Chris and I have been compiling insightful and well-thought-out observations these past two years on the notable performances and occurrences in our league. Who drafted the best? Who was Master of the Waiver Wire? Who had the best and worst schedules? Which real-NBA players were the biggest retreads on our teams? These are the questions we will answer with these, the Official Pick and Roll Call League Awards. Suffer no imitation.
Not all awards are created equal. Some of these awards are filed under "Honorary" or "Interesting" headlines. They're tidbits of trivia or recognition for accomplishments that are somewhat minor (or dubious) in nature. Counterpoised to those are the big kahuna awards: the major accomplishments, the achievements that will stand the test of time. The winners of these awards will not just be getting ink here on the blog. No, they'll be earning something much more than that -- they'll be getting All-Time Points. These awards matter.
Here on the blog, we'll be maintaining a running tally (and thus, a running ranking) of All-Time Points (or "ATPs") to supplement the yearly championships and league finish. Certain year-end rankings will earn ATPs as well. In this way, we'll accomplish two things: (1) we'll recognize the under-the-radar playas who maybe didn't have the luck to win a championship but accomplished something real anyway, and (2) we'll extend the competition over multiple years to parallel the emphasis of our keeper format. Championships are forever, of course, and will earn the most ATPs out of anything, but we must also recognize consistent (though maybe not championship-level) excellence. Kind of like the Mavs (sorry, Annan, but it had to be said). A full explanation of the point values is below in the All-Time Ranking section.
I want to warn you ahead of time that this is an epic post. There are two reasons for this. First, we'll be covering both last year's awards and this year's awards (since I was too lazy to get out last year's awards on time). Second, we'll be covering the Historical Awards for the league.
As you all know, this league existed for five years before our current keeper incarnation, with many of the same league members. Those years should not be forgotten. However, they are not the same as the past two years for obvious reasons. There weren't keepers during those years and the competitive balance, competitive intensity, and league composition were inconsistent. I view it much like the pre-merger NBA. For instance, the Celtics won 11 titles in a 13-year span during the pre-merger era. It's one of the great historical facts that add flavor to the NBA. However, it is tainted in modern eyes (and should be) by the fact that the participation by black players was severely curtailed by lingering racism in the country, plus significant talent was siphoned off to the competing ABA (not to mention the fact that jump shots were still pretty new, nobody dunked much except Baylor and Wilt, and the predominant offensive philosophy was predicated on quantity of shots over quality). It's notable, but belongs to a different era. We'll be covering our own pre-keeper era to recognize the pioneers of our own league for posterity, but those awards will not earn ATPs.
One more note: interspersed amongst the awards are Chris' editorial comments. He's the unofficial vice-commish (our very own Stu Jackson). His comments are heavier for last year's awards, when he did some pretty spectacular stat analysis (analysis that neither of us followed up on this year, more's the pity). Keep in mind also that much of the text for the 2009 awards was actually written during 2009; some statements that we self-evident back then look a little wonky nowadays.
Without further ado . . .
PICK AND ROLL CALL HISTORICAL AWARDS
Best Pre-Keeper Playoff Performer: Andy (Something Clever, Burnt Albanian Boy, Ahmad Rashad's Squad, Rebuilding Year, Compaq X1000), Every Damn Year
Just a second, have to get my horn out of its case. [Rustling.] Ok, ready. In a five year span, I won two championships, took second twice, and took third the other year. That's five straight top-three finishes. Dad came close with two championships of his own, but he only backed that up with two third-place finishes and a ninth-place finish. All-or-nothing, I would say. Not like my continued dominance. Too bad I don't get any ATPs for it (as you’ll see below in the All-Time Rankings; man, I wish I could justify giving retroactive ATPs).
