Week 13 NBA Power Rankings
Week 13 Power Rankings
Tier 1
1- Win’s Up Doc (10-2) [-]
2- DTC Porkchop Express (9-3) [-]
3- The Pullies (8-4) [-]
4- Sporty Strauss (8-4) [-]
5- Minnesota Moose Knuckles (8-4) [-]
6- Wait ‘ Til Next Year (8-4) [-]
Tier 2
7- Ornery Otters (6-6) [-]
8- Las Cabras (5-7) [-]
Tier 3
9- The BamO’s (4-8) [-]
10- Cooper Troopers (3-9) [-]
11- $traight Cash Homie (3-9) [-]
12- Shepherd Goods Choppers (1-11) [-]
(Tier 1) We are officially in the home stretch of the season with 7 weeks remaining in the regular season. As almost expected, there are ZERO changes in this week’s Power Rankings. After 12 weeks of play, each team has cemented his status and position within the league.
First off, after a 2-week COVID blip, Win’s Up Doc (1) is back to his winning ways. While other teams have closed the gap on him over the past month, he’s still the top-scoring team in the league with the best record. His top performer is Dejounte Murray, the spoils of selecting FIRST in the snake draft. He’s scoring 43.5 PPG, the 7th-best points average for any fantasy player this season (as the 61st player drafted).
DTC Porkchop Express (2) is following closely behind Doc, and is eagerly awaiting his chance to take down the FryGuy. His top performer is Domantas Sabonis, the 19th best points-per-game scorer at 38.6 PPG. However, Sabonis is 3rd in overall points scored all season, meaning that the Pacers’ big man has been remarkably healthy. In the League of Leagues, availability and depth is more important star power, and this is the prime example of why.
Third is a riser – The Pullies – who have almost locked up a playoff spot already with a 4.5 game division lead with 7 weeks remaining. If this team keeps it up, they should sneak into a BYE. Their top performer is LeBron James at 49.2 PPG, good for 3rd in per-game average amongst all fantasy players. He went for perhaps more than he should have in the auction, but he’s been nothing short of dominant since Anthony Davis has gone down.
Fourth is Sporty Strauss, but he took a big-time hit this week with an injury to the most underrated player in fantasy so far – Dillon Brooks. Strauss is in good shape right now and has three upcoming weeks against $traight Cash Homie, The BamO’s, and the Shepherd Goods Choppers. That should be enough to solidify a playoff spot before a final 4 weeks that includes 3 games against Nolo’s Division. Sporty Strauss’ top performer is, of course, Giannis Antetekounmpo, one of two players scoring over 50 PPG. Strauss has been riding his Wisconsin bad boys all season, and Giannis continues to be a dominant force.
Coming in 5th is the upstart MN Moose Knuckles, who’ve rattled off four straight wins. However, NOW comes the Knuckles’ gauntlet part of the schedule. He has 5 straight weeks, starting this week against the Ornery Otters, against teams .500 or better. This includes The Pullies, Win’s Up Doc, Sporty Strauss and, finally, a MASSIVE matchup against Wait ‘Til Next Year to start division play of the final 3 weeks. The MN Moose Knuckles are led by Rudy Gobert, who scores 40.7 PPG, good for 11th in the league. In this scoring format, bigs are the surest bets to dominate, and Gobert provides an amazing nightly baseline for the Moose Knuckles to build a solid team, but he still lacks other explosive options.
The last team in Tier 1 is still Wait ‘Til Next Year (6), though he is fading fast. While there’s no shame in losing to The Pullies and Win’s Up Doc, a 3-game losing streak is never great. The schedule isn’t particularly easy or super tough the rest of the season, and he has the advantage of already beating the Ornery Otters, the team vying with him for the final playoff position. That matchup has been mentioned before, and will continue to loom large throughout the season. With Anthony Davis injured, Trae Young is Wait ‘Til Next Year’s best player at a 41.5 PPG clip. That’s good for 9th in the league, and this is the team most built on stars. Tatum and Davis are also top-tier scorers (when healthy).
(Tier 2) The Ornery Otters (7) BARELY snuck away from $traight Cash Homie with a win. He’s crossing his fingers that his COVID problems are in the past, because the win puts him in position to strike for that final playoff spot if Wait ‘Til Next Year continues to slide with that AD injury. The Ornery Otters’ best player on a nightly basis is LaMelo Ball, who scores 39.8 PPG. That’s the 15th best player in the league, but he’s the youngest player in the top-45. The Ornery Otters have such a bright future.
Las Cabras (8) got absolutely bent over by The Pullies, and this loss hurts. They would have beaten all but 2 other teams, and Las Cabras needs all the wins it can get. Though the luck gods have been on their side for a month, the tide finally turns. Las Cabras are obviously led by the greatest single fantasy player in the entirety of the League of Leagues – Nikola Jokic. He’s the top scoring player, and he rarely misses games. But the rest of the team has been letting him down, much like the real life Nuggets.
(Tier 3) The BamO’s (9) finally move down to Tier 3 at this point, but they are still better than the teams at the bottom when healthy. The BamO’s rode Steph Curry’s greatness over the early portion of the season, but he’s cooled off considerably since then. He’s scoring at a 40.5 PPG rate, good for 13th in the league. Sam still needs more from him.
The Cooper Troopers (10) best player is James Harden, who is 6th in the league in scoring at 44 PPG. At almost 33 years old, Harden is an excellent trade target by any team who wants to make a strong push to win the NBA this year and take down Sporty Strauss.
