Mid-Season 2018: Silverhawks

While there aren't any positional changes at first glance, once we dig in we'll see that Silverhawks are suddenly competitive as a division again, from top to bottom! [Pre-season 2018]

Sour Snails (9-6)
With six total losses, the Snails have lost more this season than their last FOUR seasons combined. They haven’t dipped to five-plus losses since 2013, which was way before their current streak of three-peat championships. Are the defending champs on the ropes? After busting out of the gate 4-1, Trieu’s team has been playing 0.500 ball, and are even on a two-game losing streak. Most troubling is that Snails only rank top two in FT% and Moves, which is weird since we’re used to seeing them dominate the leaderboard in just about every category.

While the trio of Steph Curry, Kevin Durant, and Jimmy Butler are still awesome, the insane depth here has been chipped away due to injury (Mike Conley), ineptitude (Nerlens Noel), and a change of scenery (Brook Lopez, averaging only 11.8 PTS) -- all three were trade acquisitions last year. Rookie Kyle Kuzma is leading this team in GP, and without his bright spark, we dare say that Snails would be floundering in total this season! However, a champ is still a champ until dethroned, so let’s not bury Trieu’s squad just yet...

Fat Jubas (8-7)
Chasing Snails for a division title is Jubas, who is coming off some struggles themselves, despite a winning record. They’ve already outpaced last year’s five-loss season, and with the early season loss of Gordon Hayward — plus a dozen missed games from Chris Paul — Jubas started off 2-4 before righting the ship recently and going through a four game win streak. A mid-season trade for Jrue Holiday has been a godsend as Holiday has helped steady the backcourt with career numbers, and strangely, Joe Ingles, Pau Gasol, and Robin Lopez have been the tops in GP for Eric’s team. Jubas play a slow paced, defense first, game, and they can only hope that the recent return of Myles Turner can push them toward a fight for a Silverhawks title.

Fob Stars (6-8-1)
It looks like Fob Stars is treading water, headed toward a 0.500 record yet again, and without much hope for a post-season berth. A recent loss to one-win Spade has to be bad for team morale, but perhaps the newly traded Tobias Harris can pump his career best numbers even higher in Clipperland. And there are other bright spots on this team. Namely the semi-emergence of Jamal Murray, who has been playing great recently, and the drafting of rookie John Collins, who projects to be a double double machine soon.

Collins and DeAndre Jordan form a nice bouncy duo up front, and Kemba Walker is still one of the most underrated fantasy assets around. And Walker is only twenty-seven, which is still quite young. The inexplicable collapse of Ricky Rubio’s AST numbers hurts Fob Stars though, and it looks like this middling team will continue to rebuild and tread water. Toilet Bowl anyone?

IL Conceived (4-10-1)
It’s already been quite a year for our rookie owner, Frank. It took only one month to match former Jedi Knight’s record of one-win (in two previous seasons, Jedi went 1-36-1 overall), and IL Conceived actually hit 0.500 — including knocking off Sour Snails in WK6 — and looked poised to grab a post-season berth. Then the injuries hit, Aaron Gordon cooled off from supernova status, and IL Conceived pivoted back to a youth focused future.

A mid-season trade of Jrue Holiday and Jeff Teague for Harrison Barnes and Jaylen Brown is a long term strategy, and with a 0-5-1 record recently, Frank’s team is headed straight for the Toilet Bowl. Oh, but this team is highlight friendly! Rookie point guards Dennis Smith Jr. and Donovan Mitchell are high fliers, Gordon and Brown are both rim rockers, and then there’s fellow rookie Jordan Bell, who also dunks like a maniac. Many owners are regretting not nabbing Mitchell in RD1, letting him slip to RD2, and now he’s headed toward a ROY fight with Ben Simmons.

With five of the six dispersal draft picks looking good — sorry Justise Winslow — the foundation has been set for IL Conceived to compete quickly, and with an astonishingly exciting backcourt to boot!