Weekly: Jan 20

For our last second set look at our teams, we clean up with a pair of 5-9 teams and two Russell Conference powerhouses sliding down the charts...

IL Conceived (5-9)
Slumming around the bottom of the standings in his sophomore campaign, newish owner Frank has weathered some injuries and slow starts to play 0.500 ball after a rough 2-6 start to the season. While clearly headed for the Toilet Bowl, there’s a shot at another deep run there, and with Dennis Smith Jr.’s name in NBA trade talks, IL Conceived could be looking at a further boost in the near future. As for Smith’s sophomore counterpart, Donovan Mitchell, he’s been back to top numbers with 24.7 PTS, 4.4 AST, 2.7 3PT, 1.4 STL, and 46.4 FG%. Sophomore slump over!

And there’s no need to talk about Luka Doncic and Jaren Jackson Jr.’s rookie impact and prospects, as it’s quite possible Frank nabbed the two top rookies from this year’s draft. Even disappointing dispersal keeper Cedi Osman has stepped up lately, although the Dario Saric experience still remains underwhelming. If veterans Marc Gasol and Eric Gordon can stay the course, there should be enough depth here to mount a challenge in the Toilet Bowl and possibly play spoiler for some playoff teams.

The weird thing is that a team that seemed defense first is now very offense heavy. For the month of December, IL Conceived had an ODE split of 12/6/12, but for the past month they’ve been at 4/12/13. That means while their efficiency has stayed about the same, their offensive rating is suddenly better than even their strong defensive rating had been before! A lot of that is due to their AST ranking jumping from twelfth to second in the league, and it clearly shows how the return of Draymond Green’s out-of-position numbers are having a huge impact. We’re not entirely sure if the past month's offensive output has been a mirage but I guess we’ll find out over the next couple of weeks!

LA Buffy (5-9)
We thought things were trending upward for a 2-3 Buffy last time we looked, but instead they’ve been 1-6 over the past two months and are now firmly out of the playoff picture. Aside from a WK3 win against Spade, all of Buffy’s wins have come against fellow bottom dwellers. (At least they’ve won more games already than 2018's three victories!) And it’s not like Roger hasn't been trying his best, as he’s piloted Buffy to the highest Games Played in the league. So what’s going on?

Well, there’s a simple answer: Buffy can’t play defense. His team has been remarkable consistent all season long on offense, ranking eighth in every monthly split. Plus their efficiency rating has consistent as well, with a high of first in November and dropping only to third for the past thirty days. However, Buffy's defense sucks as they haven’t been able to rise above fourteenth defensive rating in any month of the season and that basically means they can’t REB, STL, BLK worth a damn.

Looking over this roster, we see an all offensive team that consists of rookie Trae Young and a bunch of scoring types: Klay Thompson, Kyle Kuzma, Brandon Ingram, Domantas Sabonis, Nikola Mirotic, and Bojan Bogdanovic. There’s very few players who average over a steal or a block per game and while Sabonis is a double-double machine, he and Kuzma/Favors have not been enough on the boards. There’s an easy solution here too: trade! An offense for defense swap would breath new life into Buffy as they are pretty strong on one side of the ball but disastrously weak on the other. Worst case, we’ll see if this makeup can advance in the Toilet Bowl, and at least the semi-youth movement is looking good!

Team Thien (8-6)
Dealing with a roster coming on and off the injured list, Thien’s team has slid down the Russell Conference standings. Team Thien started off the season with five straight wins and a 7-2 record before they slammed hard into a brick wall and racked up four straight losses. They righted the ship in WK14 with a desperately needed win versus Buffy, and they’ve got two more softballs before a last month of matchups that will test their playoff hopes. The good news is that Thien has only lost games versus the league’s elite — except a loss to IL Conceived — so it stands to reason that they are still one of the better teams in the league, a credit to Thien’s incredible streaming abilities and nose for impactful free agents.

Aside from the injuries, the bad news is that Thien’s offensive rating has dropped from first in the league back in November to twelfth over the past month. Already an inefficient team — they’re currently rated fifteenth in efficiency, and have never been above twelfth, their league average-ish defense can’t prop up the lack of scoring that this team now suffers from.

