Friends in fast breaks,
One week down. Are we learning? Are we smarter?
People argue that the NBA has a problem because the number of regular season games mean each one doesn't matter as much, it's all about the Playoffs.
The SZN's solution: NBA Pools. Every week is more exciting when you're competing, so we split our pool start dates along timelines:
- Week 1 - Make the early regular season matter
- Week 12 - Lock-in the excitement of the race to the Playoffs
- Playoffs - Max excitement to win it all
The NBA's solution: The In-Season Tournament (IST). For a month, Tuesday and Friday are "Tournament Nights". The best teams from those play knockout rounds. Basically two months of games now count towards a mid-season trophy with bonus money the further you make it. I don't want to besmirch the league, but I like our approach better. But maybe this pays off, and we get some great basketball in the next eight weeks.
Let's get into it!
WEEK 2 PICKS
- Points One-And-Done
- Survivor #1
- "All 30" One-And-Done
The GM AWARDS
Rewarding whatever random things I feel like. Feel free to suggest topics!
Biggest Team Surprise (Positive) - The Mavs
Look at Dallas go! 4-0 to start is nothing to sneeze at, even if the opponents haven't been the most impressive (SAS, BKN, MEM, CHI). After acquiring K. Irving last year, this team still just didn't look like they had it, whether that be the "gel-ing" of new players or the defense to stop anyone. But Luka's still basically triple-doubling every night and the new additions of G. Williams and rookie D. Lively are looking gooooood.
Biggest Team Surprise (Negative) - The Grizz
We knew Ja being suspended would hurt. We knew S. Adams getting hurt would hurt. But this is the team that continued posting ridiculous success (20-5) when Morant would go out during the 21-22 season. This drove plenty of "do they even need him?" questions. But their roster lost key players in the offseason (T. Jones and D. Brooks) and has to try and fold in the new addition of Marcus Smart. Let's hope they get their first W soon.
Honorable mention to the Bucks - Started with one good game, but my goodness have they looked bad since.
Biggest Player Surprise (Positive) - Tyrese Maxey
A lot of players that could go here, but think I need to take the one that became super relevant for us pool-wise. Despite all the Harden swirl, but Maxey's shown UP and has Philly looking good so far. It's tough to shoulder the load for an entire season, but I'm rooting for him! Reminder: Maxey is now available in the Points One-And-Done roster due to our stipulation to have at least two players per team (previously Harden, who now shows up for LAC).
Biggest Player Surprise (Negative) - Julius Randle
Have you heard the tale of even-odd Randle? He's got a peculiar pattern reaching back to 2018. In seasons starting with an odd-number year, he suffers and flails. In even-number years, he thrives. It's 2023, an odd-year, and he's following the trend so far.
| SZN | FG% | 3P% | eFG% | PTS |
| 2018-19 | 52.4% | 34.4% | 55.5% | 21.4 |
| 2019-20 | 46.0% | 27.7% | 49.2% | 19.5 |
| 2020-21 | 45.6% | 41.1% | 51.6% | 24.1 |
| 2021-22 | 41.1% | 30.8% | 45.9% | 20.1 |
| 2022-23 | 45.9% | 34.3% | 53.6% | 25.1 |
| 2023-24 | 27.6% | 25.8% | 32.9% | 13.2 |
Worst IST Court - Most of them!
And we thought the City Edition jerseys were bad... There were at least like 5 decent options there. These courts are VIOLENT to the eyes (check them out). I'm not against making the courts more fun, I usually enjoy the interesting twists teams like the Hornets have done in the past. But these things are GAUDY. And why is the trophy on there three times???
PICK STATS
Walking Bucket Wilt OAD
- Our top pick is D. Mitchell with 63 picks
- A back-to-back top pick
- Clearly W1 showed us what we wanted
- With D. Garland out, and the rest of the offense anemic, it's the Donovan show!
