Homan League: Week in Review 12/22 - 1/4

ROCKY WIDNER/NBAE/GETTY IMAGES

A review of action in the fantasy basketball league dubbed "Homan League".   May include free agent pick-ups, trades, DNP's because someone forgot to set their lineup for the early morning Pacific time game.  Also other shenanigans worth mentioning in the league.  All opinions are exactly that, opinions. So don't take them too personally, and they are mostly mine.

The first Week in Review post of the New Year!  Since I was busy enjoying the Christmas and New Year's days off from work, this post is overdue and includes details from the last two weeks.

For week 9, the biggest headline in our fantasy league has got to be the enormous upset of number 1 seed, Clipper Nation, by then-11th seed, kobeking, 6-4.  Take a look at how close the match was, especially how Ryan's team barely won points by 10, blocks by 6 and free throws by 3. In the match-up between 8th and 9th seeded teams, Oliver's team, League Champion, dominated Jae's Dazzling Team, 7-3 and my team, Just Jrue It, had the biggest margin of victory in wining 9 to 1 over commissioner Homan's team, David Stern.  Second place Swagger couldn't buff up his record playing against Preston Lee's 12th place team, Mark Cuban, as the matchup was split 5-5.  Other Preston (Fong), takes the huge loss 8-2, against Timon's team, S7venbyVII.  Gabe's still in Hong Kong, but he seems to be updating his team reguarly as he wins 6-4 against JJ's team, Sasquatch.

For week 10, Jae's Dazzling Team made it two weeks in a row where Clipper Nation was beat (6-4) despite holding down the top seed in our league.  This is only the second time this season that Jae's team has won the week's matchup, so way to go man.  My team, Just Jrue It, wins the match-up of the 3rd and 4th seeded teams by beating S7venbyVII 7-3.  Other things for the week included a trio of 8-2 wins by teams: Adam Silver, League Champion, and Sasquatch.  Ray's team, Swagger, moved within one win of the top seed in our league with his 6-3 win over Ryan's squad, kobeking.

Nice week for Thaddeus Young as he came down with  a double-double (17-10) on New Year's Day and then went off for 28 points, 6 steals, going perfect from the free throw line (9 for 9), the next night. On Saturday, Thad tied his season high in points with 30 capping off an impressive first three games of 2014.

Almost a quadruple-double for Steph Curry this past friday with his 9 turnovers, but that can be forgiven when you consider the ridiculous games Curry has other times.  For example, the 36 points and 8 threes he had the game before the almost quad-double.  Plus, even when he has games in which he turns the ball over a bunch, he also contributes in steals (5) and rebounds (8) and free throws (7).  At this point, Preston L. is definitely hoping Curry doesn't cool off as tries to break the losing streak that he's been on.

In his last three games, there have been three double-doubles for Ty Lawson as the Nuggets point guard has shown that his early season play was no fluke.  With the Nuggets finally breaking their 8 game losing streak last week, the Nuggets should have their confidence up, which is good for their super quick point guard's chances of keeping up his high assist and points totals.

The Raptors have been playing really well and that has been in part to Kyle Lowry contributing in every which way as the point guard of this team.  Besides being a steady thief averaging over 2 steals a game, Lowry can also be counted on double digit assists and a handful of threes every time he steps out on the court.  Although I consider him to be one of the most underrated point guards in fantasy, he and the Raptors have definitely been capturing more attention these last two weeks.  Lowry is definitely a main reason that Oliver has won 8-2 the last two weeks.

Smart Pick-Up

Since the start of 2014, Iman Shumpert's has been absolutely on fire with his jumper knocking down 12 out of 14 threes in a stretch of two games.  Probably unlikely that Shump continues this shooting streak, but James' picked up a dandy as Iman was the top fantasy performer this past week (TEAM: David Stern).

Although the Wiz have not won all week, the play of Trevor Booker has been impressive as he grabbed a season high of 19 rebounds as JJ quickly snatched him up out of free agency.  Booker has been averaging more than 30 minutes, so its likely he continues contributing boards but unfortunately not much else (TEAM: Sasquatch).

Being a Lakers point guard has meant you'll probably come down an injury at some point during the season so I'd be doing a lot of icing and stretching if I were Kendall Marshall  in order to avoid this developing curse.  However, Gabe took the gamble and it paid off as Marshall scored 20 points and 15 assists in his first start as a Laker (TEAM: Adam Silver).

Tough Times:
After separating his shoulder, top 5 fantasy player, Chris Paul will be out for over a month so I'm pretty freaking bummed (TEAM: Just Jrue It).

Before going down with a scary looking injury, Ryan Anderson was absolutely lighting it up averaging 20 points and just about 3 threes per game.  He's still hospitalized for now so anyone who loves seeing the silky smooth stroke of Anderson will have to hope that the injury isn't too serious and Anderson can return for the Pelicans soon (TEAM: Mark Cuban).

Homan League: Week in Review 12/15 - 12/21

Brett Davis, USA TODAY Sports

A review of action in the fantasy basketball league dubbed "Homan League".   May include free agent pick-ups, trades, DNP's because someone forgot to set their lineup for the early morning Pacific time game.  Also other shenanigans worth mentioning in the league.  All opinions are exactly that, opinions. So don't take them too personally, and they are mostly mine.

Happy week before Christmas, everybody.  We're about a third of the way through with the NBA season but there's plenty of basketball to still played including the ten game lineup on Christmas day this next week.

In our league, the match-up between the 2nd place team, Swagger, and 3rd place team, Adam Silver, was won by Ray's higher ranked team 7-3.

Looks like a big win for Sasquatch over current 4th place team, S7venbyVII, because of the big week from JJ's game-winning basket-making guards, Kemba Walker and Damian Lillard.  That means my team, Just Jrue It, is that much closer to making a move into the Top Four!

