2022 Pre-Season: Russell

Here we go, a look at the Russell Conference -- home of the defending champs -- heading into the 2022 season! [ 2021 Chamberlain | 2021 Russell ]

TeamID - Abbrev - Name (2021 Record, 2020 Record)

1 FJUB Fat Jubas (13-3, 12-7)

After eleven playoff appearances, three division titles, one regular season wins crown, one Toilet Bowl finals, and two championship rings, FJUB is now authoritatively the second best team in SlamNation history. While they may trail CHMK for second-best overall historical record, their 2021 title run takes them over the top. So what’s next for FJUB? Another title that’s what!

With Chris Paul leading the way, FJUB’s backcourt is in steady hands and GM Eric brought on Kyle Lowry and Mike Conley in the draft to bolster it with veteran savvy even further. Paul, Lowry, Conley, Fred VaVleet, and Malcolm Brogdon have to be the best combined backcourt around and FJUB has the right man in the middle to anchor the defense as well in Myles Turner.

Tobias Harris and Robert Covington are the offensive and defensive wings here, and the draft also brought in dual defensive menaces Jaden McDaniels (RD4.2) and Matisse Thybulle (RD5.15). Big man Daniel Gafford already suffered an injury scare in the first week of the season — while last round pick Khem Birch was cut — so it’s likely FJUB will have to get some help for Turner in the backcourt.

All of this is just minor details though, as FJUB has proven that they’ll always be a presence in the postseason, and now as returning champ, they’ll be aggressive in defending their title. 

2 CHMK Chunky Monkeys (12-4, 14-4-1)

It’s been two straight first-round exits for CHMK from the playoffs, despite being one of the best teams in Slam during the regular season. The good news is that even after moving LeBron James, CHMK is still wining regularly and now has a much younger lineup to trot out for the next iteration of their championship chase.

The new keeper roster features Collin Sexton and Bam Adebayo alongside James Harden, with the promising trio of Mikal Bridges, Kevin Porter Jr., and Robert Williams all presenting major upside for the immediate future. All three of them are looking at more time this season, with Bridges possibly cementing himself as the premiere 3-and-D role player during last season’s NBA playoffs.

The Monkeys had the best defense in the league last year, featuring top-rankings in REB, BLK, and FG%. Unfortunately, they had a real lack of outside shooting, ranking last in the league in threes. It looks like that weakness won’t exactly be fixed this season either, as CHMK went with Richuan Holmes (RD1.4) in the first round of the draft — a pick acquired from KSKT — passing up any number of promising rookies. Holmes is an underrated beast but he’s not a shooter. The hope is that fellow round one pick Nickeil Alexander-Walker (RD1.13) and Jordan Pool (RD2.12) can add some oomph in the backcourt.

Bringing in gunner Desmond Bane in free agency — by cutting Jae’Sean Tate — was a nice move, and it looks like Steven Adams (RD4.3) is just going to add to CHMK’s mashing ways. We can pencil CHMK in for the playoffs as a high seed, but we’ll have to see how far they can go after a few disappointing early exits. The hunt is on for CHMK to catch FJUB in titles, let’s gooooo!

3 FUNK Funk Coalition (8-8, 10-8-1)

After years of ineptitude, FUNK has now solidly become a winning franchise, with four straight playoff appearances under their belt. Over the offseason, a new coach was brought in, which should fix the lineup issues FUNK suffered last year as they meandered to a 0.500 record.

With three top-twenty talents in Karl-Anthony Towns, Jayson Tatum, and Trae Young, FUNK should be one of the elite teams on paper. However, injuries to KAT and Gordon Hayward hamstrung them a bit last season. Even though the win-now move of DeMar DeRozan — for Jonathan Isaac — paid off, FUNK slid backwards last year.

With title hopes in mind, FUNK traded away two round-ones and a round-two for John Collins pre-draft, hopefully giving Towns a frontcourt mate. That move did hamper their draft though, as FUNK only had four selections — Bojan Bogdanovic (RD3.10), Serge Ibaka, Monte Morris, and Mason Plumlee. So far, Plumlee is looking like a steal, as he’s close to averaging a double-double in Charlotte. The rest of the FUNK roster was filled out with free agents like Josh Hart, Grayson Allen, and Lonnie Walker.

