Well, the rapscallions at Martyball – IFBL continue to murder the league, with an 8-1 win against The Nature Boy to move into an even more commanding 1st place position. Blessed with a team with all steady roles, the kicker is this run from Amar’e Stoudemire. What in the…?! But this might be Martyball’s last blaze of glory, relying on a lot of veterans. What these deep dynasties are all about! Managing success vs. youth, and for me to rant – which luckily some other REL guys did as well! Here’s how the rest of week 6 went down in the REL:
1. Martyball – IFBL (40-12-2)
FAAB Remaining: $80 FAAB Moves this week: n/a
2. Barking BassetHounds (36-16-2)
FAAB Remaining: $74 FAAB Moves this week: n/a
Six weeks into the season, and I think there is enough elapsed time to get a feel of where we are.
Barking BassetHounds is in second place, but in a tier of four teams all 4 to 5.5 games behind the one tier 1 team, first place MartyBall. On paper Martyball seems to be the clear top team. Checking the detailed standings, this team leads all but one of the positive counting stats and is in good shape on the ratios. My victory over Martyball earlier seems to be a fluke.
But that is the wonder of H2H format. Once in the playoffs, anything can happen. I learned last year that stuff like the relative health of your team as opposed to that of your opponents and good old fashioned luck are huge. So I think all four of us tier two teams have a good shot at the playoffs, and from that point on, whatever happens happens.
As far as last week goes, the trend continues. We lose turnovers and one ratio and we win all of the positive counting stats except one, which last week was a tie in blocks. This is because on Friday with a full slate of games I left two blocks on my bench with CJ Miles and Nene Hilario. (CJ Miles getting a block ???!?).
The other anomaly of the week is that $1 Henry Sims made three treys. Maybe we have Ryan Anderson 2.0 here. But probably not. Curious nonetheless.
I continue to be amused by the FAAB market. This week the commodity du jour was Rasual Butler. I actually gave 1 minute of thought here, but when I saw his age was 47 (or something close to that) decided to pass. I do regret entering the season with only one slot available for FAAB bidding that was filled on week one with the now injured Kostas Papanikolaou. That is a lesson learned that I will fix next year.
3. Curry burns my ass!! (36-17-1)
FAAB Remaining: $69 FAAB Moves this week: Gal Mekel ($7)
A win is a win is a win. Managed to pull a 5-4 victory out, though easily could have been 7-2, losing blocks by one and assists by 9 (more on that later). Lost FT% by .009 and won steals by 8, other than that nothing else was close. I was aided by big games from my lower tier (although the whole team is lower tier) guys like Singler and Leuer. My “big” pick-up, Shved, gave me one good game, then shat the bed, injuring his tank the season muscle or whatever. So in the never-ending pursuit for assists, I grabbed Mekel, who has 10 assists through his first 23 minutes of play with his new team. Doing the math… carry the one, cosine of the factorial… comes out to like 35 assists a game, or something. I expect to get stomped this week, by what looks like a far superior team, so I’m sure I will crying on my keyboard as I write my synopsis next week.
4. Scurry to the Left (35-18-1)
FAAB Remaining: $98 FAAB Moves this week: n/a
5. Breaking Batum (35-18-1)
FAAB Remaining: $67 FAAB Moves this week: Ryan Hollins ($0)
Another week, another down to the wire finish. We were able to pull out a 5-4 victory over Ben – RotoGold, just barely losing rebounds by 4 in the last game Sunday night. The fact that our opponent didn’t set his lineup all week is worrisome that we didn’t win by a larger margin. Our next SEVEN matchups are against top 11 opponents. This will be the real test to see if we can maintain our top 5 status. We made one move this week, picking up Ryan Hollins. Hopefully he will do something with Cousins out for this week at least. We are still looking for a big man to compliment the rest of our roster in the long term, but I doubt that Hollins fills that role.
