The upcoming All-Star weekend means a short week of play for us, so getting your guys in the lineup is even more critical than usual. Here is a list of the match-ups and a short write up of each team's play of late.
Match-up of the week: Zoo York vs. Dirt Dog
Zoo York has gone 10-6 over the last two and will look to hold down the bye position against 3rd place Dirt Dog. Dirt Dog has been up and down of late, going 18-17 over their last four, and they will look to get back on track in this showdown, marquee match-up.
Another key series has Odin's Reign facing the Brick Layers. Both teams are narrowly clinging to their playoff spots right now and a 3-6 loss, or worse, for either side could cripple their playoff hope. The Reign have played the top four teams over the past five weeks and have managed to stay over .500 during that time. The Layers have lost their last three and need to get it going, especially with their first rounder already out of town for next year.
My Killas will be facing off with the newly-christened "Foundation." The Foundation has won three in a row but finish the season in tough, facing four of the five top teams in the league. They do have a strong core of young players and could be a spoiler against the contenders down the stretch. My Killas have been quietly undefeated over their last five and will look to keep it going against their long-time rivals. Expect a tight series this week, despite the Foundation's 9th place standing.
The banged-up Punishers are facing Alex's last place Bitches this week, however, Pat should not expect an easy W. Shields came within 2 stls and 2 blks of defeating the #1 seed Killas for their first win last week and seem to be getting it together. You’re welcome for Asik, Al. He has been dominant since the Killas dealt him in the Evan Turner trade. Pat is missing about 100 rebounds (Drummand, Love, and Varejo) and somehow still manages to keep his team in every single series. Amazing.
The other series this week could also go a long ways in setting the standings up going forward, as Anklebreakin squares off with Primative Jam. Both teams are on the outside of the playoff picture looking in but a win this week for either side would certainly help their chances, especially with #5 playing #6. Jammers have been cold, losing 4 of 5, while Anklebreakin have won 2 of their last three. This would be a good time for one of these teams to get hot.

It seems this time of year is when the injury bug comes out in full force and teams can see their once star-studded lineups reduced to skeleton crews and key players rendered useless by season-ending injuries. At least with the IR you can replace people who are out for an extended period of time. I remember having to deal Al Jefferson away to a non-playoff team for Ben Gordon, Charlie V, and Delente West. While the move worked well in the short term, it added nothing to my team the following year. The Punishers are the team that has taken it the hardest this year, and let's face it, they have consistently been injury-prone throughout their existence. This time around they have lost Kevin Love for a good portion of the season, had Anderson Varejo play the best basketball of his career only to go out for the season and now Rajon Rando has gone down to the dreaded ACL tear and will only return at the All-Star break next year if his surgery and rehab go well.
Pat's squad was under the influence of these injuries and some uncharacteristic poor roster management last week and were annihilated by Steve's white-hot Zoo York, 7-2. The Zoo has lost only once since week four and now find themselves in a bye-position. They'll look to keep the streak alive this week when they face the inconsistent Jammers, who are once again below .500 and will have to turn things around soon if they are going to make playoffs. The Jammer's opponents last week gave them no margin for error and, to be honest, would have defeated any team in the league (52% FG, 73 treys, 935, 331 boards and 56 blks). JJ Redick and Kyle Korver combined for 33 threes and Blake Griffin had 116 points.
There were a couple of tight series last week. The Brick Layers dropped a tight one to Anklebreakin 5-4, keeping the Breakers playoff hopes alive and reinforcing how tightly packed the top-8 teams in the league are. My Killaz and Stewie's Dirty Dogs had a typical 5-4 clash that could have gone to either side and enough categories were close that either side could have won by a decent amount. Meanwhile, the Foundation moved themselves away from the basement they had been on a collision-course for with a 7-2 win over the Bitches. No team has had more players fall completely out of fantasy relevance this year than the Foundation. Injuries to Nash, Rubio, CP3 and Irving, Glen Davis have been crippling and when combined with disappearance of Marcus Thorton and Kris Humphries this team has gone from 2nd to 2nd to last. A strong rebuilding program is underway and the foundation now boasts the last three #1 picks (Wall, Irving, A. Davis).

