So I woke this morning, checked my REL team, and was like, “ummmm, what?” First place baby! Well, tied for first, but it has me first in the standings for the first time in the REL (beyond the first few week or two of the season). Baller! Although I know I still have my work cut out for me, as I’ve yet to face teams 2-4 in the standings. Time to tighten shizz up! Not too much going down on the wire this week, but with a rough week for the other top teams, it’s flattened out the top of the standings with 4 teams within 1.5 games of each other. Gettin’ to crunch time!
Here’s how week twelve in the 2016-17 REL went down, and how we’re looking heading into week thirteen:
| RAZZBALL ELITE LEAGUE STANDINGS | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| League Link | |||
| 1 | JB Gilpin – Razzball | 74-33-1 | Waiver Adds Past Week: |
| FAAB Remaining: | $32 | Dante Cunningham NO – SF,PF $1 | |
| Whoa. I had no idea what the weather felt like up here until now! What a crazy run I’ve been on the past month, picking up another 8-1 win for my 3rd 8-1 win out of the past 5 weeks. I’ve yet to lose a matchup this year, I’ve (knock on wood) stayed mostly healthy, and made a big trade that I think helps me for a title run this year.
My punt FG% team certainly gave me a shocking week with a .492 FG%, the FT stayed strong, Dirk Nowitzki looks like he has more in the tank… Things are obviously going really well. Dipo is on the upswing! Tyson Chandler is getting a bajillion boards, Michael Beasley with a shocking week was pretty fun… It’s nothing but wins and partying right now, so the last thing I need my guys to get is over confident. We all know they’re basing their recent play on being on my REL team… Nothing too much a-changin’ for this week, I wish KCP got INJ status to help open a spot, but alas my only waiver move was losing McRae – who gave me a few good games – for Dante Cunningham. Dante is just a roster filler for me, but can chip in a block, and has been on-and-off REL teams all year (I think this is like his 4th team already – hah!). Good luck this week to Las over at No Glove No Love, who is beating me 7-0 right now! Hah, silly early MLK games. And good luck to all in the REL this week, excited to see this race for the bye weeks unfold! |
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| 2 | Yappers | 74-33-1 | Waiver Adds Past Week: |
| FAAB Remaining: | $28 | n/a | |
| Well that was a butt kicking (3-6) to Heat Apologist. My explanation comes down to the fact that Heat Apologist was ..really.. great last week while Yappers was not. For starters I was 0-3 in categories that are not (or negatively) related to matchup schedule (FG%, FT%, Turnovers) . It is hard to win a matchup when you are already down three there. The irony being that last week I had a record high FG% of 0.479. Still lost it since Heat Apologist was a blistering .505. Meanwhile my FT% was a putrid .638, a record low.
So this week Yappers had better show improvement or we will find our butt similarly kicked by Slim. For starters we need to win 2 out of three between FG%, FT%, and turnovers. Then we must win in our two strengths, assists and threes. Then we need an upset in one of the remaining categories to get to 5. No FAAB acquisitions this week. How we perform in the next few weeks will determine what (if any) trades I will make. |
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| 3 | Scurry to the Left | 73-34-1 | Waiver Adds Past Week: |
| FAAB Remaining: | $93 | n/a | |
| 4 | Slim – Razzball | 71-33-4 | Waiver Adds Past Week: |
| FAAB Remaining: | $50 | Sheldon McClellan Was – SG $4 | |
| The best thing I can say about this past week is that it could have been worse. Coming into the week I needed my injured guys to get healthy and it just didn’t happen. The Goose remains out with an Achillies and who knows how long that will take to heal, they obviously brought him back too fast last time. Fournier has a problem with his heel/foot, they brought him back too quickly as well, and now we’re looking at an extended absence. Richardson also has a foot issue that he’s been playing through since late December but it’s gotten worse and now he’ll be out for weeks. These aren’t insignificant players I’m missing, it’s a ton of 3s, points, and two of my better shot blockers that I simply can’t win the category without.