In the mismatch of the week, first-place Clipper Nation played the second to last Mark Cuban team and for most of the week it looked like it was going to be a 6-4 or 5-5 split.  That is up until the weekend and Jon's team pulled away with big games from Thad Young, Kevin Love, and two awesome games from Russell Westbrook.

In 9th and 12th place, Ryan's kobeking team and Jae's Dazzling Suad split the week's matchup 5-5 so neither team looks like they'll be climbing out of that Bottom Four group.

A heads up to Boston Celtics owners cause in week 10 the guys in green are only playing one game and thus won't be much help if you're counting on them for fantasy stats.

Steph Curry is scoring more and dishing out more assists than Derrick Rose did in his MVP season.  However, with the Warriors in a bit of a funk losing 4 out of 6, there isn't much mention of Curry as an MVP candidate even though he's averaged 4 threes and 3 more points than his season average in this past week.  (TEAM: Mark Cuban)

For the season, Al Horford's points are up but boards are down when compared to previous years. Horford had a great game on Wednesday against the Kings with 25 10 and 5 along with 4 blocks.  For the week, Horford is shooting 66% from the field which may seem like an anomaly, but also keep in mind for the season hes at 56% so Horford could easily continue this trend in rising in fantasy value.

Along with his late game heroics, Damian Lillard is also averaging 28 points this week with basically 5 threes a game.  For the week, Lillard was also dishing out two more assists than his season average and close to two steals a game (TEAM: Sasquatch).

A really stellar week for Demarcus Cousins as he topped 26 points four out of five games including a 17 rebound game and averaged about 5 assists.  He's also leading the league in technical fouls so I guess you can say Cousins is having a pretty busy year.

Stock Rising:
Miles Plumlee had his best game in a while grabbing 13 boards to go with 13 points and 2 steals and 2 blocks on Thursday.  He followed those games up with rebound efforts of 12 and 8 on Saturday and Sunday, so he's becoming more dependable of an option. (TEAM: Clipper Nation)

Xavier Henry: Very smart of Oliver to pick Henry since the Lakers are supremely short-handed at the guard positions.  Also, since the Rockets have closed communications regarding trading Omer Asik, dropping Asik was the best decision at this point unless he wanted to keep gettin a gooseegg from the Turkish big man. (TEAM: League Champion)

Giannis Antetokounmpo:  This one is a bias pick cause I personally wanted to pick him up but Ryan beat me to it.  Giannis has had decent rebounding numbers since his re-introduction to the main rotation but his production should increase as he adjusts to the increased minutes since physically he has all the skills to be a high impact player for the Bucks. (TEAM: kobeking)

C'mon maaaaan:
Forgot to play Trevor Ariza for Saturday's early game so I didn't get nuffin' to help my team when Trevor decided to score 27 and knock down 5 threes.  bah humbug. (TEAM: Just Jrue It)

Tough week of DNP's for Gabe's team as Kirk Hinrich, Jordan Farmar, and Tony Parker all missed games.  Also, along with Derrick Rose, another all-star is going to be in our league's free agency pool since Nets center, Brook Lopez, is out for the season with his foot injury.  Good thing Andrew Bogut has all of a sudden decided he must grab every rebound cause Gabe's going to need to be creative with replacing Lopez' production in his lineup. (TEAM: Adam Silver)

Homan League: Week in Review 12/8- 12/14

DAVID COOPER / TORONTO STAR 

A review of action in the fantasy basketball league dubbed "Homan League".   May include free agent pick-ups, trades, DNP's because someone forgot to set their lineup for the early morning Pacific time game.  Also other shenanigans worth mentioning in the league.  All opinions are exactly that, opinions. So don't take them too personally, and they are mostly mine.

Huge drops at the top of the league because former league leaders, Pres(i)ton and S7venbyVII lost big (8-2, 9-1) in week 6.  Starting Week 7, Clipper Nation, Adam Silver, Swagger and S7venbyVII were holding down the Top 4 positions in the League while the Bottom 4 were League Champion, Sasquatch, Mark Cuban and kobeking.

The Kings-Raptors trade that went down this week should have vast impact fantasy-wise as guys like Rudy Gay should actually produce more although you could argue he has a smaller role with the Kings and less is expected out of him.  Felt like Gay was pressured into taking too much of the playmaking skills onto himself in Toronto; with Isaiah Thomas handling the ball and Demarcus Cousins gettin touches in the post, Gay will have more of a niche role which I think is good for his fantasy value.  Specifically Gay should be counted on for steady scoring he as plays on the wing off of Cousins and also contribute solid numbers in the defense categories.  His old Raptor teammates, Derozan - AmirJohnson - Lowry, should continue to rise in their fantasy production as they have already shown in the two games Gay has been gone (TEAMS: Jae's Dazzling Team, Pres(i)ton, David Stern)

The plot for the rookie of the year award is thickening as Trey Burke has been consistently putting up solid numbers.  With Gordan Hayward struggling for the most part, Burke should continue to get the green light from the perimeter.  He still has plenty of options on the front court to dish out assists to and for a point guard he has had one of the lowest turnover averages at less than one and a half per game (TEAM: Mark Cuban, Just Jrue It)

Some guys cooled off a lot from last week including John Henson who was averaging over 13 rebounds in week 6 but for the week is just around 9.  He did tie his season high in blocks on Tuesday with 6, and is filling in nicely until Timon gets Marc Gasol back (TEAM: S7VenbyVII).

Stars of the Week
For our current #1 Seed of the Top 4, Clipper Nation, and #2 Seed of our Bottom four, Sasquatch, they have had great weeks from their number one overall picks, the Kevins. Love and Durant.

