10-team, 9-cat, Head-to-Head league with 16-round draft. Custom Keeper format, allowing each team to keep max 4 playaz each year, with the penalty that they graduate a round in the draft (e.g. if you picked Kyrie Irving in Round 6 last year [as I did] you can Keep him in Round 5 this year, Round 4 next year, and so on), with a max of 3 "Keeps" for any given player before they must be traded (and contract renews) or dumped back into the FA pool for the draft.
I have a very deep team of solid Keeper options, but I think I have boiled it down to the 5 best, and need to choose between Danilo Gallinari in the 13th round vs. Jrue Holiday in the 14th round for my final Keep. I Kept both guys last year (in 14th and 15th, respectively), so I know them very well, but I'd love to hear some feedback from others out there. Any thoughts?
For Gallinari: For some reason, I'm not hearing much discussion of Gallinari at all in the pre-draft projections. It seems to me his situation is very complicated, considering the major shakeup to the Nuggets roster (adding Iggy, primarily), and the bipolar way in which he played last season. Last year, pre-injury, he was a stud. Top 10 per-game averages, bombing threes and crushing it at the FT line while chipping in a little bit in most areas, with low TOs. It seemed he was having his breakout year, and at the young age of 23, his future was very bright. Then he got hurt, and was absolutely atrocious after the injury, shooting under 40% with way fewer opportunities, and making the worst of them. He was arguably not even rosterable last year in the later part of the season, and I'd say he was the primariy reason I got edged out in the playoffs of my league, when I thought I had the best top-to-bottom roster of anyone. But I couldn't drop him because of Keeper implications. Well, with the addition of Iggy, and last year's addition of JaVale McGee, as well as the breakout/success of Kenneth Faried and the presumed continued development of Ty Lawson, it looks to me like they have a new emphasis on defense (at which Gallo does not excel, obv), and Gallinari could be as low as a third option (Lawson and Iggy) with the scoring load. But then again, Gallinari has played very well so far this preseason, and he's still only 24 years old. . .
For Holiday: Last year was a disappointment, no doubt. He failed to take the next step, and he took a lot of heat for it. But this year he seems to have carved out a huge opportunity, and it appears that Philly has made a commitment to him for the future. Lou Williams and Iggy are gone, so PG minutes are Holiday's to lose (to whom? Royal Ivey!??), and the offense should go through him and Bynum, with maybe an inside-out game (a la Orlando in the Dwight Howard years) kicking it to Nick Young, J-Rich, and Dorell Wright. As far as minutes, I can't see how Jrue wouldn't HAVE to go beyond his 33.8 MPG from last year. So I expect him to have to take on a more significant amount of the scoring load as well, and I think with Andrew Bynum added to the mix, they could develop a sweet combination there. PLUS, Holiday is only 22, and seems to have all of the physical tools, size, and talent to be a dominant PG in the new NBA. He's not as incredibly athletic as guys like D-Rose and Westbrook, obviously, but I'm not sure people remember that just 4 years ago, he was in the mix as the #1 overall high school recruit, practically destined to be a star in the NBA. On the negative side, he apparently has maturity issues, and is saddled with Doug Collins as his coach, who doesn't seem to be the best fit. . . .
Just for some added perspective, here is my full stable of Keeper options for this year, with draft round at the beginning and Keeper years remaining at the end of each name:
1 Al Jefferson 3
1.2 Carmelo Anthony 3
2.3 LaMarcus Aldridge 2
5 Kyrie Irving 3
6 Arron Afflalo 3
6 Nicolas Batum 3
9 Ryan Anderson 3
11 DeMar DeRozan 2
12 Paul George 3
13 Danilo Gallinari 2
14 Jrue Holiday 2
14 Samuel Dalembert 3
I am leaning towards Keeping Kyrie Irving at 5, Ryan Anderson at 9, and Paul George at 12. So it comes down to Gallinari and Jrue.
(I can only Keep Melo at 2 if I Keep Al at 1, and only LMA at 3 if I Keep Al at 1 AND Melo at 2, fyi...)
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