Best Before-Its-Time Roster: Chris (Taj McDavid’s Ballaz), 2006-2007
I was surprised by this one. My dad has been notorious for reaching for young players and rookies before anyone else so I expected to see one of his teams chock-full of playas who would completely kick ass as a team today (but didn’t work out that way back then). Then I saw Chris’ team from 2006. I’m guessing this would be a championship team nowadays: Chris Bosh + Monta Ellis + Danny Granger + Stephen Jackson + Al Jefferson + Corey Maggette + Rip Hamilton + Antawn Jamison + Brandon Roy + Chris Paul + Delonte West + Nick Collison. Oh, and he also had Eddie Jones and Mikki Moore (candidates for the opposite of this award). If I remember correctly, he picked up Chris Paul from the waiver wire because his original owner dropped him for injury reasons, but even without CP3 that roster is ridiculous — Bosh, Granger, Jefferson, and Roy are current or recent top-round picks and Monta, S-Jax, and Maggette have been overperforming middle-round stalwarts for a while. If you’re getting Rip as your 8th rounder, that’s not bad either. The scrubs at the end of the bench don’t even matter when those are your top 8, but it should be mentioned that Delonte has been a useful fantasy bench player in the recent past. I am so glad we didn’t have keepers back then; it’d be like having LeBron and Durant as keepers today (oh, wait . . . .
Most Dominant Regular Season: Annan (Arbitrageurs), 2003-2004
Man, Annan got jobbed back then. He was coming into the playoffs as the #1 seed having posted a regular season win percentage of .702 (the next closest was me, Compaq X100, a full 19 games back; last year’s leader going into the playoffs was me, Something Clever, at a .595 win percentage). He posted seven weeks of 8-1 victories, including the last two weeks of the season, and one week of 9-0 domination (no team had more than two weeks of at least 8 victories last year). He had the best three-point shooter in the game (Peja Stojakovic with 240 threes; nobody else on a final roster broke 200) and the second-best blocker in the game (Ben Wallace with 246; only Theo Ratliff was better). And he ended up in fourth place, losing to the eventual champion Balding Ballers in the second round. What a balls.
2009 AWARDS
2009 Interesting Tidbits
Real-Life Player Fantasy MVP: Yao Ming
You'll see these awards from fantasy pundits, and it will invariably come down to "who had the best season," and it'll probably be either LeBron, Chris Paul, or Dwyane Wade (and maybe a Dwight Howard mention for H2H leagues). I have in mind something a bit different: what single player helped a single team more than any other player? Or put differently: what single player was the *least* replaceable on any given team? Sure, LeBron has been amazing, and compared to other SFs in the fantasy game, he's irreplaceable. But compared to other first rounders? Are you hurting that badly if you have Dirk Nowitzki instead? I don't think so. But this award isn't simply about who got the best draft-day steal (i.e., Nene or Nate Rob in the late rounds way outperforming their spots) -- it's about dominance.
Candidates were Durant (3rd round); Granger (2nd round); Troy Murphy (9th round); Yao (5th round); Jason Kidd (4th round). Granger could be perfect, but he's not better than Durant and he was taken earlier; since they've both missed significant stretches with injury, that's a wash. Arguably, though, both Troy Murphy and Yao have been more valuable, and not just because they were huge steals for where they were drafted. Murphy's contributions in 3s from the center spot have helped Brew Ha be one of the more dominant teams in that category, and Murphy stepping up during Granger's absence surely contributed to Brew Ha's ridiculous dominant stretch that brought him from the trash heap up into the playoffs. Similarly, getting Yao so late has helped Dad be one of the best (if not *the* best) team in rebounding while also making him one of the best teams in blocks, all while not hurting his percentages, leading to him being probably the most balanced dominant roster in the league. It's very hard to argue that Yao is more valuable than Durant, since Durant was occasionally a top-5 guy (which are impossible to find outside of the 1st round usually), but considering both relative draft position and the fact that Yao has stayed healthier than Durant and played more games, I think he's more valuable to Dad than anyone. He's the only player on Dad's team over 100 blocks, and Dad is the best team in the league in that category. He's 5th on ESPN.com's Player Rater for the season (behind only LeBron, CP3, Wade, and Kobe). While he's only one of four players on Balding Ballers in the overall top 10 for the season (LeBron, Kidd, Durant being the other three), I would argue that he's been the most valuable to Dad and has contributed more than any other player to Dad's dominance. If I were to develop an advanced stat called "Dominance Shares," I'd engineer it so that Yao would have the highest total. Considering his individual dominance, his irreplacability on Dad's team, and Dad's dominance over the course of the season, Yao is my pick for fantasy MVP of our league.