With John Wall out for the season, the AST ranking for this team is unlikely to recover but there’s hope on the horizon everywhere else because DeMarcus Cousins is back! Regardless of how he fares in Golden State, Boogie is definitely going to score and put up points so that’ll help a lot. With Mike Conley and Jimmy Butler still anchoring the backcourt, and a Lauri Markkanen and Cousins combo up front, there’s still a dangerous playoff contender here because Thien has never had a losing season and 2019 won’t likely be his first. Let’s see what Boogie can do!

Chunky Monkeys (10-4)
For the first time all season, Monkeys don’t sit atop the Russell Conference. Four straight losses will do that to you, and as the injury bug hit hard, they found themselves discombobulated and pulled off an early capped out week for the first time all year. With LeBron James and now Clint Capela out, plus Larry Nance Jr., the losing streak could continue as they face one more winning team until the schedule softens. To be fair, Monkeys have been beaten by three of the best teams in the league the last few weeks — WK12-14 was against Squirtle Squad, Sour Snails, Spade — and that first loss was against surging Another Bad Creation.

There’s only so much James Harden can do, and while he’s going supernova, and the last month has seen Otto Porter and Kelly Oubre Jr. really step up on the wings, the returns of Kyle Lowry and Kris Dunn has only done so much to juice the team. And it’s not exactly panic time yet, as Monkeys are still fifth in offense, fifth in defense, and second in efficiency over the past month, with a net rating that still puts them as a top-three team. The problem is that without LeBron this team may not quite be the world beater it was advertised as though the first ten weeks of the season. What I’m saying is: the door is open for someone else to win this year!

Weekly: Jan 13

We looked at some hot teams last week, let’s take a peek at three of our bottom teams and offer some solutions, besides raising their Games Played of course...

Snack Bears (4-9)
It’s been a long time since we looked at Brandon’s team, all the way back to the beginning of the season since we first introduced ODE ratings. Two months ago Snack Bears was 2-1 and seemingly headed for a decent campaign. Well, since then they’ve dropped to the fourth-worst record in the league and are headed straight for another Toilet Bowl showing. A recent WK13 loss to formerly winless Another Bad Creation doesn’t bode well for their season moving forward. Snack's ODE splits for the past month are 12/12/11, highlighted by a strange fact: Snack Bears have been leading the league in STL! They’re also not terrible in AST and that leads us to suspect that De’Aaron Fox’s breakout season is really pacing this team.

There’s actually plenty of talent here, as Fox, Bradley Beal, and Blake Griffin are playing about as well as can be expected, with all of them having career or near career years — Beal and Blake average about six assists each, a lovely bonus for out-of-position playmaking. Behind those three are rookies Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Wendell Carter as promising keepers — even if they are oftentimes unplayable and erratic — plus the continued scoring prowess of Tim Hardaway Jr. Heck, there’s even been flashes of hope from Bam Adebayo and Jaylen Brown both, as well as the veteran presences of PJ Tucker and Ed Davis lurking in the rotation.

It’s mostly been bad management, as Brandon came in fourth-worst in our recent owner rating analysis. With low games Games Played and no moves since November, we think a slight focus on coaching, as well as cutting the corpse of Jordan Bell and digging for some free agents could lift this team in the coming weeks. Grabbing one win during the next month — four straight matchups against potential playoff teams — would be a coup, and then the schedule lets up near the end of the season, giving Brandon a chance to see how his Bears will measure up against potential Toilet Bowl opponents. We knew this team was building for the future with Kristaps Porzingis lingering on injured reserve, but with the right moves we think Snack is well positioned for a surprise Toilet Bowl run as well.

Team Cameltoe (3-10)
Coach Felipe has submitted 8/13 weeks of GP mess ups and is ranked as the current second-worst organization in the league. With the lowest Games Played in Slam, this team is basically hamstringing itself. Their ODE splits are 15/16/13 and their net rating is last in the league. But we are not here to bury, we are here to inspire! After starting off 0-6, there were back-to-back victories against respectable opponents mid-season, and a 3-1 stretch from WK7-10. There’s hope there!

We haven’t seen any free agent moves from GM Felipe since early November, but the good news is that one of those pickups, Dewayne Dedmon, has emerged as a very effective stretch-center and could have some value as trade bait. Meanwhile, let’s check in on the prospects for this team even as they slow grow around the fantasy force that is Anthony Davis.

