League Update: Power Rankings Wks 1 - 3 Part III

Almost indistinguishable if analyzing the names (Anthony and Tony), but entirely different in country of origin, ballingness of their female sibling, and number of NBA championships.  The clawing at the top between these teams will determine who is going to be crowned a champion like Tony or become known as the Reggie who never bested Cheryl.

3.
Clipper Nation: (NBA Comparison: Oklahoma City Thunder) - A team with no real weaknesses but not dominating in any statistical categories as the two teams above him are currently doing.

Quietly had one of the best draft results of anyone in the league picking up top 30 contributors in Ryan Anderson, Lou Williams and Andrei Kirelenko in rounds 8, 9 and 10.  This team resembles the Thunder in that it is unassumingly at the top in nearly all 9 head-to-head categories due to great draft choices and shrewd waivers pickups by its owner.  While many other teams have made drastic moves in swapping superstars, Clipper Nation has been patiently stocking his team with high contribution players without giving up much in return.


2.

k1dkobe: (NBA Comparison: Memphis Grizzlies) - This squad is winning in free throw percentage and total points while solidly in second place in rebounds and steals.  Having Kobe and Lamarcus Aldridge playing phenomonally and leading this team, you can make the comparison that he's got his Rudy Gay and Z-Bo in those two contributors.

Jamal Crawford, Kyle Lowry (before he got injured) and Omer Asik have been the overachievers on this team and are the metaphorical Conley, Ellington, and Marc Gasol.  If his team is like the real-life Memphis Grizzlies and can keep up the high production, they have the depth to contend in 6 out of 9 statistical categories.

Watch out for the production of Nuggets' Javale Mcgee and Andre Igoudala to provide even more depth to k1dkobe's team.

1.

Rob: (NBA Comparison: Los Angeles Clippers) - Similar to CP3 and Airic Bledsoe, Rob's got the dual guard tandem of young up-comers, Kyrie Irving and Ty Lawson as well as the well-known dominant fantasy assets of Joakim Noah and Lebron James who would be the Deandre and Blake for their fantasy contributions.  J.R. Smith, Kevin Martin, and Tim Duncan are performing much better than anyone could have predicted and are the symbolic Jamal Crawford, Caron Butler, and Lamar Odom (for performing above expectations).  Rob is dominating the categories of fields goals%, rebounds, steals, blocks.  Based on his significant lead in blocks and rebounds, Rob is going to be hard to take down.

League Update: Power Rankings Wks 1 - 3 Part II

In the middle of the pack of the league we have the zach and anthony randolph type teams.  On one hand, we have  squads with a lot of talent and should compete every week.  However, if they don't end up making any moves or their players don't increase their production significantly, they will end up finishing out of the top 3  and be forgotten as the season progresses. (pretty much the definition of skinny Anthony's career).

On the other hand, we have  teams that are a bit bloated and could use a couple FA pickups or trades to tighten up the ship aka the Zbo's.  These teams would do well to punt a few categories at the cost of stocking up in other ones to take down the top tier teams. 

6. 

Sleeper Squad: (NBA Comparison: Houston Rockets) - a plethora of trades has been made to this team throughout the season so it is hard to see effects of all those moves.  There is probably not a owner who calculates and compares statistics more than Sleeper Squad so he can most unoffensively be called the Darryl Morey of this league.

The current squad is not in the top half of the league in many categories so he may need to consider some other moves to invest his strengths in a couple more categories as opposed to all 9.

5.

The Replacements: (NBA comparison: Atlanta Hawks) - High performing team who has yet to get full production from its stars, Wade and Bynum.  Although this squad is at .500, the combination of swing players and post players means that the replacements should compete week to week in having the lowest number of TO's. 

At this time, this team seems to be mired in the middle of the league in the rankings for points, rebounds, assists, and steals.  This means he will be on the see-saw of many 5-4 matchups.  This is my super nerdy analysis and also because it actually happened in weeks 1 & 2 (almost happened week 3, but lost 6-3 to k1d k0be).

4.

gmachine: (NBA comparison: Dallas Mavericks) - this team has the fire power to take down the three teams ranked ahead of him.  Like Mark Cuban's team, it features the inactive Dirk, and the blossoming OJ Mayo.  Jameer Nelson was picked up recently to provide stability at the point guard position for the same reason Darren Collison was signed over the offseason for Dallas.

gmachine has gotten high production from players who have stepped up their play this season like Anderson Varejao and the alley ooper extradonaire, Andre Miller.  Al Jefferson is his usual consistent double-double (burger-loving and statistical) self and  Greg Monroe may take that jump into becoming the top 20 fantasy contributor this season.

Highlight: Westbrook Dunks; Great and Not-So-Great Commentary Ensues

play by play: "cocking the hammer and pulling the nastiest of triggers", yep pretty much give this man the sports emmy for those 9 words.

color commentary: "..russ decides to go up with VEROCITY(??)"

League Pick'em: Week 4

Huge week for the Grizz as they took down both powers in the East and West (Knicks and Spurs).  All of which makes the Clippers more impressive for beating them on opening day and also because they beat Miami thoroughly at home on Wednesday. 

Mike D'antoni is officially at the helm so Lakers are on the week's Pick'em after a week off.  Who's with me that perhaps Mike should take his time since Bernie Bickerstaff is 4-1 as head coach.

Since everyone has been posting their picks kind of weird, I'm going to make the format easier.

Just copy and paste P10 for this week listed below, and delete the team you think will lose, leaving only the team that will win.