2016-17 REL Dynasty League Update: Week 20 – Playoffs Baby!

Last week, I had Kawhi get hit in the head and miss a game and a half, Mirotic get cut out of the rotation, Will Barton and KCP had horrific weeks, Jerami Grant is barely playing now, and James Johnson missed a game.  Plus Evan Turner remains out.  All of these things could get corrected in an extra week – Kawhi is close, Turner is close, just need those SG to play better, and the Bulls are a trainwreck trying to play other guys.  Hopefully Miro can get back out there, Hoiberg is really doing an awful job.

Man, I was shocked – SHOCKED – that only $7 got Jordan Crawford, who is one of the bigger adds in 12ers right now.  I was just putting the bid up to ensure he went for more, but I’ll take it!  Assists will be a close cat for me in the semis and finals, and hopefully he’ll help carry me to big wins in treys.  Randle was kinda a blah add, but the Knicks go 4/4 in the semis/finals, and fits into my line-up I think all but 1 day.  I can of course replace him with another option which I’ll be monitoring in my bye.  Good luck to the 4 squads kicking off the playoffs!

Looking forward to this week, the Yappers have me on games played 60 v 59. As for my elites, LBJ has a 4-game week, and Curry, Harden and Whiteside all play 3 each. Lebron played both ends of a back-to-back last weekend, so there’s little chance he does it again this week- so 3 GPs is the expectation here. Goes without saying that I need huge production from these four to prevail. Other team notes:

• Whiteside & Ibaka combined for 19 blocks last week- probably their high-water mark, but if they can put up 12-15+ I think I have a strong advantage in this category versus the other playoff teams.
• Okafor & Whiteside decided to start hitting their free throws last week, amazingly going 26-30 (86.7%). While I can’t expect that to keep up, something in the 75-80% range will help me from automatically losing FT% due to LeBron.
• David Lee will benefit from LA’s absence and a 4-game week. Okafor appears to be finally putting it together just in time for the playoffs as he averaged 18/5 last week. Bogdanovic is averaging 18 pts and 3 3PTs since coming over to red-hot Washington at the deadline. While they’re not game changers, they give me a very solid second unit.
• Injury front: Its just plain luck that my elites (LBJ, Curry, Harden, Whiteside, Ibaka) haven’t had injury issues while almost every other playoff team seems to have had something come up. Covington is the biggest question mark for the week, and he’d be a big loss, particularly in steals. Ryno seems to be alright after a scare last week, knocking down 10 triples over the past two games since he came back from his back issue. Okafor’s knee seems to be fine now, and I’d expect Whiteside to continue playing through his issues with the Heat in contention.
• PT issues: Brandon Jennings’ minutes have ranged between 5-18 the last two weeks- if he can chip in 5 assists, that’s all I’m looking for him to do. Troy Daniels has played double-digit minutes in 11 of his past 12- he’s on the roster for the occasional 4 3PT outburst. Jonathon Simmons chips in some steals and points when he’s out there, and it looks like there should be 15+ minutes this week for the Spurs- maybe more if Kawhi remains out. D-Rose only gives me two games this week. With the Knicks continuing their descent down the rankings, I have to think he’s not going to make it through the season, but hopefully he’s still playing full minutes for these games.
• FA pickups: Spent the rest of my FAAB on Nene, dropping his Rockets’ teammate Montrezl Harrell. Love Harrell, but the recent DNPs were just too much. Don’t care for the FT% impact, but the FG%/points/boards should be nice with occasional steals and blocks. In hindsight, probably should have traded Harrell at the deadline with the hope of landing something better than Nene, but what are you gonna do?

If we played each other last week, it would have been a 6-2-1 victory for my team. However, I had some insane games from my core last week, and the Yappers were without George Hill for most of the week, plus they added some PT with additions of Cunningham and Ginobli. Hopefully, I can take blocks, boards and points. I’d give myself the advantage in 3 PTs too, but without Covington its awful close. Yappers will take TO. FG% has leaned in my direction over the past two weeks, but that category can be all over the place with cold streaks from a high-volume guy. FT%, Steals and Assists are all up for grabs. Yappers were better than me the last two weeks in FT%, and if Okafor/Whiteside revert to their old selves I’m not taking this category. Assists and steals are pretty even, with my team +2 in assists and even in steals during last week. However, the addition of George Hill, compounded by the loss of Covington makes those categories tough to take.

Good luck in the playoffs!

55-114-2 this year is a step back from last years 66-105 but I was a .500 team for the first 7 weeks last year before I started my rebuild and the recent play of some of my players has me confident with some smart drafting I can atleast move to the middle standings of the league next year.

The D-mo bonfire of wasted FAAB really came back to bite me this week as I desperately wanted to add Sabonis and Jordan Crawford off the wire but only had $3 FAAB left, (kicking myself for not making a few trades for FAAB at the deadline that I had on the table) I doubt I would have held on to the $55 needed to get Sabonis, im surprised some of the other owners didn’t bid even higher than that as I think he’s a great prospect still and is great at $1 and super surprised Crawford only went for $7 as while he’s struggled to stay in the league he’s had times when he has gotten minutes where he’s been a solid thragnof and he should be a great pickup for the playoff run for teams, or JB in this case “shakes fist”.

For my team the week was positive again for my stashes and I look forward watching them down the stretch while preparing the boat to ship Mudiay back to the China league. Zubac finally got his long forecast start and Magic wants to see if he can handle 30-35 minutes before season ends, Skal continues to look good in his limited run and be one of the few kings that plays with energy, and Malachi sounds like he is only a week away which is a big help as the opportunity is there on the wing and I want to see if he is still worth a stash. The mess is terrible for minutes but it’s good to get signs of life out of Kilpatrick and Whitehead is actually starting to look like he could be a solid nba backup in the Cojo mold, Derrick Jones jr. is starting at pf which is hilarious but Earl Watson really likes his defense while the Cav’s are back looking to pick up Larry Sanders thanks to Bogut’s magnificent minute, should have come back to the Warriors, I hope the sign him so I can see what he still has before the season ends as I expected him to only get signed in the offseason.

Saric, Russell and Clarkson continue to be beasting for me while MKG makes himself useful in his own really weird way for sf. Wiggins though is driving me up the wall, he’s improved but his steals but his crazy scoring has been directly tied to Lavine going down and when he’s not hitting his shot he still does little else. I really don’t want to part with him but his $38 price tag is too steep for barely top 50 on good weeks and mostly hangs just outside the top 100.

Good luck for the playoffs everyone and I look forward to putting up a tougher fight next season, the Embiid might be deflated now but he will arise ready and at attention next season with the Haitian Croatian Sensations flanking him.