The five (unproven) young guys are Marvin Bagley III, Harry Giles, Josh Jackson, Malik Monk, and Michael Porter Jr — the latter isn’t looking likely to play this season. The twin baby Kings, Bagley and Giles, are getting 21.7 and 16.1 minutes each over the past month. With more minutes, Bagley is pretty much a surefire double-double threat, but it’s hard to tell if Giles has a future as a keeper. Monk drops 1.7 3PT in 19.0 minutes a game over the past month and is averaging double digits, so there is potential here for a Buddy Hield-like growth curve. Keeper? And what about Jackson, who has emerged from an early sophomore funk to start putting up 15.0 PTS, 4.3 AST, with 2.3 STL and almost a three and a block per game. That’s impressive stuff!

Overall that’s Davis, Hield, Hassan Whiteside, plus Bagley, Jackson, and Monk for possible 2020 keepers. Is that a playoff contender next year? Maybe? We’re pretty down on Cameltoe’s Toilet Bowl chances this year because there’s just too much youth here, but after this week’s matchup against So Buckets, Cameltoe will face off against four straight Toilet Bowl bound opponents, including re-matchups against Hilt the Stilt and Another Bad Creation. We’ll see where this team stands in a month. And even if Cameltoe is tanking for Zion, Felipe will still need to pull it together by the end of the season to get his team in shape for a chance at a high draft pick next year. Let’s see if Cameltoe management is up for the challenge!

Hilt the Stilt (3-10)
It’s been a tough rookie year for new owner Dave. His team is second-to-last in Games Played and he's tied with Felipe for 8/13 capped out weeks. Not to mention there’s been no free agent moves at all for Dave, so we’d love to see at least one pickup soon. (Can we suggest cutting Terry Rozier?) Overall, we’re not sure if Dave is losing on purpose as part of a bigger strategy or if the rookie shakes have hit him hard. Last time we looked at Hilt, we said we were semi-impressed by their two undermanned wins but after a scorching 1-9 stretch — their lone win was versus Cameltoe in WK9 — we can safely say that this squad is headed for a Toilet Bowl showing.

But here’s what’s interesting, of the three losing teams we looked at this week, Hilt has one huge strength: they are the fourth-rated defense in ODE. Sure, their offensive and efficiency ratings are dead last but being sixth in REB, sixth in BLK, and ninth in STL, even with such low Games Played, is impressive. What’s going on?! Say hello to Derrick White, the very Derrick White we dismissed six weeks ago as “.. unlikely to be the answer [at point guard].” Well, White is the answer for the Spurs and Hilt the Stilt and he’s been throwing down 1.1 BLK from the point guard position. Add in the emergence of rookie Mikal Bridges and the two young guys are putting up 2.7 STL and 2.1 BLK per game, giving Hilt a stifling defensive lineup of White, Bridges, Victor Oladipo, Andre Drummond, Steven Adams, and Danny Green -- plus the oft-unused Jarrett Allen.

With such a strong defense, where is the last-rated offense going to come from? Well, Josh Richardson is still flinging up shots, and rookie Kevin Knox is emerging as the all-offense counterpoint to Bridges’ all-defense stats, which is nice to see. And while there are some awful FG% chuckers on this team, that can’t be helped right now. We still really like the team as a whole and we think some of that defense and young upside could be moved for a touch more offense. If Coach Dave gets his act together, we see a potential dark horse Toilet Bowl contender.

WK13 Highlights:

• A rematch of our title game from last season came down to free throws as Sour Snails narrowed edged out Chunky Monkeys, dealing Monkeys their third straight loss of the season.
• Funk Coalition snuck out a close game by one AST as they took down Squirtle Squad in a matchup of trade partners from last week, making it six wins in a row for Funk.
• Fob Stars also stayed hot by taking down So Buckets by one AST as well, or six REB, or 0.002 FT%. It was a super close game and Jimmy is now 5-0-1 in his last month and a half.
• Swamp Dragons continues to take care of business, going 5-0-1 over their past six weeks, and are the second-best team by net rating over the past month, surpassing Sour Snails.
• IL Conceived took down Team Thien / Knockout Venom, who have been in an injury-plagued free fall and haven’t won a game in a month as they slide to the edge of the playoff picture. Meanwhile Frank is 3-1 in his last month of games.
• Top five teams last month by ODE net rating: Chunky Monkeys, Swamp Dragons, Sour Snails, Another Bad Creation (!), Fob Stars

Weekly: Jan 6

Coming off the heels of our trade wrap-up article, let's look at some of the teams affected, plus both 8-3-1 teams!

