I will be sitting this round out, but I'll say this:
I think the 'hyper competitiveness' of this draft is terribly overstated. I think for the past 3-4 years it's been overall pretty pleasant. A little turbulence here and there, but nothing that hurt the overall experience for me.
I agree with this, and that's coming from one of the guys who has battled in two of the most tightly contested finals in recent years.
With that, here's IP's 3-step guide to navigating the diplomatic waters of the CB Draft:
1) You're gonna make mistakes. You'll draft a guy, and people will say, 'incredible reach' or some other such comment. You'll make a trade, and someone will say something that basically breaks down to 'I think you got screwed, the other team or your own poor judgement got the better of you'. You can engage people on these points if you want, and tell them how insightful you are and how wrong they are, but in my experience, people forget these things rather quickly, and sometimes, just metaphorically shrugging and pretending you don't care, or better, simply marshaling your competitive nature and actually not caring is a much more potent rejoinder than any witty snarky comeback you can manage.
2) People will say negative things about your team. Sometimes it will seem academic, and that should not bother you. Sometimes, it will seem personal, and your paranoid overly competitive side aside, sometimes it might even be personal. The one that always bothers the hell out of me is, 'IPs team is good, but don't get taken in by his silver tongue. He's one of the best at it and he makes a really good case, but lets not let his propaganda confuse us with reality'. Oh man do I hate that. But you gotta realize one thing;
engaging in personal squabbles will make you seem like a jerk, even if your point is valid. It makes the game less fun, and makes you seem petty. no matter what, avoid personally slanted comments coming from your side. Not only is it against site rules, it's just poor form.
3) Sometimes, it's best to not make enemies. When you see someone make a trade, a pick, or an argument that you disagree with, don't come down on them like a ton of bricks. If you want to objectively state your opinion, do it, but understand two things; do not violate rule number 2, and also understand that no matter how smart or well informed you think you are, there are smarter and better informed people out there, and you really might be wrong. So when you criticize teams, always make the person you're criticizing understand that you disagree with their pick, trade, or argument, but you very well might be wrong.
Good: "I don't think drafting Nerlens Noel in the third round is a move Id make, since he probably won't be up to speed until at least February, but a lot of people are high on him, and I get the appeal."
Bad: "How can you possibly justify drafting Noel this early? He's a raw prospect, recovering from major injury, and won't even be playing organized basketball until after the new year! Could've waited another 2 rounds and you'd still be reaching for him!"
Topic: 2013 CelticsBlog Draft - 25 Teams Total - Draft Lottery Morning of 8/16 (Read 79697 times)