Who will you be this Halloween?
In my house? With a cosplay-loving 10-year-old daughter whose quest for anime-level realism must be met months in advance? When it comes to our Halloween picks… it’s never too early to start thinking ahead.
If you’re like me (and I hope that only goes this far), for us, deep down, Halloween isn’t your kid’s happiness. That’s the heart of draft season. We think “Halloween” and our pulse starts to beat a little faster.
For me, it got complicated in record time. When I thought of “Halloween,” I began to figure out which version of John Cregan would run.
Good. I admit it. I make use of some imaginary GM characters. After years of practice, I can now navigate the draft that works as multiple mes. And since I usually only manage teams of 5 to 7 teams… I have the experience and luxury of having different “mes” run different teams.
Does this seem a bit annoying? Oh, completely. But so does the competitive fantasy basketball draft. And regardless of your randomness threshold, real operators will come into the draft with more than one worksheet. More than a list of goals, sleep and bust.
If you are in it to win? Long-term? You need a feature. An organizational principle. Stick to that rule when drafts start to get hectic and you’ll have an extra operational tool that other managers can’t reach.
(Example: have you watched the NBA 75 Ultimate Draft? You should for a GM who played a draft to discipline perfection: Quavo. His ethos: drip. Simple, elegant. .. and it secretly carries a lot of strategic significance.. Quavo probably knows that his knowledge of NBA history is only extensive. He is in a room filled with legends and myths. life of the NBA. But by sketching for a quality?
It shows that when you draft to a characteristic, other managers can sense it. Finally, when the days of Quavo’s NBA knowledge sale have clearly passed? The strong contenders have already started tossing his players. Including the single player, Quavo probably doesn’t realize that he absolutely has to make his feature work: Walt Frazier.)
My Editorial Personality
Every Cregan character faces the same core query: who is the main character? Who is my ideal player to build around?
Each of me draws this basic question: Who is my organization? (Because that’s how every Cregan refers to the first acquisition/salary cap: Funds, with the letter “F.”)
To help you see how difficult it is to be the everyday me, and to give you a little bit of thought ahead, I thought I’d give you the full Cregan Fantasy GM menu; His #1 Ideal Overall Snake / Organization $75 salary cap, and End of Round One / Early Two Fund / $55-$65.
Baseline
This guy loves being in the middle and doesn’t like the risk. Make the clearest choice at every opportunity. Not draft to increase. Dislikes players with a glaring weakness, the kind that plunge you into a roto setting. This guy drafts what’s right in front of him because he likes to know what he gets. Find balance in every way. Being unusually cheerful and praising other managers for their choices. Speaking in a “mindful” way too. I don’t hang out with this guy after work.
Ideal overall platform #1: Nikola Jokic (like I said…obviously)
Gettable Platform: The town of Karl-Anthony
Losing PER too far
Still overemphasizing his original obsession with effective evangelist John Hollinger. At one point in his life, it was probably a crime to email Hollinger himself when something went wrong. When he got the answer, he worked hard to play it as good as possible. But he’s not cool. Secretly relieved that Hollinger was hired by the Grizzlies, because that meant asking any more questions was a no-brainer. This guy will show up soon if it means getting a player to shine in an atypical way (block, TS%). You’d think this guy would be a roto-only GM… but he’s won his share in tournaments.
Ideal overall platform #1: Giannis Antetokounmpo
Gettable Platform: Rudy Gobert
Gordon Gecko
Greed is good. Probably the Cregans on this list who have considered committing to a brotherhood. This man is a volume monster. Usually effective. He took and then took some more. Possession of oxen. Attempts to shoot. Looking to get her at every opportunity. Love the players on high speed teams. Ballhogs. Shooting guard. Guard Russell Westbrook to the point of complete existential collapse. Say “I just won this draft” into the draft room after each pick. The only percentage he cares about: Usage rate. And of course this guy kills it in point tournaments… and we hate ourselves for it.
Ideal overall platform #1: Luka Doncic
Gettable Platform: Donovan Mitchell
Bizzaro Cregan
Choose the exact opposite of the person I usually choose. A great way to make sure my different teams don’t get the same picks over and over again. I accept having Bizarro Me run the draft room from time to time as a professional necessity. He kept my analysis from getting too set on its own. He doesn’t understand why other “lovers” buy so much vinyl when everything is so hot these days. He wears the supreme shirt too much. Probably a little Ed Hardy around the edges. He also doesn’t shave as often as I would like.
Ideal overall platform #1: LeBron James
Gettable organization: Jayson Tatum
Obsessed Process (FOR LAND keeper ONLY)
Start going on a drafty night. Play for next year by prioritizing cheap sleepers and sophomores, rookies, and a few adorable, high-priced stars to hang for cheaper holders by the deadline. Was prompted really to draft to win for a change.
Ideal overall platform #1: Evan Mobley
Gettable Platform: Cade Cunningham
Don Nelson
When this guy wears a turtleneck for 30-45 seconds… he really is Don Nelson. And Don Nelson is a mad scientist. He offers the most disruptive strategies. He tries to execute on collision strategies (ie: Small Striker + Per-Game Reversal Defense + Body Mass Index) He drafts with rigorous intensity. He erases the line between genius and instant. We love being Don Nelson. We are Don Nelson. The current Mrs. Cregan sometimes has to show us pictures of our kids to get rid of us.
Ideal overall platform #1: Dejounte Murray
Gettable Platform: Dejounte Murray
Moneyballer
This guy outlines an underrated stat to boost the fantasy championship game. He takes discipline and sticks to his draft board no matter what. Think of Luke Skywalker flying down the Death Star’s trench, right on target with Force-Heavy in focus.
Ideal overall platform #1: (This season) Stephen the curry
Gettable Platform: Damian Lillard
So I’ll end this with a cautionary tale.
Last Halloween, my Moneyballer ran 75% of my draft. He identified one metric I wanted to build my team on: free throw production, volume-adjusted (basically how we create free throw catalogs on Player Rankers). But I underestimated the impact of the season rule changes.
Is Adam Silver’s forbidden belt sagged, twisted, and acting extremely lousy? All in the name of cheap blocking and -1s? It dissipated months of intrigue before the draft.
Moneyballer may never live when built around James Harden, Bradley BealLillard, Jimmy Butler, DeMar DeRozan, Brandon Ingram, Paul George and Kemba Walker.
Last season? This version of Moneyballer must have won all of his tournaments. This season? He’s sitting in a zero gravity chair, listening to Whatnauts and trying to figure out what’s up with this stupid eye massager his kids got him off Amazon.
