Post by Thunder GM (Tiago) on Nov 7, 2012 18:32:42 GMT
30 - Detroit Pistons - Lawson and Monroe are the only fantasy relevant players in this team. Doesn't have enough depth, but the team is young and can only improve. They need to keep Lawson next season, and make a lot of moves quickly
29 - Los Angeles Clippers - Rebuilding team. Lots of moves transformed CP3, DeAndre, Griffin in JJohnson, Thad and Bynum. When Bynum returns this team will be a lot better. At least they have lots of 1st Rounds in the next two drafts
28 - Atlanta Hawks - Pratically untouched, still has most of the original roster and will not be able to produce with that lineup. Has two great players and Teague seems ready to step up, but needs to diversify their team
27 - Denver Nuggets - A lot of youth translates into poor numbers (decent rebounding still) and this Nuggets team is not built for this year. They only need 3-4 of those rookies to turn out fantasy stars. This team can easily be a top 5 next season
26 - Houston Rockets - Another young team who needs his youth to start producing to win games this season. FT% and 3PM can be the stronger cats of this team by now and they could only get better ifthe real rockets change coach, or the current one starts playing more than 8 guys
25 - Washington Wizards - Without John Wall, this team will ride the Bosh/Okafor train. Best thing wiz can hope is for MKG to develop quickly into a multicat stud (other than scoring) by the time Wall returns
24 - Charlotte Bobcats - Another team in rebuild mode, a standard strategy given the starting roster. Lillard posted a fantastic week 1, but the Lillard/Walker combo won't win many games if the rest of the roster doesn't contribute.
23 - New Orleans Hornets - Even with a great start from Vasquez and Lopez, this high potential team have a long walk untill playoff contention. When Gordon returns from his misterious injury they will be better, specially if AD starts to comand the double team Ryan Anderson needs to be more effective. If AD turns out huge and Gordon eventually returns, look out
22 – Memphis Grizzlies – The Grizz are in a though division and didn’t make enough changes to improve their chances of succeeding. Only the four original starters (and all from the same team) will not be enough for a spot in the Western Playoffs
21 - New York Knicks – After trading Melo for two rookies his ranking took a big hit. This team has a bright future with the help of five 1st rounds in 2013-14 drafts. For this year, the Knicks are counting on Barnes, Brooks, Smith and Camby to really help them. We’ll see how that turns out
20 – Indiana Pacers – Another team that didn’t change enough during the offseason. Indiana will surely improve once Granger comes back from injury even if it is at the expense of Gerald Green’s minutes. If the GM can trade some of those pieces, Indiana will be a force in the Central division
19 – Brooklyn Nets – While the backcourt of Deron Williams and Arron Afflalo can compete against any fantasy backcourt in this league, the truth is that there isn’t much else in the Nets roster. Tyson Chandler is a great piece to have on a championship roster in the NBA but, unfortunately, his numbers are not worth 13.6M in fantasy. Kris Humphries is also having a subpar season and not helping the Nets at all
18 – Milwaukee Bucks – With a roster so shallow, not even Chris Paul can make this team a contender. The only reason why Milwaukee shows up this high in these rankings is the fact that they have an amazing fantasy frontcourt which, when paired with CP3, can mask the shortcomings of this roster. The Bucks are the third team from Central division to be mentioned, so they do have a chance of sneaking into the playoffs if no injuries occur
17 – Dallas Mavericks – Again, another team that kept most of the players from the original roster. While there’s no doubt that most of them (if not all) are coveted players and Nowitzki is still injured, the Mavs bench simply doesn’t add enough value to keep the Mavs ahead of their opponent every night. It may be very difficult to win any matchup in which the real life Mavs play only twice a week.
