Damn, what an absolutely anti-climatic week! We have a battle of the two REL titans with #1 vs. #2 and they… Legit tie!??!? What is this?! 4-4-1 tie between Yappers and Scurry to the Left, as neither squad can take bragging rights into the playoffs.
Some interesting buys on the wire this week, as we head into a very oddly scheduled week 12 as M@ laid out. Should make some nice fireworks in the REL!
Here’s how week eleven in the 2016-17 REL went down, and how we’re looking heading into week twelve:
| RAZZBALL ELITE LEAGUE STANDINGS | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| League Link | |||
| 1 | Yappers | 71-27-1 | Waiver Adds Past Week: |
| FAAB Remaining: | $28 | Spencer Dinwiddie Bkn – PG $18 | |
| Well that was odd.
Yappers and Scurry to the Left in REL (the first and second place teams in the REL) stalemated to a 4-4-1 tie. And it is not like the tie was on a relatively rare category like blocks. It was on FT%. Which Although I was down one player it is hard to determine if any WW addition last week replacing the injured Lance Stephenson would have made any change to any category other than FT%. Well maybe in threes and or points since these were quite close. But then again I probably would have have lost FT%. But I did need an addition to my roster to replace Jarrell Martin, whom I dropped last week. I ended up waaay overpaying ($18) for Spencer Dinwiddie, whom I dropped three weeks ago because he was not in the rotation (in retrospect that was not a good move on my part). I overpayed because he fit the profile of the type of player I will overpay for (meaningful contributor this year plus high keeper potential). For the tactical Vince Carter types I will generally cap my bid Maybe bad luck is beginning to catch with us on injuries. We lost Patrick Patterson for the last four days. Not a biggie. More importantly Batum is now injured. From what I am reading I expect to miss him this week but hopefully no longer (since my opponent next week is Slim). The matchup this week is with Heat Apologist. Now the schedule this week is weird, with teams having between 1 and 5 games scheduled. I think our opponent has a 50 to 46 game advantage. But this is not making any adjustment for injuries (Batum misses two this week) or for not being in the rotation. |
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| 2 | Scurry to the Left | 69-29-1 | Waiver Adds Past Week: |
| FAAB Remaining: | $93 | n/a | |
| 3 | Slim – Razzball | 66-29-4 | Waiver Adds Past Week: |
| FAAB Remaining: | $54 | Brice Johnson LAC – PF $1 | |
| It turns out last week was a good time to have 1/3rd of my team injured as I still managed an 8-1 win (TOs) and somehow all 6 guys that were missing game(s) returned. All well and good but both Gary Harris and Josh Richardson went down again this past week, for the 3rd time this year. Not entirely ideal considering I’m playing the 2nd place team this week and the 1st place team next week. I’m not expecting either back immediately but at least their both young (22 & 23) so odds are they will heal up and be back out there sooner rather than later.
Last week I added Cunningham since I had an open roster spot with Fournier (or one of the other 5 guys) on the IL but I don’t have an IL slot covered anymore and Cunningham isn’t worth holding onto. I had a $2 bid in for McGruder in which I would play him for the week and leave Sergio on my IL but alas he went for $5. Yeah I know Waiters is back but as long as Richardson is down McGruder should get solid minutes (34 yesterday). Instead I filled up my IL with Brice Johnson. Not my favorite player in the world but if healthy he’s got a bit of upside and for the time being isn’t occupying a roster spot since I no longer have anyone IL eligible. I haven’t had a big man to talk since I traded away Nurkic and the brothers Hernangomez but with Marquese Chriss ($28-19 yo) starting to see more minutes I guess it’s about time to talk him up. The most obvious place to start is the minutes, this past 4-game week Chriss’ minutes went 12, 31, 18, 33. In the 2 games over 30 minutes he went 2/18/6/2/2/0 and 1/12/3/4/1/3 with only 1 TO in each and combining for 11/22 FGs and 5/6 FTs. That right there is what we call the full 9-cat, it’s kind of like the Full Monty but you know, with more girth. For my purposes (dynasty) he’s looking very much worth the high price tag and at only 19 his ceiling appears to be extremely high. Unfortunately the wavering minutes means he can’t be trusted in a 12er… yet. I’d bet my left thumb, wait I need that to play golf, I’d bet my left pinkie that by the beginning of March, fantasy playoff time, Chriss will be seeing 30 minutes every night. He still has some foul issues so maybe not quite EVERY night, although truth be told the fouls have been trending down lately. |
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| 4 | JB Gilpin – Razzball | 66-32-1 | Waiver Adds Past Week: |
| FAAB Remaining: | $33 | Davis Bertans SA – SF $0 | |
| Well, a win is a win! Hard fight against Martyball for a 5-4 victory, as I remain unbeaten on the season. But as you’ve heard me whine before – 5-4 and 6-3 wins actually lower you in the REL, case-and-point that skulldugger Slim passing me in the standings… Only picking up 5 wins is annoying because I had a good week! But hats off to Marty, who has assembled a fantastic 3pt shooting team, which is one of my strengths. I can’t remember the last time I hit 90 3PTM in a week, and Marty hit 108! I don’t think I’ve seen a three-digit week in treys before… And Nick Young was even ice cold! Coulda been worse! If Marty shoots a little colder, it could’ve swung losses by .005% FG%, 18 treys, and 49 points, as both our teams combined for some great scoring. But alas, at least my D stats showed up and my team is looking good.