- Our other real big pick is J. Embiid at 56
- T. Maxey has been going off in his new role, but Embiid is still putting up those MVP numbers
- Our other big picks: L. Doncic (39 picks), D. Fox (37 picks), N. Jokic (37 picks)
- Luka is Luka, not much logic needed to justify that
- Fox is playing HOU, which has classicly been an easy career night (but that defense is looking better)
- Jokic is Jokic - It's only a questinon of does he need to go off or not, we know he can if he feels like it and stops thinking about horses for 48 minutes
- Interesting low volume picks: K. Towns (3 picks), J. Poole (2), D. Ayton (2), J. Brown (1)
- Towns has just been a big disappointment so far, not even a Robin to A. Edwards' Batman
- The Pool party has taken a dip, he's as streaky as ever
- Ayton, with possibly his biggest "placement" on a team, is barely averaging 10 points
- I'm sort of amazed BOS players aren't getting more picks
- Starting next week we'll dig in on the Golden Spreadsheet to see how the roster is getting used up this season
Survivor #1
- Well well well, we seemed to have picked our first dogpile team
- Let's be honest, no one thought WAS was going to be good this year
- Though I did think they MIGHT do better than the terrible expectations, "they don't believe in us" spirit, yatta yatta... and I might need to withdraw that vote of faith already
- MIA comes in with an enormous 132 picks, about 40% of pickers
- Yes we're double elimination this year
- But if enough people who missed in W1 miss on the dogpile, we can still have a disastrous week!
- SAC grabs 47 picks against HOU
- Very reasonable, HOU has not looked good and has clearly not made strong progress out of tank mode yet
- Past that, BOS (31 picks) and MIL (25) were the only others with 20+ picks
- Low volume picks: HOU (1 pick), POR(1), and UTA (1)
- People are rooting for upsets!!!
- Again, we'll dig into the Golden Spreadsheet starting next week
"All 30" One-And-Done
- MIA still dominates here (73 picks, 33%), but a smaller margin than in Survivor
- Which teams managed to snag more picks than in Survivor?
- MIN (+8 picks) and POR (+7) are the biggest jumps
- MIN is against UTA, who has looked surprisingly worse than they did most of last season, pre-tanking efforts
- POR is facing MEM, who are the only remaining winless team
- Again again, we'll dig into the Golden Spreadsheet starting next week!
HUSTLE BONUS W2 Wins Battle
- Another thank you to those of you that referred!
- We'll check in on this Pool every once in a while during the season, but it's a waiting game of a format
- The biggest voting gaps:
- GSW over MIN (72% margin)
- NOP over MEM (64%)
- DAL over ATL (64%)
- The closest gaps - All tied actually!
- BOS/DEN (0% margin)
- CLE/PHI (0%)
- IND/ORL (0%)
WEEKLY AWARDS
Westbrook Bank Shot Moxie Award
Boldest pick WITH a comment. You can't win a SZN competition without a little Moxie!
@YikesVikes (Hawks, Survivor #1): "The Hawks currently own the second-longest drought (behind the Sacramento Kings) of not winning an NBA championship at 63 seasons. Who else would I pick with my awesome NBA knowledge. "
GM says: Can't trust them in the post-season therefore... must be a regular season lock!
"Who's the GOAT?" Award
Our best weekly comment (or three)
@kbanaian (Heat, Survivor #1): "If they cannot beat the Poozmas (H/T to Tom ZIller's Substack for that one!) Miami is toast. The start is bad, they get a gift game here. But watching Poole trying to taunt Jimmy is going to make this game borderline watchable."
GM says: POOZMA IS THE BEST DUO NICKNAME NOW, BYE FREAK TIME!
@Jdizzy007 (L. Doncic, D. Mitchell): "Please add Maxey, Poole and Anfernee Simons to the pool. "
GM says: Jdizzy spoke the Harden trade into existence and granted us Maxey in the POAD. Hail Jdizzy!
"I Could Sell You Kings Tickets" Award
Most convincing comment. The Kings were terrible before the BEAM.
@Logan2273 (SAC, All 30): "Sacramento has a tough weekend schedule the rest of the year, so against my better judgement, I am taking them in an away game"
GM says: Can they even win if there's not a BEAM in the immediate vicinity?
KD Would Retweet This Award
The spiciest/wildest take.
@morea1ms (POR, All 30): "May as well knock Charlotte and Portland out of the way quick. A Ja-less Memphis team MIGHT just lose in Portland"
GM says: You gotta pick them at some point!
MORE PICK COMMENTS
@TheCommish (MIN, All 30): "This way I don’t have to face the misery for the rest of the year. "
GM says: Oh come on Commish - Their defense looks good!
