Alright I promised write-ups also. Here they are:
Tier One - well rounded and talented teams that don't really have any holes
16. Instinctive - the most well rounded and best shooting team, with fantastic defense. Competitor for best in show. Built like Scoob's team with better talent at 3 spots (SG/SF/PF), a near miss at C, and a loss at PG. I think I've obviously put some rose-colored glasses on in writeups to try and get my teams some cred, but have almost always been within a couple of the final rank. This may be the best constructed fit team, talent agnostic, in the draft.
Now for my first ever tie in the rankings. I just kept going back and forth and back and forth.
14.5. Scoobus and Frostillicus
Here's the thing: One team has LeBron, shooting at the bigs and wing, 3 majorly negative defenders. One team has 4 plus defenders, none of whom is a hole on offense, but one of whom is Melo. Definitely hoping for Hoodie Melo here, but I'm afraid you're likely to get Alpha Melo because he's the best player on this team. Fortunately, alpha Melo was pretty damn good too, especially in Denver and early on in NY. I love Green and Lowry, so I'm giving you a pretty big edge at every spot except LeBron, who is a big edge of his own. I really like the team construct, and think if Frosty had built a team more cohesively like this it could have been a runaway over everyone.
I couldn't decide. Sorry.
Tier Two - talented teams with flaws
13. Jayrod - Dame is the only guy on this team remotely close to a plus shooter. You think teams have sucked into the paint against Giannis on the Bucks? Wait til you see what happens here. Praying for Dame to carry it through. Tons of problems offensively that I think are being dismissed, and a case where I'd have built the team around Giannis at Center and put any number of great complimentary PFs next to him instead. If I drafted all the SFs taken in this decade, I'd have Iguodala 11th, and his fit on this squad makes it worse.
All that said, there is SO MUCH TALENT here that I can't possibly justify it going much lower, even though a team with Iguodala still somehow has an astronically high "need the ball in my hand" rate, I think they'll mostly figure it out, leaving them the tops of the remaining squads.
12. Yo Mama - another super talented team with Rose, Gasol, AD, and Klay, and Ariza makes a great glue guy (he alone over Iguodala may have bumped up Jayrod's team to the next tier) to bring them together. Flaw? Going to struggle for creation against anyone who can defend Rose (and there are some great wing defenders available with no other wing threats to suck them away). Tons of defense down low and on the wings to cover for Rose, and some great shooting to cover for Rose also. Should be good in transition and in half court.
11. Kev - talented, but not enough defense for me, as Draymond the only great defender and Conley the only other positive. Fit is pretty good here too, with shooting to spot up around a Conley/Jokic dance, plenty of spacing for the big fella even with Green's non-presence, and really high basketball IQ from all but Gallinari (IMO). I'd be excited to watch this team lose in the conference semi's of our draft every year, kind of reminding me of the 7 seconds or less Suns in a lot of ways.
10. Wikkidpissah - Another defensive issue, with weakness at C, PG. Hawyard and Beal are pretty neutral, and Simmons is an absolute monster. Offensively, Simmons is the only weak spot and covered great by all the other four. Hayward shares the ball and is great at everything on offense. Overall, talent level lags the top tier and the solid team construction overcomes the defensive issues for me to put this squad up into the 10 spot.
Third Tier: All have at least one sizable hole to me, be it longevity, fit, a guy in the wrong position, etc. Really difficult tier for me to find separation between the teams, I randomly moved them all around a couple times and then re-evaluated, and this was kind of where I kept ending up near
9. Doug B - Steph Curry is a freakin beast! He's brought down somewhat by Pandemic P and a lack of interior defense or other passing talent, or this team could have been great. Doug appeared not to invest much draft capital here, so I think this is probably a win for ranking. Pretty sure this team can do some track meets and might be the most involved in the most fun games.
8. Timschochet - It all starts with Harden, one of the best players of the decade and one of the best offensive players ever. 2nd best SG of all time? I think so. Best of the 10s too. Ingram and Siakam are great, but dinged for longevity. Same with Adebayo. Kemba would be super fun at the point, and this decade is low key stacked at the position. All in all, it grades out pretty middle of the road across the board for me.
7. Mister CIA - there's probably some homerism for Luka here. But his 3 seasons under the belt already put him in absolutely elite territory, and I'm the guy who drafted Micheal Ray and Petrovic and Noah, so at least I'm consistent. Kevin Durant is my 4th highest rated player of the decade, behind LeBron, Kawhi, and Dirk (who has more all-NBAs and more all-stars and they each have an MVP as well as the same number of all-defensive appearances, by the way). If this team has a great center, it would shoot up the rankings, because fit is really solid. All the players are solid. No giant gaping weaknesses after Nene, should have spacing. But Luka and Randle being so short-lived and DeRozan as a good but not great SG for the era means KD can only carry this squad to a 7.
