This year the NBA changed its annual Rookie-Sophomore game into a "Rising Stars Challenge" where a pool of players would be picked playground style by two "coaches", Shaquille O'neal and Charles Barkley. It was a way to generate some more excitement to an event that's been an afterthought to each All-Star weekend. Fellow writer Igor suggested that we use this opportunity to fill the roles of Shaq and Charles and draft the players ourselves. Obviously i agreed right away and this is what we came up with. Igor won the coin toss and will be in charge of Team Shaq while I am Team Barkley.
Shortly after this was written the NBA added Jeremy Lin and Norris Cole to the roster of available players. Since Igor got the first pick in the actual draft I will be getting it in this supplemental one. And with it I'm taking LINSANITY. Igor will take (be stuck with) Norris Cole.
Igor
With the first pick in the draft I'm going to take Jeremy Lin...ok I'm kidding he's not available but they should somehow include him. Anyways, I'm going to pick the best player (and only allstar) from the field of rookies and sophomores. I wonder who that is? You guessed it! Blake Griffin! His game is built for all-star weekend and he's bound to supply ESPN with a bunch of highlights from this game as well as from Sunday's game. As long as there's no hack-a-Blake he should thrive on Friday night. Side note: It's kind of sad that he's not in the dunk contest this year since the field looks pretty weak and apparently it will be 3 dunks per player where the winner will be determined by fan voting...terrible decision by the NBA.
Luka
I find it amazing how the NBA keeps managing to make the slam-dunk contest worse year after year. If I'm them I just go all the way this year and make the contestants Brian Scalabrine, Luis Scola, Aaron Gray and Gregg Ostertag (he can come out of retirement for this). Who wouldn't watch this? (Everybody). For my pick I'm taking the most exciting point guard from a passing point in the roster of available players.. Ricky Rubio! He's had an amazing year so far (way better than I thought he'd have) and you need a pass-first point guard running the show in any type of all-star game. Also, if you don't think my team is playing Hack-a-Blake then something's wrong with you.
Igor
Yeah, do your Hack-a-Blake and ruin the game for everyone (F you Don Nelson...F you!). That dunk contest would be awesome, but sub in Big Baby instead of Scola. After watching him get stuffed by the rim last year I have my doubts whether he could dunk or not. Good pick with Rubio, but I'm taking the best PG from the pool of players, John Wall. Wall is going to connect with Blake for at least 5 alley-oops and he can also turn it on by being a scorer whenever the team needs him to be. He's increased his assist totals in the last month finally showing us he's the player we were expecting him to be. Wall will finish this game with at least 15 assists.
Luka
Good pick. I think Wall won't want to take off his jersey from this game because for two wonderful hours he won't be a Washington Wizard. With my second pick I'm going to take DeMarcus Cousins who I can see having a monster 20 point 20 rebound game with at least 5 plays that make you say "that guy knows he's getting paid to play a sport right..?". It'll also be nice to see Cousins play with a real point guard (sorry Tyreke).
Igor
If Blair can get 20-20 a few years ago, Cousins probably can too. Next I'm going with less athleticism and more skill and pick Greg Monroe. This guy is one of the more skilled big man passers in the NBA today and is having a beast year overall. As happy as Wall will be without a Wiz jersey, Monroe will be equally as happy without a Pistons jersey. This locks up my starting frontcourt.
Luka
Really like Monroe. Wish he didn't play for a team that seems like they're inventing new ways of losing each night. I'm going to take Paul George with my third pick. He can shoot the three, can catch an alley-oop from Rubio and finish and should be rewarded for having a great second year while playing big minutes for a legit playoff team.
Igor
Well George is in the dunk contest so he could give us a tease as to what he's going to do on Saturday. Kobe Bryant Jr. is my next pick. MarShon Brooks has really impressed me this year with his scoring and passing abilities. His jumper looks like Kobe's and he can explode on any given night (hopefully does for this game). The kid really knows how to play smart basketball and even though he's been slightly sub-par recently (he was injured), I think he will be in form for this game.
Luka
Like most of the New Jersey Nets (other than D-Will who should not be an all-star) I don't really have a strong opinion on Brooks but he's a scorer and in a game of no defense that's always a good thing. I'm taking Kyrie Irving. The current favorite for the rookie of the year award has (just like Rubio) exceeded expectations and has made the Cavs watchable. I don't care that I have 2 point guards now since position doesn't matter in this game and I'm more than willing to go to war (or in this case, a half-hearted battle) with a Rubio-Irving backcourt.
Igor
Irving has greatly exceeded my expectations, I mean he's shooting 50% from the field, 40% from three and 80% from the line. Only a few others are as efficient as him and this is especially impressive since he's a rookie point guard. Now the talent drops off a little bit so I'm going to add in some defense. Landry Fields is my next pick and I think he fits well on this team. He can shoot the three, rebound well for a guard, and I believe he can defend Paul George. Not to make things boring, he also has some hops so expect him to finish a few alley-oops from Wall.
