Russell 2017: Thundercats

Home to two -- or three -- of Sour Snails' biggest threats, can one of these Thundercats capture a championship this season? [2016 Mid-Season]

#3 Swamp Dragons (4-14-1, 6-13)
The former NJ All-Stars are in decline, moving from six wins in 2015 to four wins last year. But that’s okay, because all those losses are partially by design. After trading away LeBron last season, Eddie is looking to rebuild and move toward a brighter future. And man does that future look bright! Paul George re-established himself as one of the best players in the game last year, Nikola Jokic is fantasy’s breakout player du jour, and Dennis Schroder is poised to have a great season. Plus, Reggie Jackson proved to an excellent lead guard last year — even if he’ll start the season injured.

The biggest question facing Swamp Dragons is what the ceiling is for Andrew Wiggins and Jabari Parker. Wiggins is already an offensive force, but he doesn’t seem to do much of anything else. And Jabari Parker has shown flashes of being an efficient shot maker, and decent rebounder, but neither Wiggins nor Parker contributes much in the 3PT/STL/BLK categories, severely limiting their fantasy upside.

The draft brought in another handful of high upside players, as Jusuf Nurkic is coming off an incredible preseason, while Terry Rozier, Trey Lyles, and Bobby Portis are all sophomores with intriguing potential. And Eddie brought in Robert Covington and DeMarre Carroll to space the floor, along with some spot starts by E’Twaun Moore. While Dragons may be a year from playoff contention, it’s possible they’ll be filled to the brim with talent once this season plays itself out.

#5 Funk Coalition (6-13, 3-16)
Rededicating themselves once more to big ball, Funk collected another group of non-shooters to go against everything the modern NBA demands. Faced with the prospect of 2016 #1 overall pick Ben Simmons possibly not playing the entire season, our current double Toilet Bowl defending champions grabbed Simmons anyway. Luckily, he also had the #4 overall pick — due to a 2015 trade — and shopped that pick all around before settling on Pau Gasol.

Gasol was then summarily moved for Rondae Hollis-Jefferson and Evan Turner, essentially Fat Jubas’ RD1 and RD2 selections. Later on, Funk traded yet again, moving keeper Tobias Harris and a 2017 RD2 to Fob Stars for Nerlens Noel. Noel will slide in at power forward alongside Karl-Anthony Towns, Andre Drummond, and DeAndre Jordan to form the biggest roadblocks at the rim ever. The backcourt features Ricky Rubio and Rajon Rondo doing their terrible shooting but wonderful AST-STL things, and Marcus Smart is back after getting unkeepered. Plus, Turner and Tyreke Evans are great fits for this non-shooting backcourt, and Amir Johnson serves as an adequate replacement until Noel returns from injury. Is Funk’s big team ready to play with the big boys?

Hopefully not relevant: Smart, Evans, and Noel are all out for at least a month or two. Plus Simmons, who could be out forever. The entire bench here is injured!

#14 Chunky Monkeys (13-5-1, 10-8-1)
We thought Monkeys were poised to challenge Snails for a title last year, but a middling 6-4-1 start proved that they weren’t even the Thundercats division favorites. Monkeys did put it all together to go 8-1 down the stretch, but they still lost to division foe Spade in WK19, and that doesn’t bode well for them. Maybe all that was growing pains though, and Chunky has reloaded and refocused their championship efforts.

Let’s not forget that the one-two punch from this team is still James Harden and LeBron James. Add in Kyle Lowry, one of the better point guards around, plus the (hopeful) return to health of Marc Gasol, and GM Evan just needs to fit in right roster pieces to challenge for a title. Goran Dragic was shipped out at the end of last season for Serge Ibaka, and Jeff Teague was moved pre-draft for an extra pick. That means RD5 pick Seth Curry could be a sleeper to receive lots of backcourt minutes, or the job will fall to Patty Mills if the other Curry falters.

Or will Evan go with more wings, as he has some multi-cat options in keeper Jae Crowder, the surprising Marvin Williams, Tyler Johnson, and Solomon Hill to fill out the starting lineup. Frankly, we are in love with Clint Capela’s upside — he was the pickup from the Teague trade — and if Joakim Noah can even intermittently approach some of his old numbers, Monkeys have all the tools to challenge Spade and Snails as championship favorites. We hope.

#15 Spade (15-4, 12-7)
Coming off two straight division titles, and last year’s Finals appearance, the only thing left for Randall’s team to do is win a ring. Previous iterations of Spade have been hampered by injuries and last year was no different, despite a great record — Eric Bledsoe was lost very early on. And now that Kobe Bryant has retired, last year’s rookie sensation, Devin Booker, has the chance to get his statue erected outside Spade Stadium.

The rest of the keeper core is a master class in balanced players. Kawhi Leonard is a NBA MVP candidate, Al Horford and Paul Millsap are literally do everything big men, and Kevin Love is still the prototypical stretch four. And with Bryant gone, Spade will experience a jump in FG%, one of their few weaknesses. This year’s draft produced Jrue Holiday, JJ Redick, Jrue’s understudy and Pelicans starter until he returns, Tim Frazier, along with Danny Green, the just injured Jared Sullinger, and fill-in Jerryd Bayless. A bounce back shooting season by Green would really help the wing spot on this team, as well as an early return by Holiday. Overall we see no reason Spade won’t keep winning, and they remain the top threat to take Sour Snails down.