I’m like a kid in the candy shop! The Playoffs have been decided, and through many strokes of luck and by the handjob of a higher force, I was able to sneak in. Four teams vied for the final three spots, with the four teams separated by a single game. It was a photo phinish! Martyball and BassetHounds grabbed the byes with Slim facing off against Breaking Batum and I’ll be against Scurry to the Left. After this week we’ll only be recapping the playoffs, so good luck to the playoff bound and it should be a fun postseason! Here’s how the rest of week 20 went down in the REL:
1. Barking BassetHounds (125-51-4)
FAAB Remaining: $12 FAAB Moves this week: Ian Mahinmi ($8)
Let the games begin.
Barking BassetHounds closed out the season with a 7-2 victory, thus securing the top seed as the regular season by a measly one game. The winning margin was not secured until the last day when I came from behind to win steals by two. If that had not happened, MartyBall and I would have been tied at the end of the season, and if I am understanding the tiebreakers correctly, he would have won, not that it matters all that much. In an unrelated note, I think the Yahoo tiebreaking system sucks because it first does not consider the winner of the regular season matchups; that is if I am understanding it correctly.
Of more interest to me was the battle for the final playoff slots 4-6, but I am sure other commentators here have more to say about this than I do.
I enter the playoffs knowing that I am already down having lost Wes Matthews for the year. Still my Sullinger for Marc Gasol trade gives me a fighting chance. I do not take any playoff opponent lightly as I am convinced that stuff like injuries, coaches resting players, and plain dumb luck will be huge factors in determining playoff outcomes.
My one minor free agent move was swapping Jason Smith for Ian Mahinmi. Jason Smith was reverting back to being a clone of Henry Sims, and since he had only three games in the finals (really only one since two of those games were on heavy schedule games and he would have sat on my bench) he was pretty useless to me. Not that Mahinmi is all that much better, but he does seem to be getting more minutes than Jason Smith and four versus three games in the finals is huge. I am kind of disappointed that at the end of the day all I have to show for my FAAB is Cory Jefferson (who is at least young and has some promise) and Ian Mahinmi who is what he is. But at least these 2 dudes have a good playoff schedule. And I still have enough FAAB so that I can outbid most of the other playoff contenders should a very interesting opportunity occur or if I lose one of the four players I am not planning to renew to a season ending injury.
2. Martyball – IFBL (125-53-2)
FAAB Remaining: $10 FAAB Moves this week: n/a
3. Slim – Razzball (106-73-1)
FAAB Remaining: $2 FAAB Moves this week: Justin Holiday ($9)
Unsurprisingly I made the playoffs, but I don’t feel like my guys are getting enough minutes to compete with any of the other playoff teams. For a point of reference I’ve lost 3 weeks in a row, twice to non-playoff teams, and I was absolutely smoked last week by Martyball. So with that little tidbit of info all my focus has fallen to next year and this week’s conversation is all about the bigs.
I have three guaranteed big man keepers, Nurkic 20 – $16, Adams 21 – $11, and Sullinger 23 – $5 for a grand total of $32. I strongly believe Nurkic has All-Star potential and for next year I hope for something along the line of 14/12/2/1/2. The percents and TOs could be a problem given his age but that is where I expect the most offseason improvement to come from. Steven Adams isn’t going to ever be an All-Star but he’s above average defensively and with a bit of improvement I hope he can give me around 10/10/1/1/1.5. For Adams to grow into a quality fantasy player he needs to become a better FT shooter. With a bit of improvement there he could be a top 100 player next year. Sully is who I acquired for Marc Gasol and I don’t expect his season ending injury to be a problem next year. If, and I understand it’s a big, IF, but IF Sully gets in better shape I hope for something like 16/9/2/1/1 with low TOs, a decent FT%, and maybe even 1 3PTM per game.
There are two more big men that I own who are currently on the keeper bubble. Henson 24 – $12 is the guy I am the most unsure of. First off I don’t think he’s going to be unleashed for 30-plus minutes next year. He certainly has the ability but with his atrocious FT% and far too many TOs I’m just unsure if his gain in blocks will be worth the loss in those categories. The other guy on the bubble is Amir Johnson 27 – $13. Given his age, price, and incredibly uninspired play I can’t imagine I keep him. Maybe I should have traded him though since it looks like there is a very good chance I’m simply going to drop him at some point real soon. Hopefully I can wait until the last week for moves so no one gets to keep him for $1 but honestly that doesn’t bother me that much.
In next years draft I will be looking to add one big man who can block a shot and/or hit a 3 and it looks like there will be plenty. Okafor of course but he’s going to be too expensive. Towns and Cauley-Stein could be a good fit but they too should go for a hefty price given their high end shotblocking ability. While one of those would be nice there are three guys who I plan on watching closely – Kristaps Porzingis, Frank Kaminsky, and Myles Turner. The quality bigs in this draft doesn’t stop there though, I’ll also be keeping close tabs on Kevon Looney, Bobby Portis, and Montrezl Harrell.
4. JB Gilpin – Razzball (99-79-2)
FAAB Remaining: $0 FAAB Moves this week: Beno Udrih ($0)
I mean… Wow… Just wow.
I had absolutely no optimism I would be able to make the playoffs, but to grab a 4th overall finish?! Given 4th and 7th were separated by one game, but it’s been as crazy a late season run as they come.
