I've been playing Fantasy Basketball since Larry Nance Sr. was playing, so I've been around the block a few times. I just found Hoop-Ball this weekend (and the podcast) and crammed as much as I could. I just had my draft tonight (it started after the Hayward injury, thankfully).

I have to give some background the league first. 10-team, 9-category, H2H all categories on ESPN. We can keep up to 2 players at the cost of 2 rounds from the previous draft. 12-man roster (9 starters, 3 bench, 3 IR spots). I was drafting in the 9 hole.

My two keepers were Karl-Anthony Towns (1st round) and Joel Embiid (6th round). Here is how each round went, with comments...

1st (pick 9) - Karl-Anthony Towns
Keeper

2nd (pick 12) - Kyrie Irving
Other options included Wall, Butler & Lillard. With the Hayward injury, I figured Irving's scoring would increase over the projections. Also, many PG's were protected, so I couldn't take Butler here.

3rd (pick 29) - Paul Millsap
Not a lot of good choices here. Love was gone. I missed MCCollum by two picks. Both Bledsoe and Teague were left, so I figured I could get one coming back.

4th pick (pick 32) - Jeff Teague
Another reason I didn't take Butler is because I thought I'd get Teague here. (Already have Towns)

5th pick (pick 49) - Victor Oladipo
Was hoping Rubio would slide to this pick, but he went pick 40.

6th pick (pick 52) - Joel Embiid
Keeper

7th pick (pick 69) - Clint Capela
I was really hoping to grab Gary Harris and Aaron Gordon with these two picks (nobody in my league is using Hoop-Ball), but alas, both went before me in round 7.

8th pick (pick 72) - James Johnson
Thankfully, I was able to pivot onto one of the Hoop-Ball Six here.

9th pick (pick 89) - Malcolm Brogdon
The guy that drafted Aaron Gordon screwed me again by taking Tim Hardaway Jr at pick 85. Arrgh.

10th pick (pick 92) - Taurean Prince
ESPN had Prince listed so low, that I almost passed on him and instead grabbed Justin Holiday, but I was worried that somehow, I would lose out on Prince, so I jumped maybe a round early.

11th pick (pick 109) - Zach Lavine
Damn, Holiday went at 102. Since this is a keeper league, I like to use at least one of my IR slots to stash a potential keeper. Hayward went in round 9. I figured I would use the open spot to grab R.Holmes.

12th pick (pick 112) _ Nikola Mirotic
I thought about taking Ingles or Warren here, but decided I can do the same thing as in pick 11. Mirotic will be back in 4-6 weeks, and in the meantime I can put him on IR and pick up Ingles or Warren.

Thoughts on the team? I was disappointed I didn't get Smith or Gordon, but thought I did ok.