Built Ford Tough

I'll just do it like I've done the last two years. I'll post a thread with all the mocks prior to the draft starting. That way everybody can see all the mocks and there is no way that there can be any accusations of cheating, favourtism or anything of that nature. However, if I do have to work or something comes up that night, I will send you my mock to make sure it is fair.

This has been fairly successful for the past two years, so I figured I'd run it again this year. With the draft being 13 days away, I guess it would make sense to post this now. Anybody who has participated in the last two years should know the drill. For anybody who either hasn't been here for the last two years or is just interested in participating this year, well, here is how it works: Rules: 1. Each poster will create a mock draft of the first round only which they will private message to me. Each poster will have until the start of the draft to PM me their mocks. You can edit your mock and send a new one to me whenever, but once the draft begins all submissions are final. 2. Point system: For every correct pick you receive 3 points. For every player 1 pick off you receive 2 points. For every player 2 picks off you receive 1 point. If your mock has a player more than 2 slots away from his draft position you get 0 points for that player. (example below) 3. Each poster will need to private message me the mock that they wish to enter into the competition prior to the start of the draft. I'll try to get a more concrete time once I know my schedule on that day. Despite this, we encourage all of you who wish to post a mock draft to go ahead and do so. Just make sure to message me with the one that you wish to use during the contest. 4. 5 bonus points will be rewarded if you are able to get the entire lottery correct. 5. In the event of a tie, the winner will be whoever gets the most picks exactly correct. Example of scoring system Real Draft Order 1. Kyrie Irving 2. Derrick Williams 3. Enes Kanter 4. Tristan Thompson 5. Jonas Valanciunas 6. Jan Vesely 7. Bismack Biyombo 8. Brandon Knight 9. Kemba Walker 10. Jimmer Freddette You Mock Order 1. Kyrie Irving 3 points 2. Derrick Williams 3 points 3. Brandon Knight 0 points 4. Enes Kanter 2 points 5. Jonas Valanciunas 3 points 6. Kawhi Leonard 0 points 7. Kemba Walker 1 point 8. Tristian Thompson 0 points 9. Alec Burks 0 points 10. Klay Thompson 2 points So if you are interested in signing up, post in this thread to let me know. PS: If anybody has any new ideas that they feel would make this better, feel free to post about them in this thread and if enough people like the idea, we will implement it into this year's contest. Participants BFT Guru DemarDerozanDunk Real Deal Jenneral TheHutch Make It Naaaashty htownborn AboveLegit Simba Check my Stats fish7718 Dash Legacy .50. Previous Top 3 2010 1. Built Ford Tough - 53 points 2. Real Deal - 46 points 3. iMan - 45 points 2011 1. Showtime16 - 33 points 2. Built Ford Tough - 31 points 3. Ecko50100/#HelloBrooklyn - 30 points

To be fair to Durant, he basically couldn't play real defense after picking up his 5th foul because of the risk of fouling out. I agree he isn't a great defender but I wouldn't criticize him too much for his defensive effort in the 4th due to the fact that he was playing with 5 fouls for basically the entire quarter. At that point you are more worried about him staying on the floor than really digging in and being aggressive on defense. But yeah, the Thunder having him on LeBron isn't exactly ideal. He simply can't guard him and if James is aggressive on offense, Durant will be in foul trouble a lot this series given his tendency to reach defensively.

Instead of blaming the Thunder loss on the refs missing a call late, how about blaming the Thunder for digging themselves yet another double digit hole early? You can only rely on this hero comeback stuff so many times before your luck is going to run out.

Remind me where I said it wasn't a foul?

The foul was on the floor, though. He certainly grabbed him, but it was before the shot. Not that it really matters since the Thunder were in the bonus anyways (right?). LeBron is lucky because he was definitely caught napping there.

What the [expletive]? Where was the Scottie Brooks signature Durant 30 foot 3? This is BS.

Is there any doubt that Durant will hit a game winning 3 here?

Why am I not surprised about that last sequence? Seems fitting.

Great play by Wade. With the way they are defending James, I like having him as the screener and using Bosh as the safety valve like they did there. When James has the ball the Thunder are all over him and Bosh doesn't set good enough screens to give him time or space.

That is defintiely off Sefolosha. Miami ball.

I don't know about that last part. The problem is Miami isn't running anything. They are trapping LeBron and forcing the ball out of his hands and the rest of the team is standing around. This stagnates the offense and results in the Heat trying to force some garbage pass that OKC is able to pick off and head the other way. OKC hasn't played that great against the Heat's set defense. It is all the transition opportunities that are a direct result of the Heat's stagnant offense that has allowed them to get back into this game.