I finished the year on an 8-game winning streak, with a 51-20-1 record to wrap it up. And the tighest matchup was this final week against Mr. Green, as I narrowly eked out the 6-3 win. But it came at a horrific cost. I went into the week with everyone healthy and fully playing, and get a load of what I lost this week – Brandon Knight misses 3.5 games (ankle – and will likely be out this whole week), Ricky Rubio 1.5 games (re-sprained ankle – thank the lord I traded for Zach LaVine!), Wilson Chandler 1 game (DNP knee), Serge Ibaka 2 games (DNP knee), Mike Scott 2 games (broken toe – out for reg. season, but I think he’s too good to drop in deep dynasties), Hassan Whiteside 1.5 games (ejection and one-game suspension). Like the plague! If I have all those guys, I mighta pushed for a 9-0 victory over Mr. Green.
And this will be the only time you’ll ever hear this – THANK THE LORD FOR LOU AMUNDSON! I debated holding onto him coming into last week with back spasms, but held on for the 5-game schedule. I won by 6 rebounds, 5 assists and 2 blocks – and if I had swapped out Amundson for virtually anyone, his missing 22/20/10/3/6 5-game line would likely have cost me the playoffs. You will forever be immortalized, Amundson! But it’s a tough business, and he got the boot for Beno Udrih, who I was shocked wasn’t added. I don’t think I’ll need big man stats this week, and with Rubio looking at DNPs on any given night to close it out, Udrih should get run with Mike Conley still out with his ankle sprain. Udrih is a low-end guy, but a starting PG was available for a $0 buy?! Hopefully he can nab a few more spot starts to begin the week.
This week’s quarterfinal relies on a giant factor vs. Scurry to the Left – Kevin Durant. I lost to Scurry 4-5 in week 6 of the regular season, the week Durant returned to action. If I play Scurry A SECOND TIME right when Durant comes back, I might lose it. Luckily my team is better than at that point, and it sounds like if KD does return, it’ll be towards the end of the week rather than early. Good luck Slim vs. Batum, should be a good one!
5. Scurry to the Left (99-79-2)
FAAB Remaining: $68 FAAB Moves this week: n/a
6. Breaking Batum (99-80-1)
FAAB Remaining: $0 FAAB Moves this week: Lance Thomas ($0), Vince Carter ($0)
What a finish! During the last game of the week, we went from 4th to 6th, and easily could have dropped down to 7th. It only would’ve taken a couple of 3’s from a couple of guys…
We are very happy to make the playoffs. We JUST missed it last year, and regretted not making a move one way or the other. After trying (and failing) to sell off our “this year” assets a few weeks ago, we decided to go for it. There were only 2 playoff teams that would’ve beaten us last week, so we fell like we have a punchers chance.
For FAAB pickups, we spent all of our money previously on Barton (no complaints about that!), so our choices were limited. Hopefully Thomas a semi-healthy Vince Carter will provide a bit more than Millsap and Mayo. Cutting Mayo hurt for sure, and he will probably make a nice $1 keeper for someone. But he wasn’t a keeper at $8 for us, and he’s not playing much, so he had to go.
Our matchup this week will be interesting. Slim sold several of his best guys at the deadline, but he got back guys who are still contributing this year. We would’ve won 6-3 against him last week, but several categories were close. He has his fair share of injuries, but we have Rose out for sure, and likely Al Jefferson too, so it’s anyone’s game. We shall see if the deal we turned down giving up Mirotic will end up biting us in the ass this week. Even if we win, the prize will be a matchup against Martyball, who was in first for most of the year.
7. Kap’s Team (97-79-4)
FAAB Remaining: $0 FAAB Moves this week: Amar’e Stoudemire ($11)
8. Hoopus Alleyoopus (92-87-1)
FAAB Remaining: $0 FAAB Moves this week: n/a
9. Pete Nice – Razzball (90-88-2)
FAAB Remaining: $5 FAAB Moves this week: Jordan McRae ($0)
10. The Nature Boy (90-89-1)
FAAB Remaining: $38 FAAB Moves this week: n/a
11. Youth Movement (79-89-3)
FAAB Remaining: $3 FAAB Moves this week: Miles Plumlee ($0)
12. SethDaSportsMan (87-93-0)
FAAB Remaining: $14 FAAB Moves this week: n/a
13. Team Tough Guy Town (83-92-5)
FAAB Remaining: $100 FAAB Moves this week: n/a
14. Mr. Green – Nowhere (83-93-4)
FAAB Remaining: $3 FAAB Moves this week: n/a
15. Ben – RotoGold (81-98-1)
FAAB Remaining: $50 FAAB Moves this week: n/a
16. ChazTop–KevinBottom (76-101-3)
FAAB Remaining: $80 FAAB Moves this week: n/a
17. High as Greg Kite (71-107-2)
FAAB Remaining: $0 FAAB Moves this week: JaVale McGee ($0)
18. Cigar Smoking Monkey (71-108-1)
FAAB Remaining: $100 FAAB Moves this week: n/a
19. Like A Josh – IFBL (65-112-3)
FAAB Remaining: $85 FAAB Moves this week: n/a
20. The Struggle is Real (54-126-0)
FAAB Remaining: $35 FAAB Moves this week: Justin Hamilton ($26)
