Weekly: Winless Teams

Let’s get an early look at our three winless teams. Is hope on the horizon or should these three prepare themselves for a Toilet Bowl run already? Interestingly, three of the five top rookies went to these franchises, so we’ll tackle them in that order.

SNAC Snack Bears (0-3)
After a busy preseason flurry of trades and the drafting of uber-rookie Zion Williamson, we thought Snack Bears was headed for a title run. Instead, Williamson has yet to see the court and SNAC is floundering, losing to FUNK, CHMK, and CMTO in successive weeks. What in the world is going on?!

Even without Zion, this should still be a powerhouse team. But De’Aaron Fox, Bradley Beal, Josh Richardson, Nikola Vucevic, and Kristaps Porzingis have all started the season off ice cold, with none of them shooting better than 43% from the field. That has just crushed Snack and ownership seems ready to hit the panic button.

While Shai Gilgeous-Alexander has emerged as an offensive bright spot, the rest of the keeper core here has been underwhelming -- especially when other traded off pieces such as Bam Adebayo and Jaylen Brown have been outstanding. Even with draftees Will Barton and Cody Zeller throwing up incredible PTS/REB numbers, this team just can’t seem to get it going.

Snack are ranked top five in PTS, 3PT, AST, REB, and BLK but awful in FG% and not great in STL. Of course, those are the two exact areas a healthy Zion would help immediately. With a net offensive rating of third, and a defensive rating of sixth, all SNAC needs is for that second-to-last efficiency to perk up. The question is: can they do it without Zion? Or will big moves be coming soon?

ABCX Another Bad Creation (0-3)
We declared that there was a rebuild ahead for ABC and so far we’ve seen nothing on this young season that might say otherwise. They have the lowest combined ODE rating at 14 / 16 / 11 and rank in the bottom two in 3PT, REB, and BLK. But hey, their two percentage categories aren’t too bad! ABC has also been unfortunate to face off against two 3-0 teams in recent weeks, and we’ll see if they can beat fellow winless team Buffy in WK4’s matchup.

The good news is that 2020 RD1.2 Ja Morant has been as good as advertised, with 17.8 PTS, 5.2 AST, and 46.2 FG%. The lack of many threes isn’t a huge factor as projections had Morant as a non-deep threat anyway. And while Russell Westbrook may have lost his triple-doubleness upon his move to Houston, his improved FG% actually makes him a much better fantasy player and his overall numbers are still stellar.

ABC actually could be competitive, as they have a decent bunch of veterans behind those two in LaMarcus Aldridge, Evan Fournier, TJ Warren, and even an Isaiah Thomas sighting. With Derrick Rose and Enes Kanter on the mend — although Eric Gordon is out for six weeks — that’s not terrible right? We foresee a win coming for Another Bad Creation soon and with a bit of health, they could have a path out of the cellar.

BUFF Buffy (0-3)
Roger’s team has faced a similarly tough schedule, with opening losses to undefeated Squirtles and So Buckets out of the gate. A third loss to top ODE ranked Spade could point to just a vicious first month of games for Buffy. One of ABC or BUFF will emerge with a win this week, and after that it’ll be off to the races to see who can rack up win number two.

GM Roger scooped up rookies De’Andre Hunter and Cam Reddish during the draft but his best move so far was grabbing another rookie, Kendrick Nunn, off the free agent pile. The Miami scoring dynamo is already in the Rookie of the Year conversation and is putting up 16.9 PTS, 2.3 3PT, and 1.6 STL per game. Nunn has made the slow starts by Hunter and Reddish irrelevant.

On top of Nunn's success, Malcom Brogdon, Domantas Sabonis, and Brandon Ingram are all off to career years, with each averaging absurd numbers that look pretty sustainable! Add in a sprinkle of Dwight Howard magic and Buffy fans have a lot to cheer for, even with new franchise cornerstone Ben Simmons struggling early with injury.

The ODE ratings for Buffy agree that they should be much better, as their combined net rating is fifth overall, with a fourth rated efficiency backed by a seventh rated defense and eleventh rated offense. Buffy is tremendous in FT%, STL, TO, and is now no longer an offense-first team. The return of Kyle Kuzma will be a welcome boon to their shooting woes and astonishingly, Brogdon, Sabonis, and Paul Millsap mitigate Ben Simmons’ awful FT% with their high attempts and incredible percentages. If Buffy can add a splash of 3PT and BLK, it looks like they could be one of the more competitive teams around!