2016 Finals Previews

Well, it wasn’t exactly an exciting semi-final week as every winner took the matchup in a blow out. We almost had a super rare 9-0 victory too, and the one category that ended up being lost by Spade wasn’t TOs but AST! Let’s take a look at the remaining two games for the 2016 season.

Finals
#1 Sour Snails (19-0) vs Team Spade (15-4)
In two seasons, Snails has gone 36-1-1 during the regular season and is threatening to dominate their way to another title. Check this, the last time Snails lost a game was in late November 2014. (Their tie was in late Jan 2015.) And while things seem like an inevitability right now, GM Trieu has worked hard to construct this almost perfect roster. Each year Trieu tinkers and right now he’s exactly like the Golden State Warriors: breaking records. And minds. Needless to say, their opponent, Russell Conference’s #1 seed Team Spade, has a big uphill battle ahead of them.

For Randall, this will be Spade’s first SlamNation Finals appearance after joining the league three seasons ago. There was concern that Spade would actually become Slam’s dominant team after a stellar dispersal draft. But injuries derailed those aspirations two years in a row. But now, Spade has arrived. And relatively healthy too. Well, Eric Bledsoe is on IR and out for the season, and Kawhi Leonard suffered a missed game already, but for the most part, this is the deepest — and healthiest — Spade has been during the post-season. Rookie Devin Booker has emerged as the leader of the backcourt and he has a rejuvenated Jrue Holiday and waiver wire surprise Ish Smith helping him along the way. The perfectly balanced front court Al Horford, Paul Millsap, and Kevin Love is tough to beat, and if Leonard can play, he’s got the across the board numbers to give Spade the type of team that can beat a strong contender like Death Star 8-1.

Then again, for all of Spade’s amazing team balance and construction, it’s tough to deal with Snails’ backcourt of Stephen Curry, Russell Westbrook, Jimmy Butler, and Klay Thompson. And now they have Hassan Whiteside and Gorgui Dieng monstering it up in the middle, and then there’s Dirk Nowitzki’s shooting to add even more offensive firepower to the mix. dSnails wiped the floor with Fat Jubas in the Chamberlain Conference Finals and if we look at how Snails versus Spade would have fare last week, Trieu’s team would have won 6-3, losing by only a handful each in REB, STL, and TOs. The optimist in us wants to say that Spade has a chance to upset Snails this week, but the realist says that barring injury, Snails is going to repeat.

Then again, the fates wouldn’t let a team go undefeated all the way right? In a sixteen team league that wants to remain competitive? It's hard to say if we want to see history, and a back-to-back champion, crowned. Or if we want to see Spade take out Snails for a major upset. I guess let's see where this matchup goes and celebrate the owner either way as this is our first #1 vs #1 Finals since, well, since ever! We've never had the two best teams face off for the title so this is history in the making already! Good luck to Trieu and Randall!


Toilet Bowl Finals
#1 LA Buffy (9-9-1) vs #3 Funk Coalition (6-13)
Last year, Funk Coalition handily took a Toilet Bowl win despite being 3-16 during the regular season and the lowly #4 seed in the Russell Conference. This year, they threaten to win back-to-back Toilet Bowls as the #3 seed. Their opponent, Buffy, almost made the playoffs on the strength of a 0.500 record but was relegated to the losers bracket. Instead they'll be in their second Toilet Bowl finals, but Roger is looking for his first consolation win after his loss six years ago. Buffy should be the favorite heading into this matchup but it’s likely that their big man heavy team may be running into Funk’s giant sized squad at just the wrong time.

Neither Buffy nor Funk can PTS or 3PT much, and it’s possible that last place PTS/3PT Funk could take both categories as they have inexplicably become average-ish at both for the Toilet Bowl run. From there, it’s likely REB and AST will go to Funk while Buffy will have the edge in FG%, FT%, and TOs. That leaves STL and BLK up for debate, and it’ll be a challenge to see if Tristan Thompson, Robin Lopez, Tim Duncan, and Taj Gibson can fend off Karl-Anthony Towns, Andre Drummond, and DeAndre Jordan. Or maybe the battle will revolve around the outside shooting of Marcus Morris, Tobias Harris, and CJ Miles for Funk versus Isaiah Thomas, Khris Middleton, and George Hill for Buffy. Either way, the battle for likely 2017 overall #1 pick Ben Simmons is coming down to a Lakers (fan) versus a Celtics (fan)!