Maybe if that was all that was happening I’d be ok but there’s also DPowell losing minutes, down to about 12 a game. Sometimes he still performs admirably like against PHO he went 10/5/0/2/2 in only 15 minutes. Hopefully the minutes improve as Dallas continues to lose but there’s no guarantee of that and it seems like Carlisle just doesn’t like him no matter how well he plays. Then there’s Sergio losing minutes. He went down with an ankle after arguably his best stretch of the season only to come back to a lost starting role. Annoying for sure but honestly I don’t need his assists and he doesn’t do a whole lot else. At 30 years old I’ll probably lose him if this continues. The minutes have climbed over the past 4 games so there’s still a slight glimmer of hope that he can regain his lost minutes. Finally there’s Chriss and his constant fluctuation of minutes, but even when he gets low minutes he still puts up stats. Against the Spurs Chriss got into foul trouble and only managed 15 minutes, but that was 15 minutes of 5/5/1/2/0 with a 3. Something tells me he’s going to be a monster next year, and maybe even at the end of this one. With all my injuries I had no reason to hold onto Brice Johnson so I let him walk. I could have added Terry, Brooks, or even Babbitt for the week and try to get every stat I could but you know that just ain’t my style. I have to add upside and I made a statement at the beginning of the year and I’m sticking with it. I said Thornton, Satoransky, and Burke are all terrible and by the end of the year Sheldon McClellan will be playing 20 minutes nightly. It hasn’t quite gotten there yet but when either Beal or Porter is down McClellan is the starter, both of which have missed time and Porter is currently nursing a hip. Oubre still looks mediocre at best and who knows what happens when/if Porter leaves in free agency next year. McClellan doesn’t blow up the stat sheet but he’s a very metrics friendly player, how many rookies only have 2 TOs in their 1st 210 minutes in the league? All he needs now is minutes and like I said a couple sentences ago, his competition is easily passable. |
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| 5 | Hard-N-Tha-Paint | 68-38-2 | Waiver Adds Past Week: |
| FAAB Remaining: | $18 | Alex Abrines OKC – SG $4 | |
| 6 | High as Greg Kite | 63-42-3 | Waiver Adds Past Week: |
| FAAB Remaining: | $13 | n/a | |
| 7 | Martyball – IFBL | 63-43-2 | Waiver Adds Past Week: |
| FAAB Remaining: | $71 | n/a | |
| 8 | Niko-Cola | 59-48-1 | Waiver Adds Past Week: |
| FAAB Remaining: | $98 | n/a | |
| Ugh what an awful week. We were down from day 1 largely due to an abnormally large player disadvantage. Between the flu, a funny schedule, and some untimely rests we ended up 6 players down for the week. That is a lot of minutes and production to make up for. Even at full strength we would have had our hands full with JB who has put together a great squad. We fared alright against some of the other top teams, but dropped 5 games out of the playoffs with this crushing defeat. Meanwhile JB propels himself to first in grand fashion.
Our schedule takes a turn for the best this week as we get the 20th place team, followed by a rebuilding Foreign Affairs just ahead of a key matchup with Hard-N-Tha-Paint who currently holds the fifth playoff spot. With all of that being said we really need to go no worse than 14-4 over the next two weeks to position ourselves for a playoff run. To rebuilding teams, we are still open to make a trade for this year production. We have what I consider a fair amount of $1 guys who are not sexy, but offer cheap production that you can count on and need when you are putting together a team. With a little luck they will be putting up the same numbers as a guy that will go for $20-$25 in next years draft. Good luck all! |
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| 9 | HateUsCauseTheyAnus | 58-48-2 | Waiver Adds Past Week: |
| FAAB Remaining: | $3 | n/a | |
| 10 | No Glove No Love | 55-46-7 | Waiver Adds Past Week: |
| FAAB Remaining: | $59 | n/a | |
| 11 | Heat Apologist | 55-53-0 | Waiver Adds Past Week: |
| FAAB Remaining: | $42 | n/a | |
| I figured I might play spoiler this week, up 6-3 was unexpected. Aided by a Sunday Knicks-Raptors blowout, I managed to win points and blocks, with Norm Powell and Willy Hernangomez getting bigger than expected minutes. The expected windfall of 5 games from Butler didn’t materialize, with him missing 2 1/2 games. However, Felicio and to a lesser extent Valentine through. The fact Felicio has been closing games is encouraging. My “big” move of the week was moving Jamal Murray for Stanley Johnson, the day before KCP got hurt. While not outstanding in his two games without KCP, he outplayed Bullock and could be in line for some late season heroics like last year. I was worried about Jamal getting minutes with Denver, with Harris looking like the SG of their future. Jamal might develop into a PG, with Mudiay not exactly setting the world on fire. It’s hard to get older by acquiring a 20 year old, but Jamal is still 19. The biggest reason I made the switch was shedding $14 in salary cap. In FAAB, I considered re-adding Siakam, but I still just don’t see his future without a trade. | |||
| 12 | The Chosen Ones | 48-55-5 | Waiver Adds Past Week: |
| FAAB Remaining: | $3 | Pascal Siakam Tor – PF $33 | |
| 13 | Kap’s Team | 45-62-1 | Waiver Adds Past Week: |
| FAAB Remaining: | $94 | n/a | |
| 14 | Hoopus Alleyoopus | 45-63-0 | Waiver Adds Past Week: |
| FAAB Remaining: | $65 | n/a | |
| 15 | I Ain’t No Jok(ic) | 40-68-0 | Waiver Adds Past Week: |
| FAAB Remaining: | $50 | Mike Dunleavy Atl – SG,SF $2 | |
| My guys took some punches, and held tough against a playoff team going into the weekend. Then on Saturday and Sunday nobody showed up. The result was a not unexpected 2-7 loss versus a very good Hard-N-Tha-Paint team. Of note is that I didn’t lose 3s, points, or assists by too much and actually had a real shot at each going into Saturday. Given a little more luck this could have actually been a shocking 5-4 victory.
