We’re here again for the league awards, a memorialization of the
year and an updating of our All Time Rankings.
Since we had almost completely new winners this year, the rankings were
quite shaken up, including a new second place team and a team moving out of the
dreaded last-place spot.
This year was interesting; it never seemed settled. It had a weird rhythm. We got started late because of the lock-out
uncertainty. We had the specter of
expiring keeper contracts constantly making trades a possibility (and,
disappointingly, there wasn’t as much action on that front as I had hoped,
although the trade wire wasn’t completely inactive). And then we had the blunderbuss of the
expedited NBA schedule blowing out knees and taking its toll all over the
place. Personally, I tried to ride out
injuries and make a late push (didn’t really work out). Other teams dealt with the same decisions,
especially considering how many injured players were hot keeper
commodities.
But enough prelude; let’s get to the awards. A quick reminder: the awards are split into
those that are merely interesting and those that earn ATPs (All-Time
Points). The latter awards figure into
the All Time Rankings every year.
INTERESTING
TIDBITS
Most
Impressive Match-Up Winning Streak:
Balding Ballers (6 match-ups, Weeks 16-22)
Longest
Match-Up Losing Streak: Brew-Ha Bandits
(7 match-ups, Weeks 8-14)
Dad finished the season strong (well, at least the regular
season), winning his final six match-ups by a combined score of 40-14 (a .740
winning percentage). Chris also had a
six-win streak to open the season,
but his combined match-up score was 36-17-1.
We should also consider that Dad’s streak was an amazing rise-from-the-dead
event; at the time, Dad was 3-5 in match-ups on the year (including the biggest
loss of the year; see the next award for details) and looking like he might not
make the playoffs. Ripping off those six
wins, the last four of which were of the 7-2 and 8-1 variety, not only
guaranteed him a playoff spot, but guaranteed him a first-round bye (thus
technically making his unbeaten streak 7 weeks instead of 6).
On the other side of the spectrum, poor Alan opened the season
with seven straight losses (kind of the anti-Chris), mustering only 2
categorical wins in 5 of those 7 weeks. In
fact, Alan only hit the five-win mark twice, in his match-ups with Vujabitches
(Week 15) and our eventual runner-up Knights of Rodanthe (Week 17). He mustered a “winning” percentage of only .333. That’s the worst winning percentage EVER for
a member of the Pick & Roll Call League.*
(Basically, 2012 Alan = 2012 Charlotte Bobcats.) I thought I’d bury that fact in this paragraph
instead of singling it out as its own award.
You’re welcome, Alan.
*(The one possible exception: 2005, during our “pre-merger” period
when the constitution—and even sometimes the size—of the league changed
year-to-year, Rosendo Garza (Wrigley the Beagle) posted a .320 “winning”
percentage for the year. That, however,
was a 12-team league (meaning talent was more thinly spread out) and Rosendo
was fighting a war in Iraq at the time.
So we’re not counting it. The
bottom of the barrel is yours, Alan, until someone claims it from you.)
Biggest
Win: Week 13, YoungGayLoveFavors def.
Balding Ballers (8-0)
We didn’t have any 9-0 shellackings this year, but we came darn
close. In Week 13, Chris was one steal
away. At this point of the season, as I
mentioned before, our defending champ looked down for the count and Chris
looked like he was going to cruise to a top seed in the playoffs. Then, of course . . .
Most
Ravaged by Injury: YoungGayLoveFavors
. . . Chris’ team became a M*A*S*H unit. He lost Anderson Varejao and Chauncey Billups
for the season. OK, fine, no biggie,
other teams have lost role players. But
then Chris lost Carmelo Anthony, Danilo Gallinari, Kevin Martin, Ryan Anderson,
and, for the first round of the playoffs, Kyrie Irving. Those only happen to be most of his best
players (excluding Al Jefferson and LaMarcus Aldridge). They also happened to be his most crucial
players, not just from a counting-stats standpoint, but from an efficiency standpoint. Chris was by far the most consistently
dominant FT% team in the league this year.
