RD1 Previews: 2016

Chamberlain Conference
#1 Sour Snails (19-0) vs #4 Fob Stars (9-9-1)
There’s not a whole left lot to say when you go undefeated during the regular season and are possibly a mere formality away from repeating as champs. Back-to-back no less. Of course, Trieu always keeps it interesting as he shuffled the deck in the past week by making two trades. A huge one that moved out DeMarcus Cousins and Rudy Gay for Hassan Whiteside and Bradley Beal, and then a follow-up deal that saw Beal get moved for Dirk Nowitzki. So now the Snails will feature an entirely four out offense with Whiteside dashing to (and protecting) the rim, while all those nasty guards bomb away. The only downside here is that Jimmy Butler could be on the mend, giving opposing teams a slight — very slight — chance at an upset. Someone stop this juggernaut!

As for Fob Stars, they made the playoffs after a 3-6 end to the season, after being engaged in a three way tie-breaker, but evidently they aren’t here to challenge Snails as Coach Jimmy already sat season MVP Kemba Walker for Monday night’s game. Walker has been outstanding this season, to the tune of 21.5 PTS, 5.3 AST, 4.4 REB, 2.2 3PT, 1.7 STL, on a career high 43.6 FG%. Paired with emerging rookie D’Angelo Russell, Fob Stars finally has a top notch backcourt to go with a plethora of multi-dimensional frontline guys — Nerlens Noel, Ryan Anderson, Marcin Gortat, Zach Randolph — but it looks like they’ll eat a first round loss and wait around for next year.

#2 Another Bad Creation (13-6) vs #3 Fat Jubas (11-7-1)
After dropping out of the playoffs last season, mostly due to Kevin Durant’s injury woes, ABC returned to take the Transformers division title post-name change from “Half Man Half ImAsian.” Surprisingly, for such a consistently solid team, this is owner Oliver’s first division title. With a six game winning streak mid-season, plus riding high on blowout wins over the past month, Durant and Co. are poised to get to a conference finals. Adding a healthy Dwayne Wade has been a huge boon for this team, as expected, and rookie Jahlil Okafor was putting up excellent 17.5 PTS, 8.0 REB, 1.2 BLK, 50.8 FG% until he torn his meniscus and will be lost for the post-season — just like Alec Burks, who hasn’t played much this year. Still, ABC has Durant, Wade, LaMarcus Aldridge, Greg Monroe, the shooting of JJ Redick and Wes Mathews, and the big butt of Jared Sullinger to create a deep and versatile mix. Let’s see if Durant can power this team to the Finals!

As for the Jubas, our 2012 champs notched another eleven win season and are right back in the mix as a contender. They have their injury woes too, as Chris Bosh is sitting on IR and not available for the playoff run, and talks before the trade deadline to replace him didn’t pan out. Chris Paul has a new group to work with though, as Gordon Hayward, CJ McCollum, and Will Barton all put up career numbers this season. McCollum especially, exploded on the scene for 20.7 PTS, 4.1 AST, 2.4 3PT, and 1.1 STL. Nic Batum returned from injury to his multi-skilled form and it seems like Jonas Valanciunas has settled into being almost a double-double guy. Fat Jubas has beaten ABC twice before already during the regular season, so it’s possible we see an upset by Eric here...

Russell Conference
#1 Team Spade (15-4) vs #4 Soup Dumplings (10-9)
Spade wins yet another Thundercats division title, their third and second in a row, and keeps alive the longest streak of never having missed the post-season. Impressive stuff. Aside from that sour tasting undefeated achatinoidea in the other conference, Spade is looking like the best bet to take the title. Already touting a seriously balanced keeper core of Kawhi Leonard, Al Horford, Paul Millsap, Kevin Love, Eric Bledsoe, and um, Kobe Bryant, Spade added some new pieces with great mid-season pickups like Ish Smith and rookie Devin Booker, who are both full on breaking out. Plus, Jrue Holiday is back to full health and ripping it up again, and so the loss of Bledsoe to season-ending injury might not be enough to slow Randall’s squad on the way to his first Finals appearance. Since this is Kobe’s farewell tour, it should be noted that he started twenty-two games for Spade this year, and put up 16.8 PTS, 4.1 REB, 3.1 AST, 1.9 3PT during his swan song, albeit at 35.6 FG%. Can Spade give Kobe a championship send off?

Nobody could have expected such a successful rookie season from first-time fantasy owner Brandon. (As you’ll recall, he also came in the middle of a huge pre-draft controversy, where the old owner was accused of cheating!) GM Brandon gave Coach Brandon rookie Kristaps Porzingis and then used a fearsome frontline — Derrick Favors, Dwight Howard, Kenneth Faried — to comfortably get into the post-season. The only big disappointment all season long was Danny Green, who regressed badly this year, forcing the trade of Gorgui Dieng for a useable swingman, Evan Fournier. So while GM Brandon works to fill out the pieces around his Zinger, it looks like he’ll be able to compete while building up a contender. Soup Dumplings face a huge challenge against a powerful #1 seed but having already exceeded expectations all season long, there’s a puncher's chance that this mix-and-match team could pull of a gigantic upset.

#2 Death Star (11-6-2) vs #3 Chunky Monkeys (13-5-1)
Monster trades! We love these two owners because both Thien and Evan are willing to back their bets with pre, mid, and late season trades. Thien went to last year’s Finals and didn’t quite get a win but then traded with brother Trieu for DeMarcus Cousins and Rudy Gay — Gay returns after being moved in 2013. That immediately ups the offensive ceiling for this team by a lot and gives John Wall and Damian Lillard another post up option to dump the ball to, next to Julius Randle, who is having a fine (basically) rookie season. Also, in somewhat amazing fashion, David Lee and Michael Beasley are bothplaying well, giving Death Star some much needed depth, especially since Tyreke Evans is out for the season. While Death Star is nominally a higher seed due to their Voltron division title, they are actually facing an uphill battle in the first round. The new trade acquisitions are a lot of firepower though, so it’ll be interesting to see how adding Cousins and Gay can change the equation this week.

As for Chunky Monkeys, their pre-season dreams were a little dimmed as they started off 6-4-1, which is nice but isn’t exactly contender worthy. A team that goes all-in, and trades for LeBron James to pair with James Harden, shouldn’t just be 6-4-1. Since then however, the Monkeys have hit their stride and went 7-1 the rest of the way, with that lone loss being a WK19 matchup against Spade. Not bad. And GM Evan finally moved one of those excess guards for another big man, and what a perfect piece he found. Although Marc Gasol is out for the year, trading Goran Dragic (and Meyers Leonard) for Serge Ibaka is a beautiful move, giving Monkeys a shot blocker who could win any week by himself. With LeBron, Harden, and Kyle Lowry, this team has a top three to compete with anyone, and they also have some interesting wings in Robert Covington and Jae Crowder to put out there, although Crowder and his sneaky all-around stat line could miss up to two weeks. If Monkeys wants to make 2016 their title year, they’ll have to pull off an upset in every round to do it... Do you believe?!