Friends in fast breaks,
Your GM is battling through a sudden bug - Our boy starting daycare has brought home a new illness every week, and we're catching about half of them. But I'm trying to power through for YOU.
REMINDER: We'll have our first planned "bye week" in Week 7. The schedule for Week 7 was set once the IST was complete, which isn't fair for setting up strategic picks based on a known schedule. We'll be back in Week 8 with the standard schedule. The other "bye week" is during All Star Weekend in February.
WEEK 6 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!
Winless-est Month - DET Pistons
No Win November is a WILD accomplishment. 15 straight losses, but somehow with all the closest losses being to some really good teams (MIL, PHI, CLE, DEN). The spacing is busted, Cade's efficiency isn't what you want, and Stephen Silas is in their assistnt coaches (hi from 3 years of him tank commanding in Houston). I just don't know what turns them around at this point.
How many points? - MIA Heat
The Heat don't have what you'd call and "impressive" offense. They were last in PPG last year. They're right near the bottom third this season. But they face IND, the crazy pacing and scoring team, and manage to score 142 in regulation. Just... what? They were down most of the game, then IND hit a dry spell in the 4th and MIA takes over to win. What would happen if they "decided" to score like this all the time?
Slumpiest S'more - Keegan Murray
Keegan was a surprise to many with how well his rookie campaign went. Sure he was the 4th pick, he was a bit older (22) so he should be able contribute sooner, he was drafted into an up-and-coming team with a good fit for him. But this season his shooting is slumping hard, with his FG%, 3P%, and TS% down 6%, 12%, and 10% respectively. Get your head up young buck!
PICK STATS
Walking Bucket Wilt OAD
- G. Antetokounmpo took our top spot with 47 picks
- That's two straight weeks for the big man
- His partner D. Lillard is at 27 picks
- We clearly don't fear ATL's defense
- We're a lot more spread with our big picks this week: D. Mitchell (43 picks), K. Irving (42), SGA (41), K. Durant (34), A. Edwards (30)
- D. Mitchell jumps back into our top picks for the first time since Week 2
- K. Irving benefits from Luka being out this week
- Risky pick on Edwards with his recent hip injury
- Interesting low volume picks: J. Poole (1 pick), M. Turner (1), P. Siakam (1)
- We won't let Poole go!
- Digging into the Golden Spreadsheet...
- D. Mitchell jumps back into the lead at 61.3% usage
- Giannis has also jumped into the top five
Survivor #1
- ORL takes our top spot with 88 picks
- They've been our top team twice in a row
- Inspiring for such a young squad
- And that's 3 MORE picks than last week
- WAS this week, DET last week, they've certainly hit some easy scheduling for our picking
- MIL is the other big pick with 69
- And they're taking on WAS
- NOP and DAL are our other two big picks
- 46 and 34 picks respectively
- Playing SAS and MEM respectively
- Actually, let's look at who we're pickign against for the top five
- ORL (vs WAS), NOP (vs SAS), DAL (vs MEM), MIN (@ CHA), CLE (@ DET)
- Our strategy is blatant
- Shout out to the brave picks on BKN (vs ORL) and CHA (vs MIN)
- Digging into the Golden Spreadsheet...
- This only looks at picks from alive players in the pool
- CLE and ORL jumped into the top 5 this week
- BOS still our most used at this point at 59.6%
- No surviving player has won on DET
"All 30" One-And-Done
- Ya'll... let's see some VARIETY!
- I know a good survivor pick is usually a good bet on winning, but you're gonna have to pick bad teams at some point
- In that vein - respect to the 20 UTA pickers this week against POR
- That's taking advantage of a bad vs bad matchup!
- And then again, the moxie of two DET picks, glorious!
- Digging into the Golden Spreadsheet...
- CLE, MIL, BOS at the top
- OKC is our LEAST used team with 2 picks
- How does OKC have 2 picks, but DET has 6, HOU has 11, POR has 17, WAS and SAS both have 22, and MEM have 24
- So there's bravery going on out there, just not en masse
BEST PICK COMMENTS
@Rodgers_is_dead_to_me (D. Mitchell, L. Ball): "Watch out so you don't get bit by the "Spida"! Oh, and LaMelo is playing."
GM says: LaMelo "The Afterthought" Ball
@LENNYA4 (A. Edwards, Z. Williamson): "Yupp"
GM says: CONFIDENCE
@Rodgers_is_dead_to_me (NOP, All 30): "To quote the great Tony Montana in Scarface, “fly, pelican, fly!”"
GM says: I've never seen Scarface. Based on the 19 second clip I found looking this up, it's clearly a top notch comedy.
@AC0606 (T. Young, D. Lillard): "Dame's gonna drop 60."
GM says: If it's not 70+, are we even impressed 😏
@kbanaian (NOP, Survivor #1): "Zion vs Wemby? Getting my money's worth of League Pass for this one."
GM says: Thicc boi vs Slenderman
@Rodgers_is_dead_to_me (ORL, Survivor #1): "How do you win the Survivor pool? All it takes is a little “magic” ;)"
GM says: ✨🎩✨
@GiantDukieHowserJones (NOP, All 30): "Switching from the Lakers-Fakers to the Pelicans-do"
GM says: You've got that Pel-I-Can-Do attitude
@YikesVikes (DAL, Survivor #1): "Lively plays 30+ minutes, gets a double double with a couple blocks. Luka does Luka things getting a 30 point near triple double. Kyrie breaks out of his slump and drops an efficient 25-30 points. Mavs win!"
GM says: Um... about Luka...
@Schreindogg (ORL, Survivor #1): "(Same comment as last week)"
GM says: For reference: "Seems too easy, but that's how this season has been going so why would things change?"
@Logan2273 (ORL, Survivor #1): "What are Wizards without Magic anyways"
GM says: Originally thought you were TAKING the Wiz and was very impressed
@YikesVikes (K. Durant, D. Mitchell): "Durant Mitchell, there's a new name in the NBA.... I like the ring of it. Let's hope it's a double double in more than new name. "
GM says: Durant Mitchell, meet LeBron "James" Harden
@Logan2273 (UTA, All 30): "I believe this will be the only game the rest of the year where I can pick the Jazz as a favorite"
GM says: That's what I'm talkin' about!
Yours in Roundball Rock,
The GM