maxey's case one game too late!
ReplyDeleteI'm also 200+ pts out of contention, but I guess most of us are in that same area. With 213 players in FPS, my updated objective is get myself in top 100 first. As we have 2 rounds left, we can still get to top50 in a very good showing. Pretty sure some of the top50 have used a lot of Finals players already and will drop off later.
ReplyDeleteFor G2, got Nesmith and McDaniels.
ReplyDeleteLesgo Mavs!
Bad G2 picks, ugh!
ReplyDeleteG3 picks:
Horford while KP is out.
Naz Reid, the Mavs' bane from the trey.
TJ McConnell tonight with Haliburton sidelined. Naz Reid tomorrow
ReplyDeleteWith Celtics and Mavs at 3-0, according to what makes sense is pick from the losing teams Pacers and Wolves. But, I think I already exhausted any decent picks from those teams.
ReplyDeleteAnd so, I will start dipping again into my unused Celtics and Mavs. I only used Derrick White and Horford (steal in G3).
My G3 picks:
Jaylen Brown -- he's been dominant in this series with Pacers. With Mavs having better defenders (#1 since trade deadline) and probably Jones getting the assignement, I don't think Jaylen be at the same freedom in the Mavs series as this Pacers'.
Kyrie Irving -- he is 14-0 on close-out games. That doesn't automatically mean he'll score high, but he should fill the stats sheets.
So in the Finals, I still have Luka, Tatum, KP, Jrue, Lively, Gafford, PJ, Jones :)
Good move on TWolves switching defenses, assigning Antman on Luka, and McDaniels on Kyrie. And KAT's offense arriving in G4.
ReplyDeleteMy G5 pick: Gafford if Lively does not play. Otherwise, Luka.
Edwards has to cover Luka or they have no chance.Gafford tonight I hjave no wolves left worth taking
ReplyDeleteLFG
ReplyDelete