Post-Season RD1: 2023

Injuries are going to play a big role in the postseason--seemingly more than any other year. A huge number of superstars are ailing and the field is prety wide open for anyone to take the title--or the Toilet Bowl. Let's take a look at round one!

PLAYOFFS Round 1

#1 KSKT (16-4) vs #8 SBUK (12-8)

Last season saw KSKT go 0.500 in Matt’s second year in SlamNation and then boom, explosion! With the best regular season record in 2023—taking over from Dad’s SQSQ team by the way—KSKT now gets a first round matchup against the defending champs, SBUK!

It should be a battle for the ages as both teams have a league leading combined ODE of seventeen, with KSKT ranked first in offense and eighth in defense and efficiency. On the other side, SBUK sports a 6/6/5 in their ODE so this match should come down to who can play the better defense.

Even without Zion Williamson and Cade Cunningham, KSKT has been rampaging, but with Tyrese Haliburton day to day, the window for an upset could be open. Unfortunately, SBUK is dealing with injuries to Jalen Brunson, Kyrie Irving, and Rudy Gobert as well, so it’s again to take a monster Joel Embiid effort for SBUK to muster up a title defense.

#2 SCRM (15-4-1) vs #7 FUNK (12-8)

After a mega-deal that included nine players back in January, the idea was that SCRM would trade some present day production for a playoff run featuring Anthony Davis and Karl-Anthony Towns. Instead, our second seed will now play FUNK, the team that has half his former players in Dejounte Murray, OG Anunoby, and Derrick White—plus the addition of PJ Washington via Terry Rozier.

Looking to fend off FUNK will be the trio of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, DeMar DeRozan, and James Harden, along with the now healthy Davis. It’s going to be defense versus offense as SCRM and FUNK have diametrically opposite teams, but all of it could just come down to who can score more. [Editor: Sorry for the KAT dump, I swear it wasn’t by design!]

#3 SOUR (14-6) vs #6 SWMP (12-8)

Quietly lurking in the shadows all season has been SOUR, who finished just outside of taking the Chamberlain Conference away from SCRM. Letting Trieu sneak up on a title is never a good idea and it’ll be up to SWMP to stop this championship threatening menace.

SWMP find themselves in the bottom half of the playoff teams for the first time in five seasons—much of it could be attributed to a January stretch when they racked up three GP violations—but Nikola Jokic is a fearsome competitor. The bad news is that Khris Middleton and Alperen Sengun could possibly miss some games, which could be balanced out by SOUR’s Jerami Grant missing some time as well.

SOUR took care of SWMP pretty handily in a WK14 matchup but with these two heavyweights, anything could happen!

#4 ILCN (13-7) vs #5 FJUB (12-7-1)

Injuries will play a big part for ILCN in this first week of the playoffs as well. This dark horse contender will have to make do with—at least—one missed game apiece from Luka Doncic and Donovan Mitchell. Even a deep roster that includes dueling fantasy Rookie of the Years in Paolo Banchero and Walker Kessler might not make up for ILCN missing out on his offensive engines.

For FJUB, they are dealing with a missing Myles Turner but everyone is relatively healthy, and the pre-trade deadline move for Terry Rozier (at the cost of PJ Washington) should give the backcourt some added oomph.

Both of these teams have terrific numbers but with the top two scorers missing from ILCN’s top-two ranked offense, this could be a pretty even matchup across the board. We’re going to need some brilliant individual performances from either team to tip the scales!

TOILET BOWL Round 1

#9 MELO (10-10) vs #16 FOBS (3-16-1)

With FOBS ownership already slated to transition out next year, this will be a last hurrah for owner Jimmy—after fourteen seasons! As much as we’d like to see a Toilet Bowl win for incoming owner Victor to build on, with eight weeks worth of Games Played violations, the fantasy gods will not be kind to FOBS. Indeed, they are already staring at Damian Lillard, rookie Jaden Ivey, and Jarrett Allen missing at least one game each. Who’s left to power the potential upset? Jamal Murray and um, Rui Hachimura?

MELO hasn’t exactly been a Games Played star either, as they’ve racked up five violations this season—third behind FOBS and SPDE. They are dealing with some major injuries themselves, with Kevin Durant, Andrew Wiggins, and Norman Powell all out. So actually, this matchup could be somewhat even! However, here’s betting that Jaylen Brown and Lauri Markkanen are enough to power MELO one step further in the Toilet Bowl.

#10 CHMK (8-12) vs #15 TRUO (4-15-1)

With a youth focused roster that is hitting its stride at just the right time—have you seen Evan Mobley and Jabari Smith Jr. lately?—CHMK could be the heavy favorites for a Toilet Bowl win. However, finishing as one of the top-two Toilet Bowl seeds will take them out of Wembayama or Scoot contention. Still, an overall third pick in next year’s draft would be a nice prize for them. Everyone here is healthy—minus Robert Williams III—and rookie sensation Jalen Williams has been an absolute beast recently.

As for TRUO, they are turning toward youth themselves, with Jalen Green, Scottie Barnes, and rookie Keegan Murray all looking good so far this season. The big question here is if the Julius Randle-led TRUO has the firepower to punch through CHMK’s second-ranked defense. If not, TRUO will have to hope that CHMK takes it all, elevating them to a possible higher pick behind the “SWMP Rule.”

#11 SQSQ (7-13) vs #14 ABCX (6-14)

There’s a world where SQSQ threatens to grab the top pick next season, but with LeBron James out of the rotation—along with Bojan Bogdanovic—it’ll be tough avoiding an upset. Then again, ABCX is also down their big star, and not just one but two! LaMelo Ball just had season ending surgery and Ja Morant has been exposed as a less than shining star, and could be out for the duration of the postseason.

If it’s down to Team Giannis versus Team Russell Westbrook, we may have to go with Giannis on this one. Both of these teams ranked very low in combined ODE—fifteenth and sixteenth actually—so this is going to be a slap fight to see who advances. Either way, both of these owners deserve an injection of fresh talent for their rosters, and we hope one of them can go the distance!

#12 BUFF (7-13) vs #13 SPDE (7-13)

Injury plagued and rarely at full strength this season, BUFF made the ultimate positive chemistry move by not pulling their players in WK20 in a tight game against KSKT—with a possible #10 seed, and thus a lost chance at a top-two 2024 pick. That is the kind of competitiveness we love to see and if there is any justice in the world, BUFF will secure the number one overall pick. They’ll have to do it amidst injuries to Kyle Kuzma, Collin Sexton, Steven Adams, and the corpse of Ben Simmons, but karma can go a long way in the Toilet Bowl.

As for SPDE, they tempted those same fantasy gods themselves by racking up six Games Played violations in their first twelve weeks of action. However, after refocusing, they avoided any more GP demerits. That means they should be at least even on the karma ledger—“TJ hates quitters!”—and they’ll be taking a healthy Kawhi Leonard and Devin Booker into the Toilet Bowl, giving them a pretty decent chance to surprise people and take it all. Imagine a Chet Holmgren and Wembayama pairing on SPDE next season!?!