2019 Championship: Still Sweet

Well, we've all been here before haven't we? After a losing record last regular season, we figured the reign of Sour Snails might be over. Instead, they made a mega-trade before last year's post-season, took themselves to a proper title defense, and only conceded a title to Chunky Monkeys. Not bad, but we assumed Snails would be in a bit of a rebuild as they entered the 2019 season with Brook Lopez and Isaiah Thomas on their keeper core, which was not ideal.

Even with Steph Curry and Kevin Durant on-board, we thought the Snails had floated to the middle of the pack as they were 5-4 at midseason. But then they went 9-1-1 to close out the regular season and finished atop Chamberlain Conference -- again. Of course, that one loss was against Swamp Dragons, the kings of Russell, and Snails had already lost to Eddie's team twice this season.

However, after a small scare in RD1 from Fat Jubas, Sour found its stride again and demolished Squirtle Squad in RD2 before handily dispatching a Swamp Dragon team that failed to put up much of a fight. The final score for the title game was 7-2 after a huge start to the week by Swamp -- albeit losing Jusuf Nurkic early on. But the incredible shooting by Snails -- Durant put up 62.5 FG% on 25/40 shots, Siakam shot 58.6 FG%, Curry threw up 22 3PT -- and it was all she wrote for the week.

In the end, Snails showed off their playoff best combined ODE rating by putting up a first in efficiency, second in defense, and eighth in offensive rating over the past three weeks -- a huge dip from their regular season offense. This playoff run really had to rely on Snails' defense, as they ranked first in BLK behind rookie Mitchell Robinson's monstrous contributions, as well as the timely addition of DeMarcus Cousins just before the post-season. With injuries to Zach LaVine and rest days for his Warriors, Trieu really had to utilize our new non-roster lock rules to churn out useful players.

A list of guys who hit the floor for Sour Snails during championship week: Maxi Kleber, Lance Stephenson, Marco Belinelli, Justin Holiday, Tyus Jones, and Bruno Caboclo. (Those guys are all gonna get rings! Haha.) During their RD1 matchup versus Fat Jubas, Trieu used seventeen players in total. That's some crazy management and strategy, and could be a preview to how our future playoff matchups will have to be going forward. Flexibility and matchups won the day!

And it's been the Midas touch for Trieu all year as he hit huge on draft picks, free agents, and trades. There was the emergence of 2019 RD4 pick Pascal Siakam of the Pascal Siakam All-Stars, the free agent grabs of Montrezl Harrell and Mitchell Robinson, and the six trades that shuffled the core lineup yet again. Overall Sour Snails went from a weakened keeper six to suddenly a team brimming over with depth all over again. Heck, Trieu even traded away Julius Randle, Harrell, and Caris LeVert for future assets and still won the 2019 title!

So to sum it all up for our best franchise ever, in ten years since our reset Sour Snails has accumulated nine years in the playoffs, seven division/conference titles, four best record in the league years, been to seven title games -- this is their fifth in a row -- and won five rings, including a three-peat 2015-17. Oh and they made a Toilet Bowl finals in their only year out of the playoffs too. What's next for Sour? Will it be another repeat? Another three-peat?! Another podcast episode!?!

As for Swamp Dragons, it was a very successful season as they emerged as the top regular season team in SlamNation after four years out of the playoff sunshine, they hit on a number one pick in DeAndre Ayton after the failure of Markelle Fultz, and they won every trade they engaged in with Funk Coalition by a landslide. Alas, Swamp will have to settle for a runner-up trophy yet again after their third title game loss, but at least they are now positioned to be contenders for the forthcoming future behind Paul George and Nikola Jokic. Better luck next year Eddie, and we're counting on you to challenge for a ring next year -- and not the Toilet Bowl kind!

(Full Stats)

2019 Toilet Bowl: So! So! So!

As the top seed headed into the Toilet Bowl, So Buckets was well placed to win their second overall Toilet Bowl -- the franchise had a 2011 win under their belt but it was under a previous regime. This time out, So Buckets was entering the Toilet Bowl with a 10-9-1 record and a spotty showing for the season.

