Weekly: Dec 17

Here's a second look at our teams at the almost midpoint of our regular season, which is twenty weeks long. We'll take a look at some teams trending up, up, and up, and one coming way down...

Fat Jubas (7-2)
Coming off a nifty defensive effort in WK9, Jubas notched their fifth win in a row by dealing Sour Snails their third straight loss off a thrilling STL/BLK Sunday chase down. Last we checked, Jubas notched two poor GP weeks to start the season but now Coach Eric is humming with a full complement of games each week. Since then Jubas have only suffered defeats to Evan and Thien, the only two teams ranked ahead of them in Russell Conference.

Since a month ago, Jubas has pumped up their defense from sixth rated to third while their offense has gone from twelfth to eighth. On top of that, their efficiency rating has gone from slightly below average to just above. And they are ranked top-three in AST, BLK, STL, and TO. Dare we say that a recent catalyst has been Emmanuel Mudiay?! Or perhaps more likely, the return of Bogdan Bogdanovic into the lineup has helped juice the offense. Or maybe it’s been the Robert Covington effect, which has also helped juice Jrue Holiday’s defensive numbers? Or… There’s just a slew of talent on this team as Jubas’ near dominant defense is getting team-wide offensive support in just enough doses to be winning.

The next two weeks serve up Spade and So Buckets, the second and third best team in Chamberlain Conference, so Fat Jubas will really get a chance to see how they stack up to the rest of the SlamNation contenders this season. Fun fact: Chris Paul, Holiday, and Jeff Teague are all averaging over 8+ AST per game! And remember when we said Jubas was one of only three (now two) teams without a "gold" level guy? Seems to not matter!

So Buckets (5-3-1)
A month ago we warned: "So Buckets are likely even underperforming a bit at just 0.500… Watch out everyone, So Buckets could soon rise in their new Chamberlain conference digs.” Looks like the advanced numbers didn't lie as Josh’s team has gone 3-1-1 since then, and that one loss was only because Josh was at the hospital welcoming his new baby to the world. So congrats to Josh on his firstborn! 👶

His fantasy basketball baby has been stellar as well, with past month ODE ratings of second-ranked offense, first-ranked defense and first-ranked efficiency. So Buckets have improved upon their previous ODE 9/2/5 splits by quite a bit and is now the top rated team in SlamNation. Just one game out of the Chamberlain lead — they tied with current conference leader Squirtles in WK7 — it’s only a matter of time until Buckets emerge atop the charts.

This recent burst hasn’t been powered by new faces either, even if Noah Vonleh’s emergence as a legitimate fantasy asset with 9.5 PTS, 8.5 REB, 1+ 3PT/STL/BLK has helped Joel Embiid and Rudy Gobert on the frontlines while the offense-first rest of the team continue to thrive, led by the four guard lineup of Kyrie Irving, CJ McCollum, DeMar DeRozan, and Derrick Rose. It’s just all the same names playing well together and staying healthy!

The lone dark spot on the roster is the recent demotion of Jabari Parker by the Bulls — or maybe Dwight Howard’s continued health issues — but frankly, Buckets doesn’t need Jabari much as they are already leading the league in PTS, FG%, and REB, aka Jabari’s main contributions. Our next prediction: So Buckets are about to rip off a proper win streak and they’ll be the top Chamberlain team heading into All-Star break! [Editor: Congrats again on a baby Josh, and thanks for giving Funk a very not deserved win that week, woohoo!]

Sour Snails (5-4)
We didn’t expect to have to check in on Snails again for awhile as they started off 4-1 and seemingly restocked their roster to ridiculous depths. Any worries for another dominant season by Snails has been swept away though as they’ve lose three in a row — albeit to three strong teams in Spade, Swamp Dragons, and Fat Jubas. So who are the real 2019 Snails? Are they the world-beaters who are still rated 2/1/1 in ODE on the season or do the details tell a different story?

Snails have dipped to fifth in offense and fourth in efficiency over the past month, some of the blame can be attributed to Steph Curry missing some games, the loss of Caris LeVert, or the slight regression that was coming Kemba Walker’s way after a blazing hot start — not to mention Nemanja Bjelica’s reduced role. But still, a lineup with Curry, Kevin Durant, Kemba, Tobias Harris, plus Julius Randle and Pascal Siakam should seem better than fifth on offense? Bear in mind, that is still a very good SlamNation offense but we’re just used to better from this powerhouse Snails team.

More importantly, the bottom has dropped out on Snails’ defense as they are rated twelfth for the past month, which is very concerning and the real root of their recent decline. The duo of JaVale McGee and Montrezl Harrell are still pretty great at rim protection but it looks like Nerlens Noel is getting a full shot at helping in BLK, where Snails is ranked just thirteenth after being second overall just a month ago. Similar to Noel, Marcus Smart has been brought in as a defensive specialist, despite his many warts, to take over the LeVert role at shooting guard — GM Trieu elected not to make a move there. With a WK10 matchup against a 7-2 Thien team, we could soon be seeing a winless month for Snails, who woulda thought!

Note: Rumors are that Isaiah Thomas is nearing a return and we’re curious what he’ll add to Snails and the Nuggets.


WK9 Highlights:

• A 21/21 GP capped off battle between Hilt the Stilt and Cameltoe ended up with new owner Dave taking the win. The better stat might be Hilt’s six GP maxed out games so far this season to Cameltoe’s five, as both Dave and Felipe struggle to maximize their rotations.
• On the surface, it looked like Spade gifted a tie to Swamp Dragons in WK9 but their 20 GP week was largely due to injury as they had Kevin Love, Paul Millsap, Al Horford, and Devin Booker all out last week — not to mention still injured Will Barton. Seen in that light, Spade might have been lucky to pull out a tie despite being five games down.
• Our lone winless team, Another Bad Creation, had the slim lead heading into Sunday but Fobsters snuck out a win behind clutch free throw shooting by Jamal Murray, Jordan Clarkson, and Rondae Hollis-Jefferson. Plus a timely twenty-nine point explosion by John Collins, who is back to breakout status after 23.3 PTS, 12.7 REB, and almost a three and a block per game over the past two weeks.