Fewest Drops: Vivek (28 Light Years Old)
Chris says: “It's pretty easy to corner the market on this award if you just dedicate yourself to hold onto your players and not drop ANY of them, come hell or high water. That's pretty much what Vivek did this year. It's the first time I've ever been in a league with an owner who stuck to their guns like this. Incredibly, Vivek made the league playoffs (and might win a round or more) despite neglecting one of fantasy sports' most powerful tools -- the waiver wire.”
Toughest Schedule: Anna (Block O)
Chris bestowed this award on Block O because she had the most “League Wins Against,” a pretty cool stat of Chris’ own making to determine schedule strength. Too bad 2009 will be the only year it will ever be used. Chris explains: “The League Wins Against thing is kind of confusing, but here's a bit of a breakdown. First of all, the SEASON AVERAGE for all teams was 4.419 wins, 4.419 losses, and 0.162 ties per week, but if we looked at all of our teams COMPARED TO ONE ANOTHER, in each week, there are a lot more ties. So for example, in a given week, Y-G-A might have a tie with Balding Ballers for most PTS, but let's just say we weren't matched up with each other -- we would probably both have won that category, and nobody tied. If we're comparing ALL teams to one another, however, I counted that as a half a win for each of our teams (in other words, a tie). So when you look at the League Wins stat, you introduce A LOT more ties (they happened all the time, for instance, in the lower-counting categories like BLK, 3PT, and STL). So while the actual average performance of a team is 4.419 wins, 4.419 losses, and 0.162 ties per week, the average when you look at League Wins is 4.03 League Wins, 4.03 League Losses, and 0.94 League Ties. Block O, who went up against 891 League Wins for the total season, had an AVERAGE OPPONENT that put up 4.71 League Wins and 4.29 League Losses per week. That's a hell of a difference when you're looking at facing that kind of competition week-in, week-out. Balding Ballers and Brew-Ha were not far behind, and in fact could arguably have had TOUGHER schedules, because Brew-Ha in particular also led our whole league in most Games Played Against with 906 over the 21-week season (compared to 831 as a league-low by Mao, and 884 as a league average -- or 43.1 Games Played Against per week for Brew-Ha, 42.1 GPA for the average, and 39.6 GPA for Mao). This all may not seem like a big deal, but there *is* pretty obviously a discrepancy here, and it can't be chalked up to anything except for dumb luck of the draw (and way the hell too much time on my hands).”
Most Games Missed: Annan (Phi Slamma Jamma), 251 games missed
Fewest Games Missed: Dad (Balding Ballers), 59 games missed
In his immersive analysis of team schedules and performance last year, Chris counted the number of times a rostered player was unable to play because of injury, suspension, sickness, or Eddy-Curry-ness. Annan “won” this award with the most playas out; Dad “lost” this award by having his playas play more than anyone else. Here’s Chris again: “To put things in perspective here, 251 Games Missed through the 21-week season is a whopping 11.95 Games Missed average per week. Of all the 210 weekly Team totals for our league (21 weeks x 10 teams), there were 32 weeks where a team missed 12 or more games. 10 of those were from Phi Slamma. Mao was the runner-up with 7, and Liberal Elite Media followed up with 5. Del, Balding Ballers, and Nutcrushers had ZERO, which further demonstrates their dedication to jettisoning the unproductive flotsam and jetsam on their rosters, and in some cases also illustrates their general good fortune with avoiding injuries throughout the season (ahem, Balding Ballers). But to show just how heavily the deck was stacked against Phi Slamma with all of those injuries (and, I would argue, the more appropriate way to say it might be, "how heavily HE stacked the deck AGAINST HIMSELF" -- it's your own damn fault, Annan), here are some numbers. If you take the 22 weeks that OTHER TEAMS had 12 or more games missed (excluding Phi Slamma), they won their weekly matchup 3 times, lost their matchup 18 times, and tied 1 time. The total W-L record for that cluster of games was 72-124-2 (or an average week of 3.27 wins, 5.64 losses, and 0.09 ties), for a winning percentage of .368%. If you look at things from that perspective, Annan actually may have done WELL to finish the season with an overall W-L record of 69-116-4, and a winning percentage of .376%. But yeah, not that well. I feel much worse for Mao, who had to face a brutal stretch from Week 10 to Week 15, where EVERY SINGLE WEEK in that stretch he missed 12+ games in his line-up. The reason he gets more sympathy is because, other than perhaps Andrew Bynum, his team is not loaded with guys who were big injury risks (or injured already) going into this season, while Phi Slamma was *rife* with them. The nadir of Mao's nasty stretch was on the final week of that period, Week 15, where he had his TOP FIVE PICKS all out with an injury -- Garnett, Butler, Bynum, Billups, and Kaman. Yeah, he lost — 6-3 to Balding Ballers, which actually seems pretty respectable, considering the circumstances.