Swamp Dragons (8-3-1)
Let's start with a team that has been 🔥! Swamp Dragons have gone 5-1-1 since we last checked in and are now just one-and-a-half games out of the Russell Conference lead behind cousin Evan’s Chunky Monkeys. It’s mostly been business as usual for Swamp as they’ve ascended to an ODE of 4/5/2 and trail only Sour Snails and Monkeys in overall ODE rating. In addition, Eddie graded out as the best owner two weeks ago and are well positioned to go ring hunting this playoffs -- after consecutive Toilet Bowl wins -- behind Paul George and Nikola Jokic.

Are there any causes for concern? Perhaps a low FG% and BLK ranking during the past month — thirteen in both — could be something to watch, but otherwise Swamp is top-three in five different categories, just like two months ago. The ultra-competitive roster is even sourcing for young backcourt options behind Jeremy Lamb and Josh Hart, as rookies Kevin Huerter and  De’Anthony Melton are getting some run. I mean, someone has to make up for Markelle Fultz right!? (Shout out to Jusuf Nurkic’s recent insane 24/23/7/5/5 line.) A WK15 matchup with fellow 8-3-1 Squirtles is looming and it could be a key game for playoff positioning — recall we don’t seed by conference anymore, but by the entire league.

Funk Coalition (7-5)
The hottest team in SlamNation is coming off of five straight wins and nipping at playoff contention, a far cry from when they were floundering with just two wins to begin the season. The bad news is all those wins have come against opponents that are 20-39-1 (0.333), as Funk has beat up on all teams with losing records, save So Buckets in WK8, when Buckets was otherwise occupied with a baby birth. Funk’s upcoming schedule is against four winning teams who are a combined 28-16-4 (0.636), so we’ll see what kind of team they really are over the next month.

Never one to rest on his laurels, for better or usually worse, GM Jon revamped his bench so that his fourteenth-rated offense could get a boost -- Funk is ranked fourteen in PTS and fifteen in 3PT — brought in a lot more shooting to fit around Ben Simmons and company. Out went veteran stalwarts Rudy Gay, Lou Williams, Trevor Ariza, as well as up-and-comer Jerami Grant. In comes Evan Fournier, Marcus Smart, Nemanja Bjelica, Bogdan Bogdanovic, and Kent Bazemore. While that lot should boost Funk’s long range scoring, it’s an open question how their ninth-rated efficiency and third-rated defense will now fare after the changes. We’ll find out over the next month if Funk is a contender or pretender...

Squirtle Squad (8-3-1)
Another team involved in the three-way trade, Squirtles have sat atop Chamberlain Conference all season, as they started off 6-0 before going through a mini-swoon in WK7-10, going winless during that time. The Squirtles ship has righted itself though and they are currently tied for the second-best record in the league after two straight wins and a signature WK12 defeat of top-ranked Chunky Monkeys! Armed with two new scorers, there’s a chance Squirtles have another level in them and they will definitely end their three-year long playoff drought.

For the season, Squirtles are rated second in efficiency and fourth in offense but have just the eleventh rated defense. Over the past month though, those ODE ratings have dropped to 7/12/14 splits, a dramatic shift in efficiency especially. A change was clearly in order and GM Brian made the two-for-two swap of Zach LaVine and Evan Fournier for Tobias Harris and Lou Williams. Aside from solving a positional hole at power forward, that should net more more PTS and REB, plus slightly more AST and STL, which are exactly the only four categories Squirtles are below the league average in. With Giannis Antekokounmpo gunning for NBA MVP and Nikola Vucevic playing like a top-ten fantasy player, Squirtles have raised their ceiling and are now true title chasers.


Standings, three months in:

Three Way, Again!