Luka
Fields has been completely rejuvenated by Lin (who hasn't) and is a solid player. To counter I'm going to take Gordon Hayward because he's a shooter who will get plenty of open looks this game and for the unintentional comedy that we'll get from him playing with Cousins. Side-note: anyone who gets drafted by Shaq has already lost. They'll have to spend the entire game pretending to laugh at his labored, bad jokes. I mean has there ever been a case of someone who everyone thought would be good at a certain position (in this case Shaq as a studio guy) only to be terrible at it? (Cut to everyone who voted for Obama trying not to nod (just kidding)).
Igor
Shaq is trying way too hard. He should just make those "I don't give a fuck" jokes like he used to and start speaking more clearly...at least he got rid of that awful beard. I see you're going to play small ball with Hayward at PF. My 6th man will be Brandon Knight (it was gonna be Kemba or Knight but I think Knight's a better 3 point shooter). Anything can happen in this game and if Daniel "Boobie" Gibson can hit 11/20 threes then I don't see why Knight can't do something similar. With this pick I end up having 2 Pistons which is kind of depressing.
Luka
Has Shaq ever been funny though? Other than 'kobe tell me how my ass tastes' (a masterpiece) I feel like he's never been that good. At least you're not Lawrence frank, he has 12 of them. I'm taking Kemba next. He can score and is probably a bit better than what he's shown since he's basically playing with a NBDL team. On that point, why wouldn't the NBA adopt relegation with the last placed team being replaced by the NBDL winner? It would stop tanking and make every game important including Wizards-Bobcats. Are there any downsides?
Igor
That would be interesting but then teams can't just send players down there and pick them up so the way it currently works would need to be changed. Imagine a team makes it to the NBA and there are 2 Warriors players on that team (Warriors are the best at d-league pickups) the Warriors have the rights to those players so they can get them whenever they want, even if they're in the same league. My next pick will be Derrick Williams. I had huge expectations for this guy coming out of college, but unfortunately the Wolves are packed in the front court (are Love and Pekovic the best front court duo in the league?). He's still young and has a good all around game mixed in with crazy athleticism. He's going to produce a few highlights in this game, similar to what we have seen on the Wolves when he actually gets playing time.
Luka
The affiliations would have to be removed but considering that the warriors are basically the only team to use the NBDL to actually develop players, it wouldn't matter. I'm all in on NBA relegation (odds of it actually happening are less than 0%). Williams definitely has talent but like you said can't find minutes in that stacked frontcourt (and Bynum-Gasol, Randolph-Gasol, Chandler-Amare are all better off the top of my head). I'm taking Tiago Splitter who has excelled this year with a Spurs team currently sitting comfortably in second place in the West. Splitter's much improved second year has allowed the Spurs to rest Duncan and although not the most "sexy" pick I think Tiago can have a good game.
Igor
Yeah if they make the D-League their own league then I'm all for that. I was exaggerating with the Wolves front court, but they are playing amazing especially with Pek-Man's recent surge. Tiago has been great this year and I can see him being the starting center for the Spurs in a few years. Popovich has been excellent at developing his young guys into studs so my next pick will have to be Kawhi Leonard. Leonard has been one of the Spurs best perimeter defenders all year (Pops compared him to Bowen, but obviously not as dirty) and he has shown some glimpses of a good offensive game. He's going to be my energy guy off the bench, ready to shut down anyone who's hot on your team (I think he's the best defender from the pool of players).
Luka
Damn. I wanted Leonard. Best defender of the entire group and he's got athleticism. I'll take Evan Turner, not so much for him but because the other two remaining guys leave a lot to be desired. I do feel like Turner can be better than what he's shown thus far though.
Igor
The problem with Turner is that he plays on a well-balanced 76ers squad and needs to ball in his hands to be effective which isn't really possible with Iggy, Holiday, and Lou Williams. I'm going to take Morris with my last pick. He's shown some glimpses as a solid NBA player with his toughness and shooting ability. He's had two great games this past week so maybe this will carry on to the All-Star weekend.
Luka
Never a good sign for Cleveland when your fourth overall pick gets taken last but that is what's happening. So to round off Team Barkley/Luka I am taking Canadian Tristan Thompson. He seems like the type of guy who would have benefited greatly from an extra year at college. I'm not complaining though as I need fouls to use up if Hack-a-Blake is going to work. This has been fun. Hopefully we'll see some defense and/or competitiveness in this game and not the glorified layup drill it has become.
Team Shaq/Igor
PG- John Wall
SG- MarShon Brooks
SF- Landry Fields
PF- Blake Griffin
C- Greg Monroe
PG - Norris Cole
PG/SG- Brandon Knight
PF- Derrick Williams
SG/SF- Kawhi Leonard
PF- Markieff Morris
Team Barkley/Luka
PG - Jeremy Lin
SG - Ricky Rubio
SF - Evan Turner
PF - Paul George
C - DeMarcus Cousins
PG - Kyrie Irving
PG/SG - Kemba Walker
SF - Gordon Hayward
PF - Tristan Thompson
C - Tiago Splitter
Sound off in the comments on who you think would get the win between our two teams.
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Jeremy Lin and Norris Cole were added moments before Shaq and Charles did the draft
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