It’s been a bit now, but last Monday night, swung a huge trade with defending champ Jokic – moved my IT2/3 ($14), John Henson ($12), & Miles Plumlee ($1) for Oladipo ($26), Valanciunas ($29) and Evan Turner ($4). It sucks losing such a dynamite keeper in Isaiah, but I felt like I was selling at his career-peak value. After a beautiful 29/4/15 sendoff, Isaiah has a 3:8 AST:TO his last two games. Still scoring a ton and love his FT volume! But he’s 27 and at that peak plateau. The Bucks are just plain annoying, so was nice to get out of that shituation. Even though Oladipo is a little pricey given he’s been a little blah in OKC, I pair him with Westbrook to ensure I get all the OKC usage I can handle, even if one or the other should get hurt. Plus Dipo is only 24, so I get a little younger there. Valanciunas is tricky. With my plans for keepers, if I hold his $29, I’m looking at $178 and only $22 free for rookies in a robust draft class. It’s a pickle, but damnnnnnn he fits me so nice. Efficient scoring, rebounding, a block here and there, and he makes his FT. He’s also only 24 still, so has a long career ahead of him. That said, rebuilding teams with more sal cap roster room – make me some offers! Then the really underrated part of this deal – I add a nice cheap filler with Evan Turner. He’s getting 25-30 MPG, handles the rock so he’s always a little involved, filters in some D stats, and is signed through 19-20. At only $4, I’m happy to help my keeper-depth with Bootstraps Bill Turner. So moving on to this week, and another tough matchup against a playoff hopeful in Niko-Cola. I’m feeling a little more confident though, as I would’ve bested Niko 6-3 last week, with one loss being FT%, which I think could swing my way. It should be close though, I’m just happy I should be able to win 3s this week! While I liked what I saw from Brandon Bass last night, I decided to stream out his spot for whomever I could get since the Clip have only 2 games this week, and landed Davis Bertans again. A guy I like! Might not get much burn, but the Spurs play LAL and @PHO this week. Might get some junky junk time minutes. |
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| 5 | Hard-N-Tha-Paint | 61-36-2 | Waiver Adds Past Week: |
| FAAB Remaining: | $22 | n/a | |
| 6 | Niko-Cola | 58-40-1 | Waiver Adds Past Week: |
| FAAB Remaining: | $98 | n/a | |
| After an 8-1 victory we are right back in the playoff hunt. There is literally no margin for error at this point however because 3 teams are within .5 a game for the final spot. Our team seems to be healthy, but we have backed ourselves into a bit of a wall. We have 2 end of the bench guys that recently lost most of their appeal (Meeks & Tolliver) because of players returning from injury. We also have a now “healthy” Burks sitting on our IR. We can’t make any moves to add or trade for players unless we resolve this, but dropping both essentially seems like a lot to swallow heading into a matchup with JB. We elected to stand pat and hope we go 1 or 2 solid games from each of them. We will examine this further in future weeks.
