2023 Annual JazzFanz Current Players Draft - Round 1: Team I vs. Team J

Team I

PG - Damian Lillard / Chris Paul
SG - Mikal Bridges / Jordan Clarkson
SF - Scottie Barnes / RJ Barrett
PF - Lauri Markkanen / Keegan Murray
C - Myles Turner / Alperen Sengun

Team J

PG - Ja Morant / Cade Cunningham
SG - LaMelo Ball / Devin Vassell
SF - LeBron James / Jonathan Isaac
PF - Evan Mobley / Nic Claxton
C - Kristaps Porzingis / Clint Capela

Voting is based off of how you think the players will perform in the upcoming season.

Team I easily. LaMelo at the 2 is not great, as he plays better with the ball in his hand. Mobley and Porzingis are meh. Lebron is no where near as good as he used to be.

Fosto said:

Team I easily. LaMelo at the 2 is not great, as he plays better with the ball in his hand. Mobley and Porzingis are meh. Lebron is no where near as good as he used to be.

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I would agree with this I feel the same, though you underrate Mobley’s importance considering his defense.

Team J is one of those teams that I need until midseason to evaluate because of injury issues with Melo, Cade and Isaac. I love the way team I's starting lineup compliments each other. That is a lineup that should work really well together on both ends of the court.

Might as well move Cunningham to starting PG. It'll take LBJ about 3 games until he's sick of Morant and just straight kills him.

Everyone is 1) voting for the current emotional favorite, Lauri and 2) ignoring the fact that stars win championships. Don't care what you think about him but LeBron is still a force. And the combo of lamelo LeBron and mobley is just too strong. In a 7 game series with these players I can't see how anyone can bet against LeBron with a straight face.


Oh yeah, zero basketball understanding, that's how. Now I get it.

Team J is weird AF but also very talented.

I voted for them because I think on some weird way it would work. The only bummer is that you're putting two super quick transition guards with an extremely slow front court.

I had to go with team I they don’t have the elitecstar power but I love the fit of their team they almost don’t have any weaknesses

Team I is honestly a really well built team which I value a lot in this exercise. Lillard is also one of the more underrated players around these parts IMO. I think he will have the best season out of anyone on this list. He was freaking amazing last season. Team J has some nice players, and you don't want to bet against Bron, but the fit isn't great and that bench is not very inspiring either.

Shocking to see a LeBron team get blown out.

Ron Mexico said:

Shocking to see a LeBron team get blown out.

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I guess they never heard that "defense wins championships". I thought I put together the best defensive squad in this contest, but everyones looking at it as if all the players on Domino's squad are going to get 30 minutes per game and put up 25 points with 48 minutes and one basketball. Lauri is going to have a tough time scoring on Nic and Mobley, especially for 7 games. I think that 4 position is getting overlooked for their incredible defensive versatility. I can literally send any of Nic, Mobley, or Issac to shutdown their primary scorer and rotate a LaMelo or Ja to guard Dame. I also love how my team of 3 facilitators that can play off-ball cannot fit in with eachother, or that LaMelo can't play the 2 (probably an assumption more than anything from this poster) when a number of his 3's are shot from catch & shoots. Jazzfanz is gonna Jazzfanz and if there's one player people hate in your lineup they are going to oust you for it. Another good one was "Lebron isn't Lebron anymore" lol, the guy just put up damn near 30 ppg at 38 years old... but he's not Lebron anymore because he had a bad conference finals series (which did he really?) hahaha, it is what it is. I never seem to do good in these voting competitions, but it makes sense as I never see eye to eye with posters here.

Domino's got a good defensive squad too, so there is that. If there was a team that was going to blow my team out of the contest in the 1st, i'd prefer it to be his. Bridges, Paul, Turner.. even Barnes is a pretty good defender so there's that. Even though I'm getting blasted via vote I'll double down and say I put a great squad together.

The Fresh Prince said:

I guess they never heard that "defense wins championships". I thought I put together the best defensive squad in this contest, but everyones looking at it as if all the players on Domino's squad are going to put up 25 points with one basketball. lol. Lauri is going to have a tough time scoring on Nic and Mobley, especially for 7 games. I think that 4 position is getting overlooked for their incredible defensive versatility. I can literally send any of Nic, Mobley, or Issac to shutdown their primary scorer and rotate a LaMelo or Ja to guard Dame. I also love how my team of 3 facilitators that can play off-ball cannot fit in with eachother, or that LaMelo can't play the 2 (probably an assumption more than anything from this poster) when a number of his 3's are shot from catch & shoots. Jazzfanz is gonna Jazzfanz. Domino's got a good defensive squad too, so there is that. Bridges, Paul, Turner.. even Barnes is a pretty good defender so there's that. Even though I'm getting blasted via vote (like always) I'll double down and say I put a great squad together.

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You put together a weird team. I get why people are voting hard against you.

You got a good defensive front-court, but a terrible defensive backcourt.

You got a transition based offensive backcourt, but a slow *** frontcourt.

Saint Cy of JFC said:

You put together a weird team. I get why people are voting hard against you.

You got a good defensive front-court, but a terrible defensive backcourt.

You got a transition based offensive backcourt, but a slow *** frontcourt.

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Mobley really isn't that slow though, and Porzingis is as fast as the average center as well. And doesn't Ja play with JJJ and Steven Adams? Last I checked those guys move pretty slow, and Morant plays well with them. Mobley is quicker than both JJJ and Steven Adams, same with Nic Clax. The only big really slow big on my team is Clint Capela.

But could you list me a number of "fast" centers in the league? You can find some decently fast power forwards probably, but there's not going to be a long list of bigs in the league that can move quick.

Ja and LaMelo are average defenders, to say they are terrible sounds very outlandish. They aren't the best, but they definitely aren't the worst. Cade is a decent defender, and Vassell is a solid, good defender. Again, my backcourt is as good as anyone elses backcourt when it comes to defense. There isn't one poor defender on my team.