One Month: Winners

It's already one month into our young season, and all the weird first few weeks jitters should be off. Let's take a look at some of the teams that are succeeding right out of the gate shall we?

NJ All-Stars (4-0)
Bombing away from everywhere, Eddie's team leads the league in 3PT, is second in PTS, and also an astonishing first in REB. From last year's semi-small ball team, the NJ All-Stars have transformed into a board cleaning monster. J.J. Hickson leads the way with 10.5 REB per, while Lebron James (8.8), Ryan Anderson (7.8), Andrei Kirilenko (7.9), and Luol Deng (7.5) snag a ton from the forward positions. And the outside shooting with Ryan Anderson, Paul George, and the sometimes healthy Kyle Lowry is just hard to beat. Really, if you look at the statistical strengths of NJ All-Stars, this is Ryan Anderson's team, not Lebron's! Eddie's team are feasting on a weak schedule early on -- their first four opponents have just three wins total -- but don't let that disguise the fact that his All-Stars are true contenders.

Chunky Monkeys (4-0)
Right behind the NJ All-Stars in the Thundercats division is the Monkeys, who have jetted off to a white hot start too. They feasted on a similarly weak schedule until WK4's quality win against Fat Jubas. The Monkeys play small ball to perfection, as they are first in PTS, STL, and FT%; second in AST; third in 3PT. Obviously James Harden's trade to Houston pumped this team's PTS up early on, but Jrue Holiday has emerged as a top fantasy talent behind 18.6 PTS, 9.2 AST, 1.4 3PT/STL. I mocked Byron Mullens during the draft but he's putting up 13.4 PTS, 8.3 REB, and 1.6 3PT per game. He really is a perfect small ball PF/C, just like Evan said. An early season trade for Wesley Matthews shored up the roster and now the Monkeys are ready to destroy all challengers. Yikes!

Fat Jubas (3-1)
Even without their leader, Steve Nash, the returning champs are leading the Silverhawks division and winning by shooting a high percentage, protecting the rim and taking care of the ball -- first in FG% and BLK, second in TO. Brook Lopez is back to the tune of 19.2 PTS along with 2.7 BLK, and he pairs with Marcin Gortat's 2.4 BLK to intimidate all shooters facing the Jubas. Nicolas Batum is having his breakout season and he's averaging ridiculous all around numbers of 17.8 PTS, 6.1 REB, 1.6 STL, 1.1 BLK, and 2.5 3PT, plus decent percentages. Batum is the new Matrix! There's a bit of depth problems here, as the backcourt is obviously weak without Nash -- Luke Ridnour and Alexey Shved are clearly not the answer -- but the Jubas have faced a tough schedule early on and have emerged unscathed so far during their championship defense.

LA Buffy (3-1)
Roger's team was left for dead by our prognosticators during pre-season but he has come charging out of the gate to lead the Transformers division. Much of that success can be pinned on the back of that young dog, Tim Duncan, who is averaging 18.7 PTS, 10.1 REB, and 2.3 BLK. Even with Duncan's notoriously poor FT shooting, Buffy is first in FT%, and fourth in REB and BLK. The new Buffy backcourt of Jeremy Lin, J.J. Redick, and Kirk Hinrich have been just useful enough but having Jameer Nelson back in the lineup post-injury will help a lot for the guard stats. With Andrew Bogut set to return soon/eventually, Buffy could be even stronger going forward.