2022 Championship: So Sweet

After a thrilling 2021 run to their first Finals appearance, So Buckets came back for more in 2022. Instead of sneaking into the playoffs like last season, SBUK dropped a 13-6-1 record—good for the third seed—and was one of the top contenders heading into the postseason. After an easy wipe of SOUR in round one, followed by a barely harder round two versus FUNK, SBUK came face to face with the Russell Conference champions, Swamp Dragons, who was making their fourth Finals appearance.

Despite being the slight underdog, SBUK pulled out a 6-3 win, taking REB by just six, and STL by three. The twin defensive towers of Joel Embiid and Rudy Gobert won SBUK the day, and we crowned a new champ!

After taking over the Bayside Bombardiers franchise in 2012, Josh and the So Buckets have reached the mountaintop in their eleventh SlamNation season! Coincidentally, this Finals matchup was the two 2012 replacement owners facing off against each other, as SBUK and SWMP entered Slam at the same time. Back then, Josh elected to gift Eddie LeBron James while inheriting a Bombardiers’ Toilet Bowl win and the 2012 RD1.1 pick, who turned into Kyrie Irving.

The keepers SBUK took in that initial dispersal draft: Pau Gasol, Andre Iguodala, Gerald Wallace, David West, Darren Collison, and someone named Toney Douglas. Those early SBUK teams had some good success, nabbing two Voltron division titles in their first three seasons behind Gasol, Irving, Igoudala, and Evan Turner. However, two 8-10-1 seasons in 2015-6 left them out of the postseason.

It was during this down period that we start to see the current championship roster begin to toke shape, as GM Josh drafted Embiid (2015 RD1.12) and Gobert (2015 RD4.12) in the same class. DeMar DeRozan was also added to the keeper mix by 2015, and Myles Turner came on-board as a rookie one year later (2016 RD1.7). That core led to a SBUK resurgence, leading to a 14-6-1 record in 2018 and another Voltron division title.

Those heady days were short lived as SBUK slipped out of the playoffs in 2019 despite a winning record. They did win the Toilet Bowl that season—and got the 2020 RD1.3 pick due to the first year of the “SWMP rule,” which didn’t allow the #9 or #10 Toilet Bowl teams to win one of the first two picks. That third pick ended up being RJ Barrett, who was the odd man out from the one-two punch of Zion Williamson and Ja Morant.

Despite assumptions that SBUK would leap back into the playoffs in 2020, they instead went 8-10-1, as some real life things--hi Baby SBUK!--took the coaching staff a little out of focus. However, SBUK management pulled it together in 2021 and 2022, resulting in two Finals appearances and SBUK’s first SlamNation title!

This was truly a homegrown title, as we can see by the Irving, Embiid, Gobert, and Barrett draft picks. Even Myles Turner was directly turned into CJ McCollum via trade. Incredibly, GM Josh has only ever made three trades ever, and only two involving actual players. The first was the 2017 big for small Turner and McCollum exchange, and the second was in 2021, when they moved DeMar DeRozan for the promise of Jonathan Isaac. (Imagine if this team still had DeRozan!) Otherwise it’s just been savvy drafting and good free agent pickups!

New keepers Jalen Brunson (2022 RD5.11) and rookie Franz Wagner (2022, free agent) were both value finds that could make SBUK even stronger than before. Heck, RJ Barrett—who led SBUK in playoff minutes—will be cut as a keeper. At least Barrett will get a ring when he makes a visit to his old team!

Overall, owner SBUK boasts a 105-92-6 regular season record in eleven seasons—good for sixth best out of the current Slam owners—with six playoff runs, three division titles, two Finals appearances, and one shiny new ring! Congrats to our new league champ, may a zesty title defense be in SBUK's future!

As for Swamp Dragon’s eternal chase for a title, this Finals appearance marked SWMP’s fourth appearance in the championship game—2012, 2014, 2018, and 2022—with no hardware to show for it. SWMP has been the most dominant regular season team in SlamNation going back the last four seasons, with a 56-15-4 (0.777) record, three Russell Conference titles, two Most Wins, and two Finals showings. Heck, they even had a rule named after them, due to their Toilet Bowl success!

Losing a hard fought Finals to SBUK can only fuel Eddie’s fire, as that elusive title has to be around the corner soon, right?