“Excellence is the gradual result of always striving to do better” (Pat Riley)
With Week 13 in the books of history, fantasy basketball reaches a critical point this week. A lot of teams are looking up to 6th place and some may be thinking of throwing in the towel. This is a mistake. In a nine-cat league, two good weeks can make an apparently bad team into a monster, that can win a league. I remember last year when I won a Yahoo Fantasy Winner League and one of the ITL Satellite leagues. In both cases, I was out of the playoffs in week seventeen. The secret was working the waiver wire and buying low on the best players for the second half of the season (a constant in every fantasy season). I bought low on Chris Paul, Gary Harris, Khris Middleton, Marquese Chriss, and Nikola Mirotic, for example. This season these things will happen again, for sure.
Here is how the action went down in Week 12 across our 12 RCL Leagues:
Want the best tools and projections to help dominate your league? Check out the Stocktonator, the byproduct of Rudy and machine making love. Click HERE for a FREE 3-day trial.
Experts League: Tarch Tadness wins 6-3 and is the overall leader. With Zach LaVine, he’s more dangerous. In another exciting game, Dynasty Deep Dive beat SON for a tight 5-4 victory.Tarch Tadness made a good move adding Jonas Valanciunas. With a cold start this season, Jonas has averaged 14.0 points, 10.8 rebounds, 0.8 blocks with 55.0 FG% and 78.6 FT% over the last week.
Straight Cash Homie: Team GIANT, with three big wins in a row, is in great shape, with the help of DeMarcus Cousins, Anthony Davis, and Bradley Beal. They are all top 15 players for the month. Few trades this week, but Pikachu made a good deal adding Bogdan Bogdanovic for E’Twaun Moore and Osama Razz2 in a short-term move adding Dragan Bender for Jordan Bell.
Straight Cash Homie 2: Cronos Black Metal is the new leader with a resounding 8-1 victory. jasper’s Team won a beautiful match against Slapnuts 6-2. Akeem’s Dream Team and Brow’s full 82? won easily.
Straight Cash Homie 3: Klark Shark suffered a crushing defeat against Rodmans Peacekeepers, who has ten players into the top 90 this week. In this league, we have the Everest of trades this year. Boogie’s Low Ceiling acquired Nikola Jokic and Robert Covington while Klark Shark acquired Khris Middleton, Malcolm Brogdon, and DeMar DeRozan. At first sight, this seems pretty good for both teams, but right now, both Covington and Jokic are at season-low values. He is hoping for a strong second half to the season for both. If that happens, Boogie’s Low Ceiling will have done good.
Straight Cash Homie 4: Matokie Slaughter is now only 2.5 points from the top, but get picky with it is a solid leader and won 6-3. Yoku’s Team made an interesting acquisition with Wayne Ellington, who’s been a monster from the three point line this season with 2.9 threes per game.
Straight Cash Homie 5: Baetski’s Team is in great shape and jumps into playoff position. Bold move made this week by Ala Kings, as he added Gorgui Dieng, a top 50 fantasy player over the past two seasons and usually starts slow. If you still have him, you deserve the Nobel Prize for patience. He’s been able to earn more minutes and been a top 60 player over the past few weeks. He also added Milos Teodosic, but in exchange dropped JJ Redick. This is too risky of a move.
Straight Cash Homie 6: RJC’s Team beat the irregular My curry too spicy! 5-3. As a result, they flip flopped third and fourth in the standings. Evil Empire, the overall RCL leader, won 5-4.
RAZZblueBALLS: Mamba and GasOl(d) Anthem continue to strike brutally, ruthlessly and daily in RAZZblueBALLS. Adding Bobby Portis for Ersan Ilyasova sounds good for Mamba. Pass it to the Greek acquired Milos Teodosic (dropped a few days later) for Bismack Biyombo. I love Milos but Biyombo absolutely needs to be owned in all leagues (until Nikola Vucevic returns). Over the last two weeks, he has been a top 45 player in fantasy.
BBQ Mousetrap: More Sonics Please is the leader for one more week after winning 7-2. Big win by LA Lakers against “emoticon” 8-1. Still, I don’t know how I dropped Biyombo for Okafor, and I can say the same when I saw Kentavious Caldwell-Pope sitting on the wire. I added him immediately. He’s been a top 80 player this season and with his travel restriction over, he’s a must-own player.