16 – Chicago Bulls – Without derrick Rose, this team will need monster seasons from Noah and Deng, and also that Hawes produces like some weeks last season where he looked like a real fantasy stud. Other than this players, all the rest consists basically in the rest of Bulls roster, with Hinrich and Gibson leading the way. When Rose returns, the story will be a lot different
15 – Los Angeles Lakers – As for their real life counterpart, the Lakers did not start the season as they expected. Nash is out for a few weeks and the Lakers chance of success in the Pacific are slim until he returns. Ilyasova is also having a disappointing start of the season as well as Bogut, who may never go back to be the player he once was. Much of the Lakers success relies on this Nash-Ilyasova-Bogut trio, as Kobe and Paul George keep carrying this team
14 – Toronto Raptors – This team is good, but they will suffer a lot of losses because they are totally Raptors dependent, and will struggle when the real Raptors have few games in that matchup. Have the pieces to build a strong squad if they can make some trades
13 – Sacramento Kings – The Kings owner seems to be undecided between competing and rebuilding for the future. They started by trading players for picks, but then couldn’t resist bringing one of the better players of the game in Melo. This leads to a Jrue, Melo and DMC core which is great (even with danger warnings about %’s and TO), but the rest of the team are at this moment question marks and they really need TRob to develop fast and Turko to come back from injury
12 - Philadelphia 76ers – Dwight Howard. If philly wants to be strong playoff team they will need DH12 in beast mode. He can do that sometimes, we’ll see about him in Kobeland. We all know what to expect of this team with DH12 and DeAndre, REB, BLK, FG%. Let’s see if the rest of the roster keeps up. They need a PG and some AST for sure, and FT% and TO are a stat to forget
11 - Oklahoma City Thunder – This owner was dumb enough to trade Harden, so he looks like a real NBA GM. The team have two true superstars in Durant and Westbrook, and three young projects in Hayward, Favors and Ibaka. Other those five starters, there’s just some unproven fantasy players. This team needs the three youngsters to take a step forward and live up to their potential to have any chance of competing. Seems to have a bright future, if they can acquire some depth from another team other than OKC and UTA
10 –Cleveland Cavaliers – The top four best players are good enough for a playoff spot. Kyrie, Iggy, Gallo, Jao if they stay healthy can be enough. But the rest of Cavs roster, with the exception of Koufos and Gee won’t produce enough stats to make them compete with the top tier teams, even in the East. The old GM is being replaced for lack of activity, maybe this team will improve with a more present owner
9 – Orlando Magic – What a turnaround. Lots of trades and moves changed this team from one of the worst, to true PO contender in the east. They have the depth that lacks some of the teams bellow them, as they have 9-10 players from different teams that really contribute every week. Is depth overrated? We’ll see, because this team has no true stars other than Pau. The other worry about this team, is that they don’t have any pick in 2013 or 2014 draft other than a single 2nd round in 2014, and they must be careful about the future
8 – San Antonio Spurs – Decent depth with Delfino, Hamilton, Diaw, Ridnour, but ultimately everything will depend on the real Spurs and Pop rotation. Dunca looks like he’s 26 again, but with the season progressing, their big 3 will probably be rested as usual, and if so, this team will fall faster than a Ginobili flop. On the other side, if Brook decides to improve his rebound numbers to about 6 a game, that would help
7 – Utah Jazz – Harden and Jennings are the stars on a team that has a true depth of 8 players. If Harden continues his recent form in Houston, Marvin Williams keeps up the nice season start, the only thing missing is that Kanter takes a big step in his development and catapult the Jazz into the top
6 – Minnesotta Timberwolves – Lots of injuries in this season start. But when healty this is one of the best teams in the whole league. With Love, Scola and AK47 in the driver seat, the Wolves have also enough depth to compete every week. If Rubio returns this season, then the only weak position of their starting five will disappear, as for now, the Wolves GM is betting on quantity over quality for the PG position
5 – Golden State Warriors – Risky team to project. They have 7-8 players in their rotation, and most of them can be stars. The problem is that most of them also have an history of injuries. Amar’e is already down. Curry just returned but can he be trusted? Roy has retired because of chronic injuries and is making a comeback. Boozer missed more than 20 games 5 times. So, the warriors can be a top 5 team or a bottom one, depending on the medical report
4 – Miami Heat – When a team that starts two top 5 fantasy players also was able to gain some depth in the offseason, this can only turn out to be a top team in any league and format. As long as Wade and Lebron stay healthy and don’t start to rest every other game, the Heat have to be up there in the rankings. Nene was a risky move because of his contract and health issues, but is also a big boost in some stats if he can stay in the active roster
3 – Portland Trailblazers – The Blazers have kept the two best players in their original roster in Batum and LMA, and added a few names that can helpt right away in JaVale, Kawi and Isaiah. That along with the blazers backups comes together as a very balanced team with very strong cats in STL, PTS, REB, BLK. In a hard division, the Blazers seems like the team to beat
2 – Phoenix Suns – The deepest team in the entire league. The suns have in their roster 10 players with fantasy relevance for every position and stat. To go along with Dragic, Gortat and Matthews, they field a lot of other players to watch. If Dion Waiters keeps his production, and guys like Odom, Green, Udrih, Sanders and Morris continue to help or even improve their minutes, this team will be the best in the West
1 – Boston Celtics – This is a surprise ranking, but if the first curse of the #1 has to go to someone, better be to Jose. Like every Celtics fan, Jose is full of arrogance that comes with the history of their franchise. They truly feel that Rondo is the best PG of the entire league, PPierce (or as we call him, the wheel chair guy) the best SF and Garnet the best PF. But even if we go past all the delusional stuff, we still see three top 25 guys, and then some other pieces that are starting the season really strong in Aminu, Reddick, Ray Ray. If Beasley doesn’t get arrested in the next few weeks and Udoh keeps improving his defensive stats, that it will be hard to beat them in AST, FG%, 3PM and they seem capable in PTS, REB, STL, BLK also.
