Friends in fast breaks,
You gotta shake that rust off, picks are BACK! Hope you all enjoyed the short rest, because we've got a good streak of 2+ months of picking to go now. And that includes the start of a bunch of new Pools in January - If you aren't in them, or have a friend who would love to get in on some NBA action, get in!
WEEK 8 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!
Pettiest Game - MIL vs IND
MIL was already mad about their loss in the IST, so the sass was FLYING in this game. Hard fouls, ejections, showy dunks at the end of regulation, and then "stealing the game ball". This is that soap opera stuff. I NEED a 7 game series of this animosity.
Delaying-est Team - CHI Bulls
Come on guys, this isn't working. Lonzo's knee blew up and so did your chances of anything good happening with this iteration of the team. Bite the bullet, collect some assets, and start over. Coby's looking encouraging. You've got players that can certainly fetch you some assets. Take a year or two at the bottom again and start things over properly.
Get-him-the-heck-out-iest Player - D. Green
Would you look at that - The guy who wasn't apologetic at all for being a complete idiot a few weeks back (or ever) goes and does dangerous and stupid stuff AGAIN. You can basically re-use this last sentence over and over for the guy. Golden State blew it for never calling him out any of the past times, let alone for not suspending him for the Poole incident. Very over it, suspend the idiot for the season.
PICK STATS
Walking Bucket Wilt OAD
- T. Haliburton takes first this week with 72 picks
- We like the leap he's taken this year
- But can we be real, he's been a bit "pedestrian" since the IST championship
- In those 3 games: 18.7 PPG, 3.7 RPG, 10.3 APG, 4.3 TOs
- Let's hope he bounces back strong
- Our next tier is D. Fox (45 picks), D. Booker (41), and J. Embiid (38), and right behind them is T. Maxey (31)
- Those are three incredibly hot hands...
- And Maxey, who scored 9 points last game
- Interesting low volume picks: L. Markkanen (1 pick), B. Beal (1), B. Miller (1), D. Ayton (1)
- Markkanen possibly returning to action in our pool, love to see it
- Domin-AYTON!
- Digging into the Golden Spreadsheet...
- D. Mitchell stands alone at just under 70% usage
- Followed by a pack for 57% to 63% including Luka, Embiid, Giannis, SGA, Fox, and Curry
- Simons, who was never picked before, got 20 picks this week, amazing!
- Beal now in last with 2 uses
Survivor #1
- PHI is our top team this week with 63 picks
- Oh look, they're playing DET, who could have guessed!
- DET is closing in on the losing streak record for a season - How scared are we about that pressure?
- Our next batch of picks are all relatively close: IND (28 picks), SAC (22), LAL (20), MIL (18), and DAL (16)
- Or through the lens of their opponents: @ WAS, vs UTA, @ SAS, vs DET, @ POR
- So predictable
- And a week with DET on a back-to-back, that's gravy
- RESPECT to our HOU @ MEM pickers
- We've got 2 on each team, the bravery!
- Digging into the Golden Spreadsheet...
- This only looks at picks from alive players in the pool
- PHI leads at 67.8% usage
- Then a bundle of BOS, MIL, MIA
- IND jumps over 50% usage, nice
- OKC and POR at 1 use each, and DET with 0
"All 30" One-And-Done
- IND and PHI swap spots at the top compared to Survivor
- 37 and 32 pickers respectively
- MIL, SAC, and DAL, and LAL still round out the top as we'd expect
- HOU getting a big bump compared to Survivor (15 vs 2)
- Not to mention MEM getting 4 (vs 2)
- We've got picks out there on CHA, ATL, TOR, BKN, and ORL
- YES! VARIETY! IT'S GOOD FOR YOU!
- Digging into the Golden Spreadsheet...
- MIL is our most used at 47.6%
- Then a blob of CLE, IND, BOS, MIA, DAL, PHI
- OKC is somehow our LEAST used at 2 picks
- Even DET has 6! How OKC?
BEST PICK COMMENTS
@Logan2273 (MIL, All 30): "If the Pistons win I will die"
GM says: RIP in pieces (to DET)
@kbanaian (PHI, Survivor #1): "Coach, I have six fouls to give. Let me play Joel."
GM says: But do you think you'd SURVIVE to the sixth foul?
@YikesVikes (D. Fox, D. Bane): "Desmond will continue seeing the wolf-share of volume on offense until Ja Morant returns in a couple of weeks from his suspension. Bane will look to keep the hot streak going. Fox continues a dominant stretch on the floor of late, scoring at least 26 points to go along with at least three assists and four rebounds in each of his last five games for the Kings. Fox Bane - I will reign!"
GM says: Wolf-share - is that a thing? You sure you didn't mean lion's share? Or if you want to be cute about it, the (grizzly) bear share?
@bowser48 (PHI, Survivor #1): "76ers back to back as double digit favorites vs Pistons, could easily qualify as the 🔐 of The Year ! Now, that concerns me ."
GM says: Unless DET destroys the all-time losing record, SOMEONE is going to lose to them this year (and probably soon). So who's it gonna be?
@StatCzar (T. Haliburton, J. Green): "I’m taking a Rocket which should make The GM happy. But I want to remind everyone the Corona O Christmas Tree commercial is better than the Hershey Kisses bells. Which might make him shake his head in disgust and disagreement. "
GM says: You predicted this perfectly. The Hershey commercial dominates the Corona commercial in every way. I'm disgusted and I disagree and you should feel bad about it!
@kbanaian (A. Simons, K. Kuzma): "Time for a little bargain-shopping: Kuz vs a team determined to pay tribute to the Paul Westhead Loyola Marymont University teams (spinoff of Winning Time, anyone?) and Fernee who has the most ridiculous usage in the association while playing with a #3 draft pick at PG. "
GM says: I admire the deeper pulls, not to mention holding onto big guns for Interval 3.
@Logan2273 (NOP, Survivor #1): "Before the inevitable Zion injury"
GM says: What if he literally made the Charles Barkley get-in-shape turnaround decision last week? You might miss out on the slim-thicc Zion later in the season!
@GDishes (D. Mitchell, A. Edwards): "I'm running out of good people to pick"
GM says: Oh buddy... There's 2/3 of the season to go. You're gonna pick WAY less good people by the time we're done!
Yours in Roundball Rock,
The GM