Rewinding The Plays

WEEK 16 CHAMP
👑 JEN

WEEK 16 SUCKER
🤪 NESS

They say you gotta give the people what they want, so here ya go 🤪

Let’s dive into some comparisons: our current teams vs our draft teams. We’ll take a look at how our teams have transformed and contemplate whether we’ve been genius managers or just lucky gamblers.

No matter the answer, we’re all heading into playoffs whether we want to or not, eeeek!

(Included charts refer to Yahoo Rankings. Keep in mind injuries and games played affect rank; therefore, it may not display accurate value.)

Too Hot For Kool Aid

We went aggressive with 41 moves, but it was out of feaaar. Shai was a lovely pick so all I can hope is that he plays during playoffs this year instead of breaking my heart again.

Jalen Johnson was ranked 24th before his season-ending injury, so that was fucked. Snatching up Dyson Daniels in October might have been my best pick up ever in my hoops career.

muad’Dib

King of the draft. Nikola Jokic was worth all $57. Why the fuck was KAT $19. Mobley for $8 and Siakam for $9 is insanely good value. He did some gamblin’, risked some trades, and will be going into playoffs looking strong.

He only dropped one player?! And only made 9 moves?

No frantic searches or last-minute waiver wire panic; his silent confidence says everything…

And I am not loving what it’s saying.

Looking forward: Will Chet be able to stay on the court for playoffs? Will Paolo prove he was worth the wait?

GetSome

Holy shit, he slid back up to third, eh?

Obvi Wemby is the $83 heartbreak of the year. But when I look at this chart, I see a manager who makes only the necessary moves, cutting ties when he needs to with precision and relies on the core of his draft selections to keep things going.

Pickups are smart and high-ranking for what you can get off waivers.

Without Wemby, will Brunson’s leadership (ranked 11th) be enough to navigate playoffs? It’s a waiting game and I can’t waaaaait.

I Got A Harden

It took some time but he finally got bumped to fourth right before playoffs – oop!

While he’s gotta be kicking himself for cutting ties with Devin and Amen, 6 of his original draft boys are top 30. (More than anyone else has.) That’s a nice draft.

Two shitty injuries + two great pickups to even it out.

Ja sure knows how to ball out but that won’t be enough to get him drafted on this team next season.

Flat Earthers

He made good use of his draft money using the Stars and Scrubs method – and look at all those beautiful Stars. He even got some nice picks for $1.

3 of his $1 picks are Top 65, so colour me impressed.

With such a shallow league and five pickups per week, trading in $1 guys for the waivers is a great start. Sometimes, the grass really is greener on the other side (especially in this IL-heavy era).

He always knows how to dominate at the pickup game, and it’s kept him competitive.

Mary Gets Bucketzz

Super solid original draft team – good money management and balanced across the board. She even kept some players from last season’s winning team, like Steph and Domantas. (Hoping some of that winners’ magic will rub off onto her new guys, maybe?)

What I love most is the pickups. She found 3 top 50s for free, and none of us stopped her. (At least she paid $20 for Reaves.)

She cut a few guys who seemed to find their rhythm but with a good pickup game, you gotta play risk.

Josh Hart off the waivers ranking 16th is bananas.

Chloë’s Champion Team

Correct me if I’m wrong, but I think she won the draft – and for good reason.

Luka and Giannis are such a beautiful pairing. I’m a Vuče fan and have grabbed him almost every year I’ve played hoops, so I love that pick.

What stands out the most here is the 9 moves / 12 original players. Sometimes, you don’t need to make many moves (hi LA), but sometimes, you gotta risk cutting someone you love to win a week and stay ahead.

Of course, with all-in playoffs, how much does the regular season really matter? With most people chopping their teams up in quarters, maybe holding onto your og guys is the sneakiest play there is.