Love was straight dominant this week, as he averaged 5 threes along with over 15 rebounds and 31 points per game. Durant is averaging just about 30 points with 9 boards, 5 assists, 2 steals and a block for the week. He's shooting a ridiculous 57% from the field and also pulling away with the free throw makes for the season at 201, almost 50 more than the next player (James Harden - 153).

In previous years, Lamarcus Aldridge has been kind of a below average rebounder like his 6 rebound effort against the Jazz on Monday. But this year he's had some epic games to offset his more anemic rebounding days like Thursday night's 25 rebound game (TEAM: David Stern).

Kind of difficult to imagine that the Knicks or any player much less the star player on the Knicks, not getting enough attention, but its true when it comes to the fantasy year Carmelo's had.  On the season, he's second in field goals made, fourth in free throws made, second in points and has more total rebounds than Greg Monroe and Roy Hibbert. But because of the team's struggles, those statistics have been overlooked.  On the week, Melo averaged over 31 points while averaging close to 3 threes per game.  Jae will need Melo to keep up this production as his team tries to climb out of the bottom four of the League (TEAM: Jae's Dazzling Team).

Russell Westbrook almost hit a triple-double twice this week with his 19-12-8 against the Lakers on Friday night and also his 14-11-9 against the Hawks. His shooting percentage is still lower than it has been in seasons past, but he seems to be making an upward trend considering he missed all of training camp this season (TEAM: Clipper Nation).

Neat Pick-Ups

Picked up in week 6, week 7's breakout star has got to be Amir Johnson as he has averaged 23 points and just about 10 boards with about 2 blocks per game. For the week he's shooting at basically 80% from field and actually a pretty good free throw shooter for a bruising big man at 77% for the season (TEAM: Pres(i)ton).

With Michael Carter-Williams out, Tony Wroten was a smart pick-up as he had a 10 rebound game and two 20 point games including Friday night's 5 threes (TEAM: Sasquatch).

If this had been a couple years ago, no way Amar'e would be a free agent this late in the season. But he is, and after getting picked up on Wednesday, he had his third straight game with over 15 points and at least 5 rebounds. Looks like Mike Woodson is extending his minutes, so this might turn out to be an even better pick up as we go into week 8 (TEAM: David Stern).

Tough
After picking up Wroten, JJ only played him for one of the three games he registered this week, meaning he missed out on the two 20+ efforts mentioned above. Pretty sure he has finals this week so that explains him not updating his squad but whatevs cause he's up 9-1 on James as of Saturday afternoon (TEAM: David Stern, Sasquatch).

Kirk, Dirk and Brook.  All missed games this week, but based on the reports don't seem to be too serious of injuries (TEAM: Adam Silver)

Quietly one of the top 5 fantasy point guards this season, Ty Lawson hit a snag his campaign for making the all-star team when he hurt his hamstring last week. He made his return this Friday against Utah but had a terrible night going 0-6.  Although Ray's team is sitting in 3rd place, he also saw Nene Hilario go down to injury on Monday and Luol Deng hasn't played in over a week with his achilles injury (TEAM: Swagger).

Much better than his current 9th place seeding, Oliver had some inexplicable DNP's from Monday. Maybe he's trying to lull us to sleep but don't be fooled guys, he's got the top guard options in fantasy this season with James Harden and Eric Bledsoe. With his guard dominant team, he can easily win 5-6 categories while punting the traditional big man categories and make a deep playoff run on us. Also, if John Wall replicates his week 5 statistics and Kyle Lowry plays better now that ball-dominant Rudy Gay is in Sacramento, then we better hope he keeps leaving some of his guys on the bench when we are matched up against him (TEAM: League Champion).

The Battle for the Belt: the Last Place Jazz Have Got it Now

Thanks to the Sacramento Kings, the team with the worst record in the league now is holding the championship belt.  This isn't entirely the worse thing because the whole point of this belt idea was that any team, no matter their record, could hold the belt as long as they win the game in which they play a belt-holding team.

So make your predictions on whether the Jazz defend the belt against the Nuggets below or whether the Nuggets will become the 10th team to hold the belt this season.

For other posts about the Belt, you can check out the label "Battle for the Belt" on the right side of the page or click here.

image via Reddit

NEXT BATTLE FOR THE BELT

 UTA @  DEN

Friday, 2013-12-13

*kudos to Timothy Lee for the "Keep or Weep" Slogan

Homan League: Week in Review 11/24 - 11/30

Credit: Geoff Burke - USA TODAY Sports

A review of action in the fantasy basketball league dubbed "Homan League".   May include free agent pick-ups, trades, DNP's because someone forgot to set their lineup for the early morning Pacific time game.  Also other shenanigans worth mentioning in the fantasy league.  All opinions are exactly that, opinions. So don't take them too personally, and they are mostly mine.

Concluding the 5th week of fantasy basketball, individual teams are starting to distinguish themselves so that although we haven't had any trades yet, perhaps some players will be swapped soon. Of the match-ups this week, all of the higher seeded teams kept the status quo in not losing their matchup, including some embarrassing defeats (Adam Silver v. Mark Cuban) and one split (Just Jrue It v. Sasquatch). 

Along with the Battle of the Belt mini-game that I've been posting about, I'll be talking with commissioner James about instituting a Battle of the Belt for within our league.  In short, the belt will start with a random team and that team will keep the belt so long as they win their matchups from week to week.  If they lose the belt, the team that defeats them now holds the belt and so on and so forth.  The team that holds the belt, regardless of how they actually finish in the standings) will also have that bragging right and possibly a Toys 'R Us Belt to show their friends and family.  Feel free to ask me if you have questions, but more details about this will be outlined on a later blog post.

On to the impact players for the week...

