18/19 Season Preview Part 3
@altodevil @sebsheep @reelworld @Salt Bailly @Solius @Stobzilla @oneniltothearsenal @hobbers @Heine
Given I'm showing the whole 55+ rating squad, some of you are on pretty shallow teams.
sontodevil - Memphis Grizzlies (46-36, 1st Round)
Coming off his 1st MVP award and his 3rd DPOY award,
sontodevil has something to prove this season. Is he really the best player in the league? If he is, he's got to try to get past the 1st Round of the playoffs. That's going to be easier said than done, given that the West is very, very strong - particularly at the top. Still, the Grizzlies have a very strong 6-man rotation, even if it gets rather weak beyond that. The first goal
has to be to avoid the 6-8 seeds for once.
SebJr - Miami Heat (36-46)
SebJr is actually
not on one of those shallow teams I mentioned at the top. In fact, it's rather the opposite. Granted, a lot of that depth isn't of the very highest quality, but a decent player is better than a bad player. I double-checked that with Michael Owen, and he agreed. Now, does it matter that 6 of the 10 best players on the team are Point Guards, including the top 3? Why yes. Yes it does. All I know is that if
SebJr wants to secure that Hall of Fame spot that eluded his father, he's going to have to have a good final third of his career.
reelworld II - Milwaukee Bucks (39-43, 1st Round)
And now for something completely different. Where the Heat were the opposite of a good example of shallow depth, the Bucks are the opposite of that again. It honestly doesn't help that the entire squad is 11 players, where 2 of those are damn near unplayable and one, Michael Porter, is
literally unplayable - for the next 80+ games probably.
reelworld II is still realistically a top 10 player, but he needs to prove it by dragging the Bucks to the playoffs. Again.
Pepper Bailly - Minnesota Timberwolves (40-42)
The only reason the Timberwolves don't have as bad depth as the Bucks is that Wendell Carter Jr. went from 42 (unplayable) to 56 (pretty good) over the off season. With the continued improvements to
Pepper Bailly, and Michael Kidd-Gilchrist to take off some of the load, Minnesota actually have a rather good starting 5. If they don't make the playoffs it'll be solely due to the fact that every player below Carter is 50 or below. There's still time for trades, so maybe something can be done?
Solius - New Orleans Pelicans (17-65)
At what point will this 39 year old man stop scoring 20+ points per game? It doesn't look like it's this season. Last season he ended at precisely 20.0, but the addition of Luka Doncic might just make it easier for him to score. It's not like there's any pressure to make the playoffs or anything. Not being last is probably a good enough goal. He's got his MVP award, his rings, his All NBA Teams, all defensive, All Star appearances all star MVP, etc, etc. At this point it's all gravy, which I'm nearly positive is some kind of expression.
Two Nil & Stobzilla II - New York Knicks (36-46)
Are the Knicks good again? They've flattered to deceive before, but I think this might be the season they return to the playoffs. The last time was in 2014, when BenitoSTARR was the best player on the team. Since then
Stobzilla II has gotten even better, despite only getting older (one year at a time). They've also added
Two Nil since then, and he's turning into quite the player. He was already a triple double machine last season, and I suspect I won't even bother screenshotting his statistical feats this season. I don't
think they're winning any rings this season, but we've seen upsets in the Final before. Let's get to the playoffs before worrying about that, though.
Nobbers, Heine, Sonius & altodevil (61-21, NBA Champions)
It's the champions! They're actually one of those shallow teams I mentioned, though how much does that actually matter when their entire starting 5 is 66 or higher rating? There are teams without a single player at 66 - and surprisingly many of them are in the West. The youngsters all got better too, though
Sonius had one of those in-between off-seasons.
Nobbers solidified himself as the best player in the league, while
Heine took a leap up the rankings. Honestly, you can't
not have these guys as the prohibitive favourites to repeat their championship run. Whether or not it happens might actually hinge on
altodevil's contributions. I think the Spurs can thank their lucky stars that altodevil has aged that gracefully. That said, at some point that physical decline
is going to impact his usefulness in the playoffs. If it isn't this season, they're winning again. If they can avoid injuries.