“Balding Ballers experienced the virtual opposite type of season to that of Phi Slamma: relatively injury-free and hyper-efficient. At 59 Games Missed, that's an average of 2.81 Games Missed per week -- an incredible number. Balding Ballers had a maximum of 7 Games Missed in a week, which only happened once, against Block O in Week 19 (where Balding got throttled, 2-6-1). Phi Slamma only had two weeks of LESS than 7 Games Missed, and one of those was the abbreviated Week 1. Is it any coincidence that that week and the loss in Week 3 (3-6 against Del), where Balding Ballers missed 6 Games for his second-highest total of the season, were his two worst losses all year? Del missed 69 Games for a still-impressive average of 3.29 per week, but his totals were much more uniform (never having a week with 0 Games Missed) and a little higher across-the-board. But he still never missed more than 7 games in a week. No other team was even close to these two, as Nutcrushers were next in line with 93 Games Missed, and every other team in the league had at least 122 Games Missed (with the league average being 137, almost exactly two times Del Harris's total).”
Single-Category Dominance: Andy (Del Harris Del Negro)
Chris defined this award as “Best total season rank (in League Wins) for a single stat category.” According to his calculations my team was the most dominant in any single category, accruing 180 League Wins in assists. Next closest was Young Gay Artest with 164 League Wins in points. (I’d make some comment here about “same ol’ same ol’,” but I’m out of breath blowing my own horn so you’ll just have to make up something snarky yourself.)
Single-Category Whackness: Angelo (Liberal Elite Media)
So Angelo was the exact opposite of me, posting a league-low single-category total of 25 League Wins in assists. I can’t really gloat here, however, since I was the runner up in the futility race, posting only 28 League Wins in turnovers. (Again, same ol’.)
2009 Main Event Awards
Master of the Waiver Wire (75 ATPs): Nutcrushers
While I have been the most active (and that has netted me some pretty good gains), this award has to go to Nutcrushers, who has made some unbelievably savvy picks this season. He has the overall best FA acquisition of the year in Brook Lopez (a Top-25 player who can be kept as a 6th or 7th rounder, depending on how he finishes the season). He has the most impactful late-year acquisitions in Antonio McDyess (completely beasting it as the 23rd ranked player for the last month, 10th for this past week) and Larry Hughes (66th last month, 23rd last week; who knew? Nutcrushers, that's who). Raymond Felton, a core rotation guy for him all season, he picked up early on; Ray Ray will finish as a Top-75 player in total rankings (at least). He even picked up Kirk Hinrich and Andres Nocioni, solid contributors if not as studly as those previously mentioned.
Honorable Mention: Del Harris Del Negro. As Outkast says, "Gonna make moves, shakin' tricks up out they shoe strings / We more precise when we do things." I was on a mission most of the season to find the next big thing. This led me to pick up and drop more guys than anyone (and still not do as well as Nutcrushers; damn). But I netted the up-and-coming keeper-worthy talent of Russell Westbrook; I snatched Mike Miller from the jaws of mediocrity, banking on his talent to pull him through (I was correct); I made the very first pick-up (Mario Chalmers), who has been a great player for most of the season (except for that brief stretch where I dropped him and then picked him up again); I pounced on Ramon Sessions (more than once); and I even had Andrea Bargnani for a stretch (unfortunately, not the right stretch). More lately, I've snagged Thabo Sefalosha and his ridiculous defensive stats.