League Leaders

Deandre Jordan is top three in the NBA for total rebounds, total blocks, field goal percentage and 4th in defensive rebounds.  He's gotten himself these stats consistently throughout the season, but this past week was especially brilliant as he grabbed over 13 boards per game and even had a 9 block game against those handshake-hating Kings.  His free throws are still horrendous, but well worth it considering his dominance in the rebound/blocks/fg% categories. (TEAM: Clipper Nation)

Steph Curry has shown no effects of that concussion that sidelined him for a couple games as this week he averaged over 30 points, dished out around 9 assists and grabbed about 2 steals per game.  What has made him most valuable has been the 15 threes he knocked down in a 3 game stretch. (TEAM: Mark Cuban)

John Wall continued his hot streak from the end of last week into this week, registering another 30 point effort and grabbing over 3 steals per game.  His high scoring output is usually at the cost of his assist numbers, but with Bradley Beal injured, he'll be switching hats and being more of a scorer for at least a couple weeks. (TEAM: League Champion)

Serge Ibaka topped his season averages this week averaging about 16 points, 11 rebounds and 4 blocks per game.  Ibaka may well behind Anthony Davis and Roy Hibbert for DPOY consideration, but he's a reliable contributor in the typical big man categories while still shooting well from both the field and free throw line (TEAM: Pres(i)ton)

Goran Dragic had himself a really nice week averaging 10 assists, including a 36 FTM's and topping 20 points three different times.  Teammate Channing Frye has been filling the 3PTM niche by making over three 3's per while averaging around 7 rebounds and doing that at less than one turnover per game (TEAM(s): Adam Silver, Just Jrue It).

Not that its possible to completely ignore the MVP of the last two seasons, but it kinda feels like people aren't talking about how well Lebron has been playing.  For this week, Lebron shot 60% from the field, added in around 7 REB, 5 AST, 2 STL and a three-pointer while getting to the line a ridiculous 9 times per game.  Oh yeah, he also averaged over 30 pts per game, so start considering a 3peat MVP finish for him. (TEAM: Adam Silver)

Neat Pickups:

Jordan Farmar (TEAM: David Stern):  Picked up right before the Lakers played the Wizards, Farmar rewarded the investment made by James with a 22 point and 8 assist effort.  Farmar then followed up that game with a well-rounded 15 point, 2 steal and 2 block game against the Nets the next night.

Kosta Koufos (TEAM: Adam Silver): Replaced Marc Gasol in the starting lineup and had back to back games of 13 rebounds while also registering about 2 blocks per game.  Definitely won't get these minutes when Gasol comes back, but for now Koufos is a nice big man option.

Jared Sullinger (TEAM: Adam Silver): Two double-doubles this week (21 & 14 against the Bucks, and 23 & 12 against the Grizz).  The high number of minutes played in these games may make these games seem more of an outlier in the overall scheme of things, but Sullinger's insertion into the starting line-up and Brad Stevens dislike of his veteran big man options (e.g. Kris Humphries) seem to indicate Sullinger will be able to somewhat keep these numbers up or at a slightly less total output.  Although his three pointers aren't exactly the smoothest sight, Sullinger is making 'em (about 2 per game) and at a very reason percentage too (~40%).

More Freakin' Injuries:

Bradley Beal had been leading the league in minutes played and putting up really nice numbers with his points and 3 pointers made.  However, Bradley's going to be out for at least two weeks with the injury to his right leg, so John Wall, Trevor Ariza, Martell Webster will get the bulk of Beal's numbers and opportunities to contribute. (TEAM(s): Pres(i)ton, League Champion, Just Jrue It, Sasquatch)

Two of his highest impact guards in the league in Eric Bledsoe (46) and James Harden (3) have been out for the whole week, so it's surprising that Oliver has kept up with Ray's Swagger squad. (TEAM: League Champion)

Spencer Hawes has sat out two of the games this week with that sore knee, which wouldn't be so bad if Timon didn't also have Iguodala (hamstring), Marc Gasol (right knee), Deron Williams (glass ankles). Ryan's team still almost got bageled but the team he faced was missing some key contributors. (TEAM(s): S7venbyVII, kobeking)

Just when Jeremy Lin was starting to put together some really great statistical games, he sprains his knee in the middle of the week.  This could mean more opportunities for Patrick Beverly and currently fantasy free-agent, Aaron Brooks, but super bad-times for Jae as his team really need's Lin's production. (TEAM: Jae's Dazzling Team)

Missed out

Gabe had to make a decision this week between playing Tony Allen, or Jared Sullinger and he picked Sullinger.  That night, Sullinger put up 23 points and 12 rebounds on 2 threes.  Allen did have 3 steals, but Gabe definitely missed out on Big Jared's best game of the season. (TEAM: Adam Silver)

Nick Young's big scoring output against the Nets was with Young sitting on Ray's bench.  Ray had to bench Young due to the all the SG's and SF's he had playing on his roster (Monta Ellis, Lance Stephenson, Paul George, Luol Deng and Harrison Barnes).  Of that group, only Harrison Barnes produced less than Swaggy P, and even still, I think playing Barnes over Young was the right choice and you know how much I love me some Swaggy P. (TEAM: Swagger)

Homan League: Week in Review 11/17 - 11/23

Credit: Matthew Emmons - USA TODAY Sports

A review of action in the fantasy basketball league dubbed "Homan League".   May include free agent pick-ups, trades, DNP's because someone forgot to set their lineup for the early morning Pacific time game.  Also other shenanigans worth mentioning in the fantasy league.  All opinions are exactly that, opinions. So don't take them too personally, and they are mostly mine.

At a glance:
Very different weeks for the two Los Angeles teams as the Clippers played a league high five games while the Lakers only played two.  The Lakers play a two-game-week again starting the 2nd of December, so in terms of fantasy numbers, owners with Laker players will have to take into account the lessened impact for guys like Pau, Steve Blake, Jordan Hill, and Jodie Meeks (TEAM(s): kobeking, Adam Silver).