We turned down a trade this week that could happen in no other league. Otto Porter for Lebron James. It’s literally crazy to think about, but we did and concluded that while the guaranteed production of Lebron is nice, it’s not above and beyond what Porter is doing. Even if we made the deal we were not a lock for the playoffs and certainly not a lock to remain head to a championship game. Making as far worse for coming seasons as Lebron is not keepable with his current contract and Porter is $9. Now we have to hope that Porter at least stays the same or continues to improve as a top rival landed to big prize. Good luck all! |
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| 7 | High as Greg Kite | 57-39-3 | Waiver Adds Past Week: |
| FAAB Remaining: | $13 | n/a | |
| 8 | Martyball – IFBL | 57-40-2 | Waiver Adds Past Week: |
| FAAB Remaining: | $71 | n/a | |
| 9 | HateUsCauseTheyAnus | 55-42-2 | Waiver Adds Past Week: |
| FAAB Remaining: | $3 | n/a | |
| 10 | No Glove No Love | 48-45-6 | Waiver Adds Past Week: |
| FAAB Remaining: | $59 | Derrick Williams Mia – SF,PF $2 | |
| 11 | Heat Apologist | 49-50-0 | Waiver Adds Past Week: |
| FAAB Remaining: | $42 | Kevin Seraphin Ind – PF,C $2 | |
| Not much to report this week. Brogdon looks like the real deal, getting the majority of the minutes and closing the game with Della back. The three steals were nice and I believe more defensive stars will come. He looks like a seasoned vet when he plays. And it doesn’t hurt that Giannis likes playing with him. I get the number one team this week and will look to play spoiler the rest of the year. I do get 5 scheduled games out of butler and my opponent only gets one game from Teague and Gallo and two from Batum. Maybe I can keep it close. In FAAB, I added Seraphin getting about 20 minutes lately, and is still young enough to have some keeper potential. It was nice to be rid of Siakam, who has been dnp-cd the last two games and with Sullinger coming soon (and maybe Millsap) along with Patterson, he is entirely out of the rotation. Felicio is looking like a nice dynasty add. | |||
| 12 | The Chosen Ones | 43-52-4 | Waiver Adds Past Week: |
| FAAB Remaining: | $36 | n/a | |
| Well we are in a free fall. 0-7-2 this week against No Glove No Love. It could have very easily of been an 0-9. Not only are a lot of my guys not good at producing fantasy stats but they turn the ball over a lot as well. We have been hit with injuries and we have just gone into sell mode. At this point we do not have much left in assets that we will want to move. E’Twaun Moore, Justin Anderson, Solomon Hill, Ed Davis, Wade Baldwin, AJ Hammons and Ian Mahinmi are all available… like I said not much left to deal.
While I’m disappointed in how this year has went we do have some hope. I feel like I have 11 guys who I would be keeping for sure if today was decision day. They have an average age of 23 and we would only be spending 108 dollars of our budget. A mix of guys I’m really happy with how they are progressing with Jabari Parker, Julius Randle, Devon Booker, and Larry Nance then a few guys who have been disappointing but I’m holding strong with Alex Len and Trey Lyles would be the core of our youth. I still have high hopes for Terry Rozier and Richaud Holmes but they both could use a trade to give them some value. I’m not sure if this is a positive or not but with a current projection of 92 dollars left for next year’s draft I have been watching college basketball. I would be lying if I said I normally enjoyed watching college basketball. It’s amazing what a good fantasy league will drive you to doing. |
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| 13 | Kap’s Team | 42-56-1 | Waiver Adds Past Week: |
| FAAB Remaining: | $94 | Wesley Johnson LAC – SG,SF $0 | |
| I won 7-2 over another rebuilding team, Cigar Smoking Monkey. More importantly than the win, I traded LeBron James ($72) and Zaza Pachulia ($1) for Clint Capela ($1) and Cory Joseph ($1). I had spent the week looking to move LBJ and was hoping to hold onto Zaza, but believe I received a great haul for them. It gives me plenty of salary cap space and two solid $1 keepers for next year. I also picked up Wesley Johnson on waivers because I was getting tired of Darrell Arthur’s DN | |||
| 14 | I Ain’t No Jok(ic) | 38-61-0 | Waiver Adds Past Week: |
| FAAB Remaining: | $52 | n/a | |
| A 6-3 win this week makes it 4 wins in the last 5 weeks, you’d almost think my team was playing well. Almost. Granted, there have been some flashes of good play. There are less injuries as well which has been huge. There certainly hasn’t been much consistency from my team though. Some guys can’t stay in the rotation, some guys can’t do anything with the minutes they get one night and then step up the next. Frankly they’re all over the place. That inconsistency is really gonna show up over the rest of the season since I face a playoff calibre team every other week the rest of the way. It starts this week with a matchup against Hard-N-Tha-Paint and their monster big men. I think I could get doubled (or tripled) up in REB/BLK this week. It is going to be ugly…