6. Kap’s Team (31-22-1)
FAAB Remaining: $99 FAAB Moves this week: Joey Dorsey ($0)
7. SethDaSportsMan (30-24-0)
FAAB Remaining: $48 FAAB Moves this week: n/a
8. Slim – Razzball (29-24-1)
FAAB Remaining: $75 FAAB Moves this week: Marvin Williams ($8)
Patrick Beverley, you are one sexy beast of a man. I’ll get back to that later. Point Guards this week were once again my biggest strength. The Omen is playing like a 1st rounder, mostly due to a drastic improvement in FG% and steals. At $36 he’s playing well ahead of his keeper price. Now that OKC is healthy Reggie returns to his super sub role, mmm… subs, assists and scoring are down but efficiency is up. Even in a reduced role, mmm… cinnamon rolls, Reggie should have no problem surpassing his $14 price tag. Guess who’s back in the mother effin house! Mr. efficiency himself, Pat Bev Devoe. Beverley should also have no problem maintaining top 75 9cat value which makes him well worth his $16 price tag. DJ Augustin lost his starting job to a returning Jennings but the DJ is still spinning a few assists and 3s and at $1 as long as he’s playing he’s going to be useful. But what’s a week in the REL without an injury. I count my $8 Alec Burks as my 5th PG but it’s his scoring that is going to be sorely missed. It looks like I may have dodged a bullet though with Utah claiming he won’t need surgery, and fortunately I also own Rodney Hood, so maybe I can weather this one without too much of a loss.
Nothing too special happening on the wing, Wiggins shows glimpses of greatness but he still has a ways to go. It’s safe to say he won’t live up to his $38 price tag this year but I have confidence one day he will. My $6 Brewer is doing a heck of a job with Kevin Martin down but unfortunately he doesn’t play in garbage time and in Minny about half the game can be called garbage time. Tucker, $5, and Marcus Morris, $1, switched roles in Phoenix but since I own both there has basically been no change to my bottom line. Terrence Ross at $5 and Rodney Hood at $4 are my cheap ThrAGNoFers and with each team having a playmaker down both are exceeding expectations, and value. Also unsurprisingly Pondexter was terrible, so he had to go. I thought my $8 bid for Marvin Williams had no chance but the only other bid was JB for $8 and I had a higher waiver. I think it’s safe to say that was an upgrade.
Of course like every week my bigs are not living up to my expectations. Amir Johnson has come on strong lately and currently sits inside top 100 value, if he can stay healthy I see no reason he doesn’t exceed his $13 price tag. Larry Sanders is really struggling to stay on the court. $17 is sill a price tag he can exceed but it’s going to take more than 22 minutes per game, the 1.0 steals and 1.6 blocks in those limited minutes still shows his immense upside. Steven Adams is so young and raw and probably won’t live up to his $11 price tag this year but if I were a betting man I would bet he’s a 10/10/1/1/1.5 guy next year. Nurkic’s career appears to be going in the same direction as Lurch. A massive rookie preseason followed by a lack of playing time in the regular season, the 2nd year he should get a reliable 20 minutes in a backup role, and by year 3 he should be the starting center and double-doubling nightly. Of course that doesn’t help me right now and his $16 price tag is perhaps a bit steep, but in the long run Nurkic and Adams will be mainstays at my two center spots. Tarik Black is chipping in some boards and when Howard gets back I’ll probably move on. But for now he gives what I need so why not ride it out.
9. JB Gilpin – Razzball (29-25-0)
FAAB Remaining: $42 FAAB Moves this week: Matt Bonner ($0), Dewayne Dedmon ($0)
This might be my rantiest recap ever. So if you don’t want to hear a grown man (well, that’s debatable) whine like a little girl, then move on.
I “lost” 4-5 to Scurry to the Left, who needs to scurry to some lottery booths. J.J. mother F Barea! His new name to me. I don’t like midgets, I think they’re hiding something… I would beat him 1-on-1 in basketball! Barea puts up 9 assists Sunday, and I lose AST by 2 – 125-123. And then I get bested by my own calls, with Goran Dragic putting up a 13 assist game and 19 total on Friday and Saturday, after having a black hole there all year. I lost FG% by .004, no thanks to Goran shooting a very high volume .591. Way to show up for your best week of the season! Not to mention Scurry got Durant back JUST IN TIME for this matchup, and his 9 dimes could’ve waited a week. You can of course nitpick lucky things that went my way – Joseph got a lot of run (but that’s why I was big on him!) and Udrih had 13 dimes in his scrubby role, but to be that close to a 6-3 win with no other categories all that close really grinds my gears!
