During
last week’s podcast episode -- our first ever! -- Spade owner Randall took a look at Sour Snails’ roster and said that the player which caught his eye was not Steph Curry or Kevin Durant, but Pascal Siakam. “Those are the type of moves that [win you championships]!” Slightly paraphrased, but you get the idea.
With that kind of thinking in mind, I wanted to select a non All-Star team of near All-Stars or players who leap off the page, one from each team. So no LeBron or Giannis here! Instead we'll have some rising youngsters, some old reclamations, and then a few off-the-wall selections that have all been instrumental to their teams' success this season. And for fun, feel free to compare the rosters to our
preseason "best keepers" conference teams.
Russell Conference
Led by the scoring of Lauri Markkanen and Buddy Hield, most of this team is young, with sophomores John Collins, Jayson Tatum, De’Aaron Fox, and Markkanen all on the roster. Collins and Markkanen are both nightly double-double threats with poor defensive numbers while Markkanen also puts up a tidy 2.9 3PT. In his third season, Hield has become one of the best shooters in the league and drops in the fourth-best 3PT in the NBA with 3.4 per game.
His Kings teammate De’Aaron Fox has emerged as the best point guard of the 2017 draft class after a disappointing rookie season, and now spearheads the
newly dispersed Snack Bears’ attack. Jayson Tatum has been the reverse, unfortunately — better as a rookie than a sophomore — but has added almost a block a game to his repertoire, making him the default Funk Coalition representative in
a season of roster changes for them.
Two big men anchor this non-All-Star team: Jusuf Nurkic and Myles Turner. Nurkic is out here making history with his 5x5 game a month ago, after almost getting cut as a keeper by Swamp this offseason. He’s turned that motivation into a double-double season and 2.6 STL/BLK. And Turner has added a three-point shot to his own stat line, while leading the league in blocks, which has made him an important backbone to Indiana and Fat Jubas’ defensive efforts.
And finally there is Larry Nance Jr, who plays for defending champ Chunky Monkeys, who have too many actual All-Stars, so the default selection is Nance, who has surprised as not only a double-double machine but also putting up almost 1/1/1. Impressive glue piece.
Chamberlain Conference
Okay we lied, there is an All-Star in this game and his name is Nikola Vucevic. We could have gone with Kyle Kuzma for Squirtles but Vucevic has really been just too good to overlook and his top ten production was definitely not expected this season. So yes, Vucevic will lead Chamberlain! Joining him will be a pair of other veterans, as Danilo Gallinari and Derrick Rose have both been fantasy stars before — heck Rose was a NBA MVP! Gallinari has put together an injury-free year and thrown up 18.7 PTS and 2.4 3PT a game to help Spade offset the loss of Kevin Love. Rose was almost out of the league but has bounced back to average 18.4 PTS and 4.8 AST when playing and has given So Buckets an extra weapon on a team overflowing with talent.
The rest of the Chamberlain team is young though, highlighted by the emergence of players like Domantas Sabonis, Pascal Siakam, and TJ Warren. Sabonis puts up a double-double on 60.6 FG% and has been great for Buffy while Warren seamlessly added a three-pointer to his midrange game and is now a fully fleshed out fantasy player with 18.0 PTS and 1.9 STL/BLK. Even though he’s been injured recently, Warren should return soon to help Another Bad Creation in the Toilet Bowl. And Siakam is the namesake for this team, so we know he's been stellar.
Add in another almost overqualified player for this Chamberlain team: eventual rookie of the year Luka Doncic. While the efficiency has been poor, Doncic was passed over in both the NBA and SlamNation drafts but has been throwing up regular near-triple doubles of late while averaging 20.8 PTS, 7.1 REB, 5.5 AST per game. He’s probably a little too good to make this list but IL Conceived hasn’t had anyone else as consistent as Luka, who has been great all year and continues to get better.
As for the selection off Hilt the Stilt’s team, we’re going with Derrick White even though he was hurt for some of the season. White’s well-rounded fantasy line doesn’t jump off the page but getting 13.6 PTS, 4.5 REB, 4.1 AST, plus 0.7 BLK from a point guard is pretty nice. Plus Hilt really needed an answer at point guard all year and White’s emergence provided just that solution. There could be a case made here for rookie Mikal Bridges but even though his defensive numbers have been eye-opening, we’re going with Derrick White to round out the Chamberlain squad.
Who Would Win?
Well after compiling the 2019 stats -- some thirty day ones for certain players -- it's clear that Chamberlain would beat Russell 6-3 behind PTS, AST, STL, TO and both percentage categories. Of course that PTS and TO win would be by the narrowest of margins -- 139.7 vs 133.8, and 14.8 to 14.9 TOs. So it's awfully close. Which conference do you think would win?!
How Will Next Year's Draft Work?
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