Italy vs Razzball: ! (7-2), The Wakefield Case (6-3) and Stuck in Saigon 2 (5-4) won again and are both in the top 3. Very well done The Wakefield Case adding Milos Teodosic. The main concern for Milos is his foot, but if he’s healthy again, he will be a source of double-doubles.
No Punt Intended: Another threesome that raise fear here. Dicks Out 4 Harambe crashed The Bad Bandidos; Newbie won easily 8-1, and basketballsacks destroyed theena’s Team. Well done Newbie adding Bismack Biyombo.
Dynasty Deep Dive: ELITE lost to Big Baller Brand, the leader, and Peter Reyes’s Team reinforces his third place winning Union Olimpija. Maybe I made a mistake dropping Bogdan Bogdanovic, but Evil Empire made a bold move adding him off the waiver wire. The Euroleague First Team 2017 member has improved this week his numbers, averaging 17.5 points, 4.0 assists, 1.8 3pts with great percentages (58.1 FG% and 86.7 FT%).
TEAM OF THE WEEK
| Name: | GasOl(d) Anthem (RAZZblueBALLS) |
| Key players: | K.Durant (30.3 pts / 3.7 3pts / 64.3 FG%)
L.Ball (9.3 rebs / 8.0 asts / 3.3 stls) Dr.Green (16.3 pts / 7.0 rbs/ 7.3 asts) C.Capela (15.0 pts / 13.7 rbs / 1.7 blks) |
BEST RECORD
| 1 | Evil Empire | Straight Cash Homie 6 | 76-38-3 |
| 2 | Pikachu | Straight Cash Homie | 76-39-2 |
| 3 | Dicks Out 4 Harambe | No Punt Intended | 77-40 |
| 4 | Newbie | No Punt Intended | 75-40-2 |
| 5 | basketballsacks | No Punt Intended | 74-42-1 |
| 6 | TonyRP 4 | Straight Cash Homie 6 | 74-43 |
| 7 | Tarch Tadness | Experts League | 73-44 |
| 8 | Vengeful Hoopdies | Straight Cash Homie 3 | 72-43-2 |
| 9 | Hals’s Team | Straight Cash Homie 5 | 73-44 |
| 10 | More Sonics Please | BBQ Mousetrap | 72-43-2 |
| 11 | ! | Italy vs Razzball | 72-43-2 |
| 12 | Big Baller Brand | Dynasty Deep Dive | 72-43-2 |
| 13 | TonyRP 3 | BBQ Mousetrap | 72-44-1 |
| 14 | Stuck in Saigon 2 | Italy vs Razzball | 71-44-2 |
| 15 | Cronos Black Metal | Straight Cash Homie 2 | 70-45-2 |
BEST RECORD LEADERS
| Week 1 | gesiot’s Team | Italy vs Razzball |
| Week 2 | basketballsacks | No Punt Intended |
| Week 3 | GasOl(d) Anthem | RAZZblueBALLS |
| Week 4 | TonyRP 4 | Straight Cash Homie 6 |
| Week 5 | ! | Italy vs Razzball |
| Week 6 | Cronos Black Metal | Straight Cash Homie 2 |
| Week 7 | Pikachu | Straight Cash Homie |
| Week 8 | Pikachu | Straight Cash Homie |
| Week 9 | Pikachu | Straight Cash Homie |
| Week 10 | Pikachu | Straight Cash Homie |
| Week 11 | Pikachu | Straight Cash Homie |
| Week 12 | Evil Empire | Straight Cash Homie 6 |
| Week 13 | Evil Empire | Straight Cash Homie 6 |
TEAM OF THE WEEK WINNERS
| Week 1 | gesiot’s Team | Italy vs Razzball |
| Week 2 | Slack-Jawed Daps | Straight Cash Homie 2 |
| Week 3 | The Wakefield Case | Italy vs Razzball |
| Week 4 | The Wakefield Case (2) | Italy vs Razzball |
| Week 5 | Newbie | No Punt Intended |
| Week 6 | Evil Empire | Straight Cash Homie 6 |
| Week 7 | TonyRP 5 | Dynasty Deep Dive |
| Week 8 | Stuck in Saigon | RAZZblueBALLS |
| Week 9 | Newbie (2) | No Punt Intended |
| Week 10 | Durrant me a Title | BBQ Mousetrap |
| Week 11 | Newbie (3) | No Punt Intended |
| Week 12 | TonyRP 5 (2) | Dynasty Deep Dive |
| Week 13 | GasOl(d) Anthem | RAZZblueBALLS |
Thanks for playing and good luck.
