Create the best Beilein Era basketball team with $25

Rules
-The value of your team must not exceed $25
-You must have a minimum of 8 players on your roster
-You are allowed a maximum of 2 designated players ($5 value)

Notes
-You are choosing players based on their “best” individual season at Michigan
-Only scholarship players are included

Player Pool

Designated Players ($5 value)
Ignas Brazdekis
Charles Matthews
Moritz Wagner
Derrick Walton
Zak Irvin
Caris Levert
Nik Stauskas
Glenn Robinson III
Trey Burke
Tim Hardaway Jr
Darius Morris
Manny Harris
DeShawn Sims

Strong Second Fiddles ($4 value)
Jon Teske
Jordan Poole
Zavier Simpson
Muhammad-Ali Abdur-Rahkman
Duncan Robinson
DJ Wilson
Mitch McGary

Reliable Role Players ($3 value)
Isaiah Livers
Mark Donnal
Aubrey Dawkins
Ricky Doyle
Spike Albrecht
Jordan Morgan
Zach Novak
Evan Smotrycz
Stu Douglass
Laval Lucas-Perry
Ekpe Udoh
Ron Coleman
Jerret Smith

Bench Boys ($2 value)
Eli Brooks
Ibi Watson
Jaaron Simmons
Max Bielfeldt
Kameron Chatman
Jon Horford
Matt Vogrich
Zack Gibson
Anthony Wright
Kelvin Grady
CJ Lee
Jevohn Shepherd

Don’t-You…Forget-About-Me ($1 value)
Austin Davis
Brandon Johns
Colin Castleton
David DeJulius
Adrian Nunez
Eso Akunne
Blake McLimans
Colton Christian
Carlton Brudidge
Ben Cronin
David Merritt
K’Len Morris

Have fun!

2 Likes

Starters
PG - Burke - $5
SG - Caris - $5
SF - Dawkins - $3
PF - Livers - $3
C - McGary - $4
Bench
Spike - $3
Castleton - $1
Johns - $1

Harder than I thought. Toughest positions to fill were the 3-4 IMO.

1 Like

I agree with Bacon141’s except swap out Dawkins ($3) and add Robinson ($4), the remove Spike from the Bench ($3) and add Simmons ($2).

Burke - 5
Stauskas - 5
Livers - 3
Wilson - 4
McGary - 4

Bench:
Horford - 2
Johns - 1
Merritt - 1

Simpson - 4
Stauskas - 5
Stu Douglas - 3
DJ Wilson - 4
Mitch McGary - 4

Bench:

Kam - 2
Eli Brooks - 2
Castleton - 1

Burke - 5
Stauskas - 5
Duncan - 4
Livers - 3
McGary - 4
Chatman - 2
Castleton - 1
Merritt - 1

Burke and McGary surrounded by three 40-45% shooters from deep :heart_eyes::heart_eyes::heart_eyes:

1 Like

Assuming health for the full season:
Trey ($5)
Caris ($5)
Zack Novak ($3)
Livers ($3)
Teske ($4)

Bench:
Chatman ($2)
Horford ($2)
Merritt ($1)

$5 Burke
$5 Levert
$3 Livers
$3 Smotrycz
$3 Morgan

$3 Novak
$2 Horford
$1 Merritt

Forgot how good Levert’s last year was before he got injured- expected to have Stauskas as the other max player, but Levert was too good. Livers was nice value at the 3 and the positional flexibility of Novak made him the 6th man. Merritt gets 3 min a game spelling Burke.

Stauskas 5
Novak 3
Teske 4
Burke 5
MAAR 4

Brooks 2
Castleton 1
DeJulius 1

Couldn’t fit Morgan in.

Trey Burke 5
MAAR 4
Nik Stauskas 5
Isaiah Livers 3
Mitch McGary 4

Jon Horford 2
Brandon Johns 1
David Merritt 1

Good job putting this together, it’s pretty much impossible to make it fully fair when only using 5 values. IMO Livers and Burke should be on 100% of teams, just too much value there. Then Levert/Stauskas as the other $5 player.

2 Likes

Burke - 5
Douglas - 3
Stauskas - 5
Wilson - 4
Teske - 4
Horford - 2
Merritt - 1
Castleton - 1

Harder than I expected. The PGs and Nik were the only sure things for me.

Wagner $5
Burke $5
McGary $4 (tournament run McGary was a $5 player)
Can’t have a Beilein Era team without Zach Novak and the aneuyrsm of leadership. $3.
Spike $3. Ditto.
Wright. $2. Energy & body.
Max Bielfeldt. $2Ditto.
Brandon Johns. $1. HS/sophomore Brandon Johns is a $3 player.

Look at all of us playing a classic Beilein 8-man rotation even when given the chance to play more :joy:

4 Likes

I think there’s a non-Burke lineup that’s really great:

Starters: Simpson (4), Stauskas (5), Levert (5), Livers (3), McGary (4)
Bench: Johns (1), Castleton (1), Brooks (2)

Fun stuff, thanks. So hard not to use Teske or McGary. Hard to find lineups that justify saving a dollar on Morgan or spending an extra one on Mo. Walton, though. Gonna have another look tonight – might make one of players the way I think Juwan Howard would – but, just for now,

Walton/Stauskas/Livers/Novak/Teske
Simmons/Chatman/Castleton

McGary4 DJWilson4 Livers3 Douglass3 Burke5
Horford2 Novak3 Merritt1

McGary only played 24 a game so you really need a functional backup 5 like Horford, so I went with Stu. Was also tempted to go with Levert and Albrecht as a starting backcourt instead of Burke-Douglass since Caris was so insanely good in his final and Albrecht was a better secondary creator than Douglass, but McGary, Wilson and Livers can all score a bit.

As badly as Burke’s pro career has gone, he’s on a perfect team in Philly now, if he can get hot from 3 he could be an Eddie House on the Celtics type guard, they need reliable shooting.

Howard might have loved McGary at the 4, given his desire for a junkyard dog type there (McGary was more than that, but certainly had those hustle/hassle traits). He also seems to want a dynamic wing creator like Caris. So Howard’s Beilein team might have been Teske/McGary/Livers/Caris/Z.

I like Castleton for $1 off the bench in any scenario, add Simmons and Chatman.

Burke ($5)
Levert ($5)
Dawkins ($3)
Wilson ($4)
Udoh ($3)

Livers ($3)
Dejulius ($1)
Castleton ($1)

I think there would be more variety if you split up about half the $5 players to $4, shifting mostly everyone else down one, and removing most of those $1 guys.

PG - Burke $5
SG - Poole $4
SF - Stauskas $5
PF - Livers $4
C - McGary $4
BN - Horford $2
BN - Dejulius $1
BN - Johns $1

Agreed. Nobody is going to pick Irvin, Iggy, Matthews, GR3, THJ, Morris, Harris and Sims at $5 because every other better primary creator is in that category and the guys I listed above are more secondary or tertiary offensive options on an optimal team.