“But critics say the Doc is soft, Doc is talk
The Doc is all washed up, knock it off
Who the ____ is Doc impressin’.
Doc is this, Doc is that, you got the wrong impression.
You must be on the ____ of Doc cuz Doc left you all guessin’.
So DJ take the needle and just drop it on the record.
We gonna have this ____________ hoppin’ in a second.”
Dr. Dre in “One Last Time (Encore)”

Okay, so things are not looking so good for this team. Pau Gasol being lost for 3-4 months is a tough pill to swallow. The Memphis Grizzlies will be lucky if he suits up for 50 games this season. Your friendly neighborhood fantasy doctor here thought a nice bigball team was on the way with Elton Brand and Gasol on the same team. So how do I regroup and have this team hoppin’ again?

Round 3, Pick 8: Lamar Odom, SF/PF, Los Angeles Lakers

This is a mock draft and not a real-time situation, so I won’t feel badly in mentioning players who have yet to be drafted. With my second round pick in the tank until Christmas (at least), now is not the time to add an injury-prone player. So thanks, but no thanks to Marcus Camby, Gerald Wallace, Peja Stojakovic and company.

One option for this team is to go big or go home. Hopefully even at less games played, Gasol’s season totals will still resemble that of a typical fifth or sixth rounder at year’s end. Brand still remains in the fold, and will continue to be the main focus. In a head-to-head league, this team can still take FG%, rebounds, blocks and (ugh!) turnovers most weeks, and as long as one of the remaining five categories swings to my side, we have ourselves a victory.

The other option would be to plug the holes even with a healthy Gasol. Grab a guy who can hit the moneyball, dish a few assists and swipe a few rocks. This strategy would involve trying to be bigger than the smaller teams, smaller than the bigger teams, squeak into the playoffs with Gasol back on the court, and we go from there.

In Odom, this team adds a player that can hopefully take the best of both strategies. Odom shot 48% from the field last year and finished 12th in rebounding. However, he also drained one three-pointer and dished out 55 cents a game. He is a steady, but unspectacular contributor in the hustle stats (about one each per game), but this team already has a game-breaking shot swatter in Brand.

Two other players were considered very carefully. One was Michael Redd, who brings more points, treys and steals to the table, but does not add to Brand’s boards and blocks. Perhaps in a pure rotisserie league, I would have gone in this direction. The other player was Brad Miller. Like Odom, he provides a lot of assists and he shoots good percentages. But he does not block shots well, and Odom shoots the three.

If it all comes together, we have a front-line that will be tough to match up against come playoff time. Free throw percentage is still weaker than SWV so next round, I’ll be looking for a solid guard option.

Other Team Members:

1.8 Elton Brand, PF, Los Angeles Clippers
2.5 Pau Gasol, PF/C, Memphis Grizzlies