Friends in fast breaks,
For a second week in a row, we've got multiple tank bowl matchups. That ups the difficulty level for our OADs and Survivor, meaning we could see even more carnage. All Star results are coming in, DET is racking up picks, and more below.
WEEK 14 PICKS
- Points One-And-Done
- Survivor #1
- "All 30" One-And-Done
- Survivor #2
- Weekly Pick'em
The GM AWARDS
Rewarding whatever random things I feel like. Feel free to suggest topics!
Best New Rivalry - Chet vs Wemby
I feel like it's been It's been a while since I've seen a player rivalry where they just don't seem to like each other. But to be fair to the battling stick men, they've already been going at it for years. Even before the NBA, they were constantly compared to each other based on their gangly, stretched-out frames. Give me another decade of this please.
Newest Win-Win-iest Trade - NYC and TOR
Following the amazing outcome of the SAC/IND trade of Haliburton and Sabonis, this trade is looking good so far. I didn't see too many claims of either team being "fleeced". It's been about 3 weeks. NYK is 11-2, with OG seeming to slide into place nicely. TOR isn't winning (because they weren't in the first place and now they cleared out Siakim too), but IQ and RJ have been posting 16/4/6 and 21/7/3 on decent efficiency. To win-wins!
Disappointing-est City - NYC
I'm not original with this thought - I think Brunson should have been an All Star Starter. There's a bunch of articles analyzing Brunson, Mitchell, and Lillard - Usually saying Lillard shouldn't be there. But the FAN VOTE is the part that astounds me. NYC, you're enormous, you have the ultimate population advantage, support your dudes. Embarassing for him to lose out because of the fan vote, especially by over a million votes.
PICK STATS
Points OAD
- Board Man gets picked! 46 picks for K. Leonard
- The Finnisher, L. Markkanen, takes second with 45 picks
- After tha's a decent gap to the rest of our picks
- Unfortunate group on K. Irving, who was a late scratch today
- Have to hope their backups are solid
- Interesting low volume picks: B. Miller (1 pick), D. Ayton (1), B. Boganovic (1)
- Digging into the Golden Spreadsheet...
- Now up to 13 players with 70%+ usage
- PHI has gone crazy, with both Maxey and Embiid over 78% usage
Survivor #1
- Status check
- 25 of you are still flawless (no wrong picks)
- 58 of you have missed once, but are still kicking
- LAC takes the top spot with 23 picks
- LAL last week, LAC this week
- Let's hope the outcome isn't the same!
- Our only other BIG pick is UTA for 20
- RESPECT to the 8 DET pickers, I SEE YOU
- Digging into the Golden Spreadsheet...
- Only looking at picks form alive players
- 80/83 players have used GSW
- MEM now in last for usage, DET jumped up thanks to the 8 pickers
"All 30" One-And-Done
- DETROIT VS EVERYBODY
- DET pulls down 52 picks, amazing
- When our bad team opportunities show up, we take them
- We've never been more confident in a 5-39 team
- LAC comes in at second with 26 pick, followed by a big string of teams in the teens
- Digging into the Golden Spreadsheet...
- TOR hasn't received a pick in weeks, still sitting at 18
- DET has jumped to our 23rd most used team in a single week, round of applause
- CHA at 39.8% usage (14th most used) surprised me
Survivor #2
- MIN and LAC reign here, with 33 and 31 picks respectively
- Then a mild gap down to ORL/UTA/DET in the high teens
- Digging into the Golden Spreadsheet...
- Only looking at alive players here
- No team crossing 50% usage yet
- But MIN and MIL are right below it
- Then comes HOU, as everyone expected
- No MEM or SAC uses yet
Weekly Pick'em
- Another 18 game slate this week
- We've got 3 close matchups
- LAL @ GSW - 55.1% for GSW
- WAS @ DET - 56.9% for DET
- PHX @ IND - 59.0% for PHX
- We've got 5 lopsided matchups
- MIN @ SAS - 95.8% for MIN
- LAC @ TOR - 93.6% for LAC
- NOP @ MIL - 92.9% for MIL
- LAC @ BOS - 91.9% for BOS
- CLE @ MIL - 90.1% for MIL
- LAC repeating the same feat as HOU two weeks ago - 90% favorite in one game and 10% underdog in another
- That leaves 10 games in the "middle"
- I'm guessing we'll end up like last week thanks to the multiple tank bowls
BEST PICK COMMENTS
@kbanaian (L. Markkanen, A. Sengun): "Is there a reason I'm taking two wings on consecutive nights both against Charlotte? Yes."
GM says: A high defensive rating is good right? It's totally how many points you're NOT letting them score?
@Rodgers_is_dead_to_me (DET, Survivor #2): "DETROIT! BASKETBALL! It should say a lot for how bad I think the Wizards are for picking the Pistons so early in this survivor. But those that watch know Detroit has definitely been playing better lately, despite the losses."
GM says: They last played WAS 5 games ago. In those last 5 games, they're 2-3 with losses against MIN and MILx2. Their point differential over those games is -3. No Cunningham the whole time, Point Ivey is working.
@YikesVikes (Weekly Pick'em (H2)): "To watch the NBA for free, you can make use of the free streaming trials offered from the likes of FuboTV or YouTube TV. Don't be fooled by the offer of free games from the NBA CrunchTime app—that only includes game highlights. I don't watch the games but for those who care.... I just pick and pray and wait till next weeks SZN to find out how I did..."
GM says: I'd never even heard of Crunchtime. Their promo reads like it wants to be NFL Redzone. So uh... no endorsements here, clearly!
@Merf (DET, Survivior #2): "Damn straight."
GM says: We've anointed DET as potentially competent at basketball this week!
@Logan2273 (DET, All 30): "I'd say about 75% of us are going to be picking Detroit this week"
GM says: Not that big, but definitely the top pick. With a 5-39 record. We're in our bag.
@Rodgers_is_dead_to_me (D. Booker, L. Markkanen): "Devin and Lauri? The WNBA meets the NBA! Let’s go!!!"
GM says: Oh the NBA? Yeah, I've heard it's like the WNBA, but with dudes
@RedEd4 (Weekly Pick'em (H2)): "These should all be really good picks 🤣"
GM says: The confidence is just OOZING
@YikesVikes (K. Leonard, A. Sengun): "Just wish'n and hope'n - Never seen either of these two play or know anything about them, so this week it's Not Bothering Analyzing - NBA "
GM says: If you appreciate old school, unathletic-looking post moves and flashy passing, you need to watch a Sengun mixtape.
@RedEd4 (L. Doncic, D. Sabonis): "ATL and Dallas are going to score some points tonight so then Sacramento is going to run it up on Saturday. "
GM says: I'll translate: Go big European guys!
@kbanaian (HOU, Survivor #2): "Oooh, bad news -- Rockets on the Road! But it's Charlotte, the NBA Land of Suck. They finally free Scary Terry, and now have a bigger bag of rocks than Charlie Brown at Halloween."
GM says: CHA ain't Scary without their Terry?
Yours in Roundball Rock,
The GM