The Trailblazers have been on a hot streak and specifically guys like Wes Matthews, Damian Lillard and Nic Batum have been producing great in terms of 3PTM, FT%, and points (TEAM(s): League Champion, Sasquatch, kobeking).

Point guard play has been phenomenal this week as John Wall, Mike Conley, Kyle Lowry and Kyrie Irving have all had big weeks.  The most pleasant surprise if you're a fantasy owner or a Mav's fan has got to be Monta Ellis doing his best '03 -Steph Marbury impression averaging 32 pts and 8 assists on the week. (TEAM(s): League Champion, kobeking, Swagger).

Still keeping up their MVP-type numbers for the season are Chris Paul, Anthony Davis, and the White Dwight, Spencer Hawes.  As covered in the Noteworthy posts, Anthony Davis has been blocking everything in sight, averaging over 6 blocks in this past week.  It's true that his steals  haven't been as great as the start of the season, but if you just peruse over his game logs, you'll be shocked at how high his FG%, FT% are and how ridiculous it is that he's only turning the ball over about once a game (TEAM(s): Just Jrue It, Pres(i)ton, S7venbyVII).

Neat Pickups:

Caron Butler (TEAM: League Champion):  Took a couple days after Butler was picked up (15th) to finally get some stats for him (22nd), but boy was it worth it.  In Friday night's overtime game against the Sixers, Butler put up 38 points with 4 threes made and 8 rebounds and 6 assists.

Martell Webster (TEAM: Sasquatch): Webster has continued playing well with Trevor Ariza injury's, regularly logging 40+ minutes in the Wizard's last five games.  Since he has been picked up, Webster has been reliable for a couple threes per game, great FT%, about half a dozen rebounds and a really low turnover rate.

You Must Not Be Happy:

Those Veteran Brooklyn Nets (TEAM(s): S7venbyVII, Jae's Dazzling Squad, Adam Silver, David Stern):  

Deron Williams playing 16 minutes the last two games after going down with an ankle injury once again to the T'Wolves.  He had glimpses of impact 2 weeks ago, but something is really wrong with Williams physically, whether it be the ankle or just his conditioning.

Paul Pierce's shooting has been terrible.  He's shooting 21% from the field for the week and turning the ball over as much as he's grabbing rebounds or assists (3 per/game).

Kevin Garnett is still grabbing 8 boards, and making a couple baskets per game.  Some concerns would be that he hasn't shot a free throw in over a week (he's only shot 5 for the season) so there goes the FTM category.  Plus his numbers have been getting cut and its clear he and coach J.Kidd aren't seeing eye to eye, so things aren't looking bright if you're counting on KG for fantasy impact.

Brook Lopez hasn't played the whole week with his ankle injury.  Really bad times if you're a fan of the talented scoring Lopez, as he was having himself a nice year until the injury.

Joe Johnson is still doing what he does best and that's make shots.  With everyone else either injured or playing like they are ready to retire, Johnson should have all the shots he wants to produce.  Currently, you can count on him for a couple threes and around 13 pts/game which is about the same production as a Gary Neal who is sitting pretty in free agency. 

Omer Asik (TEAM: League Champion) In case you forgot, the top rebounders last season were Nikola Vucevic (917), Dwight Howard (945) and Asik (956).  WIth Dwight joining the Rockets this season, Asik has been bumped to second-string  and although Asik is rebounding at a much lower clip than he was last season,Asik has all the skills and instincts to be leading the league in that category if he was just given more minutes.

Although, Kevin Mchale tried starting Asik/Howard together last week, that experiment was short-lived. Omer has since demanded a trade and in order to drive his market value down, the Rockets have decided to play their project big-man, Donatas Motiejunas, more minutes than the league's rebounding leader from a season ago.

If you enjoy watching the Turkish big man grab those rebounds and play really good post defense, you'll be pulling for the Rockets to trade Asik to a team where he can start devouring rebounds once again.

Homan League: Week in Review 11/10 - 11/16

(AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

A review of action in the fantasy basketball league dubbed "Homan League".   May include free agent pick-ups, trades, DNP's because someone forgot to set their lineup for the early morning Pacific time game.  Also other shenanigans worth mentioning in the fantasy league.  All opinions are exactly that, opinions. So don't take them too personally, and they are mostly mine.

Hotness:

Busy week in the NBA as teams like Atlanta, Memphis, Minnesota, Toronto and Utah all played 4 games while a team like Phoenix only played 2 games.  As a result, guys like Al Horford, Mike Conley, Ricky Rubio, Demar Derozan, Rudy Gay, and Gordon Hayward were more valuable than guys with similar production numbers because they played in more games (TEAM(s): Mark Cuban, League Champion, Adam Silver, David Stern, Jae's Dazzling Team, Just Jrue It)

  

Jeremy Lin hit a career high 9 three pointers but also dished out 12 assists that game.  On the year, he's shooting 52%, 47%, 80% (FG%,3PT%, FT%). Marc Gasol put up an 18-8-8-3-3 (pts, reb, ast, stl, blk) game but has been most valuable for his outstanding FT% (86.4%) and low turnover rate (1.1) .  Derrick Favors has been much more consistent this week with his best game coming against a Duncan-less Spur team in which he had 20 pts, 18 boards, 3 steals and 3 blocks. (TEAM(s): Jae's Dazzling Team, S7venbyVII, Clipper Nation)

Some really good single game efforts from role players such as Danny Green's 24 points, 10 rebounds, 6 three effort Jordan Hill's 21 and 11 against the Pelicans or his next game of 18 and 15 against the Nuggets.  The biggest surprise has got to be 76er, James Anderson's 36 point effort on 12-16 shooting and 6 threes made in the OT win against the Rockets. (TEAM(s): Swagger, kobeking, Jae's Dazzling Team)

New Additions:

Steve Blake (TEAM: kobeking):  After getting picked up on Monday, Blake had some impressive efforts of back-to-back-to-back games of 10+ assists.  He's not shooting too well from the field, but he's hitting a blistering 47% from three and has a 1:4 turnover to assist ratio.