Will any of this get FUNK closer to a title? It’s hard to say. Looking at ODE, they were strong on offense and about average on defense and efficiency, but they were sorely lacking in 3PT and REB, which is something Towns should help with. With such a solid keeper trio, the time is now for FUNK to win something, anything…

4 FOBS Fob Stars (5-11, 12-7)

The climb up to respectability has been steady for FOBS, as they’ve been improving the past five pre-2021 seasons — all with playoff appearances — peaking in 2020 with a top-five power ranking. However, last year the bottom suddenly fell out for FOBS as they collapsed down the standings. So what happened?

FOBS started the season off 1-7 and that was all she wrote. Injuries weren’t even that much of a factor, with only De’Andre Hunter being out most of the season. If anything, the loss of Jamal Murray will hurt more this year, as he was still playing during our fantasy season last year. Somehow the FOBS mix just wasn’t working in 2021, despite Damian Lillard’s best efforts.

FOBS did feature great FG% and FT%, but were awful in REB, AST, STL, and 3PT, while not exactly being sterling anywhere else. The question is if 2021 was just an aberration, a bump in the road, or if it portends to more unsteadiness ahead?

Pre-draft, FOBS traded away John Collins — getting Buddy Hield (RD1.12) and Saddiq Bey (RD2.7), plus a future first — and then took rookie Jalen Suggs with the sixth overall pick. Suggs projects as an instant all-around contributor, which this team will definitely need. With Murray out for the year and fellow keeper Rui Hachimura yet to see the floor, FOBS will be looking to mix and match their lineups early on.

Both Jarrett Allen and Isaac Okoro were kept, and they’ll hopefully provide some of the defense FOBS was missing last season. Returning Olympian Keldon Johnson (RD2.13) was a great draft pickup and it seems like free agent acquisition Al Horford has somehow discovered the fountain of youth one week into the young season.

We honestly have no idea if FOBS will be trending up this season, or if they’ll go more all-in on a rebuild, but there’s a lot of intrigue with this team and we’ll be watching closely!

5 TRUO Truo Thien (2-14, 5-13-1)

It’s been a dark and stormy last couple of seasons for TRUO. After not going under 0.500 for almost a decade, they’d dropped steadily from 9-11 to 5-13-1 to last year’s 2-14 nadir. The only way to go is up for them then right?!

Incoming RD1.2 Jalen Green could be just the jolt this franchise needs, as Green projects as an All-Star level player with tremendous scoring abilities. With Julius Randle fully emerging as an All-Star, plus Jimmy Butler still doing Butler-things, TRUO has a good core to grow into. The jury is out on if Lauri Markkanen will ever be more than a tease, and Kemba Walker’s best days are behind him, but Andrew Wiggins has at least solidified into a more than serviceable wing. Sixth keeper Jordan Clarkson replaces Kelly Oubre Jr., and has found a great role in Utah.

The offense on this team should be in decent hands, especially as other 2022 draft picks Dillon Brooks, Coby White, Cole Anthony, and Patty Mills are all offensive focused. Brook Lopez is the lone defender on this team, and he can only do so much.

Last year’s version of TRUO was run-and-gun and that should hold true this season as well, as we wait to see what kind of talent TRUO has acquired in Green. There’s probably more Toilet Bowls in TRUO’s immediate future but it’ll be fun to see what kind of rebuild TRUO can pull off as he’s been one of the best Slam owners around.

6 SWMP Swamp Dragons (13-2-1, 14-5)

Honestly, there’s not much more for SWMP to accomplish in Slam except to get that first title. They’ve won regular seasons (three times), they’ve won division titles (five), they’ve acquired talent every which way, they’ve won the Toilet Bowl twice, and the’ve been to the Finals three times. They’ve gotten a rule named and executed for them — the one preventing top TB seeds from drafting #1 and #2. So yeah, it’s title or bust for SWMP, again.

