By Josh Cohen
March 25, 2011
ORLANDO -- Part of the reason fantasy sports is so popular is because it allows us to exercise our imagination and be as creative and inventive as possible.
Sure, bragging rights and competitiveness amongst our family, friends and enemies are always at the forefront of why we participate in fantasy leagues. But ultimately, fantasy sports permit us to visualize far-fetched thoughts.
We all, for instance, want to be general managers and be the mastermind behind a championship-caliber assemblage of talent. We want to feel that we possess the inside knowledge to sensibly draft the right set of players.
It’s virtually the same sentiment we have when we play NBA video games that include a franchise draft option. Not only is it an opportunity for you to assess your GM skills, it is also very suspenseful. There is always a budding curiosity as to which player will be drafted next.
Since we all know how entertaining and absorbing it is to participate in drafts in fantasy leagues or in video games, it would probably be even more fascinating if the NBA started over again from scratch and teams had to draft their entire roster.
As a result, like I tend to do, I started analyzing who would be the first overall pick in such a draft? What would be a more imperative facet to each selection: Potential, age or establishment? Would it be more beneficial to focus exclusively on size or would it be better to concentrate on balance?
Since my brainstorm is a “franchise” draft, it would be essential to consider the future when constructing each team. In effect, although Kobe Bryant is indisputably a current top five player in the NBA, would he be worthy of choosing him in the First Round since he is 32 with 15 years of mileage on his legs?
Although, undeniably, Kevin Garnett remains one of the best players in the league, it’s likely he would be taken after younger talents such as LaMarcus Aldridge or Kevin Love.
Although I would have loved to get authentic people involved in this draft, since that would be exceedingly time consuming, I decided to use artificial characters from cartoons and other animations and programming as the general managers.
I decided to include 15 teams (half of what the NBA has) with a total of five rounds. This should provide a glimpse of when certain players would likely be chosen.
Here would be the projected results from a snake-style draft. The number in parenthesis indicates the overall pick the player was selected at.