Andrea Bargnani (TEAM: Clipper Nation): Technically picked up last week, but this pickup has really paid off this week as Bargs has averaged 20 pts this past week, and also grabbing more than 6 rebounds in that stretch.  Finally looking like he's comfortable in NY's system so hopefully the Knicks don't go ahead and pick up more front-court help that could push him out of the lineup.

J.J. Hickson(TEAM: Pres(i)ton): After JaVale went down, Hickson was picked up and his 10-9 (pts - reb) average has been a nice replacement for McGee.  

Woops-y:
Looks like there were some roster mistakes as David Lee was benched and guys like Tyreke Evans, Cory Brewer and Jamal Crawford were not played and they all had above-average games this week.  Most definitely the reason why of JJ's team is probably going to lose big to Jae's Dazzling Team. (TEAM: Sasquatch)

Made the theoretical right decision in starting George Hill over Jodie Meeks and maybe more debatable right decision in playing Shawn Marion over Jared Sullinger.  The results were the complete opposite as Sullinger put up 26 and 8 while Jodie Meeks had his best game of the season knocking down 5 threes and racking up 25 points. (TEAM: Adam Silver)

Some serious bad luck with guys missing games such as Dion Waiters with some unknown sickness, Josh McRoberts's personal reasons, and both Trevor Ariza and Brandon Knight's bad right hamstrings.  If I wasn't so illogically attached to these guys, you would think I'd drop them since they aren't producing much anyways  (TEAM: Just Jrue It)

Homan League: Week in Review 11/3 - 11/9

A review of action in the fantasy basketball league dubbed "Homan League".   May include free agent pick-ups, trades, DNP's because someone forgot to set their lineup for the early morning Pacific time game.  Also other shenanigans worth mentioning in the fantasy league.  All opinions are exactly that, opinions. So don't take them too personally, and they are mostly mine.

Highlights:
Clippers, Lakers, Pacers, Pelicans, Rockets, Suns, Sixers, Timberwolves all played 4 games this week, so it is no surprise that the top options for those teams had the most impact in terms of fantasy, namely K.Love, Paul George, Chris Paul, James Harden. (TEAM(s): Clipper Nation, Swagger, Just Jrue It, League Champion)

Playing with a pass-first point guard and an all-nba power forward is definitely helping Kevin Martin's fantasy value.  This season, Martin is proving himself to be one of the most lucrative fantasy players in contributing points, threes, FT% at a low turnover cost.

After a sloppy start, Paul Millsap is looking every bit the impact player the Hawks were expecting when they gave him that fat contract this summer.  In fact, Millsap is looking like he added some wrinkles to his game, knocking down 4 out of 9 pointers this week, while also averaging over 3 steals per game. (TEAM: Pres(i)ton)

Currently chasing down the most consecutive games with a 3-pointer made record, Kyle Korver is contributing outstanding percentages while also adding in a handful of assists/rebounds/steals along with his usual stream of threes. (TEAM: Clipper Nation)

One man's pain is seriously another's gain when talking in terms of Fantasy sports.  Goran Dragic's injury at the start of this week has meant that Eric Bledsoe is now expected by the Suns to double up on his previous playmaking responsibilities and he has responded well.  Check the more selective shot selection which has led to improved FG percentage as well as increased numbers of assists. (TEAM(s): Adam Silver and League Champion)


Nice Pick-Up :
Gerald Green (TEAM: David Stern): Green had made 11 threes in 2 games prior to getting picksd up from Free Agency.  Not expected to keep up this blistering pace of threes made, but definitely an outstanding addition to anyone's roster.

Zaza Pachulia (TEAM: Mark Cuban):  No one has been paying any attention to Zaza in our league although he has been averaging double figure in points and close to 9 boards. Pachulia was picked up BEFORE his best game of the season, Wednesday's game against the Cavs.  Zaza had 14 points, 9 boards and dished out 7 assists when Larry Sanders decided to hurt his thumb at the club.  Good Eye, Mc.


LOL:
Markeef Morris for Channing Frye/Channing Frye for Markeef Morris (TEAM: Clipper Nation):
Dropped Markeef for Channing Frye after seeing Frye put up 19 and 5 last week.  Unfortunately Frye put together skimpy numbers in the next two games.  The guy he dropped ('Keef Morris) ended up putting up 17 and  5 while sitting on waivers and then followed it up with 23 and 12 game.  At which point, Frye was dropped again for who else but Markeef Morris.

---edit----
After writing the previous lines of commentary earlier in the week, Morris ended up having his best game of the season with 28 and 10 on 10-13 shooting on Friday night.
---edit---

If anything is learned from the "Morris-Frye" flip-flop, it is that there will be many woeful groans when trying to pin down on good fantasy options from the Phoenix Suns.  For example, last week's hot free agent pick up of Miles Plumlee has definitely simmered down as Plumlee is still doing well with 12 and 5 averages, but definitely not as productive as he was the first week of the season.

Aw come'on:
Derrick Williams was already putting up some hot-cold type numbers before he decided to sit out Wednesday's game with back spasms.  Not a big deal except, Jarrett Jack was benched and definitely could have used the spot that Williams had taken up with his big fat DNP. (TEAM: Swagger)

Before getting tossed out of Wednesday's game against the Thunder, Vince Carter's biggest contribution for the week was 2 three pointers made.  A rather underwhelming and dissapointing week for Carter.  In terms of fantasy, he could still be a fringe contributor for FT's, 3's, and points.  He just definitely wasn't this week. (TEAM: S7venbyVII)

The Battle for the Belt: Will the Spurs Defend The Belt Against the Struggling Knicks?