Totally unbiased here... But, go green! Related side note: I am going to be so upset if/when the Lakers get the #1 pick in the lottery. So so upset.

Boogietown

We’re a little behind but we gotta cover the trades that dropped before the deadline because they were huge and have already impacted the playoffs! Two weeks ago we thought it would be a quiet trade deadline as rumors swirled but nothing seemed to happen. The biggest move seemed likely to involve Tobias Harris, just like in the real NBA, but then a huge blockbuster came out a few hours after: DeMarcus Cousins, traded! Then Boogie immediately Boogied and got suspended by the Kings. Haha. But who will have the last laugh on that deal? Could we find out in Brother Bowl II?!?

• ID#61: Funk Coalition receive Tobias Harris from NJ All-Stars in exchange for Funk’s 2017 RD2
• ID#62: Sour Snails receive Hassan Whiteside, Bradley Beal, Luol Deng, Death Star’s 2017 RD1 in exchange for DeMarcus Cousins, Rudy Gay, David Lee, and Snails 2017 RD3
• ID#63: Chunky Monkeys receive Serge Ibaka from Squirtle Squad in exchange for Goran Dragic and Meyers Leonard
• ID#64: Sour Snails receive Dirk Nowitzki from Silent Crows in exchange for Bradley Beal

Let’s take a look at the four pre-deadline moves starting with the biggest of them all, the swap that netted our defending champs Hassan Whiteside, Luol Deng, a first rounder next year, and (eventually) Dirk Nowitzki! With a hefty lead in PTS over every other team, GM Trieu felt he could afford moving the all around awesomeness of Cousins (acquired back in 2013 as part of a mega-deal that shipped out Kevin Love) for Whiteside’s more focused 11.8 REB and 3.7 BLK, not to mention 61.1 FG%. Luol Deng has been balling it up over the past two weeks too, dropping in impressive all around numbers that mitigated losing Rudy Gay.

And then Snails did a quick follow up deal that flipped the injury prone Beal for Nowitzki, further adding juice to a high scoring team that bombs from deep. Dirk ain’t Dirk anymore, but he’s still at 18.8 PTS, 6.7 REB, 1.7 3PT on the season, with sterling percentages. It’s an all-in move by Snails, securing a championship savvy veteran, and all indications point toward Snails not being shy about defending their title. All in all, it’s hard to say if Snails got more or less dominant but gaining a huge uptick in BLK addresses one of their few weaknesses. Good luck SlamNation...

As for Death Star, they have already used Cousins to win a first round battle and even if this season doesn’t end in another Finals appearance or a title, they’ll have 27.1 PTS, 11.6 REB, 3.3 AST, 1.5 STL, 1.4 BLK and 1.1 3PT of Boogie-town to pair with John Wall and Damian Lillard. And let’s not sleep on Rudy Gay’s underrated versatility as a forward who contributes 17.2 PTS, 6.4 REB, 1.3 STL, and 1.1 3PT per game. Gay is back with Death Star after being moved three years ago. Overall we love this trade for Thien because of both its immediate impact and the future implications of having Cousins as the front court anchor. This post-season could see Death Star prove themselves as the definitive cream of Russell Conference after this mega-deal.

Nowitzki was moved as an old-for-young (again) to Silent Crows in exchange for the oft-moved Bradley Beal. It’s a great deal as Crows were out of playoff contention this year and can weather another injured player with Blake Griffin and Carmelo Anthony ailing. Beal is capable of 17.5 PTS, 1.9 3PT per game but he’ll have to stay on the court more often to emerge as a reliable piece. He’s still just twenty-two years old so a long career should still await him. Plus, he’ll have plenty of company in the training room!