Since we mentioned that Brook Lopez was the best pick-up of the year, it would probably be good to list the runners up. By my estimation, only two other players are in the same realm (guys who are potentially keeper-worthy, who put up amazing stats, who helped their teams enormously, and who produced over the whole year -- with maybe a few hiccups).
1. Brook Lopez: already analyzed above
2. Paul Millsap (11/8, Balding Ballers)
3. Spencer Hawes (Nov. 1, Mao Meow) (Was blowing up, then wasn't, then netted him Nene.)
Best Keepers (75 ATPs): N/A
(As we didn’t have keepers at this point, there’s no award. But I’m sure there would have been fierce competition for it, as you are all exceptional managers. I’ve put this here as a placeholder, just so each year’s Main Event Awards look the same.)
Best Draft (75 ATPs): Balding Ballers
It’s hard to have the proper perspective at this late date on who had the best draft at the time of the draft. Hindsight taints a draft conducted two years ago even more than it does a draft one year old. Making this award even harder is the fact that every team had a pretty uneven draft — every team had some pretty stellar picks and some not-so-hot picks.
Hindsight or no, I find it hard to deny that Balding Ballers had the best draft, based almost solely on the strength of his first seven rounds. It’s hard to credit him too much for picking LeBron first, but we have to credit his pick of Pau Gasol at the end of the second round. I remember almost picking Gasol instead of Duncan earlier in the round, passing because (a) I love Duncan and (b) I valued blocks more than Gasol’s overall efficiency (to my discredit). Gasol was a better pick than Butler (large reach), Duncan, and Boozer. What’s more, grabbing Gasol in the second allowed Dad to pick Durant one pick later. That one-pick delay meant that Dad was locking Durant in to a later keeper round. Durant could easily have been a second round pick. And he wouldn’t have lasted much longer than he did — both Chris and I were targeting him in the third if Dad hadn’t snatched him up. A full twenty picks later, Dad nabbed Jason Kidd, who had amazingly survived Annan for four rounds. Kidd, of course, was coming off of a bad season, but even if he returned to a little less than the previous season’s numbers, he was a steal at the end of the fourth. After that, of course, Dad took another high-upside pick in Yao. Sure, Yao was injured the year before, but he was putting up first-round-level stats before his injury. Paired with Pau, he had arguably the most efficient big-man tandem in the league. In rounds six and seven, Dad made another two good picks. Beasley was an unknown rookie, but he put up monster college stats and looked like the safest bet for rookie production, being more “NBA ready” than Rose. Picking him up this late in our keeper-style league was a very good gamble. After gambling a bit with Beasley, Dad opted for the lower-upside but very solid Aldridge, another big man with very good percentages that helped solidify his already-established strengths in rebounds and efficiency.
You could even argue that his next pick, Tony Parker in round eight, was a solid value pick (even though Tony hadn’t ever done anything that special). Thornton, Chandler, and Rudy were trendy sleeper picks, but they might not have been the best at the time. Picking Scola in round thirteen was another very solid pick, showing that Dad wasn’t just a frontrunner. Considering the strength he developed in the beginning, it stands to reason that he was willing to take some gambles with sleepers, explaining his less-than-desirable picks.
Runner up: Liberal Elite Media. Every one of Angelo’s picks was defensible (although maybe not the best picks at the time), and some of them were inspired. Brook Lopez in the 13th was a great pick for a rookie center being compared to Duncan in pre-draft media. Picking Rose in the eighth was equally inspired; I remember congratulating Angelo for picking the player I thought would be better than Beasley two rounds later than Beasley went. Other notables: David Lee in the 7th, Dunleavy in the 5th (very solid considering we didn’t know the extent of his brittleness and the fact that he averaged 2/19/5/3.5/1 the previous year), Kevin Martin in the 3d, and Josh Smith in the 2d (in some mocks, Smith was going in the 1st).
