Friends in fast breaks,

We're in the home stretch of the regular season. The contenders will work harder. The tankers will tank harder. And we'll pick like we've never picked before!

WEEK 17 PICKS

• Walking Bucket Wilt OAD
  • Summary | Overall Standings | Golden Spreadsheet
• The Worm Survivor
  • Summary | Overall Standings | Golden Spreadsheet
• Swaggy P-redictions (Post-ASB)
  • Summary 

We put in the work this week! On top of our usual top-notch nostradamus-ing, we all had some bonus picking to do for Swaggy P-redictions. It's a side of you that you hadn't flexed recently, and it's a blast to see how narratives have changed since we began.

We have fresh faces atop the OAD picks. Double picks are here for Survivor. Plus we need to compare and contrast our P-redicitions after 60 games.

PICK STATS

Walking Bucket Wilt OAD

• In a dazzling turn of events, A. Edwards is our top pick (47)
  • Definitely a first for the SZN - His previous high was 19 picks!
  • Is... this what you all meant by "saving up for the final interval"?
  • Definitely not besmirching Ant, just... not what I expected
• D. Booker also makes a big return (44 picks)
  • He's been hurt a good while, and was juuuust starting his comeback before the break
  • I expect he'll have some high volume due to his time out with injury AND K. Durant's looming return
  • He wasn't picked meaningfully since Week 7!
• Outside of those two, our next biggest picks are in the 20's and lower
• What does the Golden Spreadsheet show?
  • Six players have been used by 70%+ of pickers
  • Thirteen players have been used by 50%+ of pickers
• Interesting single picks: D. Ayton, D. Sabonis, J. Harden, T. Rozier, P. Banchero

The Worm Survivor

• Double picks attack!
• We're heavy on UTA (12 picks) and GSW (10)
• Followed by MIN (7) and TOR (7)
• Then we get some nice spread amongst four smaller picks
• GSW/UTA and TOR/UTA  are the most common combos
• Good luck!

Swaggy P-redictions (Post ASB)

• L. Doncic took over as our top All-NBA vote getter this round
  • Last time it was G. Antetokounmpo
  • They simply swapped places
• Top 5s for All-NBA, in order of votes...
  • This time: L. Doncic, G. Antetokounmpo, N. Jokic, J. Tatum, J. Morant
  • Last time: G. Antetokounmpo, L. Doncic, N. Jokic, J. Morant, J. Tatum
  • We uh... haven't been swayed
• Top 5s for MVP, in order of votes:
  • This time: N. Jokic, ~big gap~, J. Tatum, J. Embiid, L. Doncic, G. Antetokounmpo
  • Last time: G. Antetokounmpo, L. Doncic, ~big gap~, J. Morant, J. Tatum, J. Embiid
  • Jokic has us convinced, which is reasonable
  • Doncic's fall-off is a little more surprising... Man has put up obscene numbers, but I think Jokic just feels like a gimme
• Top 3s for DPOY, in order of votes:
  • This time: J. Jackson Jr, ~enormous gap~, G. Antetokounmpo, J. Embiid
  • Last time: R. Gobert, G. Antetokounmpo, B. Adebayo
  • JJJ jumped from 5 votes to 184, incredible
  • Gobert fell from 138 to 12... ouch
• ROY... It's still Paolo
  • If he loses... we'll be astounded

PICK COMMENTS

Apologies, but they need to go on hiatus this week. Got a lot of behind the scenes work going. I don't want to keep this from publishing too long, so I'll include some of the delicious bits next week!

Yours in Roundball Rock,
The GM