Our last deadline deal involved championship hopeful Chunky Monkeys finally pulling the trigger on a big man. They flipped Goran Dragic — attached to at least three other teams — for Serge Ibaka and that gives them the frontline presence they’ve long needed alongside Marc Gasol. Ibaka is having a slightly down year, averaging only 12.6 PTS, 6.8 REB, and most importantly, an “underwhelming” 2.0 BLKs, but he should bounce back to higher numbers next seasons. And next year it’ll have to be because for all of GM Evan’s all-in pushes this season, injuries torn apart his dreams and he’ll have sit on vacation until LeBron and Harden can give it another shot in 2017.

As for Squirtles, they’ll continue their Toilet Bowl run with the newly acquired Dragic, who has been awesome the past few weeks, averaging 16.4 PTS, 7.3 AST, and almost a STL and 3PT per game. Brian’s team has been lacking a true point guard since the rapid decline of Ty Lawson, but Dragic should fit the bill nicely. And if Zach LaVine or Greek Freak really are point guards too, well then...

So, that's another exciting trade deadline in the books, and thank goodness we got a mega-deal to mull over. Toward the offseason and more fireworks gentlemen!

Playoffs / Toilet Bowl: RD2

Playoffs
Chamberlain: #1 Sour Snails (19-0) vs #3 Fat Jubas (11-7-1)
We hinted that maybe Fat Jubas was the better team with two regular season defeats of Another Bad Creation, and they proved it again with a close upset in the first round. It came down to a pure PTS battle and CJ McCollum, Chris Paul, and Nicolas Batum out dueled Kevin Durant, JJ Redick, LaMarcus Aldridge, and Dwayne Wade. Impressive win for Jubas and now they get to face the juggernaut that is Sour Snails. Needless to say, the new-look Snails wiped the floor with Fob Stars. Oh yeah, new acquisition Dirk Nowitzki dropped 40 points versus Portland. I guess he wants (another) SlamNation championship.

Russell: #1 Team Spade (15-4) vs #2 Death Star (11-6-2)
No real upsets in the other conference but we’re looking at a possible Brother Bowl II as Thien’s Death Star overcame a W-L disadvantage to sort of upset Chunk Monkeys. New franchise center DeMarcus Cousins contributed 7 STL/BLK and that was huge in this matchup, especially since Evan was down Jae Crowder. Then again, maybe it just came down to hot shooting as Rudy Gay, Michael Beasley, and Josh Richardson (who?!) combined for to shoot 44/77, a 57.1 FG%. #4 seed Soup Dumplings put up a surprising fight against Team Spade — with Bismack Biyombo averaging 15.7 REB and 3.3 BLK — but lost out to Spade’s balanced scoring. Now we’ll get to see our only #1 versus #2 matchup for a Finals appearance!

Toilet Bowl
Russell: #3 Funk Coalition (6-13) vs NJ All-Stars (4-14-1)
Over in the Russell Conference, both higher seeds got upset as Funk Coalition beat an ailing MoRRie’s Pogiboys squad — and had Anthony Davis shut down for the season on Sunday — and then NJ All-Stars took care of So Buckets pretty handily behind a huge Paul George outburst. Now #3 Funk and #4 All-Stars will face off for the right to a top draft pick. Note: All-Stars traded Tobias Harris to Funk two weeks ago, so this should be interesting…

Chamberlain: #1 LA Buffy (9-9-1) vs#3 Squirtle Squad (3-15-1)
As expected, #1 seed Buffy waxed #4 Jedi Knights behind Isaiah Thomas and surprising turns by PJ Tucker and Lance Stephenson. A short handed Squirtle Squad was able to upset Silent Crows behind the offensive powerhouse that is Zach LaVine! And yes, there was a Nik Stauskas sighting as the ex-Wolverine played four games for Brian’s team. With Chandler Parsons ailing, it’ll be hard for Squirtles to pull off another upset but if they can, it’ll be a well deserved victory.

