Many top options at PG, C in points league draft tiers

In the first ESPN mock draft of the season, the first round featured zero small forwards, one power forward and one shooting guard with four centers and four point guards. Meanwhile, in that same draft, the fourth and eighth rounds were dominated by shooting guards, small forwards and power forwards.

This gives a quick snapshot of the trend we’ve been seeing in recent seasons, where the top of the draft is dominated by point guards and big men while the talent on the wing can be found later in the draft. Information like this is important, because it can help guide the decisions each manager will and should make when building their squads. And that is why the tiers-based approach in this article is useful.

One way to utilize the info might be to put a premium on small forwards in the first few rounds, knowing those are limited commodities.

Another approach might be to identify where the talent for each position is most clustered. For instance, among power forwards, Tier 3 has the largest cluster whereas for small forwards, Tier 5 is deepest. Among centers, Tiers 1 and 2 are deep, but Tier 3 only has a single name. You can utilize this information to build a roadmap for what a successful team might look like.

There are many ways to build a successful team, but all of them require finding strong producers on your team from top to bottom. The following is my breakdown of players into tiers, by position, based upon my preseason projections.

It’s worthwhile for you to see how I break things down, but ultimately you’ll get the most benefit out of taking a few minutes for yourself and breaking down the players into your own tiers based upon your own valuation. You would be shocked how much a little exercise like that can do to prepare you for your draft, and how much this 20-minute exercise could set you apart from the other team managers in your league.

Thoughts on PGs:

Thoughts on SGs:

Thoughts on SFs:

Thoughts on PFs:

Thoughts on Cs:

There’s more than one way to build a champion, but one way to do it is to maximize your value at each position based upon where you’re picking. Keep track of what type of talent might be available at different parts of the draft and watch for the benefits in your team results. You’ll be happy that you did.