Still, they were clearly the best team on paper and proved it by taking the whole losers tournament. Not that there weren't some close calls, as they needed home court advantage to down surging Another Bad Creation in RD2, which ended in a 4-4-1 tie as Buckets escaped a near-upset. And there were injuries aplenty for Josh to manage as CJ McCollum and Derrick Rose were mostly missing, and Joel Embiid and Kyrie Irving were constantly in-and-out of the lineup.

For the three week post-season run, So Buckets were the second ODE rated team overall, sporting a first place offensive rating to go with their sixth rated efficiency and tenth rated offensive score. They were top-three ranked in PTS, REB, STL, BLK, and FG% and that helped overcome their extreme lack of 3PT shooting. And for the actual Toilet Bowl, Buckets was led by Jabari Parker in scoring -- Jabari Parker! Also, shout out to Delon Wright's incredible STL numbers during the tournament.

Alas, with new rules instituted, #9 seeded So Buckets can't win a draft slot higher than *3, so they won't be looking at a Zion Williamson-sized reward for their success. Still, adding the third best rookie to their already fearsome core of Kyrie Irving, DeMar DeRozan, Joel Embiid, and Rudy Gobert will be quite a boost for next year's contention hopes. So congrats to Josh for both the new baby and a Toilet Bowl win!

On the losing side of things, Snack Bears awoke from a long regular season slumber to chomp down on two higher seeds on their way to a magical Toilet Bowl run. They took down both Buffy and IL Conceived in successive weeks, earning their berth in the Toilet Bowl but most importantly, the *1 overall 2020 selection.

As we've been saying all year, this team was very talented post-dispersal, and while they hit some injury and mismanagement skid marks along the way, coach Brandon pulled it all together for the final stretch of the season, after we had written Snack off for the season.

Now Snack's future is looking even brighter than before as they've got quite a core assembled for next year: Bradley Beal, De'Aaron Fox, Blake Griffin, youngsters Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Wendell Carter Jr., Bam Adebayo, plus the return of Kristaps Porzingis. After three seasons out of the playoffs, this could be the most exciting team on the rise with Ziooooooon!

(Full Stats)

Post-Season Results 2019

Our finish to the 2019 post-season, with quite a few unexpected surprises! See how all this shook out for our 2020 RD1 draft slots, right here!

PLAYOFFS
We have a new champ to crown but we'll cover that in more detail later! For the entire third round of the playoffs, every matchup ended in an upset -- including our championship game. In short, Sour Snails took the title, giving themselves the last pick in 2020 RD1, while Swamp Dragons will get the *9 draft slot for their finals appearance, as a balm to heal the wound of losing.

#6 seeded Team Spade absolutely annihilated #5 Squirtle Squad for a three game WLW record and the rights to the *10 selection, and also backed up their boast from their podcast episode. They finish the 2019 season as the third-best team in SlamNation.

And in a shocking turn, defending champions Chunky Monkeys couldn't take one win all playoffs -- this loss came against Fat Jubas -- and went LLL in three weeks, and will thus will draft in the second-to-last slot, *15, for 2020. Is the Monkey reign already over?

#8 Fob Stars squeaked out a narrow win over #4 Funk Coalition behind John Collins' unexpected burst of BLK, giving Fob a LWW record for the post-season, which will earn them the *12 pick next season. Pulling off two big wins against two higher seeds was exactly why Fob Stars made it into the playoffs, to play giant killer!

TOILET BOWL
We already knew who would draft *1 next year as top-seeded So Buckets was destined for a *3 pick, so most of the drama was between who would win *2 between IL Conceived and Another Bad Creation. After a devastating RD2 loss, there a minute where IL Conceived seemed to throw in the towel by benching Donovan Michell but then they came roaring back to competition. Alas, ABC made all the right moves along the way and our #15 seeded team will earn a highly coveted *2 2020 RD1 pick by going WLW, with IL Conceived dropping down to the *4 draft slot.

There was another upset in Toilet Bowl land, where #11 LA Buffy took out #10 Team Thien and will get to now draft in the top-five after a very close win, powered by R.O.Y. candidate Trae Young. This has to count as a big win for Buffy as they fended off a slew of late-season injuries. As for Thien, injuries has been their bugaboo for two years running...

As for our two last place teams, Hilt the Stilt took down Team Cameltoe as neither hit the max cap. So, um, they "earned" their *7/8 selections. And oh yeah, congrats to So Buckets for a Toilet Bowl title, but we'll cover that in a separate article as well!