Golden Star: Hilt the Stilt

With Matt stepping down from Sager's Suits & Ties, we were looking for a new owner and Brandon's friend and ex-roommate slipped right in! Welcome Dave, who is from the Bay but recently moved to New York. A long suffering Warriors fan now frolicking in the warm waters of "best team ever," Dave strangely passed up all Warriors in the dispersal draft! What would Zach Lowe have to say about that?! So welcome Dave and Hilt the Stilt to SlamNation -- nice historical shout out to the Chamberlain conference name -- and let's get 2019 ready!

Well, before we could really get going, we did a three team dispersal between Hilt the Stilt, last year's lone new team, IL Conceived, and Snack Bears, who didn't have the benefit of a dispersal two years ago. The goal here was to even out all three teams and try to distribute some stars, and give each franchise a step up to be competitive right away.

Due to this year's unique nature, we gave each owner a protected "franchise" player and then drafted five rounds after in 1-2-3, non-snake, fashion. Dave got first pick because Stilt would pick lowest in 2019 RD1, followed by Brandon, and then Frank (runner-up in 2018's Toilet Bowl, and would receive 2019 RD1.2, which was a factor in slotting him last and not snaking the draft).

[2019 Dispersal Order and Results]

Hilt the Stilt
Dave went young all the way through, installing Andre Drummond and Aaron Gordon as the young frontcourt around franchise cornerstone Victor Oladipo -- whose superstar emergence helped lead Sager to very respectable nine wins last season. While there was a bit of early confusion about who was eligible to be dispersed, Dave still indicated that he was happy with his team so we continued on with Steven Adams, Jarrett Allen, and Josh "Not Jason" Richardson being added to the core. That's three centers if you're counting, so it looks like Hilt the Stilt will certainly have a lot of strength in the middle!

Snack Bears
With franchise unicorn Kristaps Porzingis likely out for the year, Brandon decided to also go young, focusing on new second-star Bradley Beal while adding Jaylen Brown, their own 1.4 selection from last year, De'Aaron Fox, and closing with Tim Hardaway Jr. Add in twenty-nine year old Blake Griffin for some frontcourt support while KP is gone, and Snack definitely upgraded despite losing former franchise big man, Drummond, to dispersal.

IL Conceived
After drafting superbly last year to go from zero wins to eight in his rookie season, Frank decided to enter the dispersal to buff up their team even more. Sophomores Donovan Mitchell and Dennis Smith Jr will still anchor the backcourt but Draymond Green and Marc Gasol will now provide valuable veteran leadership up front. Add in the versatile Dario Saric on the wing, plus versatile swingman Will Barton for the last dispersal pick, and IL Conceived went from last place to playoff contender in very quick fashion.