2014-15 REL Power Rankings: Week 3

Another week, and a new leader atop the REL, new owner Curry burns my ass!!  You may think a 20-team dynasty would be fraught with peril for new owners taking over an underdeveloped team, but Curry has given his team a boob job and a facelift and is back on the prowl!  Somebody tell Grey there’s a cougar loose…

The REL is the epitome of a class structure with the solid teams up top, 10th place an even .500, and the bottom 6 teams have only made 3 moves.  C’mon guys down there, start a Snowpiercer revolt and come get us!  Don’t be a shoe!  Here’s what else went down in the REL for week 3:

1. Curry burns my ass!!  (21-5-1)

FAAB Remaining: $92  FAAB Moves this week: Bismack Biyombo ($8)

What in the wide, wide world of sports is going on here?  Well, Mr. Taggart, I just don’t know.  Thankfully, my one true stud, Curry, came through with a big assist and 3ptm game on the last game of the week.   He also shored up fg% shooting high volume over 50%.  Earlier Sunday, Norris Cole and James Ennis (yes that James Ennis) each had two steals to take that category.  The only category I lost was blocks, but I was up against Howard, Gobert and Perkins.  I decided to enter the free agent fray picking up Biyombo to help with blocks.   I still find myself in limbo.  Unless I’m mistaken, doing a quick count I would have beaten every other winning team, but one (losing 4-5).  Do I play for this year, needing to make some trades to be able to compete?  Or do I realize that Olynyk probably isn’t going to keep shooting 60%, that Lavoy Allen isn’t gonna double double much when West is back, and that Solomon Hill just isn’t that good? I put my veterans on the trading block and have been approached and just haven’t find the right trade, mostly because I don’t know what this team is. I drafted this team with young, quality replacements sitting behind aged or brittle stars.  So far David West has obliged, but what if Al Jefferson or Marc Gasol/Zach Randolph or Jeremy Lin or Wade go down?  Why am I asking so many questions, Dr Freud?

2. Barking BassetHounds  (18-8-1)

FAAB Remaining: $74  FAAB Moves this week: n/a

In week three, Barking BassetHounds passed its first major test of the season as we defeated the first place team MartyBall 6-2. Nevertheless it is my humble opinion that this victory was built on luck rather than dominance and that our teams are fairly evenly matched (on paper his looks even a little stronger). We basically split the six positive counting stats (I won them 3-2-1), but I won the two ratios (luck mostly since I can confidently predict that this week’s points leader JR Smith will not finish the season at .480, .857) and won turnovers by sitting a few players who were starting Sunday night. This will likely be my only win in turnovers this season unless we become decimated by injuries, as I am solidly in last place there and MartyBall is in second last place. On an unrelated note, I really hate turnovers as a category since it negatively relates to usage.

After adding Kostas Papanikolau for $26 my first week, I am resisting further investments in the FAAB auctions and the temptation to drop disappointment and injured C.J. Miles for the hot add of the week. Maybe if this trend does not change by midseason and someone I really like comes along I will change my mind, but then again maybe not. I’ll take it if my 17th player is a woefully inconsistent Thragnoff type.

Now for my rant du jour. John Henson’s minutes on the week: 5:05, 16:45, 2:31. Can anybody please give me a sane explanation for this phenomenon. Please. Inquiring minds minds want to know. But even with an average of 11:35 minutes per season, he is third on my team in blocks, so he is an easy hold in a league this deep. I just hope that sanity returns in Milwaukee at some point.

3. Breaking Batum  (18-8-1)

FAAB Remaining: $67  FAAB Moves this week: Joe Harris ($33)

Last week had some mixed results for Breaking Batum. We were able to pull off a victory, and are now tied for 2^nd place overall. We got lucky with the matchup, given all of the injuries we suffered. Our opponent had even more players out. Hopefully we will get some guys back this week for the tough matchup against JB.

The injury to Aaron Gordon hurts. A lot. Not only was he contributing, but he was our best trade asset. With the extra guy down, we decided we couldn’t hold on to Tony Snell anymore. It was hard to cut him, but after shopping him over the weekend, he seems to have lost most of his value. We were able to pickup Joe Harris though, so there is a silver lining there. After missing out on Lamb and Landry last week, we overbid a bit for Harris, but we got him (our initial $19 bid would’ve gotten him too, but we talked ourselves into bidding $33 Sunday). Hopefully he lives up to the hype and becomes the starting SG in Cleveland.

We are still hoping to move Gordon for a piece that will help more this year, so we will see what happens. We may have to hold him until he returns from injury. Hopefully cutting Snell will give us that freedom, but it would be even better if we could get a trade done sooner. It depends on how soon teams decide to throw in the towel I suppose.

