Friends in fast breaks,

It's All Star Weekend.

We're on a one week break from picking, hoping for some showtime fun during the celebrations. I'm neck deep in NFL-related prize handling, so let's get to the break!

WEEK 17 PICKS

• They will open on Monday (2/20)
• Pick deadline: 4pm PT Friday (2/24)

Let's talk about what Week 17 means for our competitions:

Wilt OAD - Interval 3 begins. This is the final stretch, covering the final 7 weeks of the SZN. And obviously this is your last chance to make a push in the Overall standings. No reason to hold back now, unleash all the great players you've been holding back. 

Worm Survivor - We're now picking 2 teams per week. We've been doing pretty good the last couple weeks, but that ends now. Double picks should prune us down much faster. If we end in a tie (all remaining players lose in the same week), we'll move to a pick-off from the full slate of games from the next week. We WILL have a champion. Reminder that there are prizes for the top 3 places coming directly out of my own wallet.

Swaggy P-redictions - We do our second round of predictions for the big awards. Reminder that that's All-NBA, MVP, and DPOY, with a ROY tiebreaker tossed in.

Glove Playoff Pickem - This is just a reminder that the fun continues into the post-season. We'll discuss this more as we get closer. Be ready to go!

ONE AND DONE RECAP

Weekly Standings | Player Performance | Overall Standings

Backup Picks

• 17 of our pickable players didn't play this week, and 9 of them got at least one pick
• In total, we had 35 DNP picks
  • J. Brown was the big one at 12 picks, thanks to Tatum literally breaking his face on Wednesday
• We unfortunately ended had 3 double DNPs that receive zero points this week, apologies to the unlucky pickers
• Reminders
  • The Injury report is linked near the top of the picking page, it can't fix last minute DNPs, but it's a very quick and basic line of defense!
  • We do our best to provide an injury warning for players on the pick page. We are NOT a source of truth, simply trying to help people not waste a pick on a player who might be in the middle of an announced injury

Results

• 13 of our picked players scored 30+ this week, delivering 167 of us top notch results
• Our top scorer was S. Gilgeous (again), who scored 44 points
  • Only three peope came along this time, despite him topping the scoreboard last week26 people were aboard for the ride
  • He was playing POR, and you know what that means...
  • D. Lillard ALSO had a big game, scoring 38 points as well
  • It was a point partyyyyyyy
• Other big performers: J. Tatum (41 pts, 13 picks), D. Lillard (38, 36), J. Embiid (35, 15), G. Antetokounmpo (35, 7), and P. Siakam (35, 12)
• Our big miss of the week: T. Herro (31 pts) was unpicked
  • If you're playing HOU, somebody is gonna have a good night
• We averaged 26.4 points per pick
  • The "average" picked player scored 22.6 points
• I think our biggest flop of the week was A. Davis (13 pts, 26 picks)
  • I'm not original here... what's up with the guy?
  • He's been mediocre at best for like 2 weeks, has looked unenthusiastic (like the Lebron points record drama), and apparently deleted his IG recently
• Some other poor weekly performances: D. Garland (11pts, 3 picks), S. Barnes (12, 1), and C. McCollum (12, 1)

Standings Check
We have prizes for Overall points, as well as most points scored over three different Intervals (Weeks 1-8, Weeks 9-16, and Weeks 17-23). There's something to play for all SZN!

Interval 2 (Weeks 9-16) Standings

• We crown another champion, @Rickfrrr!
• They had jumped into a T-2 placement in Week 15, then snagged the crown with a J. Tatum pick last week
• Congrats to all those who placed!
• Remember, prizes are paid out after the SZN completes (post Playoffs).
• Interval 3 starts next week, after the All Star Break. Bring a friend!

Overall Standings

• @PurpleNurple19 kept the lead this week
• That said, the gap between them and the rest of the pack has closed slightly
• Just like in Interval 2 above, this is anybody's game with 7 more weeks to go
• I look forward to AMAZING results from those of you commenting "Interval 3 belongs to me" for a few weeks now, ha
• We're at 32 people averageing 30 points per pick, down from 36 last week

Team SZN Performance

• I (@TheGM) got 29 points out of J. Poole
• @TheCommish took D. Fox and got 33 points
• @StatCzar tallied a big 41 thanks to J. Tatum
• @Merf also rode with D. Fox for 33
• Overall, @StatCzar has our best placement at 71st
• Reminder: We play along for fun and pride, we can't win anything

THE WORM RECAP

Weekly Standings | Game Outcomes | Golden Spreadsheet

Results

• We entered the week with 24 players and exited with 21, an 87.5% survival rate
• We only lost out on some of our small indivdual picks (GSW, IND, and SAC)
• Two of our bigger picks, ATL and DEN, both won comfortably
• Only our top pick, MIA (vs HOU) with 7 pickers was frightening
  • HOU continues to be not good, but still good enough to make you sweat for some of the game
  • MIA never lead by more than 10, and even gave up the lead for most of the 4th quarter
  • But HOU gonna HOU, losing the game on a sideline inbound pass, creating an alley-oop dunk with 0.3 seconds left... sigh
• REMEMBER - Double picks begin in Week 17! We're about to separate the wheat from the chaff, baby!

Team SZN Performance

• We're all out 🤷
• Reminder: we play along for fun and pride, we can't win anything

Yours in hoops,
The GM