5th Annual Ultimate Lineup Builder - Atlantic/Central

[ucfinfan86]

Hoping yourkers15 will post his afterwards, but I wanted to get mine in before the season ended:

Atlantic
PG Frank Baumholtz 2,541,000
PG Everett Case 4,737,115
SG Richie Guerin 13,750,000
SG Sam Jones 3,255,084
SF Elgin Baylor 12,500,000
SF Cliff Hagan 11,343,750
PF Bob Pettit 12,500,000
PF Jamie Pradilla 7,000,000
C Leroy Edwards 3,700,000
C Goga Bitadze 8,208,333
464,718

The Atlantic division is stacked with talent with every team in the division having playoff aspirations. A lot of the guys on rookie deals that made this team the past few years though have received max extensions, making this division a little harder than it was the past. My only locks were Leroy Edwards (cheap) and Pettit (lack of other PF options). At PG it’s hard not to pick Lumpp, but at 21mil it’s very restrictive. Case is having a great year, earned his first all-star appearance and is super cheap. At the other PG spot I have to go with Baumholtz. He’ll give instant offense off the bench. At SG there was a couple of options. Guerin is having a bit of a down year, but I still prefer him over Ramsey, Selvy, Eddie and I just couldn’t afford Toles. At the backup spot I had to go cheap and I like Jones all-around game more than Eddie’s pure scoring. At SF there were really 3 options with Yardley, Baylor and Hagan. Yardley is a bit more expensive than the other 2, so it made the choice pretty easy. All 3 are having fantastic seasons and you can't go wrong picking any of them. PF is pretty easily the weakest position in this division. Locking in Pettit was easy. He’s having an insane season putting up 19-15-3 on 49% shooting. The 2nd spot was really hard to pick. Most teams in the division are using 2 Centers. This was the last spot to fill in and I had about $7.5mil to play with. It came down to either Pradilla or Tarik. Pradilla is the better rebounder and while I'm not a fan of big men who don't block shots, I'll take the better rebounder since Tarik isn't that much better of a rim protector.  At center Edwards was the easy choice on his rookie extension. The 2nd spot came down to Bitadze/Johnston, both of whom were all-stars this year. Both are similar players, but Johnston has the offensive edge, but it was easier to make the lineup work with the $5mil salary difference.  You could do a 2v2 of Bitadze/Pradilla vs Johnston/Felici, both are an equal pairing in my eyes.


Central
PG Trae Young 14,700,833
PG Larry Costello 2,816,584
SG Zion Wade 10,000,000
SG Belus Smawley 2,000,000
SF Paul Arizin 17,500,000
SF Djorde Pazin 2,500,000
PF Willie Naulls 3,042,835
PF Tyler Ringgold 2,500,000
C Clyde Lovellette 16,250,000
C Essome Miyem 8,000,000
689,748

The Central division has by far the least amount of overall talent. The Bottom 3 teams are flat out tanking and not providing very much to choose from. The better teams in the division are mainly relying on expensive players, making it a bad combination. My locks were Arizin, Smawley, and Miyem. There are 3 (4 if you count SGA) very high level PGs, but McGuire and Davies have salaries at over 20mil. The salaries made the decision to choose Young pretty easy. Costello really blossomed this season and was a pretty easy choice for the 2nd spot, especially with the much needed salary savings. He has the makings of one of the next top PGs in the league. At SG, Marshall is again out of the equations at nearly 30mil. His running mate Smawley was an easy choice. He was a great find/development by the Cavs as a G-Leaguer. Beyond that it really came down to Sharman or Wade for the other spot, but with the available options at other positions, I needed the 7mil savings. Raga, Curry, Miki also were in consideration. At SF Arizin hasn’t become too expensive yet and is having his normal 1st team all NBN season. The 2nd spot came down to Puggy Bell vs Djorde Pazin. Both are having pretty similar seasons, similar salary and really came down to Pazin’s superior shooting ability. PF was really tough and I pretty much punted on the position. Barksdale is having an All NBN type season, but at 17.5mil it just wasn’t going to fit. Naulls is averaging a double-double as a sophomore, but doesn’t really have the shot blocking I’d like. Rinngold is good value on his contract, but beyond that there wasn’t really any other options. Vern, Barksdale, Macauley are all expensive and I’d rather spend that money elsewhere. At Center Miyem is a good value at 8mil. I choose Lovellette over Risen and Slim. I would really prefer to have used this money elsewhere (maybe on Barksdale?), but there just wasn’t any low cost center options to make the switch. Overall I don’t feel good about this roster and is one of the weakest ones since we’ve been doing these.

[yourkers15]

atlantic

Edwards(3,700,000)/Biadze(8,208,333)
Pettit(12,500,000)/Felici(2,503,232)
Hagan(11,343,750)/Schaus(5,000,000)
Guerin(13,750,000)/Selvy(13,750,000)
Baumholtz(2,541,000)/Case(4,737,115)
Total: $78,033,430

Overview: This are getting harder as the years go on. Certain players are getting too expensive and the young players have gotten paid. With that said I feel I was still able to put a good roster together. Edwards and Bitadze are the best 2 center per the awards and both are still amazingly cheap so that was an easy choice. Pettit has always been a favorite as he does it all at the PF position. Next to him I went with Felici who is cheap and is a great rebounder. Always good to have your bigs capable of grabbing boards and he does that at a high rate. At SF I went with Hagan who keeps on improving and he took a cheaper than expected contract. The other SF position goes to Schaus who has some amazing letter grades and only gets paid 5 mill a year while also being able to backup at SG. At SG I went with Guerin and Selvy who are both young and still growing and even though they both got paid I was able to fit their contracts in. Last the PG position comes from 2 guys on some of the best contracts. Baumholtz is getting paid so cheaply for a guy who can score 29 a game and Case is a do it all PG who doesn’t turn the ball over. This is one very solid team even without Lumpp on the squad.

Central

Miyem(8,000,000)/Vautier(1,500,000)
Barksdale(17,500,000)/Dyker(2,080,242)
Arizin(17,500,000)Pazin(2,500,000)
Smawley(2,000,000)/Berkovic(2,825,821)
Young(14,700,833)/Costello(2,816,584)
Total:71,423,480

Overview: Went with some G league power. Vautier, smawley, and Pazin show how the G league can be a very productive system. But then there are big names like Young, Arizin, Barksdale who are household names and are award winners and then there is Miyem who is a game changing big who any team would love to have especially at 8 mill a year. Then I went with they youngins who are def standouts and should be productive for years. I love Dyker and feel he is a perfect type of PF to have on your team. Then there is Costello who broke out this year in leading the Hawks back to the playoffs. Lastly there is Berkovic who is on a rebuilding raptors team and looks like the guy they will be building around. His game is continuing to grow and he should be a force in a year or two. I left money on the table but I really like the mix this team has.

[Rog]

Nets $450
Pistons $450

[Rog]

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