SlamNation: 2018 Championship: Finally Chunky!

It's been a tough slog in Monkey-land for the past years. After trading for LeBron James and Kyle Lowry in 2015, the Monkeys, despite a star-laden team, have catastrophically stumbled through the past three seasons. They finally pieced it together this year. The team put together a historic, almost perfect 20-1 season. James Harden and LeBron James were dueling MVP candidates. Harden averaged over 30.0 ppg, Clint Capela took a huge step forward averaging a 14 PTS /11 REB /2 BLK for the season and Marc Gasol, Kyle Lowry and Otto Porter all contributed significantly. On top of this, the Monkeys found solid performers in Kris Dunn and Caris Levert from the draft. The roster was filled with All-Stars that performed at all-star levels and surrounded by a deep bench. This had to be the year.

However, this was the Monkeys, the same team that flamed out in the first round in the past two years. This was also the very same Monkeys team that was staring down an incredibly dangerous Sour Snails team who had geared up specifically for this. Furthermore, the Snails had a slightly scheduling advantage for the Finals. Monkeys knew that history is often obdurate (ask Steven King).

But this season belonged to the Monkeys. LeBron was the savior this time as he authored a signature season at the ripe old age of thirty-three and delivered his finest work for championship week. Chunky Monkeys was only able to muster twenty-three games for the week and LBJ played three of those games, including a back-to-back midweek. Those three games were enough, as James averaged a triple-double with 34.7 PTS, 10 REB, 10.3 AST and 3 3PT a game for the Finals. James even shot 59% from the field and averaged nearly 39 minutes per game. This was punctuated by a historic game on Friday heading into the final weekend with a 44/11/11 triple-double. That gave Monkeys a 7-2 lead which turned out to be more than enough.

Before the playoffs, a hobbling Snails made a series of trades to bolster his chances for what would've been a historic four-peat. The Snails acquired Damian Lillard, Julius Randle, Isaiah Thomas, and Markieff Morris. Save for Thomas who got shelved for a hip injury shortly after being traded, Lillard, Randle and Morris all made significant contributions in the playoffs and allowed the Snails to fight their way to the championship game.

As for the Monkeys, the team was humming entering the playoffs -- it was nearly perfect in the regular season -- and the lead players were remarkably healthy. However, cracks started appearing in the playoffs with injuries hitting the bench including Kris Dunn who was shut down with a foot injury, Eric Gordon and Maurice Harkless, who were both signed for the playoffs, and JaMychal Green, all of whom made little to no contribution in the post-season due to various maladies. On top of that, Harden, Capela, and Gasol all increasingly had frequent rest days with the NBA playoffs approaching. Was the Chunky Curse coming back? There are no such thing as curses...

After an entertaining start to the week, Monkeys found themselves in the lead but needed to hang on. The seconds became minutes and the minutes became hours. Then Gasol delivered a huge 20/9/9 line on Sunday and the win was secured.

Looking back at the season, Monkeys had one of the best seasons of all time. They ranked first in the league across five categories and second on a sixth. Furthermore, Monkeys finished with the top performance in five categories all-time (going back to 2010), including breaking the all-time record for assists in the regular season with 2,973. To give a sense of scale, the next highest number of team assists was Thien's High Riser team in 2015 with 2,625. This was the most dominant performance in a single season likely ever.

So what's next? The Monkeys are certainly aging -- have they peaked? LeBron has stated he'll be back. So will Harden and Capela. But Monkeys management will have some big decisions coming this off-season. But this is why we play fantasy basketball! The team will leave that to the off-season.

Chunky Monkeys, at long last, champions!