In the fantasy basketball manifesto I wrote shortly before the season tipped off, I underlined the importance of selecting a point guard early in the draft.
"It's a top-heavy position," I wrote at the time, "and missing on Stephen Curry, Russell Westbrook, Damian Lillard, Chris Paul and John Wall is made worse if you also whiff on that second-tier group of guys like Eric Bledsoe, Jeff Teague and Kyle Lowry.
"Don't talk yourself into a backcourt of Ricky Rubio and Rajon Rondo, or it will be an uphill struggle for your team all season."
So what did my friend Jeff do in our 12-team league? He used his two keepers on Andre Drummond and DeAndre Jordan, effectively punting free throw percentage and 3-pointers, and waited until the later rounds to select not only Rubio and Rondo, but also Elfrid Payton, a player with a similar skillset as far as fantasy is concerned.
In doing so, he went against everything I advised, and with the help of his monstrous keeper duo, he built himself a team that would dominate in rebounds, blocks and double-doubles, be above average in field goal percentage and also win the assist and steal categories almost every week thanks to Rubio, Rondo and Payton.
I told him it was genius, and I still believe that, since it will be difficult to ever beat him in five out of nine categories on a given week, but it's important to recognize that a big part of this is the surprising early-season play of Rondo.
After Rondo's overwhelming play in Boston and Dallas last season at the age of 29, did anyone really see him reverting back to the mid-20s, pre-ACL injury version of himself as a member of the Sacramento Kings?
I sure didn't.