Toilet Bowl RD1: 2016

Chamberlain Conference
#1 LA Buffy (9-9-1) vs #4 Jedi Knights (1-18)
After starting of 3-1, Buffy took a six game losing streak mid-season that saw them slide into mediocrity. Then again, all six of those losses came against playoff teams so maybe Buffy ain’t so bad. They went 6-2-1 against easier competition and are now poised as the “best” Toilet Bowl team. An infusion of young talent — Hi Ben Simmons! — would serve this team well. The pre-draft trade for Isaiah Thomas (and Danilo Gallinari) was a big success, and 2015 first rounder Khris Middleton has quietly averaged 18.6 PTS, 4.2 AST, 4.0 REB, 1.9 3PT, 1.6 STL on the season. George Hill and Robin Lopez have been handy, but there isn’t too much depth on this roster. And it looks like Tim Duncan’s days as a keeper are likely over, despite still averaging 8.6 PTS, 7.4 REB, 1.3 BLK, on 48.7 FG%. We’d love to see this two time division winner get back to contender status and missing the playoffs and getting a deep Toilet Bowl run could just be the answer.

After two semi-encouraging five win seasons, Jedi Knight slumped to a new low: just one win over the regular season (they had two wins in a strike-shortened 2012). And it’s not like GM Lum wasn’t active this year, he made a few roster moves — plus a trade for Brandon Knight — but wins just weren’t easy to come by. The leaders for Games Played for Jedi: Monta Ellis, Thaddeus Young, Al-Farouq Aminu, Emmanuel Mudiay, Otto Porter, Isaiah Canaan, Roy Hibbert, and Deron Williams. Throw in injuries to Al Jefferson and Kelly Olynyk and there wasn’t a whole lot of excitement for this team anywhere. At least rookie Mudiay is kind of turning it on as the season winds down, averaging 18.6 PTS, 6.4 AST, 3.9 REB, 1.9 3PT on 45.1 FG% during the last two weeks. If he and Knight can team up effectively next year, Knights have the beginnings of a good backcourt to maybe crawl their way out of the cellar. Again.

#2 Silent Crows (9-9-1) vs #3 Squirtle Squad (3-15-1)
Our 2014 champions almost made the playoffs again but lost out on a three way tie-breaker. With Blake Griffin missing about half the season, a 0.500 record can be seen as almost a victory. However, the tear down might be beginning as Griffin and Carmelo Anthony are still around but Dirk Nowitzki was just moved for injury plagued Bradley Beal. He’ll join Derrick Rose and Avery Bradley in the backcourt and offensive super sub Enes Kanter. Bradley has been very good this season, knocking down 2.1 3PT for 15.1 PTS and producing 1.5 STL. The Crows also could have some interesting keeper decisions on the wing with Rodney Hood, Doug McDermott, and the possible re-emergence of Markieff Morris. For now though, Crows will try to get to the Toilet Bowl finals and secure a top pick.

After four straight years in the post-season, Brian’s Squirtles found themselves with a franchise low three wins (their previous low was eight) and a full on rebuild. Nikola Vucevic led the team in scoring with 17.8 PTS this season and that’s nice for Vucevic but not great for Squirtles. The good news is that Giannais Antetokounmpo has been a triple-double threat (finally) and Zach LaVine is getting all the minutes and shots he can handle. Add in a better than ever Chandler Parsons and we can see the multi-dimensional attack that Squirtles could field next season. Adding Goran Dragic in a last minute trade — in exchange for Serge Ibaka — ups this team’s offensive potential even more. We’re thinking Willie Cauley-Stein might step into Ibaka’s role next season but who’s to say what players GM Brian will keep. All we know is that we don’t expect this team to miss the post-season again next year, and Squirtles could be downright frightening if they can somehow find their way to a Toilet Bowl finals.

