NBA Showdown: Building a Custom Team

Today's post is going to be a breakdown into team building. I asked the discord to give me a player to build a team around, and the first answer was Anthony Edwards. So with him as my star, I couldn't pay anyone more points than his 1080 points. Hottest topic in the league right now as he is taking the league and world by storm. So before I start going into my team build and my logic behind it lets go over the roster construction rules.

Team Building Rules: 
You can build your own team out of the cards you have collected. You need to have:
At least 1 player who can play at each position (you'll probably want some bench players as well).
No more than 1 copy of any player.
At most 12 players total (you'll probably want fewer; 10 is a good number).
A total player point value of 5,000 or less, with the 5 most expensive players costing no more than 4,000 points.

Looking at this I like to have teams roster 10 players, averages out to 500 points per player, while the average points per player in the set is 430. Eight man rosters comes out to 625 points per player, and that is just a little too high for me. A twelve man roster is close to 415 points per player, and to me is the perfect way to actually build a team, we all know the last 3-4 players will all be 10 pointers though so i settled on a 10 man team build. 

My perspective on building a team, is I will have my star, and two co stars, yeah that's right Big 3 basketball is back. But in this format, I can get my two other starters to be around the same price, and still bring in a decent 6th man.  So I like to have a better defense than my offense, but having Anthony Edwards, I get the best of both worlds. Looking for co-stars, firstly I went with one of the NBA's other hot topics this season, Rookie of the Year Victor Wembanyama. Now my paint is locked down, and he can provide some nice offensive and rebounding numbers, while having a low offense to drive his cost down. Now as I continued to think, who would fit well as the third star. First I looked at point guards, but then I came across another recent #1 draft pick, Paolo Banchero. Average defense, with a big offensive punch in his chart. 

Now I need to get my next two role player starters. I may have bitten off more than I can chew with the first 3 players costing me 3060 points. My next two highest priced players can only cost 940 points, or 470 points per player. I need a point guard and a small forward. Cheap and playable point guards are not very easy to come across, and I settled on using Memphis Grizzlies guard Marcus Smart. While I do not love this choice, I didn't have a ton of options, and I know I will at least get solid defense at the point of attack out of him. Finally the fifth starter will be Benedict Mathurin of the Indiana Pacers. My other scoring option, and the opposite of the rest of the lineup as he comes with terrible defense. He can score the lights out of the ball and will hopefully benefit from the weaker defensive options. 

Time for the bench, now I have 1000 points for 5 more players and no player can be more than 400 points. My first thought was look at point guards and small forwards, as those would be the positions that I would definitely pull if I got the unfortunate cold marker. I settled on an offensive swing for the fences in Scoot Henderson, and a more reliable defender at small forward in Caleb Martin. 

Now I have to fill in around the edges, guys that most likely will not see the floor. With Paolo being the least expensive star I decided on him being the position I will spend the next most points on, I had to get a Cav, and went with George Niang, not likely to play, but in case of emergency, a 17 or higher roll produces a 9 point quarter. Then I had my sights set on Jordan Hawkins of the New Orleans Pelicans, another low efficiency Boom or Bust offensive player. an 18 or higher roll will have another guy with 9 point quarter chances. He will likely never play and is a great 10 point player. Finally I had 40 points left and went with Bruno Fernando of the Atlanta Hawks, only 10 points, so I have 30 points to spend if I choose. 

Full Team View

So this was my team build, what would you have done different. I think if I did it again, I may not take Wemby and Paolo, and go down a tier to get 3 of them. But I was stuck once I was like let's take some #1 picks and have a ball with it. Markelle Fultz almost made the team as a former #1 pick but it just didn't work out once I went with Scoot Henderson off the bench. 

BONUS TEAM

Anyone that watches the NBA or the drama that follows the NBA saw what happened at Game 4 of the Cavaliers and Celtics game. Donovan Mitchell was announced out with a calf strain, and all energy from the building wasn't quite what it was. Cue up LeBron James and his wife coming to sit courtside and get a tribute video and shout out in the arena during a time out. Social media became abuzz because why else would LeBron be at the game right???? Just kidding, it wasn't mothers day week or anything, and he totally doesn't have a house in Akron, his sole purpose at the game was the tell the Cavs hes coming back again. (full sarcasm) However that sent many people into speculation with the 55 year old will do in free agency this summer. So why not roll with it. What if, What if LeBron wanted to come home one more time and join forces with the young man that was in the boys and girls club in Connecticut many years ago watching him make his "Decision". So in this hypothetical, LeBron does a sign and trade with the Lakers bringing him back to Cleveland, and while I can't play the salary cap game, and only ship out, Caris LeVert, Georges Niang and Jarret Allen, I am playing it by showdown team building rules.

The move then becomes Darius Garland and Jarrett Allen going to the Los Angeles Lakers for LeBron James, and Caris LeVert being shipped off to Dallas, returning Dante Exum and well pretend some draft compensation or something. 

Bench: Cavs keep their current bench, I didn't make any of those moves as they had 5 players that added up to 1000 points

Don't love the bench, as there is really no scoring punch, plus you get basically nothing from your starting point guard, it would make more sense to start Okoro, Merrill or even Porter but that is what I came up with for the fun extra team exercise