First Look -- thenopp

Quick Draft Summary: What's not to like? Starting with Kobe, thenopp took a lot of big name, big-time scorers. A lot of veterans means a lot of injury risk, but todd has benefited from such risky behavior in the past...

Frontcourt: Yao (2), JamsO'Neal (7), Z-Bo (9),

Color me unconvinced. While extraordinarily talented, Yao has not proven durable, and seems likely, especially after the olympics, to miss some time this year. Jermaine might benefit from a change of scene, but he's missed quite a bit of time as well. Z-Bo too will likely miss 10 games or so, though he still can rebound mightily. The two rookies (Marc Gasol and Brook Lopez) may contribute, but might very well struggle. A lack of frontcourt depth is compounded by a glut of non-rebounding SG types (though Kidd will help).I suspect thenopp will fail to compete in Rebounds and BLK most weeks.

Backcourt: Kidd (4), Arenas(10), Hinrich (11), Boobie Gibson (18)

If Kidd is his usual self, and Hinrich holds off Derrick Rose, and Arenas comes back healthy, there just might be enough AST here to compete. Steals? I'm not so sure.

Swingmen: Kobe (1), Carmelo (3), Turkoglu (5), Miller (6), JamsCraw(8), Hill (12), McCants (14), Kleiza (15), Mobley (16), Szczerbiak (20)

Kobe and Carmelo are terrific and thenopp should have no trouble scoring, and thoroughly dominating 3s, with this firepower. What's interesting is that usually the 3point dominant teams are also low TO, in the little doggers style, but thenopp has some TO machines (Kobe, Kidd, Yao, Carmelo, Crawford, Hinrich). We'll see how it balances out. I suspect thenopp will trade some 3s for either PG or C depth.

X-Factors: Brook Lopez (13), Marc Gasol(17)

Mostly this team consists of known, if declining quantities. The two rookie big men need to step up to give thenopp some depth in the middle. Obviously, Arenas's return, and the health and/or decline of Kidd/O'Neal/Mike Miller will be crucial to thenopp's success

Strengths: 3s, FGM, PTS, FTM, FT%

Weaknesses: FG%, STL, BLK

Best Pick: Kidd (4) - todd knows how to use Kidd's strengths and compensate for his weaknesses - he should provide good value here.

Worst Pick: Jermaine (7) - a number of better C's were available at at this point