Russell Conference
#1 So Buckets (8-10-1) vs #4 NJ All-Stars (4-14-1)
Is Kyrie Irving a franchise player? When Irving plays he’s fantastic but season after season Irving seems to miss almost half the available games… Buckets once again finished 8-10-1 and missed out on the postseason, but there’s the tale of two halves. This team started off 1-9 but righted the ship and wrapped up 7-1-1 to close the year. Also, they kept unearthing gems as the season went along. Old vet Marvin Williams was solid all season long as a small ball four, and then Aaron Gordon, Myles Turner, and Mirza Teletovic all got going recently, with all three putting up some ridiculous stat lines. DeMar DeRozan is still filling up buckets and Pau Gasol is averaging an eye-popping 17.0 PTS, 11.1 REB, 4.1 AST, 2.0 BLK. (We would have loved to see Pau Gasol moved to a contender but that was not to be.) Even though Rudy Gobert missed a lot of games this year, he’s healthy now and could have Joel Embiid join him next season. Overall, So Buckets is overflowing with young talent and if they can stay somewhat healthy, they’ll be right back to challenging for a division title. Plus they could easily take a Toilet Bowl win this season as the hottest team entering the losers bracket.

The All-Stars planned to bottom out this year but maybe they didn’t expect a 0-7-1 record to start the year. After entering SlamNation on a gigantic high, Eddie now is in the midst of a rebuild. Gone is LeBron James and Kyle Lowry. The good news is that they have a bunch of Chunky Monkey picks coming and while Andrew Wiggins and Jabari Parker aren’t exactly multi-cat fantasy stars, they are getting better, especially Parker’s recent run of 21.2 PTS, 6.7 REB, 1.4 STL. Paul George is all the way back from a horrific leg injury and is a top ten fantasy force. With Reggie Jackson also having a stellar campaign, there’s a nice core here. Plus two of Gary Harris, Nikola Jokic, Dennis Schroder, Stanley Johnson, and Nikola Mirotic to continue growing. We don’t see a deep Toilet Bowl run this season but no worries, the All-Stars will shine again soon enough.

#2 MoRRie’s Pogiboys (5-12-2) vs #3 Funk Coalition (6-13)
Rumors swirl that Pogiboy fans are losing patience with owner Alvin’s stewardship. After five seasons of climbing up the hill to respectability, Pogiboys finally broke through last year to a division title and even a playoff victory. And now a team with Anthony Davis, a healthy Brook Lopez, a ridiculous Draymond Green (13.7 PTS, 9.6 REB, 7.4 AST, 1.5 STL, 1.3 BLK, 1.2 3PT), and Mike Conley, Victor Oladipo, and the erratic Elfrid Payton can’t even sniff the playoffs. After ranking last in moves this season, heads are likely to roll in Pogi-land unless another deep Toilet Bowl run is in the cards. Then again, if Pogiboys gets another top rookie then we think Alvin’s just been trolling us all along as he continues to collect talent... For what though?

Well, it’s safe to say the big ball experiment may be over. Or maybe Funk needs to push even harder, as they were only first in REB, second in FG%, fourth in AST / BLK / STL, while basically punting three categories. Still, after starting off the season challenging for a playoff spot, the season ending eight game slide has to give GM Jon pause. Even adding a future Hall-of-Famer in 2016 #1 overall pick Karl-Anthony Towns, a healthy season from Ricky Rubio, and a 11.9 PTS, 11.9 AST, 6.1 REB, 1.9 STL (plus a shocking 0.8 3PT) from Rajon Rondo wasn’t enough to give this flawed team many wins. The recent trade for Tobias Harris indicates that this team might be ready to move on from the punt everthing strategy. Funk remains dangerous due to its weird composition, but mostly they’ve just hamstrung themselves. Editor’s note: I still think I can beat Sour Snails, just let me at them!!!

RD1 Previews: 2016

Chamberlain Conference
#1 Sour Snails (19-0) vs #4 Fob Stars (9-9-1)
There’s not a whole left lot to say when you go undefeated during the regular season and are possibly a mere formality away from repeating as champs. Back-to-back no less. Of course, Trieu always keeps it interesting as he shuffled the deck in the past week by making two trades. A huge one that moved out DeMarcus Cousins and Rudy Gay for Hassan Whiteside and Bradley Beal, and then a follow-up deal that saw Beal get moved for Dirk Nowitzki. So now the Snails will feature an entirely four out offense with Whiteside dashing to (and protecting) the rim, while all those nasty guards bomb away. The only downside here is that Jimmy Butler could be on the mend, giving opposing teams a slight — very slight — chance at an upset. Someone stop this juggernaut!

