2014-15 FANHOOPS ALL-STARS

Gasol brothers to start ASG

Here is my list of Fanhoops Allstars. My list is based on a combination of Slam Ranking, games played and NBA team performance.


Western Conference Starters

PG--  STEPHON CURRY
SG--  JAMES HARDEN
SF--  DRAYMOND GREEN

PF--  ANTHONY DAVIS
 C--   MARC GASOL

Top vote getter

Reserves

PG--  RUSSELL WESTBROOK
PG--  CHRIS PAUL
PG--  DAMIAN LILLARD
SG--  KLAY THOMPSON
PF--  LEMARCUS ALDRIDGE (IR)
PF--  BLAKE GRIFFIN
  C--  DEMARCUS COUSINS

IRR- TIM DUNCAN

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Eastern Conference Starters

PG--  JOHN WALL
SG--  JIMMY BUTLER
SF--  LEBRON JAMES
PF--  PAU GASOL
  C-- NIKOLA VUCEVIC

11 time All-Star

Reserves

PG-- KYLE LOWRY
PG-- JEFF TEAGUE
PG-- KYRIE IRVING
SF--  CARMELO ANTHONY
PF-- PAUL MILLSAP
  C-- AL HORFORD
  C-- ANDRE DRUMMOND

*IRR:  Injury reserve replacement*

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M.L.K. MIDSEASON REPORT. PART II

We continue the M.L.K. midseason report by looking at those currently holding spots 7-12 of the 2014-15 Fanhoops season.

7th. KMAC:
It's been tough sleding for the defending champ through the first half of the season. A shaky draft and a litany of injuries has forced Kmac into 14 transactions and a 6-player trade.  Carmelo Anthony was the big chip in the trade for Kmac, but he's been mostly on the bench due to injury since he arrived.  His presence along with Zach Randolph will be critical to the champs making a run for the money in the second half of the season.
   Only 4 active players remain from the draft. 2 others, Terrance Jones and Ricky Rubio have been on the injured list since November.  First round pick Chris Paul has been solid but not spectacular. Cliff Paul has occassionally shown up in his place with stinkers every once in a while.


8th. BnG:
If you're in a situation where you trade your 2nd and 3rd round picks for somebody else's 5th and 6th round picks, your season is probably not going the way you expected. That's the situation here as Barry acquired Jimmy Butler and Marcin Gortat for Andre Drummond and Tyreke Evans in mid December. As discussed in Midseason Report I,  Butler has been solid upon his arrival. Gortat, not so much. But the free agent acquistion of Gorgui Dieng (C) has helped ease the pain in the middle.
   4th overall pick Kevin Love has struggled to find his way in Cleveland, thus he has handicapped this fantasy team. His current slam is 39 (23rd overall). Barry only has half his players (6) remaining from the draft. 8 transactions have been used so far.

9th. DC Ballers:
DCB struggled early, posting three sub 30 point weeks in the first 9 weeks of the season. However the emergence of the Piston's Greg Monroe the past couple of weeks has given this squad a shot in the arm. Blake Griffin has been a solid producer (10th overall Slam ranking). A healthy Al Jefferson would provide a solid rotation the 2nd half of the season and provide a ray of hope.  DCB has been quiet on the transaction front with only 3 spent. Thus 11 of his 12 draft picks remain on the roster. Unfortunately the results don't suggest that's a good thing.


10th. Nellie:
On paper this looked like a very good squad to begin the season. But it has imploded in epic proportions the past month. Josh Smith got released in Detroit and picked up in Houston. Chris Bosh was hampered by injury for awhile. Derrick Rose has been in and out of the lineup, and hasn't been good when playing. The result has been the weekly low score 3 of the past 4 weeks. Nellie has used half of his transactions, and still has 3/4 of his draft class.


11th. Buc:
The other rookie of the league had a good first round pick in John Wall. But then the draft kind of imploded after that and he's been pretty much M.I.A. ever since. All draft picks are still in place and no transactions have been used to try and improve the team, even though 2nd round pick Kawhi Leonard has missed most of the season due to injury.

12th. GFCrew:
An interesting draft strategy of drafting Carmelo Anthony and Kevin Durant back to back backfired, and put GFCrew in a dicey situation to begin the season. And while the starters struggled with poor production and injuries, the bench players did nothing to plug the holes. An early season trade of Melo for Deandre Jordan solved the problem at center, but the other players in the deal, Demar Derozen and Tony Wroten immediately went down with injuries the moment they arrived.  All the injured parties are now back and healthy. They should be able to move GFCrew out of the basement by season's end. 7 of 12 players remain from the draft, and only 5 transacations have been used.

twitter:  @kmooresports
website: www.fanhoops.net

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M.L.K MIDSEASON REPORT. PART 1

M.L.K day generally symbolizes the unofficial half way point of the 2014-15 Fanhoops Regular Season.  Its been a challenging season thus far for each of the dozen owners. Inconsistent play and injuries have had transactions flying like hotcakes at a breakfast buffet.  There have even been a couple of trades. With 11 weeks down, and 12 to go, lets evaluate each teams performance so far.

1st. Glass: 
One of the newbie owners came out full throttle and hasn't taken his foot off the gas in the first half of the season.  Glass took over first place in Week 10.  He's on pace to shatter the charged transaction record in a season. Not that we ever had a record, but with 17 transacations to date Glass is already $25 in the hole.  All of the transactions have been to turn over the bottom 1/3 of the roster as 8 of 12 drafted players still remain and are contributing nicely.  Suprisingly, none of the 17 transactions have produced a significant rotation player.
  However, Glass netted the biggest steal of the draft in Draymond Green who was drafted in the 11th round (#126). Green is currently 31st in production, a 3rd round value.