@Schreindogg (MIA, All 30): "Just copying my Survivor strategy... praying I don't get cursed twice by the same Wizard"
GM says: Harry Potter and the Goblet of HEAT. P.S. Have you met @PackerGuy10?
@PackerGuy10 (MIA, All 30): "Really wanted to take the Heat in both survivor pools but you can’t put all your eggs in one basket. Take me home and make me regret it, Erik!"
GM says: SPO KNOWS. P.S. Have you met @Schreindogg?
@Sportsfan90 (MIA, All 30): "My 🔒 Miami "
GM says: But what if Washington is the 🔑 ?
@MP (W2 Wins Battle): "its funny cause i actually think the last pick is the hardest between portland and the wizards. It's basically which team tanks first."
GM says: I think they're both already in tank mode from the jump. So which vet combos accidentally wins more? Poole/Kuzma (Poozma) or Grant/Ayton (Grayton)?
@EpicG0d (W2 Wins Battle): "I made these picks while on some James Harden energy. I guess I will see what that means exactly haha"
GM says: You'll get what you want, at some point, and it might be for someone else?
@StatCzar (Kings, Survivor #1): "Sorry GM!"
GM says: You really think I'll even feel another regular season loss. Three years of tanking has made me NUMBBBBB
@Schreindogg (Heat, Survivor #1): "I should be planning this out better but I'm too focused on the NFL at the moment. Just taking the largest spread of the day until I have more time to strategize. "
GM says: Wizards = Cardinals, write that down
@RedEd4 (F. VanVleet, T. Maxey): "It will be interesting to see how teams treat this in season tournament. Will the load management be used for these games? "
GM says: Have to wonder if the Player Participation Policy has teams on their toes. They know the IST is being taken seriously, so it'd be pretty brazen to sit stars on Tues/Fri this early.
@Logan2273 (Heat, Survivor #1): "I'm picking a 1-4 team for the 2nd week of survivor..."
GM says: So you're the Poole to Kuzma alley-oop put the fear of Wizards into ya?
@PackerGuy10 (Lakers, Survivor #1): "Bron in a tournament setting, ‘nuff said "
GM says: Do we think he takes it seriously? Another award to add to his trophy case for GOAT debates?
@MP (Pelicans, Survivor #1): "Ingram and Zion better play or ima scream"
GM says: Zion day-to-day and didn't play last night, Ingram was out last night... 😬
@YikesVikes (N. Jokic, A. Davis): "Nothing to say I just guess away with my eyes closed! 🏀😵"
GM says: Open your eyes, OWN YOUR PICKS!
@kempsoos (MIA, All 30): "I already have to make up 1 Game on the field. This Pool is a sick joke and I love it because I'm going to be perfect from here on out."
GM says: One man's sick joke is another man's favoritest thing in the world
@Schreindogg (B. Ingram, K. Thompson): "I have no idea, just throwing darts at a wall here.... "
GM says: Classic SZN strategy, second only to "my X picked these"
@Logan2273 (D. Bane, J. Brunson): "Brunson battles with Bucks and Bane continues to carry hurt Grizz team"
GM says: You had such good alliteration going there... what about "Bane bolsters the Brizzlies"... We grade on a curve around here
@Rodgers_is_dead_to_me (MIA, All 30): "If you can’t stand the heat get your arse our the SZN "
GM says: Don't make G(ordon Ra)M(say) call you an idiot sandwich!
@PackerGuy10 (D. Lillard, A. Edwards): "DAME TIME & ANT MAN Apparently the Knicks have the second best defensive rating in the league, I’m not buying it! Dame for 40+ The Jazz have the second worst defensive rating in the league and I’m completely buying that. 🐜 for his biggest game of the young season! Also, I completely root for my backup pick to get 0 points so it doesn’t pain me that I didn’t pick them as an actual pick"
GM says: Haha, treating the backup pick like a fantasy bench where it's worse if they're good is a new twist I haven't heard yet
@EpicG0d (Z. Williamson, A. Edwards): "Gonna get Zion out of the way before he gets injured again lmao "
GM says: Excuse me, are you talking bad about about Iron Man Zion?
@GaviK (D. Bane, A. Edwards): "Bulls 2024 😂 "
GM says: Lonzo's knees crushed so many Chi-town dreams
Yours in Roundball Rock,
The GM