Even after losing FT% stalwarts like Billups, Anthony, and Gallinari for
significant stretches of the year, Chris still finished the year with the
highest cumulative FT% (.814). He was
also quite efficient at minimizing TOs.
Oh, and he was also pretty much the most dominant 3-point-shooting team
to start the season. So yeah—Chris gets
the “Derrick Rose Memorial Award for Most Important Injuries in 2012.” What an honor, I’m sure.
Honorable Mention injuries:
coughDerrickRosecough (39 games played) and Andrew Bogut (12 gp),
Brew-Ha Bandits (a big reason Alan had such a crappy year); Eric Gordon (9 gp)
and Al Horford (11 gp), Block O (ditto); Stephen Curry (26 gp),
Nutcrushers/Metta World Peas; Kyle Lowry (47 gp), Arbitrageurs; Manu Ginobili
(34 gp), 28 Light Years Old.
Single-Category
Dominance: Vujabitches (assists)
A couple years ago, Chris came up with this great analytical tool
called “League Wins” that tried to look beyond pure H2H wins and losses to potential H2H wins and losses, i.e.,
what a team would have done against every other team in every stat category
every week. It was an impressive feat of
spreadsheeting, and really gave us a perspective we didn’t have otherwise.
Unfortunately, neither Chris nor I have continued
compiling/measuring League Wins. RIP.
What we do have, however, are the total compiled stats for each
team in each stat category. I’ve gone
ahead and used those to figure out the weekly averages for each team in each
stat category, as well as the league-wide averages and the standard deviations
in each category. Using those numbers, I’ve
come up with a kind of score that can measure and quantify exactly how much
better than the league average each team was week-to-week in each stat
category.
Lo and behold, J.J. (Vujabitches) showed up as the most dominant
team in any one category (assists). J.J.’s
average weekly performance was 2.23 standard deviations above the weekly league
average. To put that in more absolute
terms, J.J. was the only team to average over 200 assists per week (207.56, in
actuality); the next closest team was Nutcrushers at 182.65 ast/wk. The league average was 155.95 ast/wk. In fact, J.J. only lost assists once this
year: week 23, vs. me. He lost by 5 measly assists. In another evocation of the point, look to
week 12, when Anna beat J.J. 8-1. J.J.
only won assists, but it was no contest; he was up by 53 assists at week’s
end. So congrats, J.J., for being so
dominant in one category.
Honorable Mention: Knights
of Rodanthe (Angelo) dominated blocks all year, being the only team to average
over 40 blocks per week at 41.35; the next closest team was Annan (Joakim Noah
4 EVR—which, by the way, is the best team name evr), who averaged 34.44
blks/wk.
ATP
AWARDS
Best Draft: YoungGayLoveFavors (75 ATPs)
Of all the ATP awards, this one was the most obvious. That Chris didn’t win this year is among the
worst tragedies we’ve witnessed here in the Pick & Roll Call League (yeah,
OK, not that tragic, but I remember how it felt to have the best team only to
see it implode and/or get beat by a team getting hot in the playoffs; it’s been
a long time, but that used to happen to me all the time). Of course, nobody has a perfect draft. Every year, every team is going to miss on some
players (for Chris this year, it was Darren Collison and Ed Davis). But it’s rare to have a draft where you draft
ONE player in the middle or late rounds who returns top-30 value, much less
THREE. In Chris’ case, he picked Kyrie
Irving 51st overall; Irving ended up ranking 26th overall
by averages. In the tenth round, Chris
grabbed Ryan Anderson, who ended up as the 8th best fantasy player
this year by any measure (honestly; look it up). A couple rounds later, it was Paul George (23rd
ranked overall, 40th by averages).