As for Fob Stars, they made the playoffs after a 3-6 end to the season, after being engaged in a three way tie-breaker, but evidently they aren’t here to challenge Snails as Coach Jimmy already sat season MVP Kemba Walker for Monday night’s game. Walker has been outstanding this season, to the tune of 21.5 PTS, 5.3 AST, 4.4 REB, 2.2 3PT, 1.7 STL, on a career high 43.6 FG%. Paired with emerging rookie D’Angelo Russell, Fob Stars finally has a top notch backcourt to go with a plethora of multi-dimensional frontline guys — Nerlens Noel, Ryan Anderson, Marcin Gortat, Zach Randolph — but it looks like they’ll eat a first round loss and wait around for next year.

#2 Another Bad Creation (13-6) vs #3 Fat Jubas (11-7-1)
After dropping out of the playoffs last season, mostly due to Kevin Durant’s injury woes, ABC returned to take the Transformers division title post-name change from “Half Man Half ImAsian.” Surprisingly, for such a consistently solid team, this is owner Oliver’s first division title. With a six game winning streak mid-season, plus riding high on blowout wins over the past month, Durant and Co. are poised to get to a conference finals. Adding a healthy Dwayne Wade has been a huge boon for this team, as expected, and rookie Jahlil Okafor was putting up excellent 17.5 PTS, 8.0 REB, 1.2 BLK, 50.8 FG% until he torn his meniscus and will be lost for the post-season — just like Alec Burks, who hasn’t played much this year. Still, ABC has Durant, Wade, LaMarcus Aldridge, Greg Monroe, the shooting of JJ Redick and Wes Mathews, and the big butt of Jared Sullinger to create a deep and versatile mix. Let’s see if Durant can power this team to the Finals!

As for the Jubas, our 2012 champs notched another eleven win season and are right back in the mix as a contender. They have their injury woes too, as Chris Bosh is sitting on IR and not available for the playoff run, and talks before the trade deadline to replace him didn’t pan out. Chris Paul has a new group to work with though, as Gordon Hayward, CJ McCollum, and Will Barton all put up career numbers this season. McCollum especially, exploded on the scene for 20.7 PTS, 4.1 AST, 2.4 3PT, and 1.1 STL. Nic Batum returned from injury to his multi-skilled form and it seems like Jonas Valanciunas has settled into being almost a double-double guy. Fat Jubas has beaten ABC twice before already during the regular season, so it’s possible we see an upset by Eric here...

Russell Conference
#1 Team Spade (15-4) vs #4 Soup Dumplings (10-9)
Spade wins yet another Thundercats division title, their third and second in a row, and keeps alive the longest streak of never having missed the post-season. Impressive stuff. Aside from that sour tasting undefeated achatinoidea in the other conference, Spade is looking like the best bet to take the title. Already touting a seriously balanced keeper core of Kawhi Leonard, Al Horford, Paul Millsap, Kevin Love, Eric Bledsoe, and um, Kobe Bryant, Spade added some new pieces with great mid-season pickups like Ish Smith and rookie Devin Booker, who are both full on breaking out. Plus, Jrue Holiday is back to full health and ripping it up again, and so the loss of Bledsoe to season-ending injury might not be enough to slow Randall’s squad on the way to his first Finals appearance. Since this is Kobe’s farewell tour, it should be noted that he started twenty-two games for Spade this year, and put up 16.8 PTS, 4.1 REB, 3.1 AST, 1.9 3PT during his swan song, albeit at 35.6 FG%. Can Spade give Kobe a championship send off?

