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.