Maybe the #1 is not the right team, but we had to try to jinx Celtics GM. We just had to…
29 - Los Angeles Clippers - Rebuilding team. Lots of moves transformed CP3, DeAndre, Griffin in JJohnson, Thad and Bynum. When Bynum returns this team will be a lot better. At least they have lots of 1st Rounds in the next two drafts
28 - Atlanta Hawks - Pratically untouched, still has most of the original roster and will not be able to produce with that lineup. Has two great players and Teague seems ready to step up, but needs to diversify their team
27 - Denver Nuggets - A lot of youth translates into poor numbers (decent rebounding still) and this Nuggets team is not built for this year. They only need 3-4 of those rookies to turn out fantasy stars. This team can easily be a top 5 next season
26 - Houston Rockets - Another young team who needs his youth to start producing to win games this season. FT% and 3PM can be the stronger cats of this team by now and they could only get better ifthe real rockets change coach, or the current one starts playing more than 8 guys
25 - Washington Wizards - Without John Wall, this team will ride the Bosh/Okafor train. Best thing wiz can hope is for MKG to develop quickly into a multicat stud (other than scoring) by the time Wall returns
24 - Charlotte Bobcats - Another team in rebuild mode, a standard strategy given the starting roster. Lillard posted a fantastic week 1, but the Lillard/Walker combo won't win many games if the rest of the roster doesn't contribute.
23 - New Orleans Hornets - Even with a great start from Vasquez and Lopez, this high potential team have a long walk untill playoff contention. When Gordon returns from his misterious injury they will be better, specially if AD starts to comand the double team Ryan Anderson needs to be more effective. If AD turns out huge and Gordon eventually returns, look out
22 – Memphis Grizzlies – The Grizz are in a though division and didn’t make enough changes to improve their chances of succeeding. Only the four original starters (and all from the same team) will not be enough for a spot in the Western Playoffs
21 - New York Knicks – After trading Melo for two rookies his ranking took a big hit. This team has a bright future with the help of five 1st rounds in 2013-14 drafts. For this year, the Knicks are counting on Barnes, Brooks, Smith and Camby to really help them. We’ll see how that turns out
20 – Indiana Pacers – Another team that didn’t change enough during the offseason. Indiana will surely improve once Granger comes back from injury even if it is at the expense of Gerald Green’s minutes. If the GM can trade some of those pieces, Indiana will be a force in the Central division
19 – Brooklyn Nets – While the backcourt of Deron Williams and Arron Afflalo can compete against any fantasy backcourt in this league, the truth is that there isn’t much else in the Nets roster. Tyson Chandler is a great piece to have on a championship roster in the NBA but, unfortunately, his numbers are not worth 13.6M in fantasy. Kris Humphries is also having a subpar season and not helping the Nets at all
18 – Milwaukee Bucks – With a roster so shallow, not even Chris Paul can make this team a contender. The only reason why Milwaukee shows up this high in these rankings is the fact that they have an amazing fantasy frontcourt which, when paired with CP3, can mask the shortcomings of this roster. The Bucks are the third team from Central division to be mentioned, so they do have a chance of sneaking into the playoffs if no injuries occur
17 – Dallas Mavericks – Again, another team that kept most of the players from the original roster. While there’s no doubt that most of them (if not all) are coveted players and Nowitzki is still injured, the Mavs bench simply doesn’t add enough value to keep the Mavs ahead of their opponent every night. It may be very difficult to win any matchup in which the real life Mavs play only twice a week.