$traight Cash Homies’ (11) top dog is Joel Embiid, the 4th best player in the league on a nightly basis. He scores 46.2 points every game, and is another prime trade candidate.
Surprisingly, the Shepherd Goods (12) have 3 players in the top-22 in nightly scoring this season. His top animal is KAT who gets 40.5 PPG. KAT has been banged up, out with COVID and has been slightly disappointing slightly disappointing, but Jordan’s overspend on KAT can’t be considered the prime reason for his disappointment. Jimmy Butler is 14th in the league in nightly scoring, but has been even more banged up. And Fred VanVleet rounds out one of the league’s best big 3’s (when healthy), but the drop-off from them to his next player(s) is the primary reason for the Choppers’ disappointment.
Week 12 High Score
The Pullies (Peter/Eric)
1551 points
Notes: A new RECORD! The most single points scored in a week by a League of Leagues team goes to The Pullies who have solidified themselves as a clear top-3 squad. It might finally be time to talk about them as a contender who can win it all instead of simply a team who got lucky with its division.
Week 12 Low Score (AKA the JordJack Award)
$traight Cash Homie (Jack)
1142
Notes: Everyone set their full lineups this week! A beautiful sight! As a result, there isn’t a truly awful week. Unfortunately for Jack (and the rest of the league), the Ornery Otters SOMEHOW won as the 2nd lowest scoring team in the league, and they won by 5 POINTS! The Ornery Otters needed this win more than Jack to stay in the playoff conversation.
Week 12 MVP
Pascal Siakam
Sporty Strauss (Strauss)
171 points
Notes: In a week of disappointing performances from some of Sporty Strauss’ reliable players (Wagner, Reggie Jackson, Dillon Brooks, Ayton, Love, Draymond, Primo and Bledsoe), he really needed some great performances to escape the Cooper Troopers with a win. In 4 games, Pascal Siakam scored about 42.5 PPG, best on his team. His dual center and power forward eligibility has been underrated for this team all season, because it’s a team that lacks centers besides Siakam and Ayton.
Week 12 LVP
Davion Mitchell
The BamO’s (Sam)
33 points
Notes: Needless to say, the trades have NOT worked out for The BamO’s this season. This week, Davion Mitchell’s 8 points per night was a death knell for The BamO’s who are almost out of contention. Mitchell played good minutes in all 4 games too – over 21 minutes in each game. But his disappointing week encapsulates a lot of Sam’s lost season.
Current Playoff Seeding
Playoffs
Win’s Up Doc – BYE
MN Moose Knuckles – BYE
The Pullies
DTC Porkchop Express
Sporty Strauss
Wait ’Til Next Year
Consolation
Ornery Otters – BYE
Las Cabras – BYE
The BamOs
$traight Cash Homie
Cooper Troopers
Shepherd Goods Choppers
Week 12 Matchups
Win’s Up Doc (1) vs Cooper Troopers (10)
DTC Porkchop Express (2) vs Shepherd Goods Choppers (12)
The Pullies (3) vs Wait ’Til Next Year (6)
Sporty Strauss (4) vs $traight Cash Homie (11)
MN Moose Knuckles (5) vs Ornery Otters (7)
Las Cabras (8) vs The BamOs (9)
Week 12 MATCHUP of the WEEK
The Pullies [8-3] (3rd) vs Wait ‘Til Next Year [7-4] (6th)
This game is CRITICAL for all those who are hoping to sneak into the playoffs (Cabras, Otters and BamO’s). Right now, The Pullies (3) are almost the surest bet to make the playoffs with the weakness of that division. If teams want to sneak in, their best best is the continued decline of Wait ‘Til Next Year. A 4th straight loss opens those floodgates WIDE open, and The Pullies are red hot.
For The Pullies, this game is about collecting a BYE and guaranteeing themselves 9 points in the NBA portion of the League of Leagues. Right now, there’s an outside chance The Pullies could make the comeback of the century and place in the end of season standings with dominant NBA and MLB seasons, despite having 0 points in football.
The dominance of The Pullies is also GREAT news for every other contender if The Pullies pull this game out! The odds of The Pullies making that comeback are very low, and a non-contender like Pete and Eric stealing points from other contenders is so enviable for teams like Sporty Strauss.
PG1 – Ja Morant vs Trae Young
PG2 – Darius Garland vs Kyle Lowry
SG1 – Anthony Edwards vs Kyrie Irving
SG2 – Jordan Clarkson vs Evan Fournier
SF3 – Kevin Durant vs Marcus Morris Sr.
SF4 – OG Anunoby vs Tim Hardaway Jr.
PF1 – LeBron James vs Jayson Tatum
PF2 – Bojan Bogdanovic vs Jaren Jackson, Jr.
C1 – Montrezl Harrell vs Andre Drummond
C1 – Bismack Biyombo vs Mason Plumlee
FLEX1 – Gary Trent, Jr. vs Isaiah Stewart
FLEX2 – Patrick Beverley vs Royce O’Neal
FLEX3 – Dorian Finney-Smith vs Terrence Ross
The Pullies: Advantage at 10/13 positions
Wait ‘Til Next Year: Advantage at 3/13 positions
INJURIES:
The Pullies: Montrezl Harrell (P - COVID), Gary Trent Jr. (Q - Ankle), Patrick Beverley (Q - Groin), Thad Young (Q - COVID), Luke Kennard (Q - COVID)
Wait ‘Til Next Year: Will Barton (O - COVID), Shake Milton (Q - COVID) Anthony Davis (O - Knee), Tyrese Maxey (O - COVID), Kemba Walker (Q - Knee), Kawhi Leonard (O - Knee)