Toward that end, SWMP will have new NBA MVP Nikola Jokic manning the middle, directing everything. And now he’ll have playoff hero Deandre Ayton to do the dirty work around him. D’Angelo Russell still has to prove he can be healthy on his second run with SWMP, but Paul George and Khris Middleton are the best one-two wing combos in Slam. Then, pre-draft, GM Eddie turned one of his big man finds, Christian Wood, into Zach LaVine, who adds yet another All-Star to the SWMP lineup. That’s the best keeper core in the league isn’t it?

SWMP already had the best combined ODE last season with 1/3/7 splits, and it’ll be hard to see anyone else as the title favorite heading into the season. While the Alperen Sengun pick at 2022 RD1.15 was a bit curious due to his rookie status, the rest of SWMP’s draft was all for veteran depth featuring Kyle Anderson, Marcus Smart, and Kelly Olynyk — Luguentz Dort was drafted too. Every seemed to forget about Will Baron as well, and SWMP scooped him up off the waiver wire.

There’s nothing for SWMP to do this year but dominate the regular season and then see if they can get the elusive ring. If there’s any year to do it, this is the one! Right Eddie?

7 MELO Melo My Mind (11-5, 8-10-1)

It was a very successful first season for MELO in SlamNation as they finished as the fourth seed heading into the playoffs. MELO even notched their first postseason victory — over ILCN — before being upset in the second round. Still, for a first time fantasy owner, Jack had a great year!

Among the many things to go right for MELO was the All-Star breakout from Jaylen Brown, who has elevated himself to franchise status. And then right before the 2022 draft, MELO completed a huge trade, acquiring Kevin Durant for Bradley Beal. Now the MELO starting lineup looks like De’Aaron Fox, Brown, Kevin Durant, James Wiseman, and Nikola Vucevic. (Sixth keeper Andre Drummond has fallen off dramatically as an NBA asset but maybe he’ll still be a serviceable backup in Philadelphia.) Last year’s RD1.2 Wiseman has yet to hit the floor this season, and his growth curve looks steep, but MELO can afford to wait on him.

MELO featured a top-five ranked offense last season and with Durant joining the mix, that offense could get even better. By grabbing two possible starting point guards in Dennis Schroder (RD1.11) and Devonte Graham (RD2.4) in the draft, MELO is solidly in win-now mode as they look to move further into title contention. Bringing in versatile Joe Ingles, rotation big Ivica Zubac, and Aaron Gordon — plus the corpse of Lamarcus Aldridge — were all solid moves that can only help MELO continue building on their freshman year success.

8 KSKT Krispy Kreme (6-10, 5-12-2)

What a first season for KSKT! Despite trading away their own first round pick last season (2022 RD1.4), they headed into the Toilet Bowl finals locked into the first overall pick — while not even playing in the game — due to their trade with SQSQ. With that RD1.1 pick, GM Matt took consensus best player Cade Cunningham — and hometown Detroit hero — to build out a roster that is just brimming with young talent.

This is a tremendously young team, with Zion Williamson, Michael Porter Jr., Tyrese Haliburton, and Cunningham all being twenty-three years old or younger. The other three keepers — Kristaps Porzingis, Clint Capela, Caris LeVert — are all only twenty-seven. While KSKT didn’t win a lot of games last season, there’s a glorious future ahead — assuming good health. There are a number of health concerns here, as Williamson, Porter Jr, and Porzingis all have extensive injury histories.

We’re not even sure exactly what KSKT is even capable of at full health, as they seem to have a tremendous defense according to ODE, but those ratings can’t be trusted as this team was on and off the injury list all last year. One thing is for sure: if Zion and Capela play, this team will probably win FG% and REB.

For his second draft — aside from Cunningham, who has yet to make his NBA debut — GM Matt took known qualities like gunner Norman Powell, streaky Reggie Jackson, Goran Dragic, Larry Nance Jr., and Otto Porter Jr. (Last round pick, rookie Bones Hyland was already cut, in favor of Pat Connaughton.) That signals a desire to take some wins this season, even as this young team continues to season and gel. We’re thinking KSKT will have to fight for another high pick in the Toilet Bowl, but it’s possible they could make the playoffs in their second Slam season, assuming some good health all-around.