Carrying on...
9th place - Idaho Udapimps
The Pimps were hanging around in the 5th to 8th range for the longest time. Unfortunately, they slipped to 9th in the last 7-10 days of the season and ultimately only end up with 2 keepers. The last 3 years have produced 9th, 7th, and 7th place finishes so this middle of the pack ending should not be surprising. This squad was built around super-keeper James Harden and draftees Dwight Howard and Josh Smith. The Pimps struggled in 3PT% and ATO will look to rebuild his squad through the draft next season. You gotta give the kid credit for trying as he used 49 players this season. Nice work.
MVP - James Harden. He finally goes back into the Auction. How much will his 25-4-6 go for at the draft? Fear the beard will be on many people's draft boards as he continues to improve.
LVP - Andre Iguodala. Look, I like Iggy. Great all around player. Just not the fantasy force he once was. He's better in real life than in the JBL. He was drafted for $32 bucks and put up 9-4-4??? Shocking.
Unsung Hero - Kris Humphries. Mr. Kardashian surprised me by putting up 10ppg, 7reb, and 1bpg in 34 games for the Pimps.
Prized Keepers - Rondo and Rose will likely be Idaho's 2 keepers. He'll be hoping that both of them return to 100% before next season.
8th place - French Lick Legends
Losing Al Horford to season ending surgery early in the season was a devastating blow. Adding insult to injury was trading Klay Thompson for the always high Larry SANDERS!. Whoops. That kinda set the tone for French's season of mediocrity. Steals and ATO were the biggest issues in Larry's home town this past season. The past 3 seasons now have produced this 8th place finish preceded by a 12th place finish and a 2nd place finish. Again, all stops were pulled out as French used 51 roster players this season and made 13 trades.
MVP - DeAndre Jordan. 82 games. 10ppg, 14reb, 203 blocks, 80 steals, 68% FG%. Enough said. The guy was a monster. Love his game for Fantasy. Who cares about awful FT% when he does all that.
LVP - Al Horford & Larry Sanders. 32 combined games. Yes, they would have helped a lot!
Unsung Hero - Randy Foye. I didn't expect him to average 15ppg in his 31 games for French. He also hit at 40% from downtown. Nice work for a guy considered by many to be irrelevant for fantasy purposes.
Prized Keepers - Jordan and Lillard. 2 very solid studs for next season. Jordan will be $19 and Lillard will be going into Year 3 of his rookie deal for $22 bucks.
7th place - Arctic Circle Jerks
I had to go to the tie-breaker rules (head to head categories) to determine that Arctic will finish 7th. Norfolk won the head to head categories 4 to 3 to get 6th. The good news for Arctic is the extra ping pong ball for the Rookie Lottery. If that floats your boat at all. This years 7th place finish comes after his runner up finish from 2012/13 and his 8th place finish in 2011/12. This year's Circle Jerks were built through his keepers (Curry, Beal, Faried); the draft (Griffin & Paul) and through Free Agency. Crikker only made 2 trades and both of them were in October. Having a big 3 of Curry, Paul, and Griffin must have been very entertaining to follow. The team's weakness was in rebounds and blocks and not addressing those needs kept him in the middle tier this year.
MVP - I can argue for any of the big 3 but I really liked what Curry did this season. 24ppg, 8apg, and shot 47/42 with 129 steals. You want to give it to Blake and his 24 and 9 with 53% shooting - I have no problem with that either.
LVP - Derrick Williams played 61 games for Arctic and averaged 8 and 4. Surely there must have been someone else somewhere that would have helped more.
Unsung Hero - McBob!! Josh McRoberts was a nice role player. He really should have been in Bangkok on the role player team. McBob only averaged 8-4-4 but his ATO was 4.000+ and he chipped in 58 steals and 46 blocks. Not too shabby.
Prized Keepers - I think Curry, Griffin, and Beal could all be good starting points for next season.
6th place - Norfolk in Chance
Easily my favourite expansion team of all time. What can you say about a new team that comes into the league, site unseen, and finishes in 6th place?? Already, he has bragging rights on the Kok and Seoul. He used 33 players and made 7 trades. Again, impressive. FG% and ATO were Norfolk's achilles heal this year but he's done very well in his first crack at the JBL. This was a well balanced team that was initially built around Monta Ellis and Al Jefferson. He turned Jefferson into Eric Gordon and Marcin Gortat. The other gem on this team was Isiaih Thomas ($4 bucks). His numbers were awesome. With 3 keeper spots I'm interested in seeing who Dave will bring back next season. He will also get to see how his lottery luck goes this year as he had to settle for the 13th rookie pick and went with Dennis Schroeder.
MVP - Trevor Ariza or Isaiah Thomas could fit here or in the Unsung hero spot. Ariza averaged 14 and 6 while being active for 74 games in Norfolk. He shot 46/41 and added 126 steals. His numbers kind of sum up how Norfolk did so well this season. Very few stars. Just a well balanced and well rounded team. Kind of the Seoul-model I think.
LVP - The Kevin Garnet experiment last 20 games in Norfolk and produced just 6 and 6.
Unsung hero - Check these numbers out.
Player A - 19ppg, 6ast, 4reb, 45% FG, 33% 3PT, 141 steals, 23 blocks, $48 bucks
Player B - 20ppg, 6ast, 3reb, 45% FG, 35% 3PT, 93 steals, 8 blocks, $4 bucks
The first guy is Monta Ellis and the 2nd guy is Isaiah Thomas.
Prized Keepers - Obviously I like IT3 a lot. I also like Gortat and Ariza as solid producers. There are a couple of others that could be keeper potential but the prize of the bunch is Mr. Thomas.
5th place - Golden Showers
51 players and 8 trades could only get me 5th place. Golden was attempting to 3-peat for a second time. I blame my poor draft and the injuries. I pooped the bed on draft night and never really recovered. There was a glimmer of hope in the middle of the season but major injuries to Jrue Holiday, Eric Bledsoe, Tobias Harris, and LaMarcus Aldridge ultimately sealed my fate. Steals and 3PT% were my weak categories. I made some good trades (getting Big Al for Big Pek) and made some doozies (Eric Gordon for AK47 and Noel?). Oh well. You gotta try right?
MVP - Aldridge. Despite missing 16 games I'm still going to give it to the big guy in PDX. He put up 23 and 11 but only shot 46%. Still, he was very good and has to be considered one of the better shooting 4's in the NBA.
LVP - Ersan Ilyasova. He's banned from Golden now after this season. I had such high hopes for him. I gave him 38 games to sort himself out and he failed miserably. 11 and 6 and infinite curse words from me.
Unsung hero - It's either Terrence Jones (13ppg, 7reb, 99 blocks) or Robin Lopez (11ppg, 8reb, 139 blks). Both over-achieved and were pleasant surprises in Golden this season.
Prized Keeper - I'm really interested to see what this Nerlens Noel kid can do. People forget that his one year in Kentucky when he averaged 10ppg, 9reb, 59% FG, 2stl, and 4.4 blks per game. He's had a year to rehab and build up his body. I'm hoping he's a shot blocking extraordinaire in Philly next season.
Next up...the top 4 teams in Part 3 of the Year in Review...
Happy Easter.
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