SlamNation: 03/01/2022

We haven’t looked at owner ratings in awhile so here we go, with our foolproof method for determining the owner of the year via statistics! What could go wrong?! As you’ll recall from previous iterations of this article, the formula for owner rating is: Games Played + Moves + Wins. [ 2018 Explainer | 2019 Owner Rating ] It’s a little arbitrary but it’s also fun and enlightening.

Games Played

It was another year of weird NBA games, even if COVID wasn’t fully affecting the regular season anymore. Still, with COVID scares and injuries galore, there were many SlamNation teams that struggled to fill out their lineups each week.

Having said that, the Games Played average was 23.6 per week, with an average regular season total Games Played of 472 GP. Topping the charts was SBUK with 507 GP, followed closely behind by BUFF, ABCX, KSKT, and SCRM. Good job coaching fellas!

At the other end of the spectrum, six teams fell below the average Games Played total for the season: SPDE, FUNK, SWMP, CHMK, FOBS, and MELO. The last place team here, MELO, was only at 87.5% capacity compared to the league average, and put in only 20.65 GP per week, which indicated both major injuries but also a tank-mentality. Next year we’ll be watching closely to see if MELO can get their Games Played up to a reasonable level, otherwise a new head coach might have be installed!

As for week-by-week lineup violations — defined by weeks where Games Played was twenty or under — every team had at least one this season. In a twenty game regular season, a handful of lineup mistakes isn’t too terrible, and we’ll wash a lot out for injuries, but there were two teams that had egregious “tank attitudes.”

FOBS and MELO both had over double-digit weeks where they had twenty-one or lower Games Played. That means in half of their games this season, FOBS and MELO both failed to not only maximize their lineups, but not even give their team a decent chance to win. Whether this was by design or negligence, we encourage Jimmy and Jack to give their players a chance to win next season. Note: From WK11-WK17, MELO hit twenty-one Games Played only twice, and dipped down to fourteen and sixteen games as well.

As for the team with the least lineup violations? It was SBUK, who had only one, followed by BUFF and SCRM close behind with two apiece. So for 2022, the coach of the year award goes to SBUK’s Josh!

Moves

As usual, TRUO led the way with a ton of roster pickups and drops, to the tune of 46 this season. Moves don’t lead to wins but moves can lead to lineup depth and an indication to the fanbase that the General Manager is at least trying to maximize the fringes of their roster. TRUO, FJUB, and SQSQ all had over thirty-plus moves this season, with CHMK topping the twenty moves mark.

At the tail end of the list for moves was ABCX (7), SCRM (7), FUNK (6), SDPE (5), and MELO (3). Were your teams that good guys that there was nobody on the waiver wire worth getting? Should the GMs for these organizations be on the hot seat?!

Wins

Well the is straightforward. The best owners win. Forget moves, forget Games Played, it’s really all about the wins. For the purposes of calculating our best owner rating, we just go with the regular season power rankings aka wins.

OVERALL

Instead of calculating the best owner by a 1-16 point system, we did 1-4 instead, giving credit to where a franchise’s Games Played, moves, and wins were in relation to each quarter of the league. So if you were in the top four in Games Played, you received four points, in the top eight teams, three points, and so on.

With that adjusted formula in hand, the owner of the year is SQSQ Brian, who led their team to the top record in the regular season while also showing up well in Games Played and moves. Following closely behind SQSQ for owner of the year was FJUB Eric and SBUK Josh.

Congrats everyone! (Except FUNK, FOBS, SPDE, MELO…we better not see you at the bottom again next season!)

Playoff Recap:

In a shocking upset, eighth seeded SCRM took out regular season champion SQSQ, sending Giannis Antetokounmpo and LeBron James to the consolation bracket. (This was the second straight year the lowest playoff seed took out the top team.) They did it by winning the two percentage categories, eking out the battle of the boards, and defending the rim with Evan Mobley, Onyeka Okongwu, and Mitchell Robinson. For newish owner Jordan, this was yet another franchise highlight, coming off the heels of last year's Toilet Bowl finals appearance. Dejounte Murray and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander have another huge matchup to go in the next round, but so far they're undefeated in the playoffs!

FUNK also pulled off an upset, albeit a minor one -- just a fifth versus fourth seed -- as defending champion FJUB was felled by injuries heading into the postseason and then taken out of the playoffs by a Sunday that featured three injured starters. It's likely Fred VanVleet or Malcolm Brogdon could have led the comeback but FUNK won and the door is now open for a new 2022 champion...

Toilet Bowl Recap:

A pretty hefty upset occurred over in the Toilet Bowl as well, with fifteenth seeded SPDE pulling out a Sunday night victory over tenth seed BUFF. Randall's team won by 5-4, by a handful of threes and a mere eleven points, which meant just about everything was needed from Devin Booker, Darius Bazley, and Tyrese Maxey. Now SPDE can look forward to a possible shot at a top two draft pick in 2023, if they can get by top-seeded ILCN.

The rest of the Toilet Bowl played out as it should've, although it should be noted that both MELO and FOBS essentially conceded their matchups by not putting in maximum rosters. Indeed, GM Jimmy had only seventeen games played last week, as he was purported to be frolicking in Vegas...