Writer's League Week 3 Recap

We have some more clearly defined tiers at this point in the Writer’s League. Edge, PB And G, and Kostas are clearly the top 3, followed by seven teams within five games of each other. We all have a chance! Of course, I arbitrarily cut off the five games number there to include myself (why are you all reading this, he’s clearly a narcissist! Wait, quiet down 13 year old daughter. And how do you know such big words?) Even Son, Mr. Hooper, and the Oracle (the last three teams) are only like 6 back.

https://www.fantrax.com/fantasy/league/3l3er6yal84ps3ep/standings These are the standings here, I have no idea if this will work!

Team of the Week

Son: He went with a no centers strategy, focusing on guards for I think 9 rounds. This was a good plan, I believe. However, the execution of the plan makes me think fondly of diaper changing days in comparison! His first two picks were Damian Lillard and Kyrie Irving. Lillard, good pick if he stays healthy which he hasn’t done for a bit. Couple years, there. And Kyrie, I’m not even going to like, go there, because I’m not getting paid for this and don’t want to go viral for any reason. I want to be forgotten!

Jordan Poole was probably supposed to average more than 15.6. And I’m the biggest Zach LaVine critic on the Bulls Facebook group so you know I’m down on him, and he’s sitting games, scoring only 21.9 on 44% shooting, and is in the bottom 15 percentile for shots at the rim. I guess what I’m saying is I think he had a good plan, but he kept picking my least favorite guys. Troll! Why did you pick your fantasy team to make me mad! Now you are way behind me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! By half a game, anyway.

Interesting Pickups of the Week:

Shocker, Lonnie Walker got dropped again! And so did Patrick Williams! These poor guys, I wonder what their mothers say this does to their self esteem. And LOL, Bruce Brown got picked up again. I think the pattern is that some guys just aren’t good consistently, but have flashes so they get picked up. Except Patrick Williams. He’s only good in a tank everything team build.

I was bummed that I missed that Cam Johnson was cut as he was providing good volume on his 3s.

Jeremy Sochan looks to be in Pop’s good side in San Antonio. His energy will continue to lead to consistent minutes.

I’m not rushing to pick up Charles Bassey for long term but, with a five-game week, the kid could get some good boards numbers for a stream.

Cameron Payne is a great move. I picked him up and dropped him, needing the space for my roster. I thought Chris Paul was a shorter term injury. It is a minor thing, but I’m looking for Payne to log more minutes than expected. His first two games have been fire since Paul hurt his heel.

Trades

Trade 1: I traded Anthony Edwards and Mitchell Robinson, receiving Tre Jones and Jakob Poetl the Turtle in return. Why on earth did I trade Anthony Edwards?

Well there’s this:

Anthony Edwards providing some nice off-ball gravity on this play pic.twitter.com/B6dp6lkPTs

— NBA University (@NBA_University) November 7, 2022

And this, narrated by Zach Lowe for your entertainment pleasure.

https://streamable.com/yw85si

Edwards, to me, is immature and had to be gotten off of as soon as possible. I won’t get into his comments because I don’t want to get fired from this thing I’m doing for free. No, not community service, that got expunged you pyschos!

What it is really is that Edwards has games where he is just terrible shooting. Here’s his last 5:

7-13

5-12

4-13

10-16

5-13

He’s killing me in head-to-head with these percentages. Free throws are at 66% as well. I was wrong on him.

So I moved him for Poetl and his big man stats and percentages and along with Jones, who is my daughter’s favorite player, going back to his Duke days, even though she’s a UNC fan and was confused what team he was on. I don’t ask questions, I just let her think she’s right so that her self esteem is better than Patrick Williams’.

Trade 2

My second: I dealt Jayson Tatum, Scottie Barnes, and Jalen Brunson. Oof! I dealt my top three picks in one week. I got back Deandre Ayton, Jordan Clarkson, and Tyrese Haliburton.

Basic Idea: Punt points! I was second to last anyway with Tatum, but competitive in percentages, rebounds, blocks, steals, turnovers, and can sneak some assists in there. I’m going for the specialists, and not worrying about who is scoring. If you get a stock (steal plus block) you are in! Three point specialist? Let’s go! Time to deal Banchero! I’m hoping my zoning in on these categories will get me out of my doldrums.

Second basic idea: Haliburton! With him and Tre Jones I have two steady producers of guard stats. Brunson, for all his glory this year, is still below seven assists per game. He’s also shooting 29% on threes. Classic example of a good real life player who doesn’t fully translate to fantasy. My team now is full of bigs, category specialists, and point guards. Shall see if it results in better results. Now I have to delete the results or I may still yet get fired from this unpaid volunteer position.

It won’t, but I have to try something!

Final Thoughts:

Much more competitive league than I have been in. Seems like three guys are ahead of the rest, but as we all know it only takes one injury, bad schedule, or Kyrie-like behavior to infect a team with nonsense.

Hit me in the comments if you like or dislike my trades!