Add to that his steal of Anderson Varejao in round 9 (Sideshow Bob was
the 48th best fantasy player this year by averages), plus getting
exactly what he should have out of Al Jefferson (10th overall pick,
ranked in the top 10) and Aaron Afflalo (drafted 70th overall, ended
up ranked 71st), and Chris was in perfect position—as long as his
keepers panned out and he avoided multiple injury lightning strikes.
Well, you know how that worked out. With the exception of DeMar DeRozan, Chris’
keepers performed beautifully (when they were on the court). It was that measly detail of having all of
your awesome players actually playing the game that derailed the Chris Quiroga
train. As we explored above, Chris was
ravaged by injuries in waves, and to many of his best players. In a way, this award was created to
acknowledge the “could have been” nature of dope teams that don’t end up
winning anything in the end.
YoungGayLoveFavors is the poster team for that category in our keeper
era.
Best Keepers (TIE): Joakim Noah 4 EVR (75 ATPs), Metta
World Peas (75 ATPs)
Annan and I were the only two teams that had all of their keepers
return value (i.e., each keeper outranked his draft slot). My
returns on investment were staggering; EACH of my three keepers ended up in the
top 15 by totals and in the top 25 by averages.
I mean . . . that’s ridiculous. I’m
so proud. Actually, the more I think
about this . . .
Best Keepers (TIE): Joakim Noah 4 EVR (75
ATPs), Metta World Peas (75 ATPs)
. . . there’s no way that my keepers weren’t better than Annan’s. I mean, sure, he had four of them and I only
had three. But I don’t want to set the
precedent that more always equals better for this award; it’s better NOT to
keep a guy if he’s not going to reward your investment (and if he takes up a
draft slot you could otherwise hit the jackpot with). Sure, all of Annan’s keepers either fit
inside the top 50 or flirted with it, but . . . I mean . . . ALL OF MY KEEPERS
DOMINATED. Top 15, all of them. I don’t think that will ever happen again. The only thing you could say is that “of
course LeBron is going to be that good,” but still—did Annan go out on a limb
keeping his guys? (Yeah, actually; Kris
Humphries was a stretch in my opinion, but there’s no way he would have
performed this well had Brook Lopez not taken a bath for most of the season, so
should Annan win this award because of luck?
I say no.) And it’s not like I
kept three guys in the first three rounds; Harden was in the 10th
and Jennings was in the 11th.
If only I had drafted a bit better. Or a lot better. Or well at all. I guess there’s always next year.
Master(s) of the Waiver Wire (TIE): YoungGayLoveFavors
(75 ATPs), Balding Ballers (75 ATPs)
Every year, I try my damnedest to win this award. I’m always among the most active teams on the
waiver wire (this year, with 45 moves, I doubled-up the next most active team,
my dad, who only had 23 moves). And I
always make some good pick-ups. (This
year, I’m most proud of Klay Thompson and late-season Nate Rob, who almost
carried me to the playoffs, as well as useful fill-in stints by J.J. Barea,
Greivis Vasquez, Danny Green, Kawhi Leonard, and Anthony Randolph). But each year, I can make too good of an
argument that another team (this year, teams) deserves the award.
Unlike last year, which was a very easy victory by waiver maven
Annan, this year was tough to gauge.
Annan once again made some quality acquisitions in James Johnson, Al
Harrington, and a timely rental of Randy Foye (after the Billups injury). Vivek got good use of Nikola Pekovic and “The
Other” Isaiah Thomas; Nick nabbed the surprising MarShon Brooks early on.
Ultimately, though, this award belongs to Chris and Dad. The case for Chris comes down to two players,
for the most part. You all know the
first: Jeremy Lin. Chris was the lucky winner of the biggest FA
lottery this year, snapping up the Lininator and riding his ridiculous starting
numbers. Chris then banked him for
keeper commodity Nick Batum (end-of-season rank: 31), thus avoiding the pain of
Lin’s injury. The second pick-up,
however, I think was even more impressive:
Sam Dalembert. Chris grabbed him
right as he was heating up from his cold start; Dalembert rewarded Chris by
posting near-top-50 numbers for stretches, ending with a season-long average
rank of 90. Even more impressive,
Dalembert ended the year ranked 66th based on total stats
produced. Chris also grabbed Faried and
Shumpert for useful runs late in the season.