NEXT BATTLE FOR THE BELT

 NYK @  SAS

Sunday, 2013-11-10

The Current Championship Belt Holder:

San Antonio Spurs
5 - 1 Season Record
1 - 0 as Challenger

0 - 0 as Defender of the Belt
Took the Belt from GSW on 11/8/2013

The Challenger:

New York Knicks
2 - 3 Season Record

0-0 with Belt on the line

h/t to reddit for the header image
*kudos to Timothy Lee for the "Keep or Weep" Slogan

The Battle for the Belt: Can The Sixers Win Four In A Row?

NEXT BATTLE FOR THE BELT

 PHI @  GSW

Monday, 2013-11-04

The Current Championship Belt Holder:

Philadelphia 76ers 

3 - 0  Season Record

3-0 with Belt on the line

Defended belt twice (Wizards, Bulls)

The Challenger:

Golden State Warriors 

2 - 1 Season Record

0-0 with Belt on the line

h/t to reddit for the header image
*kudos to Timothy Lee for the "Keep or Weep" Slogan

Homan League: Week in Review 10/27 - 11/2

A review of action in the fantasy basketball league dubbed "Homan League".   May include free agent pick-ups, trades, DNP's because someone forgot to set their lineup for the early morning Pacific time game.  Also other shenanigans worth mentioning in the fantasy league.  All opinions are solely mine.

Highlights:
Steal of the draft so far has got to be 11th round selection of rookie sensation Michael Carter-Williams who is doing his best impression of a young JKidd.  Besides a 20 pts / 9 asts average, MC-W is also leading the league with 13 steals. (TEAM: David Stern)

Fellow Sixers teammate, Spencer Hawes, or as he is known in some really small circles as 'white dwight', is not getting much publicity for an amazing first 3 games of the season.  His averages of 2 threes, 65% from the field and around 11 boards per game is Kevin-Love-esque.  (TEAM: S7venbyVII)

Proposing the nickname ''what, really?" for Anthony Davis cause that's what people say when they read the box score for the Pelicans.  At any given game, he's capable of recording league highs in rebounds, steals, blocks and/or a combination of the three.  Plus "what really" is a good free throw percentage shooter at the PF/C position. (TEAM: Pres(i)ton)

Often overlooked, especially with the return of Drose, Carlos Boozer is also putting up fantasy MVP-type numbers.  Besides a 22 pts / 8 rebs average, Booz is shooting a blazing 66% from the field and has yet to miss a free throw; that's 100% for you percentage lovers. (TEAM: Swagger)

Nice Pick-Up - Free Agency:
Miles Plumlee (TEAM: Adam Silver): Surprising opposing coaches for his impact and amount of minutes being played and surprising fantasy owners his contributions (Averages: 15 pts / 14 rebs / 3 blks).

Trevor Ariza (TEAM: Just Jrue It):  Contributing treys, rebounds at a high clip right now (Averages: 20 pts / 12 reb / 5 ast)

Uh-oh:
Nice foresight in picking up Vitor Faverani but hasn't played him yet (TEAM: Jae's Dazzling Team)

Four guys (Kobe, Tobias Harris, Danilo Gallinari, and Chase Budinger*) on his roster registering DNP's because of injury (TEAM: kobeking)

*Dropped

Homan League Preview

So the goal is to do a review of the Homan League at the start of each week.  Since opening day of the season is actually tomorrow, and we just drafted about 2 days ago, I'm not gonna be able to do that. Instead, heres a quick preview based on those draft results.  Team names are italicized.

Big Bullies (Jae's Dazzling team) trio of meanies with Pekovic, J'kim Noah and president of intimidating-centers club, Kevin Garnett.

What does that word really mean (Swagger): drafted a most appropriate mascot in "(Swagger minus 'ger' plus 'gy') P".

Two Picks, Two Really Different Sized Players (Sasquatch): took a chance on giant Greg Oden having some fantasy impact and made a sneakily good pick with the diminutive but super-talented Isaiah Thomas.

Rookies (Clipper Nation): top overall pick Anthony Bennett as well as the early ROY favorite in Victor Oladipo.

All-International Team (Kobeking): Pau, Enes, Calderon, Gallo, Batum.  Plus, Kyrie was born in Australia and Farmar's mom is from Israel.

Sophomore Year of Hoopology

Hey Hey Homan League members and all others.  Hope you're as excited as I am for another season of basketball.  I know you're probably wondering what this is so please allow me to do my very best to explain.

1) My name is Benson and for as long as I can remember, I've had but only 2 hobbies: making jokes and loving basketball.

2) Last year, in an effort to mash up these two interests of mine and also to  make the fantasy basketball league I was involved as fun as possible, I started this blog.  I decided to chronicle the nba and fantasy basketball season as much as I could while still holding down a full-time job and not upsetting my extremely beautiful and even more gracious girlfriend fiancee (yeah, i know. go me).

3) I really didn't know what I was doing most of the time, but I found that I really did enjoy highlighting things that were happening both in the NBA and within our fantasy league as you can see by the archives.  I wrote a extremely  long-winded explanation  about why I was doing this and posted a lot of sillyness; sometimes with photoshop and sometimes with poetry and sometimes with both.

4) If you choose to visit the blog, what can you expect? 

I will post photos/gifs/videos/tweets/vines/etc about what's happening in the NBA as filtered by my feedly account and goofy brain.  Recommendations are welcome and hoped for.

I will recap things happening in the 'Homan League' such as free agent pick-ups/trades/DNP's because someone went to the movies on Friday night and forgot to set their lineup for the early morning ABC game on Saturday.

5) If this isn't your cup of tea, then s'all good man, no kevin-love lost here. Enjoy the season as you normally would.  If it is, I really hope you'll continue visiting the blog and laugh along with me as we enjoy all the goodness that is the NBA.