Chalmers bailed LeBron out on that terrible pass. Somebody needs to let Westbrook know Chalmers is coming, but he probably wouldn't have heard it anyways, haha.

Lmao at that call. First off it wasn't a block (didn't think it was a charge either) and secondly it was about 5 seconds late.

When OKC is clicking they are scary good. They make it look effortless.

Hearing an OKC crowd chant "ref you suck" is priceless.

Sloan took himself out of the running earlier today, so it is down to Snyder and Shaw.

Ibaka is really bother LeBron when he is looking to finish in the paint. The Heat are getting second chance opportunities when Ibaka comes to help, though, so James needs to keep on attacking.

From everything I've read they plan on drafting for need more than anything else, which means, at least in my opinion, the logical choice would be a big. I can't really see them going for a guard with Stuckey, Knight and Gordon (and even Bynum isn't bad as a 3rd point) and the logical 3's will be gone by then. That makes me think Sullinger, Leonard, Zeller, Henson and the Jonses will be who it comes down to. Sullinger seems pretty redundent with Monroe. I don't really think the two of them fit all that well. A PJ3 and Monroe pairing doesn't really seem to be ideal as they'd be pushed around pretty easily. Terrence Jones doesn't really look to be that good of a fit either, although he makes more sense than PJ3. That leaves Zeller, Henson and Leonard as the most logical choices. Anybody who has read my mocks knows that I like Henson beside Monroe and he is my choice for them, but I can understand if they want to go with Zeller or Leonard and move Monroe to the 4. At the end of the day, I think they pick one of the Carolina bigs or Leonard, assuming they will be focusing on need. All the other logical choices are all guards and that is probably their strong spot.

Durant gets a little of his own medicine on that second foul. Wade is awesome at selling that pump fake.

Either go for a versatile bench player like Draymond Green or just say [expletive] it and go for a high ceiling guy like Tony Wroten or Quincy Miller (if any of them are available). This team is going nowhere anyways, so you might as well take a chance.

If the Thunder insist on having Perkins guard Bosh, Miami really needs to run the offense through Bosh 18 feet from the basket. Perkins has literally no chance of guarding Bosh out there. I like putting LeBron on Durant to start, but the one thing that would worry me about putting Battier on Perkins is Battier's inability to keep Perkins off the glass. LeBron has the bulk and strength to keep Perkins on his back but Battier doesn't. Perkins has gotten a couple of offensive boards and drew a foul because of Battier not being able to keep him off the glass. On the bright side, Perkins is a complete idiot on offense and instead of kicking the ball out after getting an offensive board, he launches a brick at the backboard.

Yup. 4th leading scorer during the Tournament of the Americas with 14.3 per game (Barkley led with 16.3, Malone was second with 14.8 and Drexler was third with 13.8). 4th during the Olympics with 12.9 a game (Barkley again led with 18, MJ was second with 15 and Malone was third with 13). He also shot 63% and 62% respectively.

Not really, at least especially not when it comes to Drexler. He was unquestionably the 2nd best shooting guard of that era. He is just overshadowed because the best 2 guard happened to be Michael Jordan and he got all of the attention. During his prime he averaged 24.3 ppg, 6.8 rpg, 6.2 apg and 2.2 spg on 49% shooting with a 22.6 PER. In the playoffs he averaged 23.4, 7.4, 7.1 and 2.1 on 46% shooting. He also led the Blazers to 2 NBA Finals (89-90 and 91-92) with a WCF appearance inbetween (lost in 6 to the Lakers in 90-91). Mullin wasn't as good, but he was still a lethal scorer in his prime (from 88 to 93 he averaged 25.8 ppg on 52.3% shooting). Of all the players on the team he would be the most out of place (aside from Laettner, obviously) but he was still one of the best scorers of that era. Really though, how many players can you say wouldn't look somewhat out of place next to Jordan, Magic, Bird, Malone and Barkley? Those are 5 of the top 15 players to ever play. I do know what you mean, though, but the only one I can really agree with would be Mullin. Drexler was definitely not out of place as far as I am concerned.

For what it is worth, Rivers isn't working out with any team who is picking after New Orleans. That could be taken two different ways. The first is, obviously, that the Hornets have made him the promise so he doesn't feel the need to work out for any team after them. The other is that a team picking after New Orleans made him the promise and he is just trying to boost his stock further. I think that Rivers is more worried about finding the right fit than being drafted as high as possible, though.