Going for it/rebuilding

I must say it is nice to teams making moves to help their chances to win the title this year and teams out of contention serving as sellers. Seems like any of the top-8 teams can beat each other in a given week and a couple of key moves could be all it would take to put your team over the top and win the whole thing. Having said that, earning the bye-position appears to be critical and every champion in the yahoo era has finished in the top two in the regular season. I think too many teams are reluctant to give up on future prospects for short term gains and that costs them come playoff time. If your team is in position to make a run, now is a good time to look at stat categories that are often close with other contenders and make some moves to improve in this area. The Layers-ZY trade yesterday was a great example of just that. Ryan Anderson's elite threes are exactly what Zoo York feels they need to make a run in the playoffs and are an area that the Layers have an abundance of. In contrast, The Brick were in need of the big man stat Vucevic brings to the table. I'm not saying that you have to make a move, but it may not be a bad idea and would be nice to see more teams really go for the title. I know the bottom two teams are more than willing to trade for picks and young talent.

We are two weeks into the regular season and the superb early play of teams such as Anklebreakin and the Brick Layers has taken the league by storm. The Brick Layers' position at the top of the standings isn't a total shock given the way they turned heads last year when they grabbed the final playoff spot and had a strong playoff run. However, there are some whispers around the league that the Layers, while certainly a playoff contender, aren’t quite ready to be a dominate force and will regress somewhat toward the mean as the year progresses. There is still little doubt that the Layers are a model example of how a team can rebuild in three years and it is entirely possible that they build on their early momentum and claim a bye position in the playoffs. This week they will face a struggling Eyes on the Guys team. The Guys, last year’s runner-up, have opened the year with losses to Zoo York and Dirt Dog and they could certainly use a return from Steve Nash and Ricky Rubio, as that’s between 60-80 assists missing from their lineup each week.
Anklebreakin, projected by the basketball monster "experts" to finish 9th, have come out swinging with back-to-back convincing wins over two solid clubs; Odin's Reign and Zoo York. They'll have a tough test this week when they go up against a revamped Dirt Dog lineup. Craig's dynamic ownership of the former We Got Next (or, as Steve called them, We Got Last) franchise has rejuvenated a club which had grown stagnate since their successful overhaul of 2008.
Another interesting match-up this week will feature Steve Young's exciting, well-rounded club facing the benchmark of the league, The Krazee Eyed Killa. The four-time league champions are off to a respectable start, while the former Monsters were hurt by the yahoo outage yesterday which is directly responsible for them being one game below .500. Zoo York is another excellent example of how to rebuild a club in a short period of time, as Steve took over perhaps the worst team in league history less than two years ago and through trades and FA signings has turned them into a contender.
The Punishers, sans Kevin Love, are off to a mediocre start to the season and will try to get going against Baskwill's Reign. PP still has plenty of fire-power and would probably be a little higher in the standings if their FT% was even average. The Reign is coming off a close loss to the Killas and will have no choice but to put that out of their mind coming into tonight's play. UPDATE: There are some rumblings out of Kobe's camp that he would like to finish his career out on a contending club and he is looking for the Reign to get him some help or move him.
The other match up for the week has the last two teams in the standings facing off; Primitive Jam and the Dunkin Bitches. This is a great opportunity for one of these clubs to reassert themselves back into the playoff picture and someone will have to move up after this one. The Jammers, still possess several world-class players, have been underachieving thus far. Alex’s Bitches are just entering year two of their rebuilding process and are starting to develop a solid core of youngsters led by the stellar early play of Evan Turner. Look for them to work the waiver-wire for young talent as the year progress as well.