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!