Then to top it all off, Slim – the same Slim who loathed Marvin Williams all last year and hates him to his very core – ties me with his $8 FAAB bid and wins out due to waiver priority… It’s just like how I knew this jackass in high school that made fun of this girl behind her back virtually all 4 years, then woke up next to her after a rowdy party in college – unknowingly both going to South Carolina. And they dated for over a year after that! True story. Anyway, so I had $26 on Rasual Butler, but I’m fine missing out on him for the price, and originally had $11 on Marvin so I’m bummed there. I toned it down realizing he and Matt Bonner really aren’t that different. Here’s to hoping Vucevic’s back costs him a couple more games grabbing Dedmon, but he was a filler add as both Donald Sloan (DNP-hell) and Ian Mahinmi (was bottom of my roster anyway, and now out 6-8 weeks) were zeroes for me.
If there’s any optimism to this week, I would’ve beaten Slim 6-2-1 last week, but I’m still scared in our matchup. And my team mantra of treading water hopefully just above .500 before the second half when I play almost exclusively sub-.500 teams (and get Rubio and MKG back) is still intact even after a 4-5 loss.
10. The Nature Boy (27-27-0)
FAAB Remaining: $88 FAAB Moves this week: n/a
11. Hoopus Alleyoopus (26-28-0)
FAAB Remaining: $51 FAAB Moves this week: Rasual Butler ($31)
Losing 3-6 to the 19th place team in the league, the same team that has 5 guys that didn’t play AT ALL, is about as low as it can get. Vince Carter and Jameer Nelson are guys I was depending on to be decent contributors, and nothing heading into the season gave me a reason to believe they wouldn’t be. They have been worse for my team than my rookies, 3 of whom don’t even play. Zach LaVine hasn’t played well and has outshined these worthless old farts. I am cutting bait on Vince Carter’s washed up, DNP-CD ass. If Rasual Butler can even maintain 20 mpg I will be happy. Other than that, I am kinda stuck waiting for my rookies to start getting some semblance of playing time.
12. Ben – RotoGold (24-29-1)
FAAB Remaining: $50 FAAB Moves this week: n/a
13. Like A Josh – IFBL (22-32-0)
FAAB Remaining: $85 FAAB Moves this week: n/a
14. ChazTop–KevinBottom (22-32-0)
FAAB Remaining: $100 FAAB Moves this week: n/a
15. Team Tough Guy Town (20-32-2)
FAAB Remaining: $100 FAAB Moves this week: n/a
16. High as Greg Kite (20-33-1)
FAAB Remaining: $38 FAAB Moves this week: n/a
17. Pete Nice – Razzball (20-34-0)
FAAB Remaining: $95 FAAB Moves this week: n/a
18. Mr. Green – Nowhere (18-34-2)
FAAB Remaining: $63 FAAB Moves this week: n/a
So, this is what it feels like to be a winner. Better yet, this is what it feels like to beat an above .500 team. Well at least they were before I beat them so badly, haha. Just kidding Hoopus Alleyoopus!
My first win of the year, sadly, and somehow I did it despite more injuries piling up. Traded away my #1 PG for an injured Aaron Gordon, no biggie. No Demar DeRozan, no problem. No appearances from Tony Wroten, meh. An impressive 6-3 win this week running with only 12 active players. As a reward for my teams winning ways, now I get to face the 4th place Scurry to the Left.
It should be an interesting matchup, as oddly enough, their strengths are my weaknesses and my strengths are their weaknesses. Assuming I get Wroten back and I’m only down 4 guys to them, who knows what could happen. I mean, on the season I’ve actually got a higher FG% (.454 – .451), more REB (1181 – 1041), more STL (214-172), and more BLK (151-121) than they do. Which is sorta shocking considering the vast ocean between our two teams overall records. If I can win those categories and maybe steal TOs, or FT% then this could be the most shocking upset of the season so far. Now, I’d feel better about it if I had DeRozan healthy but, such is my season of injuries.
Oh, and I’m still looking to make some deals as I’d love to be able to add a decent young PG to my team. And I also accept injured players no matter how long they are out. That’s just the way I like it.
19. Cigar Smoking Monkey (18-35-1)
FAAB Remaining: $100 FAAB Moves this week: n/a
20. The Struggle is Real (14-40-0)
FAAB Remaining: $100 FAAB Moves this week: n/a