2010 Awards
2010 Interesting Tidbits
Since neither Chris nor I kept the same type of mad stats that he did in 2009, there aren’t really any interesting tidbits to share for last year, except this one: Block O amazingly had 9-0 victories in the same year that she was defeated 0-9. Talk about huge swings. That’s all I’ve got. On to the main events.
2010 Main Event Awards
Master of the Waiver Wire (75 ATPs): Brew-Ha Bandits
With our keeper format, the waiver wire was slimmer pickings this year than in years past. As such, nobody really dominated this award. A few teams were in the running based on only a couple pick-ups, so the relative strength and impact of those pickups determined the winner.
Accordingly, Brew-Ha won this award almost solely on the strength of picking up Andray Blatche down the stretch. He snatched Blatche from the wire right before that perennial stat-tease blew up, posting double doubles and providing upper-round value for Alan’s last-ditch effort to get into the playoffs. Alan also had the best secondary pickup in Channing Frye (who, admittedly, was up and down during the season, but who provided Alan with lots of value Moo Moo gave up by dropping his draftee). Ty Lawson was also a great pickup, the kind of rookie who could blow up and, at worst, was exactly the kind of efficient role player who makes good teams into great teams.
Runner Up: Block O. Her pickup of Darren Collison might not have been visionary, but it is those types of injury-created pickups that can turn around a season. It was especially valuable for her team as it was Chris Paul’s production she was hoping to replace. It was also a very good “defensive” pickup. I myself was eyeing Collison and was just a little slow on the trigger. His production on another team could easily have shaken up the standings. Anna’s pickup of JJ Hickson toward the end of the season was kind of visionary, however, being that he was emerging in the rotation and was the only young big on the Cavs. Going into the playoffs, it was possible Hickson could have broken out, lining him up as a very nice value keeper.
Best Keepers (75 ATPs): Block O
The year-end rankings are often decided by factors outside of our control: injuries, coaching vicissitudes, unlucky matchups, etc. All of these bit our 2009 winner, Block O. Right after the draft, I sparked a bit of a firestorm on the message boards by saying that I wasn’t a huge fan of Anna’s draft (others, notably Chris, disagreed). Part of my opinion was that Anna picked some of my least favorite players without them being values (again, in my opinion): Aldridge in the fourth, Marion in the third, Turkoglu in the sixth.
But this award isn’t about that. It’s about recognizing that Block O had a murderer’s row of keepers that made me super-envious. When the keepers came in to the official league mailbox, I knew right then that this award was a shoo-in for Block O (even before I knew this award existed). She was keeping arguably the best fantasy player in the league (Chris Paul) as the last pick of the 1st round. She was keeping an on-the-come-up big man (Al Jefferson) as the first pick of the 2nd when some pundits had him as a 1st rounder. That’s some star power, and some well-rounded production in the first two picks. Then, she was keeping Eric Gordon in the 13th when every non-keeper league was drafting him in the 5-8 range (and adding more well-rounded production; she now had the top assist man who was also the top steals man; a big man who shot well on free throws, had solid rebounding and blocks numbers, and had the potential to score more than almost any other big man; and now a high-percentage shooter who shot threes and contributed in steals). To top it, she kept the highest upside player in the draft, Anthony Randolph, in the very last round, the only last-round keeper in 2009. Alas, all of the vicissitudes I mentioned above hit Anna like a freight train hauling a load of Mack trucks. Randolph was donnelsoned (a verb I just made up, but you all know exactly what I mean). Paul and Jefferson got hurt, and then Jefferson couldn’t mesh with Love. Gordon was solid, but without those other guys, it was all for naught. That’s why our league is about more than just keepers — it takes luck, twelve other rounds of solid drafting, and more luck to put yourself in position. The luck, alas, was not with Block O last year.
Best Draft (75 ATPs): Moo Moo Mussolini
The last award was about what the best picks were at the time they were made — i.e., when keepers were kept. It did not involve hindsight at all. This award is more mixed. I will try not to give people credit for getting lucky hitting jackpots they didn’t really know they would hit. Of course, that’s hard to determine without knowing everyone’s thought process at the time. This is going to take a little bit of guesswork on my part.