2nd. Cali Mark: 
Mark landed the coveted #1 Pick in Anthony Davis, and "Da Brow" has not disappointed. Davis leads the league in Slam rating at 55, six points better than his closest competitor DeMarcus Cousins (Team Glass). Mark held 1st place for most of the first 10 weeks of the season. Recent struggles at the SG and SF have caused a recent slide to 2nd. Mark had a solid draft as he still holds 10 of 12 draftees. Only 4 burned transactions leaves him plenty of flexibility in the 2nd half of the season to strenghten his roster.


3rd. A-Team: 
Aaron has the proverbial 3-headed monster of Lebron James, Russell Westbrook and Pau Gasol to lead him into the 2nd half of the season. Each guy is currently in the overall top 10 in production. Westbrook was an obvious steal in the 5th round.  He's currently 4th overall and is running neck and neck with Chris Paul for best point guard production. Lebron has climbed to 5th with his recent surge. Pau Gasol has been a monster all season and is currently 9th overall.
  However the rest of the roster and rotation is in flux.  A-Team has used its 12 free transactions, so they will dig into the pocket book for their next pickup. And outside of a few plug and play situations, neither of the 12 signings has really made a dent in the rotation.  8 of the 12 draftees remain. The one glaring omission is 4th round pick Larry Sanders who has been suspended by the NBA for substance abuse and subsequently waived by
A-Team.

4th. Knicks Junky
Eddie's team is quite interesting. It's almost single handedly being carried by fantasy and NBA M.V.P. candidate James Harden right now. Harden is currently 3rd in the league in slam rating, only behind Anthony Davis and DeMarcus Cousins. With the exception of Joakim Noah, Knicks Junky has had minimal injuries to deal with. Thus Junky hasn't used any transactions, and all 12 drafted players remain on the roster. Its been an easy ride to the 4th spot for now.


5th. Mo City:
Mo City started off the season hot, posting 40 points performances in 2 of the first 4 weeks.  Its been a steady slide since then with top picks Dwight Howard and Kobe Bryant being in and out of the lineup (its still funny that they're on the same team).  Mo City has burned up the transaction wire as well with 15 moves (3 above the max). But he still has 10 of 12 drafted players.
 Ole Man River, Tim Duncan, continues to carry the load on this team as the 38-year old is currently 13th in the league in slam rating.

6th. GBockers
Gil rounds out top half of the league through the midway point. The Andre Drummond trade has worked out well for Gil, even though he had to give up Jimmy Butler in return. Drummond has a slam rating of 45+ since arriving on December 14th. Tyreke Evans who also came along in the deal is a 34+ since the trade. Meanwhile Butler and Marcin Gortat have a slam of  43+ and 27+ since leaving. Consider it a positive deal for GBockers at this point.
  M.V.P. candidate Stephen Curry leads the team with a 47 slam and is 6th overall in the league.  Big Al Holford has been coming on strong, averaging just under a 40 slam since the Drummond trade. #Fantasy Coincidence
  Gil has only used 5 transactions thus far. 7 of his 12 draft picks remain.

Part II coming soon.

twitter:  @kmooresports
website:  www.fanhoops.net

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ROCKETS FORMULA FOR SUCCESS: JOSH SMITH 6th MAN

The first six games of the Josh Smith experiment in Houston has had more ups and downs than a Six Flags rollercoaster. The Rockets are only 3-3 since Smith arrived, and he has struggled mightily at times to find his nitch in coach Kevin McHale's system. But a deeper look inside the numbers suggest Smith and the Rockets have a formula for success, and that is bringing him off the bench.

Bad Josh: (starter)  record 1-3, shooting 9/31 (29%), 5ppg, 4.5 reb, 1.5 assists, 23.5 mpg

Good Josh: (6th man) record 2-0, shooting 15/30 (50%), 16.5 ppg, 7 reb, 2.5 assists, 30 mpg.

Those numbers clearly reflect Smith is much better coming off the bench and only having to share the court with Dwight Howard or James Harden, not both. Smith often times looked lost as a starter playing with Harden and Howard as the 3rd or 4th option. And even though 4 games as a starter is a small sample size, the combination didn't fit. Give credit to Kevin McHale for not continuing to force it.  He put Smith back in the 6th man role against the Miami Heat on Saturday night, and the result was a resounding 115-79 blowout of the Heat. Of course this isn't Lebron's Heat, and past results don't indicate future success. However, the Rockets offense against Miami looked very good, similiar to how it did against the Memphis Grizzlies in Smith's debut.

In the last outing the Rockets also implemented a 3-man rotation among the big men of Howard, Smith and Donatas Motiejunas.  The other big, Joey Dorsey only saw mop up duty in the 4th quarter. If the Rockets continue this trend it should be more than enough minutes for Smith, as each of the three primary big men could average 30-32 minutes per game.

The Rockets should still keep the option open of moving Smith back into the starting lineup at some point later in the season, as they will need him in playoffs against the likes of Tim Duncan, LaMarcus Aldridge and Blake Griffin. But for the time being, coming off the bench maybe the best option for all involved.

twitter: @kmooresports
website: www.fanhoops.net

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