Two years ago we had our first three way trade in SlamNation ever, an eleven player monster that involved Snack Bears, Fob Stars, and Funk Coalition. A little secret though, that was actually technically two one-on-one trades. However, now we have our first real deal three-way trade, between Squirtle Squad, Sour Snails, and Funk (again)! Let’s take a look at what went down. And also with a quick recap of some minor trades from earlier in the season.

Trade ID#95:

• Squirtle Squad receive Tobias Harris, Lou Williams
• Sour Snails receive Zach LaVine, Squirtle Squad 2020 RD3
• Funk Coalition receive Evan Fournier, Marcus Smart, Nemanja Bjelica

After the loss of Caris LeVert to near season ending surgery, Sour Snails had been working hard for a replacement at shooting guard. Well, Trieu finally got his solution by trading away Tobias Harris and re-arming Snails' potent backcourt offense.

As for Squirtle, after a few missed games early, Zach LaVine has returned to power the Bulls and frankly, he looks a lot like Harris statistically. Seriously, check out their numbers, it’s very similar with mostly offense and no defense for both. This was basically a perfect positional switch trade and works great to dilute Snails’ glut of power forwards while filling in Squirtles’ frontline spot that was being manned by a combination of Jae Crowder and Jeff Green.

• Harris: 21.1 PTS, 8.0 REB, 2.2 AST, 0.8 STL, 0.4 BLK, 1.9 3PT, 2.0 TO, 50.3 FG%, 88.7 FT%
• LaVine: 23.6 PTS, 4.4 REB, 4.4 AST, 0.9 STL, 0.5 BLK, 1.8 3PT, 3.6 TO, 46.1 FG%, 87.0 FT%

It’s perhaps rare to see trades between two teams atop the same conference — Squirtles and Sour are #1-2 right now in Chamberlain — but the move strengthened both teams so it had to be done. Win-win!

Along with the main course, Squirtles also gave up Evan Fournier and a 2020 RD3 to acquire Lou Williams, which is a slight upgrade for the shooting guard slot. Sweet Lou is at 19.8 PTS, 5.4 AST on 46.5 FG% for the past month, and he averages a sneaky 7.3 FTA on 83.8 FT%. We'll dig into what the two acquisitions do for Squirtles overall in a later piece.

For Trieu, sending out Smart and Bjelica in return for a future draft pick recoups the 2020 RD3 they’ll send to Fob Stars from the Damian Lillard trade. That means, in sum, Snails moved Lillard (plus a potential RD2 position swap with Fob) for Kemba Walker, Zach LaVine, and a 2020 RD4. Pretty nice!

Trade ID#93:

• Funk Coalition receive Zach Collins
• Sour Snails receive Funk Coalition 2020 RD6, or RD5 if Zach Collins becomes a 2020 keeper

Trade ID#94:

• Funk Coalition receive Jonathan Isaac, Fob Stars 2020 RD3
• Fob Stars receive Rudy Gay, Funk Coalition 2020 RD2

Trade ID#96:

• Funk Coalition receive Bogdan Bogdanovic and Kent Bazemore
• Fat Jubas receive Trevor Ariza, Jerami Grant

And now to look at Funk Coalition, who has made at least one trade in every month of the season so far. It's safe to say Jon will retain the title of "most willing trade partner" title for awhile. Jumping back to November, Funk moved a late round pick for the upside of Zach Collins (just cut), and two weeks ago acquired the upside of Jonathan Isaac for Rudy Gay. There's been nine trades in SlamNation this season and Funk has been involved in seven of them. Doesn't anyone else want to trade?!

Funk followed that up the Collins acquisition with another two trades, the three-way and then one right after, in total exchanging Lou Williams, Trevor Ariza, and Jerami Grant for five new pieces. We’ll see how the new bench mob shakes out but so far this season Funk has traded away seven players while acquiring eleven, so that’s like a brand new team! Jon loves his rebuilds, doesn’t he?

For Fat Jubas, the additions of Ariza and Grant should bolster their defense a little bit, as Ariza has been getting a ton of minutes in Washington while Jerami is at a nice 1/1/1 the past month. Word on the street is that Jubas have decided to lean into their defense to further their chase up the ranks of Russell Conference and it looks to be perfect timing as Chunky Monkeys are down a LeBron and Team Thien is missing a Wall.