Trade Controversy in the League

I guess all that hoopla from Lance Armstrong earlier this week and Manti Te'o yesterday spawned a controversy in our league as well.

 The trade between Challah and The Replacements listed above was vetoed by commishner Timothy "Taiwan cus that's where i'm at" Lee earlier this week.  The reasoning was that there was talks of collusion between the two teams involved.  Supposedly, Challah and The Replacements made a deal to combine efforts of both of their underperforming teams in hopes of giving themselves a chance at contending for a playoff spot.

The two teams traded back their players last night, which means all other prospective cheaters in the league should be warned.  Don't you dare try any funny business cause although our commish is 14 hours off from our current time, he is still spot on in his review of fair trades.  Also, our league does not respect  the"no take-back" rule from kindergarten.

Power Rankings: Weeks 4-9 Part III

And finally, the top three teams in the league. They have been steady if not dominant at times and are expected to win out every week.  Why the Spurs and Thunder as opposed to the Eastern Conference leaders, Heat and Knicks? Not the Heat, cause there are no defending champions here.  Nor the Knicks, cause none of the owners of these teams are significantly older than the owners of the other teams in the league.  Also, if you remember the epic game where the Tony P game winner captured above, these 3 teams should be neck and neck in their match ups against one another.  Just like whenever the Thunder and Spurs meet up.

3rd
Rob
7-2 to gmachine
6-2 to The Replacements
7-2 to k1dk0be   
2-7 to Sleeper Squad
5-4 to skiptomylou
4-5 to kobeking

Laying the smack down against teams the last 3 weeks as he has not allowed any opponent to win more than 2 categories against him.  The concern with this team is that he does not dominate many categories besides being the top team in the league in the BLKs category (8-1).  For example, he only posts a near.500 record for stats like 3PTM, PTS, STL, which means you could easily win 3 categories against  him in a given week.  Some consolidation of talent around Lebron should be done in gearing this team up for the playoffs.

The Young and the Ageless: The future of the NBA lies with Lebron and Uncle Drew and these two also headline this fantasy team and fantasy basketball in general as the overall 1 and 10 ranked players.  If it weren’t unfair enough to have those two, the android rebuilt to pose as San Antonio future hall-of-famer, Tim Duncan, has been having one of his most efficient seasons ever.  Since its clear a robot has taken over for TD, age won’t be a factor and we can count on Duncan to keep performing at this high clip.

Depreciating Bigs: With Dirk’s return, Elton Brand’s minutes and numbers are continuing to drop.  No word on how Kris Humphries is going to play now that his ex-wife is preggos with Kanye’s baby, but something must have bitten the Brooklyn Big as he has been playing mediocre over the past 2 weeks.  Rob is gonna need to patch up some of these holes with some savvy pickups if he doesn’t want to drop more match-ups against lower ranked teams.

2nd
Clipper Nation
4-5 to Laker Gang
5-4 to Challah
6-3 to gmachine
5-3 to The Replacements
3-5 to k1d k0be
7-2 to Sleeper Squad

Clipper Nation has shown itself to be a team deep in FG%, FT%, 3PTM, PTS and STL.  However, this team is definitely not unstoppable as you can tell from the losses in week 9 and 5.  Dropping this team’s rank in second not due to any deficiencies but rather it being out performed by the #1 ranked team:

Productive 1’s and Versatile 4’s: Clipper Nation seems to have found a successful formula in stacking his team with efficient point guards like Rondo and Conley and the most versatile of fantasy forwards headlined by Ry Anderson, Demarcus Cousins, Andrei Kirilenko and MVP-worthy, David Lee.  Although it seems that his stretch 4’s and unconventional bigs don’t get him as much REB and BLK (the two categories his team is weak in), he makes up for it in winning FG% and FT% handedly with these type of selective but productive scoring front court players.  Also, watch out for Tyreke Evans to make a comeback when Demarcus Cousins gets traded and Ricky Rubio’s numbers to pick up when he gets to 100% health.

Rely on rookies?  This team has the depth to not have to depend on Dion Waiters and Anthony Davis to contribute the bulk of the fantasy stats.  The two of them do provide necessary niche stats like 3PTM, REB and BLK.  As the season progresses and rookies hit that typical “wall” in production, Clipper Nation would be better served trading these young’ns for some more seasoned performers to help his team gain that extra boost.
   

1st
Laker Gang
5-4 to Clipper Nation
7-2 to gmachine
6-3 to The Replacements
7-1 to k1d k0be
6-3 to Sleeper Squad
5-4 to skiptomylou

The new and current king of the hill goes to Laker Gang for winning 6 out of 6 matchups in the past month and a half.  His rise has been result of James Harden and Tony Parker playing at top fantasy level as well as some shrewd trades with four different teams since the middle of November.  Only critique of this team at the moment is the fact that he’s now got two injured high production guards in Thornton and Rose gathering up DNP’s.  However, Laker Gang has risen in league standings with DRose on the bench (picked him up on Oct. 28th), so if he can keep winning while waiting for last year’s MVP and Thornton to return, all the power to him.

Fab Four: Of the players he drafted, only Deron Williams, Blake Griffin, Gerald Wallace and Nene HIlario remain.  All four of these guys are having ‘down’ years in terms of fantasy production so makes ya think what if Laker Gang went ahead and flipped these four guys like he has with the rest of his roster, perhaps he would run away with the league title.  You have all been warned.  Don’t fall for his seductive proposals.

Doesn’t Live up  to his name: Must love the laker organization more than the current crop of players as Laker Gang hasn’t traded for or picked up off free agency any current Lakers  Closest was Ramon Sessions, a half-laker, cause he only spent part of last season with the purp and gold and also cause he sucked most of the time he was there.