Your fantasy draft - and you've got pick #5

Hmm, #5, some good players off the board. But has anybody picked a guy who really likes Sprite? No, I'm not talking about Miles Thirst, he's retired. I mean a guy looking for a witness, the one man gang, LeBron James. Dude can score, rebound, and pass the ball. Straight D, the man can steal it and block it as well. But now we're at the point where the top guys you pick have problems that you've got to counteract. You see the TO's - again, as with Kobe in your non-TO leagues, that's aiyight. It's those motherflippin' free throws. 7 for 10 three times a week will kill you. It I doubt it will get any better in '09. (Corresponding Brady Bunch episode emotion - multipart episode where the gang goes to King's Island. You know, that's in Ohio. Isn't that where LeBron plays? Sure he's great and all, but in fantasy hoops, is he really all that? The Brady's are SoCal dudes and dudettes - how psyched are they to go to an amusement park in Cincinnati? I mean, Disneyland is right down the road, why not go there? It's where this young impressionable lad finally became cynical in the world of corporate synergy. I liked the Banana Splits, but that was some weak manufactured drama. Yogi Bear in the plans cylinder. Uh-huh. Although Marcia and Jan running throught the park - that's when you realize, 'hey, when did they get those knockers?" And Greg, dude, you live in Southern California, there's hotness at every corner, do you really have to work that hard to get an Ohio chick who you'll never see again in a day or two? I thought Mr. Something-Suddenly-Came-Up was a babe magnet, but this episode makes me think that the Greg as a loser portrayal in The Brady Bunch Movie was spot on. Casanova of Clinton Way my ass.)

PPG - 30.0
3PG - 1.5
RPG - 7.9
APG - 7.2
SPG - 1.8
BPG - 1.1
TOPG - 3.4
FGAPG -21.9
FG% - 48.4%
FTAPG - 10.3
FT% - 71.2%

30 points per freaking game - that's Peter Griffin sweet. And if you take a look at the Cavs roster (get out your safety goggles) no one else is going to pick up the slack, maybe the Big Z on a good week. Barring injury, all of these numbers are going to hold - good and bad. Sure, you'll get the 30 a game, but those turnovers aren't going to get magically better now that he's passing to Joe Smith for a full year, huh? Oh, and enjoy that 71% free throw shooting. It's going to hound you all year, except for that one week he really turns it on and shoots 49-52 to really piss off the guy you are playing.

See here, LeBron is going to be the first guy taken in the fantasy draft where you have to construct your team to overcome or counteract a weakness. Chris Paul doesn't rebound, but he's not supposed to rebound; it's a gap, but not a weakness. LeBron's FT and TO's are serious holes to dig out of. You are going to want to target specific guys to craft the best team. Personally, I think it's best to have taken LeBron in the middle of the first round - #4, #5, or #6. That way, you'll have less picks in between where you are going an less likelihood of your guy being plucked off the board.

Anyway, in picking with LeBron, you could go the way of having a team with Kobe and gettinga bunch of scorers to go with him. I think Allen Iverson fits quite nicely with James. You'll help your free throws, scoring stays high, steals will be nice. Steve Nash is another decent pick here, too. It's not great, but decent, and either way, you'll have a nice assist tally each week. You're pretty much sunk in turnovers now. And I'd like to see how the Olympics and Heat training camp go, so we know what to do with Dwyane Wade. LeBron and Wade on your team would be nice to tell your friends who aren't in fantasy basketball. May not win you the league, but hey.

All told, LBJ is going to make your team interesting and your draft funky. You've got a lot of different ways to go, but it looks like a best player available type of deal, and get ready to deal during the year. You could change all that, and go with a guy who has somehow fallen to 6th...