Friday, January 20, 2012
I have two fantasy leagues.
One is my ESPN Fantasy League whose flaws are its selfish nature to extinguish
trades through veto.
The other is my Yahoo Fantasy League whose rotisserie
nature makes it a strong bet for alliance and sabotage.
Because of my ESPN team’s
current struggles, I am giddier with my other squad. This is my office team so
every time we have our spare time we talk about our team’s performance. It’s
nice to hear my officemates talk ill of my squad but fact is I am now
comfortable with the rotisserie format. Plus it does help that my Yahoo league is daily while my ESPN league is weekly.
As of January 20, 2012, this is the team standings of our league.
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| Click to enlarge |
I am quite happy with my squad
because at the start it has identity. At first I started out with Brook Lopez
in sickbay but I have since cut him to get a refreshing off the wire find in Ryan Anderson. Mixing Anderson with my
top pick Kevin Love and Josh Smith,
I have come to a conclusion that my team will be a three point shooting /
rebounding squad. At the course of the season I got waiver claims Gerald Henderson, Sam Dalembert, and Dorell
Wright (thrown in there because of his then-abysmal field goal shooting) to
join my elite group composed of Deron
Williams, David Lee, Greg Monroe, Tony Parker, Kyrie Irving, and Caron Butler.
Eric Gordon is my last piece although he has yet to be productive.
There are nine teams in my
fantasy club and through research and wheeling and dealing, I have assembled my
squad. In the course of this period I am planning to rest my players so I won’t
finish my fantasy season early. I am also planning to shake things up in the
later months and concentrate on checking out the categories that I can still
enhance. When my lead in points and rebounds become so wide, I plan to rest my
players and concentrate on other stats like steals and blocks.
And then there’s the other
thing.
Unlike my ESPN league, this
league allows trades as long as both parties agree with the conditions. A
couple of weeks back, I traded David
West to Tony Allen because I want to waive West but he is undroppable and
at the same time, my friend needs to boost his rebounds. I know I’m at the bad
end of this trade but I get Dalembert in the free agency the moment I waived
Allen. In another situation, the same friend traded Kevin Durant for Monta Ellis and Kevin Martin because he thinks it’s
a good trade for him. The guy that got Durant had a space in his roster which
he used to claim Marshon Brooks. And
then when Al Horford got injured, my
friends latched a plan to cripple the other team by using the waiver wire to
block that team manager’s attempt to replace Horford with DeAndre Jordan. It’s not like I haven’t been a victim of this ploy.
I was once talking about taking Mike Miller
from free agency because he was perfect in the three-point area but then my
officemate ran to his computer and beat me to it. It was okay and all
especially since Miller returned to his barely tolerable ways.
Come trade deadline, aside from
concentrating on winnable stats, I will try to “help” lower ranked teams by
sending my players to their squads and waive the players I get from them so I
can get the players that will help me in my campaign. This may be a
double-edged mission but this helped me win my campaign last season. In my ESPN
Fantasy squad because it has a unique scoring system, players like Delonte West, Tony Allen, Chris Singleton,
and James Johnson aren’t that regarded because they are only
one-dimensional players.
And then here I am, checking
out the possibilities of them working in my favor to secure the steals for my
liking.
I am still bent on finishing my
ESPN squad on a high note. The best players are averaging in the 50’s and at
this point most of my players are struggling to make the 40’s. I have a really
weak forward position and I am only relying on my triple threat point guards
comprising of Kyle Lowry, Rajon Rondo,
and Kyrie Irving. I am still hoping to find a jewel of a forward in the
free agency just like how I took Henderson but with fifteen teams in my league,
the depth of my ESPN fantasy free agency has waned. Unless Amar’e Stoudemire and Rudy Gay contributes and the moment I get a
tolerable character at my other forward spot then I can see myself missing out
of a podium finish.
Hopefully my team will break
out from their slump and deliver the goods.
Game over.