In order to get some positive feelings going I’m making a foray into the overall team stats pages. Surprisingly, my team is among the best in the league in FG% at 47% as well as being above average in FT% with a solid 78%. Those are in line with what I was looking for going into the year really. I’m also middle of the pack in 3s, points and turnovers. Can’t complain too much with those, although that inconsistency/injury is holding them down obviously. What’s really been killing me is of course the rebounds and blocks, the latter of which I’m currently 220 behind the league leader. That’s a big number considering I only have 155 in total, and I’m 59 back of the next worst team. Mental note, blocks and boards are something I may have to address in the offseason. Oh, I almost forgot. I made a small trade this week sending Jonas ($29), Oladipo ($26), and Evan Turner ($4) to JB. In return I get Isaiah Thomas ($14), John Henson ($12), and Miles Plumlee ($1). I also get $32 in salary relief. It’s very sad for me to send JV and Dipo away, two guys who were instrumental in my teams championship last year. JV had been with me since the year 1 draft when I wouldn’t let him get away from me no matter what. Dipo came aboard in 2014 when I sent a $1 Tony Wroten and a $1 Kyle O’Quinn out the door to take on some salary with an under-performing/overpriced Dipo. I think that deal worked out just fine for me (sorry JB), so I hope this one works out just as well in the end. I’m excited to see what Isaiah can do for me, and hopefully Greg Monroe opts out next year and Henson gets the bulk of the minutes at the 5. For next year, my keepers are now looking like Paul George at $31 followed by nobody else over $15. Which is quite the accomplishment considering I’ve got 10+ guys marked as keepers at the moment. The groundwork has been laid, though there’s obviously still some building to do. Special note that I didn’t get a chance to mention last week. I managed to win the REL Football championship this year after losing in the finals last season. If it wasn’t for the stupid Blue Jays collapsing at the end and blowing first place in the final weeks I’d be looking at an REL Triple Crown of Basketball/Baseball/Football in one year. Instead I will settle with being (I believe) the first multi-sport REL champion! Feels good! Almost takes the sting out of my horrible REL basketball season. Almost… |
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| 15 | Hoopus Alleyoopus | 38-61-0 | Waiver Adds Past Week: |
| FAAB Remaining: | $65 | Vince Carter Mem – SG,SF $17 | |
| 16 | Hardenoutherr4apimp | 36-60-3 | Waiver Adds Past Week: |
| FAAB Remaining: | $100 | n/a | |
| 17 | Foreign Affairs | 32-67-0 | Waiver Adds Past Week: |
| FAAB Remaining: | $1 | n/a | |
| D-MO!!!!!! and this time it’s not because of contact drama. A big 11/5/4 with 1/1 3 and stl in his 20 minutes debut for the Pelicans last week and I think he might make that massive FAAB bid not a giant waste after all. I don’t want to get crazy here but there is a chance he could enter the conversation for 12ers in a few months. It looks like he isn’t nearly as out of game shape as you would expect for someone that hasn’t played all season. The big reason I think he could be great in the 2nd half is Gentry seems to think of him as a C to push Davis back to PF but also thinks he’s fast enough to handle small ball. If Davis stays at C Cunningham and Terrance Jones are the competition so not exactly a blockade there but if Davis moves back to PF he is competing with Omer Asik and Alexis Ajinca. I can’t see how he can’t get 30 min a game and be the lead C, heck Davis seems to only be playing C more this year because of how terrible those two are. The other big plus for D-Mo is he’s listed at pf/sf(thanks yahoo) and if he mostly plays C he could gain that C giving him excellent position flexibility.
I lost my matchup this week so the win streak stops at 1 but the 3-6 but it was close in asts, pts and to’s so a respectable loss that would be a win in future weeks when my stash crew gets more burn. Bender didn’t get the same run as the week before and Mudiay fell of a cliff this week and landed in the doghouse. It’s getting hard to be patient with him with every Fultz/Fox/Dennis Smith/Monk/Ball/Ntilikina highlight I watch. Not trying my patience though and a big reason for a good performance from my team is D’Angelo putting up a rank 25 week on 2.3/19/5.5/5/2.3/.3 with solid % and low to’s. He’s been looking increasingly better as the weeks have gone on this season and if he can stay in this range production wise he’ll be doing what I need from him going forward. I’m up against Kap this week and were close in 3’s/pts/rebs and blks which are the main areas my team improves in when my fringe/rookie players get more minutes. I also have a strong advantage in ft% if Wiggins doesn’t have one of those weeks so I think it should be another close week continuing the positive growth trend my team has been for the last two weeks that’s helped move me up to 17th, everyone below me are in tough matchups this week so it looks like unless things go terribly I won’t be falling back down for one more week. |
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| 18 | The Nature Boy | 32-67-0 | Waiver Adds Past Week: |
| FAAB Remaining: | $100 | n/a | |
| 19 | Pete Nice – Razzball | 28-70-1 | Waiver Adds Past Week: |
| FAAB Remaining: | $90 | Rodney McGruder Mia – SG $5 | |
| 20 | Cigar Smoking Monkey | 28-71-0 | Waiver Adds Past Week: |
| FAAB Remaining: | $100 | n/a | |