4. JB Gilpin – Razzball  (18-9-0)

FAAB Remaining: $86  FAAB Moves this week: Joe Ingles ($3), Will Barton ($0)

Another week, and my .667 win % is maintained with a 6-3 win over Seth.  It’s nice having a winner early after crapping the bed through the first couple months last year!

Rubio’s injury is just a killer, he was the face for my dimes and steals, and I only won assists by 17 and lost steals this past week by 5.  Seth only has 1 assists guy (Wall), so I’m horrified by these cats moving forward, especially against a top-4 oppo like Mr. Batum this week.  If Aldridge can muster it up to play tonight and MKG can give me anything bouncing back from his foot, I should have an all-hands on deck week minus Rubio.  And I’m gonna need it.

FAAB has been killin’ me this year!  At least I’ve been much more conservative – last year my aggression cost me down the stretch – but I had $7 and $6 bids on Biyombo, losing out to Curry burns my ass!!’s $8.  I drafted Biyombo so had been keeping an eye out, but maybe it’s a blessing in disguise as Ingles should contribute some steals (2 each in the past 2 Jazz games) and Will Barton maybe one or two as well, who I grabbed mostly as a stash since I like him so much and some minutes are there for the taking with Batum still hurt.  Dropping Isaiah Canaan might look a little weird, but when Beverley plays, he gets DNPs.  Canaan and Shved, my drops, were well worth the $2 draft day buy and $2 FAAB the past few weeks, so they are honorably discharged.

5. Martyball – IFBL  (17-8-2)

FAAB Remaining: $84  FAAB Moves this week: n/a

6. Scurry to the Left  (17-10-0)

FAAB Remaining: $98  FAAB Moves this week: J.J. Barea ($2)

7. Hoopus Alleyoopus  (15-12-0)

FAAB Remaining: $82  FAAB Moves this week: n/a

8. Ben – RotoGold  (14-11-1)

FAAB Remaining: $50 FAAB Moves this week: Reggie Bullock ($5)

9. The Nature Boy  (14-13-0)

FAAB Remaining: $100  FAAB Moves this week: n/a

10. Team Tough Guy Town  (13-13-1)

FAAB Remaining: $100  FAAB Moves this week: n/a

11. SethDaSportsMan  (13-14-0)

FAAB Remaining: $61  FAAB Moves this week: n/a

12. Kap’s Team  (12-14-1)

FAAB Remaining: $99  FAAB Moves this week: n/a

I started off the season poorly, but won 7-1-1 this past week to move up the standings a little bit. Carmelo Anthony is starting to turn things around after a slow start, but Kevin Love is still adapting to his new teammates. The threes are there, but his field goal percentage and rebounds are both down. This week, I’m getting Nick Young back from his thumb injury and Raymond Felton should begin serving his suspension.

13. High as Greg Kite  (12-15-0)

FAAB Remaining: $54  FAAB Moves this week: Robert Covington ($16), A.J. Price ($16)

FAAB Remaining: $92  FAAB Moves this week: Luke Babbitt ($3)

Well that sucked.  A 4-5 loss is fine but to lose assists by 4, steals and blocks by 2 and FT% by 0.020 means I was just one decent game short of at the least a 7-2 win.  Besides the score things did get better this week.  Beverley and Amir Johnson returned, all be it with terrible showings… but I’m (mostly) healthy now so I expect to start showing improvement in the win-lose record.  The biggest issue I’m having right now is that my kids aren’t getting minutes, Nurkic and Early.  I expect them both to play eventually for two terrible teams but right now they really aren’t helping me.  I put in waivers for the big 2 this week, Joe Harris and Covington, but I was outbid on both and honestly I don’t mind all that much.  The only move I made was losing Seraphin who appears to be behind Humphries and I added Luke Babbitt.  Will he help?  Probably not, but right now all I’m looking for are minutes.  However after trading away so much youth last year I’m strongly considering foregoing this season and building it back up.

15. ChazTop–KevinBottom  (11-16-0)

FAAB Remaining: $100  FAAB Moves this week: n/a

16. Pete Nice – Razzball  (10-17-0)

FAAB Remaining: $95  FAAB Moves this week: n/a

17. Like A Josh – IFBL  (9-18-0)

FAAB Remaining: $85  FAAB Moves this week: n/a

18. The Struggle is Real  (8-19-0)

FAAB Remaining: $100  FAAB Moves this week: n/a

19. Cigar Smoking Monkey  (7-19-1)

FAAB Remaining: $100  FAAB Moves this week: n/a

20. Mr. Green – Nowhere  (6-19-2)

FAAB Remaining: $68  FAAB Moves this week: n/a