Nobody could have expected such a successful rookie season from first-time fantasy owner Brandon. (As you’ll recall, he also came in the middle of a huge pre-draft controversy, where the old owner was accused of cheating!) GM Brandon gave Coach Brandon rookie Kristaps Porzingis and then used a fearsome frontline — Derrick Favors, Dwight Howard, Kenneth Faried — to comfortably get into the post-season. The only big disappointment all season long was Danny Green, who regressed badly this year, forcing the trade of Gorgui Dieng for a useable swingman, Evan Fournier. So while GM Brandon works to fill out the pieces around his Zinger, it looks like he’ll be able to compete while building up a contender. Soup Dumplings face a huge challenge against a powerful #1 seed but having already exceeded expectations all season long, there’s a puncher's chance that this mix-and-match team could pull of a gigantic upset.

#2 Death Star (11-6-2) vs #3 Chunky Monkeys (13-5-1)
Monster trades! We love these two owners because both Thien and Evan are willing to back their bets with pre, mid, and late season trades. Thien went to last year’s Finals and didn’t quite get a win but then traded with brother Trieu for DeMarcus Cousins and Rudy Gay — Gay returns after being moved in 2013. That immediately ups the offensive ceiling for this team by a lot and gives John Wall and Damian Lillard another post up option to dump the ball to, next to Julius Randle, who is having a fine (basically) rookie season. Also, in somewhat amazing fashion, David Lee and Michael Beasley are bothplaying well, giving Death Star some much needed depth, especially since Tyreke Evans is out for the season. While Death Star is nominally a higher seed due to their Voltron division title, they are actually facing an uphill battle in the first round. The new trade acquisitions are a lot of firepower though, so it’ll be interesting to see how adding Cousins and Gay can change the equation this week.

As for Chunky Monkeys, their pre-season dreams were a little dimmed as they started off 6-4-1, which is nice but isn’t exactly contender worthy. A team that goes all-in, and trades for LeBron James to pair with James Harden, shouldn’t just be 6-4-1. Since then however, the Monkeys have hit their stride and went 7-1 the rest of the way, with that lone loss being a WK19 matchup against Spade. Not bad. And GM Evan finally moved one of those excess guards for another big man, and what a perfect piece he found. Although Marc Gasol is out for the year, trading Goran Dragic (and Meyers Leonard) for Serge Ibaka is a beautiful move, giving Monkeys a shot blocker who could win any week by himself. With LeBron, Harden, and Kyle Lowry, this team has a top three to compete with anyone, and they also have some interesting wings in Robert Covington and Jae Crowder to put out there, although Crowder and his sneaky all-around stat line could miss up to two weeks. If Monkeys wants to make 2016 their title year, they’ll have to pull off an upset in every round to do it... Do you believe?!

Playoff & Toilet Bowl Seedings: 2016

PLAYOFFS
  *= division winner
Chamberlain Conference
#1 Sour Snails (19-0)*
#2 Another Bad Creation (13-6)*
#3 Fat Jubas (11-7-1)
#4 Fob Stars (9-9-1)

Russell Conference
#1 Team Spade (15-4)*
#2 Death Star (11-6-2)*
#3 Chunky Monkeys (13-5-1)
#4 Soup Dumplings (10-9)


TOILET BOWL
Chamberlain Conference
#1 LA Buffy (9-9-1)
#2 Silent Crows (9-9-1)
#3 Squirtle Squad (3-15-1)
#4 Jedi Knights (1-18)

Russell Conference
#1 So Buckets (8-10-1)
#2 MoRRie’s Pogiboys (5-12-2)
#3 Funk Coalition (6-13)
#4 NJ All-Stars (4-14-1)


Tie-Breakers

• Fob Stars vs LA Buffy vs Silent Crows: A three way tie to see who gets into the playoffs. Record for all three teams H2H against each other: Buffy is 2-1, Fob Stars is 2-1, Silent Crows is 0-3. Crows is out. Then Buffy lost to Fob in WK10 in their lone H2H matchup, so Fob Stars is in the playoffs.
• LA Buffy vs Silent Crows: Buffy beat Crows in both regular season H2H matchups, so they win the higher Toilet Bowl seed.
• MoRRie’s Pogiboys (5-12-2) vs Funk Coalition (6-13): Despite different records, both have a 0.312 winning percentage. Pogiboys beat Funk H2H in WK6 so they get the higher seed in the Toilet Bowl.

Final Standings 2016

Full Standings