16 – Chicago Bulls – Without derrick Rose, this team will need monster seasons from Noah and Deng, and also that Hawes produces like some weeks last season where he looked like a real fantasy stud. Other than this players, all the rest consists basically in the rest of Bulls roster, with Hinrich and Gibson leading the way. When Rose returns, the story will be a lot different
15 – Los Angeles Lakers – As for their real life counterpart, the Lakers did not start the season as they expected. Nash is out for a few weeks and the Lakers chance of success in the Pacific are slim until he returns. Ilyasova is also having a disappointing start of the season as well as Bogut, who may never go back to be the player he once was. Much of the Lakers success relies on this Nash-Ilyasova-Bogut trio, as Kobe and Paul George keep carrying this team
14 – Toronto Raptors – This team is good, but they will suffer a lot of losses because they are totally Raptors dependent, and will struggle when the real Raptors have few games in that matchup. Have the pieces to build a strong squad if they can make some trades
13 – Sacramento Kings – The Kings owner seems to be undecided between competing and rebuilding for the future. They started by trading players for picks, but then couldn’t resist bringing one of the better players of the game in Melo. This leads to a Jrue, Melo and DMC core which is great (even with danger warnings about %’s and TO), but the rest of the team are at this moment question marks and they really need TRob to develop fast and Turko to come back from injury
12 - Philadelphia 76ers – Dwight Howard. If philly wants to be strong playoff team they will need DH12 in beast mode. He can do that sometimes, we’ll see about him in Kobeland. We all know what to expect of this team with DH12 and DeAndre, REB, BLK, FG%. Let’s see if the rest of the roster keeps up. They need a PG and some AST for sure, and FT% and TO are a stat to forget
11 - Oklahoma City Thunder – This owner was dumb enough to trade Harden, so he looks like a real NBA GM. The team have two true superstars in Durant and Westbrook, and three young projects in Hayward, Favors and Ibaka. Other those five starters, there’s just some unproven fantasy players. This team needs the three youngsters to take a step forward and live up to their potential to have any chance of competing. Seems to have a bright future, if they can acquire some depth from another team other than OKC and UTA
10 –Cleveland Cavaliers – The top four best players are good enough for a playoff spot. Kyrie, Iggy, Gallo, Jao if they stay healthy can be enough. But the rest of Cavs roster, with the exception of Koufos and Gee won’t produce enough stats to make them compete with the top tier teams, even in the East. The old GM is being replaced for lack of activity, maybe this team will improve with a more present owner
9 – Orlando Magic – What a turnaround. Lots of trades and moves changed this team from one of the worst, to true PO contender in the east. They have the depth that lacks some of the teams bellow them, as they have 9-10 players from different teams that really contribute every week. Is depth overrated? We’ll see, because this team has no true stars other than Pau. The other worry about this team, is that they don’t have any pick in 2013 or 2014 draft other than a single 2nd round in 2014, and they must be careful about the future
8 – San Antonio Spurs – Decent depth with Delfino, Hamilton, Diaw, Ridnour, but ultimately everything will depend on the real Spurs and Pop rotation. Dunca looks like he’s 26 again, but with the season progressing, their big 3 will probably be rested as usual, and if so, this team will fall faster than a Ginobili flop. On the other side, if Brook decides to improve his rebound numbers to about 6 a game, that would help
7 – Utah Jazz – Harden and Jennings are the stars on a team that has a true depth of 8 players. If Harden continues his recent form in Houston, Marvin Williams keeps up the nice season start, the only thing missing is that Kanter takes a big step in his development and catapult the Jazz into the top
6 – Minnesotta Timberwolves – Lots of injuries in this season start. But when healty this is one of the best teams in the whole league. With Love, Scola and AK47 in the driver seat, the Wolves have also enough depth to compete every week. If Rubio returns this season, then the only weak position of their starting five will disappear, as for now, the Wolves GM is betting on quantity over quality for the PG position
5 – Golden State Warriors – Risky team to project. They have 7-8 players in their rotation, and most of them can be stars. The problem is that most of them also have an history of injuries. Amar’e is already down. Curry just returned but can he be trusted? Roy has retired because of chronic injuries and is making a comeback. Boozer missed more than 20 games 5 times. So, the warriors can be a top 5 team or a bottom one, depending on the medical report
4 – Miami Heat – When a team that starts two top 5 fantasy players also was able to gain some depth in the offseason, this can only turn out to be a top team in any league and format. As long as Wade and Lebron stay healthy and don’t start to rest every other game, the Heat have to be up there in the rankings. Nene was a risky move because of his contract and health issues, but is also a big boost in some stats if he can stay in the active roster
3 – Portland Trailblazers – The Blazers have kept the two best players in their original roster in Batum and LMA, and added a few names that can helpt right away in JaVale, Kawi and Isaiah. That along with the blazers backups comes together as a very balanced team with very strong cats in STL, PTS, REB, BLK. In a hard division, the Blazers seems like the team to beat
2 – Phoenix Suns – The deepest team in the entire league. The suns have in their roster 10 players with fantasy relevance for every position and stat. To go along with Dragic, Gortat and Matthews, they field a lot of other players to watch. If Dion Waiters keeps his production, and guys like Odom, Green, Udrih, Sanders and Morris continue to help or even improve their minutes, this team will be the best in the West
1 – Boston Celtics – This is a surprise ranking, but if the first curse of the #1 has to go to someone, better be to Jose. Like every Celtics fan, Jose is full of arrogance that comes with the history of their franchise. They truly feel that Rondo is the best PG of the entire league, PPierce (or as we call him, the wheel chair guy) the best SF and Garnet the best PF. But even if we go past all the delusional stuff, we still see three top 25 guys, and then some other pieces that are starting the season really strong in Aminu, Reddick, Ray Ray. If Beasley doesn’t get arrested in the next few weeks and Udoh keeps improving his defensive stats, that it will be hard to beat them in AST, FG%, 3PM and they seem capable in PTS, REB, STL, BLK also.
Maybe the #1 is not the right team, but we had to try to jinx Celtics GM. We just had to…