Wow...I am amazed! When we set up this mock draft thing I expected to get five or six GM's, maybe ten if we got lucky. We got thirty one! I guess I shouldn't be surprised at anything at Blazersedge anymore. Way to show up...and thanks!
Obviously that's more GM's than there are teams but don't despair. (XarXar, ZenBowl, Fatty, DrCoffee, and Fromagnon got left out.) We're actually going to run this again the week right before the draft and we'll get those we missed this time then. Also if you're in a position where you don't have a great pick this time (like Dallas) we'll try and get you up in the lottery next time.
If for any reason you can't fulfill your role as GM let me know right away and I'll sub in one of these guys.
This is the draft order. The GM's name follows each team. These were determined randomly. I have revised the original idea slightly...we are also doing the first seven picks of the second round, down to Portland's first second round pick. Make sure you check for multiple picks for your team on the list.
- Portland (popular vote)
- Seattle JMBlazerfan
- Atlanta RustyBlog
- Memphis Blazerholic
- Boston DropstepJ
- Milwaukee Gamesink
- Minnesota MattD
- Charlotte BlackTerritory
- Chicago JUnit3123
- Sacramento Nrefvem
- Atlanta RustyBlog
- Philadelphia RockingHarder
- New Orleans GoonerLuke
- L.A. Clippers Champs2009
- Detroit Dougall5505
- Washington Wegotjs
- New Jersey Archemed
- Golden State EngineerScotty
- L.A. Lakers MatthewCC
- Miami Myemic23
- Philadelphia RockingHarder
- Charlotte Earl
- New York BerryGraham
- Phoenix JKSnake99
- Utah TrailTime
- Houston TSE
- Detroit Dougall5505
- San Antonio Gavin
- Phoenix JKSnake99
- Philadelphia RockingHarder
- Seattle JMBlazerfan
- Boston DropstepJ
- San Antonio Gavin
- Dallas PortersPal
- Seattle JMBlazerfan
- Golden State EngineerScotty
- Portland (popular vote)
--Dave (blazersub@yahoo.com)
Here are the procedures for the mock draft.
--The draft will officially begin around midnight on Sunday night/Monday morning with the popular vote for the #1 pick. That vote will close at noon at which time the rest of the draft will commence.
--I will notify each GM when they are on the clock. There is no real clock and you don't have to be sitting right by the computer but it would help if you checked your e-mail somewhere around the time when you're scheduled to pick. We can wait a while but we can't wait an entire day for each pick. Probably the first 12 picks or so will be done by Monday evening with the balance hopefully coming throughout the day Tuesday.
--GM's will submit their picks to me via e-mail and I will modify the Mock Draft Post accordingly. Along with your pick give us a brief (one or two sentence) explanation of why you picked your guy, as if you were being interviewed by the media.
--GM's should try to look out for the best interests of their team. This means at a minimum knowing who's already on the roster and at least a little about the draft prospects. Whether you draft for need or best player available is up to you. Seriously, though, spend 20-30 minutes looking over your team and the draft prospects this weekend to make this the best draft it can be. The Blazersedge draft board is here. You may also find the various mock drafts around the 'net helpful.
--To encourage good drafting we're going to have a popular vote after we're finished for Executive of the Draft...the winner being the person fans think helped their team most. Of course people will probably be commenting as we go so you can get a good idea of what people think of your talent-scoping abilities in real time.
IMPORTANT GUIDELINES ON TRADES:
Trades will be possible but they will also be limited. The tendency is already going to be to treat this like a fantasy league, which it's not supposed to be. Trades are fun and make you feel excited and like you've done something. But real GM's don't trade on that basis. What's worse, we have a semi-unrealistic model fresh in our minds. When Michael Jordan started sticking his tongue out and dunking every hack kid on playgrounds from Maine to Hawaii started doing the same with ridiculous results. Kevin Pritchard is our Michael Jordan. But you're not Kevin Pritchard. And even he's not going to pull off a record number of trades every draft. I can see the handwriting on the wall from here and if we don't limit trades this is going to be 95% mock and only 5% draft and the end results will be useless mush. Thus the following:
--No GM worth his salt will trade for a draft pick without knowing what player will be there. Trading for #5 is very, very stupid if the guy you want goes to the team at #4. You may negotiate all you want and agree on trades in principle before the draft but no trade will be actually executed until the highest pick involved is on the clock. Furthermore both teams involved in the trade must explain to me why they're doing the trade and what their teams are getting out of it before the trade goes down. (This should be done as soon as the trade is agreed upon in principle. I will let you know pretty much right away whether the trade can go through or not.) For the team trading up, this explanation should include specifically what player you're hoping to get. If that player goes before the pick comes up the trade is automatically void. Again...GM's don't trade for picks they trade for players.
Example: Sacramento and Boston want to exchange picks 10 and 5. They agree to this on Thursday. They must e-mail me and give me the rationale. For Boston this means what players they're getting in exchange for trading down. For Sacramento this would be the one or two players they want with that #5 pick. Providing I agree the trade is reasonable, it is on hold until the #5 pick comes up. If Sacramento's guy is gone, no trade.
--To keep things simple let's try to avoid multi-team swaps. This is where things can really get out of hand. They're rare and impossible to predict in real life so let's leave them alone here.
--You can continue to negotiate trades up until it's your time to pick but I won't accept any after you've been on the clock 15 minutes. At that point you just need to make your pick. (Although there's not really a clock and picks can be made after that we don't want people dawdling for two hours with their pick because they're trying to make a deal.)
--I may reject trades for the following reasons:
- They don't work under cap rules
- They're not balanced for both teams.
- There are too many trades being attempted and I want to preserve the integrity of the draft. In this case I will try to pick a few of the most reasonable trades and I may tell others, "That just won't work."
--In order to trade with someone you need to e-mail me and I will give you their e-mail address. You probably shouldn't plan on talking to every other GM. If you really must trade just target a few trades you think might be reasonable.
In short, trades should be an interesting but also a relatively SMALL part of this process. 85% or more of the teams should just be using their own pick where it stands.
If you have any questions just post them below. Have fun with all of this but also remember that part of the purpose is to come up with something accurate and interesting for our readers, both local and national. Let realism guide you more than big splashes. This will have the side effect of letting you watch the real draft and compare what the actual GM did to your brilliance.
As of this moment the mock draft has begun.
--Dave