6. Trader Jake - Well this team will be damn fun out there running. It's reminiscent of the early Lob City Clippers in many ways with its frontcourt as well. The problem keeping this team down? They're going to be run through on defense. It cannot stop anybody. Not a chance. Young has been the single worst defender in the NBA for his career, Blake was never good, McCollum isn't good, and Tatum seems to have been over it since his first or second season. Will be some interesting ball issues too with Tatum/McCollum/Young/Blake all wanting the ball in their hands. Worth noting a penalty, like with Luka, for both Tatum and Young here.
5. ILov80s - WTF is that Markkanen pick? There are tons of undrafted guys who could probably have lifted this team a spot or two. Wall-Booker-Butler would be super fun, and we've seen both Jimmy and Booker do great with real PGs in their careers. Brook can space out, can do a good job at the rim, and had years as a 20 ppg guy in his own right. Clearly no ego about it, as MIL time demonstrates. Markkanen can shoot at least, but just weird choice with no accolades or longevity or real standout skills to bring to the table. Team will definitely score, and will definitely get steals, and perhaps can hold their own enough on D to get some W's. Overall, pretty well-built, but may have the worst player chosen in the decade on the team and no real standouts defensively.
Bottom Tier: These teams have major glaring weaknesses, big longevity issues, and/or have guys so out of position I didn't think it would work
4. Gally - Chris Paul is awesome! He's brought down...see where I'm going here? Worst positional infringements here of the decade, but enough talent to avoid my wtf tier. Josh Smith is not good at SF in the 10s, he's a PF. Al Jefferson is not a PF, he's a C. Mitchell is getting there on longevity but still gets dinged. After typing this out and realizing my love for CP3 could not keep them up higher, I'm bumped this team done another slot. I think it would play absolutely atrociously from a fit perspective. Mitchell and Paul both want the ball. 3 guys REALLY can't shoot, like at all. 2 guys are turnstyles, Drummond is atrocious offensively against these other teams (imagine if Shaq also couldn't overpower anyone or had any touch around the rim and was somehow also a worse FT shooter and also worse on defense?). Literally moved the team down another spot after continuing to evaluate. Sorry Gally. Lots of these guys have talent and all should be on 2010s teams, but the fit is horrid on one together. Even Paul can't fix it. I started the write-up having settled on this squad's talent near the top of the third tier, and ended bumping it all the way down to a different tier. Some things matter in team building, like playing defense, having five guys who fit positionally, having them fit at positions they actually played, having at least some accolades across the decade, having more than 2 guys who could hit the ocean from a boat with their jumper, etc.
3. EYLive - Another squad with basically no defense (Dipo/KP, both of whom seem to have trouble doing so consistently or without injury), and two guys out of position in a major way for the era in Gay and KP, a 4 and 5 respectively, playing alongside Demarcus. Ok shooting, ok defense, never know when Kyrie might bail on the team...offense should be pretty fun to watch with Irving and these guys around, but just came out as a pretty meh overall mixture. Kyrie might be the most overrated PG every by shoe sales figures. There are just too many immensely talented teams ahead, especially if you're going to have multiple guys majorly out of position.
2. Higgins - I mean Westbrook is good. Korver can shoot. But this team doesn't touch the star power of even the other bottom half squads, has almost zero accolades, and in spite of Whiteside's block numbers the guy was awful defensively. So there's 1 plus defender in Ibaka, 2 great shooters, and that's about it. This team's going to get demolished by everyone. Even my worst ranked squad might defeat this one on the back of Embiid.
1. Modogg - Look, I love Embiid. The trash talk and the dominance? Amazing. David Lee was actually really good for a while too, and Luol Deng is one of the only 4 guys I've ever owned a jersey for (Utah DWill, Dirk, Luka, in case you didn't care at all). But this backcourt is so far and away the worst of the decade it's almost funny, but it just ends up being sad. Embiid and Deng will not save this crew on defense. Even with the out of position guys, Lee is the worst defending PF of all 16. Same for both Monta and Lou, neither of whom is a real PG who can run an offense. Embiid may never get the ball to do anything fun anyway.
MVP of the league, and we are saying they are the worst team in the division. Ok...........