Looking at my roster I’ve got Tyreke Evans who’s starting to play 20+ minutes, including 28 minutes once this week. He’s playing very well in those limited minutes so he’s 12er worthy at this point. Luwawu (hereby known as TLC) is in the rotation, and with Nik Stauskas struggling TLC might have an opportunity to be usable the rest of the way. At least for streaming if he plays well. I like the kids upside and he plays hard on defense which coaches love. Tim Hardaway is definitely worthy of a spot in 12ers now and he’s starting today with Dwight out. I’ve been pleasantly surprised with his supporting stats lately too as he had 6/7/5/3 this week in addition to his usual 3s and points. The bad news is Rodney Hood got injured yet again, but he was just starting to play really well before the injury so there’s a silver lining. I also made a FAAB move this week, surprisingly able to get Mike Dunleavy for $2 when my $16 bid for Siakam proved too low. There goes my 1 Raptor I was gonna have after trading the rest away. Oh well. Hopefully Dunleavy gets some run and drains some 3s for the Hawks, and if they trade Hardaway like they’re talking about he could get some real value the rest of the way. This week I get a non-playoff team so I expect to fight for a victory with a solid chance to come out on top. It won’t matter for the standings but I don’t want to develop a losing culture around here, so a win will be good for player morale anyway. |
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| 16 | Hardenoutherr4apimp | 38-67-3 | Waiver Adds Past Week: |
| FAAB Remaining: | $100 | n/a | |
| 17 | Foreign Affairs | 38-70-0 | Waiver Adds Past Week: |
| FAAB Remaining: | $1 | Edy Tavares Atl – C NA $0 | |
| A big 6-3 win for me this past week to cancel out last weeks 3-6 loss, so I’ve gone 16-11 in the last three weeks which is a big improvement for my team after it’s 8-44 stretch during my 6 week losing streak. It was a tight match up all week and it went down to the wire with me trying to catch up in 3’s and asts after a 9 ast game out of Malcolm Delaney on Sunday. Luckily Russell and Clarkson did just enough with there combined 5 asts to get me over by 1. I think I could have had won threes but after hitting 9 last week Russell only got me 1 in four games, ice in your veins is a metaphor Russell your not literally supposed to go ice cold.
As per usual it was a very up and down week for everyone on my team but EMBIIIIID who continues to point straight up every week despite the Sixers trying to cut the lights and mood music and worrying about the minutes and usage limits written on the side of the bottle. The big development though was another of my rookie bigs that I’ve been stashing looks like he’s finally getting a role in the rotation. Ivica ZUUUBAC, he’s played in three straight games to end the week and while he only averaged 9 minutes reports are that the Lakers staff is making an effort to get him minutes because of how hard he’s been working and how well he’s been playing in practice. The Lakers staff and players have been heaping praise on his development all season and kept repeating that they just wanted him to have more development time and phase him into the rotation later in the year, fair given that he only played 5 games at 13 minutes in Europe last year wasn’t expected to come over this season and he’s only 19. Im excited to see how my team will fair with a bigger role for him and he’s an interesting stash add if you have the room in 12-16 team leagues as in d-league he continued his summer league play with 15.6/9.7 on 57.8/82.9 shooting with a little bit of a 3 range with .3. His d-stats weren’t nearly as good as they were in summer league but his foul rate was sound at 3.5 in 30 minutes. As for roster moves, Saric picked up the SF tag which I’ve been waiting on all season since that’s were projected him when I was stashing him last year and it helps my sf depth especially after my Anthony Bennett stash went up in predictable flames, he’s signed over in Europe now so maybe he finally amounts to something professionally but I’m not likely to pick him up again if he returns to the nba. Dropping him then I placed a claim on Pascal but didn’t expect to get that since I have $1 on budget, and with quite a few players on my watch list already nabbed I got Edy Tavares as my backup. I’ve had my eye on Edy for awhile now and while he’s only playing in the d-league this year he had some good deep league buzz before the season so he’s a welcome improvement over Bennett. And besides if Zubac is now in the NBA full time I need another d-league big to keep and eye on lol. |
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| 18 | The Nature Boy | 33-74-1 | Waiver Adds Past Week: |
| FAAB Remaining: | $100 | n/a | |
| 19 | Pete Nice – Razzball | 31-75-2 | Waiver Adds Past Week: |
| FAAB Remaining: | $90 | n/a | |
| 20 | Cigar Smoking Monkey | 31-77-0 | Waiver Adds Past Week: |
| FAAB Remaining: | $100 | n/a | |