Dad also wins here primarily for two pick-ups. Similarly to Chris, Dad picked up a hot PG
commodity who got a chance to shine due to injury: Goran Dragic.
Dad snapped him up when Kyle Lowry went down, and received the 62d most
valuable player this year (according to year-end totals; considering Dragic
only started 28 games, his actual value for Dad during that run was even
higher, and arguably more impactful than Lin).
The other player is another Dalembert-esque, under-the-radar big guy: Ersan Ilyasova. Ilyasova returned top-50 value for Dad in
both totals and averages.
(UPDATED) ALL-TIME POWER
RANKING
Here, for posterity, is the listing of how a team can earn ATPs
for this ranking, including both league finishes and awards:
- League
Championship: 500 ATPs
- Second
Place: 200 ATPs
- Third
Place: 100 ATPs
- Seventh
Place (winner of the Consolation Bracket): 75 ATPs
- Master
of the Waiver Wire: 75 ATPs
- Best
Keepers: 75 ATPs
- Best
Draft: 75 ATPs
This year, Nick won his first league championship, vaulting up the
All Time Rankings with the 500-point boost to tie his brother for second place all-time.
Angelo added a second place trophy, Annan won third (and got himself out
of last place in the rankings), and I took the consolation bracket. Including
those finishes and the awards detailed above, here’s how our All-Time rankings
stand after the 2011-2012 season.
1. Bob Josephson (Balding Ballers): 1400 ATPs
(Rank last year: 1.)
2012 Master of the Waiver Wire (75)
2011 League Champion (500)
2011 Best Draft (75)
2011 Best Keepers (75)
2010 League Champion (500)
2009 Best Draft (75)
2009 Third Place (100)
2. Chris Quiroga (Young No Mo Still Gay, Thabeet Goes On,
Young Gay Love Favors): 650 ATPs
(Rank last year: 2.)
2012 Best Draft (75)
2012 Master of the Waiver Wire (75)
2009 League Champion (500)
2. Nick Quiroga (Nutcrushers): 650 ATPs
(Rank last year: tied for
7.)
2012 League Champion (500)
2011 Best Keepers (75)
2009 Master of the Waiver Wire (75)
4. J.J. (Moo Moo Mussolini, Mao Meow ZeMeow, TEAM
CHAMPIONS, Vujabitches): 350 ATPs
(Rank last year: tied for
3.)
2011 Seventh Place (75)
2010 Second Place (200)
2010 Best Draft (75)
4. Andy Josephson (Something Clever, Del Harris Del Negro,
Metta World Peas): 350 ATPs
(Rank last year: 5.)
2012 Seventh Place (75)
2012 Best Keepers (75)
2011 Second Place (200)
6. Angelo Alexander (Knights of Rodanthe, Liberal Elite
Media): 300 ATPs
(Rank last year: 9.)
2012 Second Place (200)
2010 Third Place (100)
7. Alan Robey (Brew-Ha Bandits): 275 ATPs
(Rank last year: 4.)
2010 Master of the Waiver Wire (75)
2009 Second Place (200)
8. Vivek Raval (28 Light Years Old): 175 ATPs
(Rank last year: 6.)
2011 Third Place (100)
2010 Seventh Place (75)
8. Annan Moy (Arbitrageurs, Phi Slamma Jamma, Joakim Noah 4 EVR): 175 ATPs
(Rank last year: 10.)
2012 Third Place (100)
2011 Master of the Waiver Wire (75)
10. Anna Robey (Block O): 150 ATPs
(Rank last year: tied for 7.)
2010 Best Keepers (75)
2009 Seventh Place (75)
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