Monday, August 31, 2009

Niner Basketball Fantasy Draft (1995-Present) Who goes #1?


So I had my fantasy football draft last night. Yes NCAA compliance people, it’s a free league. Me and a bunch of buddies are just playing for bragging rights. The league has become tradition. A yearly occurrence. No rules being broken here.

I love fantasy sports. Making trades, waiver wire pickups and the draft. Draft night may be the best part of it all. So my mind wandered a bit…What if we played fantasy basketball with just 49er mens basketball players?

I took the rosters of every 49er mens basketball team from 1995 to the present. Put every guy in the pool. Keep it mind it’s a standard head-to-head 10 team league. Scoring is done through the following categories (PTS, O-REB, D-REB, AST, STLS, BLKS, TO, FT%, 3PT%, FG%). You start a PG, SG, SF, PF and C

For arguments sake, we use their career stats as the basis for selection. Just pretend they are about to play another season for the 49ers. (Fantasy basketball players value is reliant on their teammates more so than other fantasy sports. So, if a Niner played multiple years here, take the team that had the most success and plug them back to play with those same guys. Make sense?)

Through a complete random drawing, I have the 1st pick…who do I take? I narrow it down to four potentials, Withers, Basden, White or Johnson? Lets break it down…

Career #’s
Curtis Withers
GP MPG PPG FG% 3FG% FT% APG RPG BPG SPG
117 30.3 15.0 45.1 31.0 63.8 1.9 8.9 0.8 1.1
He averaged a double-double his senior year (16pts/11reb). Probably would have averaged close to 20ppg if we didn’t have De’Angelo Alexander on the team. Never blocked a lot of shots and wasn’t the best FT shooter. His FG% suffered in his senior campaign as he tried to extend his game and add that 15-20 foot jumpshot to his arsenal. But as stated above you select the team that had the most success which would have been his junior year when he averaged 18ppg/9rpg. Curt played in my wheelhouse. His junior/senior years were my freshman/sophomore years as a student. I grew to have a man-crush with C-dub. I would obviously love to have him on my fantasy team, but I can’t take him #1 overall.

Eddie Basden
GP MPG PPG FG% 3FG% FT% APG RPG BPG SPG
118 27.2 9.0 49.1 35.2 68.6 2.7 6.5 0.2 2.2
These numbers are deceiving because Eddie was a much improved player his junior and senior years. In those two years he averaged over 12PPG, 7RPG, 3SPG all while shooting a smidge over 50 percent from the field. My worry is he falls into the category of being one of those guys who is a better basketball player than a FANTASY basketball player. We all know Eddie hung his hat on the defensive side of the ball. Other than steals and rebounds defensive stats to jack-squat for my fantasy team. He’s a definite first rounder but not #1 overall.

Rodney White
GP MPG PPG FG% 3FG% FT% APG RPG BPG SPG
28 30.9 18.7 48.7 34.7 71.3 1.5 6.5 0.7 1.2
He is probably the most enticing because the sample size is so small and the ceiling is through the roof.(I always wanted to use the word ceiling in relation to an athlete, it seems that’s all scouts say about prospects) Listen that season he put together in 2000 was phenomenal. Keep in mind he missed 5 games that season. ESPN.com Freshman of the Year! What would have happened if he stayed one, maybe two more years and played with Jobey, Demon and Eddie? Oh, how good it is to dream…

DeMarco Johnson
GP MPG PPG FG% 3FG% FT% APG RPG BPG SPG
119 30.2 16.8 49.2 30.4 74.8 1.2 7.8 0.5 1.1
I never got to see DeMarco play, not even on tape, but numbers don’t lie. I talked to some folks who were around in the late '90s. He was an automatic 18pts 8.5rebs kinda guy his entire career. By his senior season he was averaging 21ppg/9rpg. Good enough for CUSA Player of the Year. He’s 4th on our all-time scoring list. Give me him with Sean Colson (some say DeMarco is why Colson is our all time assist leader, he passed it Johnson and he makes a layup) and a ‘young’ Galen Young and its tough to not take him #1 overall.


So its down to White or Johnson…It’s a win-win either way I go, but with the #1 pick I want consistency. I want the sure thing. I want the guy who will get me pts, rebs, quality FG%, not a liability on the FT%. And I want a guy who dropped 23points in the 2nd round of the NCAA tournament vs. #1 North Carolina to help force overtime and almost topple the Heels. With the #1 pick, I take DeMarco Johnson.

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