It’s also going to be a bit subjective. I’d like to credit people for taking calculated risks, even if those risks didn’t necessarily pan out. A ridiculous reach won’t be rewarded, but a pick like Chris’ pick of Al Horford in the 5th, an inspired pick that was only a little bit of a reach but was a savvy bet on upside and a recognition that there weren’t more intriguing picks at that spot, should be recognized. There’s also something to be said for picking guys who might be awesome keepers; it’s a dynamic that, for better and worse, is a huge part of our league now. (Speaking of keepers, they are disregarded for this award. Drafting is different than keeping; you have to take advantage of changing circumstances and unknowns in real time, rather than picking among relatively known quantities with months of advance work and nobody else competing for your players.)
With those criteria in mind, I have to say, this award is difficult to pick. I had to look at everyone’s draft and basically think of reasons to disqualify them. In the end, the least indefensible draft was Moo Moo’s.
He might have reached a bit for Chris Bosh in the first round, but after Stoudemire was gone Bosh was the most efficient big man available. He also happened to have a career year statistically, so kudos to JJ for that one. Nash in the second is very solid, keeping Moo Moo’s percentages up (he dominated percentages throughout the year, so good strategy there) while nabbing potentially the best assist man in the game. Jamison in the 4th, Gay in the 5th, and Terry in the 6th were not value buys by any stretch (except, perhaps, for Terry, who always seems to get underdrafted despite putting up top-5-round numbers every year), but were all solid players who fit the strategy. Bogut in the 7th was a great pick; I was down on him going into the draft, but that was a mistake, as once again JJ picked a big man who had a career year (except for that untimely injury thing). Then, of course, Moo Moo struck gold with Stephen Curry in the 13th. I doubt any of us expected him to be as awesome as he turned out to be, but props to Moo Moo for selecting him instead of other available young players like Brandon Jennings and James Harden (guys drafted in the same vicinity as Curry in the real NBA). Moo Moo also hit paydirt with his selection of Maggette in the 15th, another guy who had a career year and buttressed JJ’s obscenely good percentages.
Runner up: Knights of Rodanthe. Angelo was visionary in picking Derron Williams first overall. I remember it being a shock; I thought he was a lock to take his favorite team’s best player, Dwight Howard. I remember that I had guaranteed this to Annan, who was thrown in such a tizzy by Angelo not taking D12 that he had to scramble to make his pick, ultimately going with Stoudemire and instantly regretting it. Angelo followed that up with no spectacular picks, opting instead for either a solidly efficient player or a player with unique, funky production every single early- to mid-round pick: Joe Johnson, David West, Biedrins, Memo, Boris Diaw. He took popular sleeper Lou Williams. He got perennially underrated Mike Miller in the last round. His strategy basically disqualified him for the award by planning it safe with almost every pick, but it almost worked, as Angelo was a player for the championship up to the very end.
ALL-TIME ATP POWER RANKINGS
As I stated in the intro, we’ll be keeping a running tally of ATPs and derive league success rankings from those compiled scores. For the qualifying awards detailed above, the amount of ATPs earned was specified. Certain league finishes also earn ATPs, however. Here, for posterity, is the hierarchy of ATP values, combining 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
With those values in mind, let’s compile our All-Time ATP Power Rankings heading into the 2010-2011 season:
1. Bob Josephson (Balding Ballers): 675 ATPs
2010 League Champion (500)
2009 Best Draft (75)
2009 Third Place (100)
2. Chris Quiroga (Young No Mo Still Gay, Thabeet Goes On): 500 ATPs
2009 League Champion (500)
3. JJ (Moo Moo Mussolini, Mao Meow ZeMeow): 275 ATPs
2010 Second Place (200)
2010 Best Draft (75)
3. Alan Robey (Brew-Ha Bandits): 275 ATPs
2010 Master of the Waiver Wire (75)
2009 Second Place (200)
5. Anna Robey (Block O): 150 ATPs
2010 Best Keepers (75)
2009 Seventh Place (75)
6. Angelo Alexander (Knights of Rodanthe, Liberal Elite Media): 100 ATPs
2010 Third Place (100)
7. Vivek Raval (28 Light Years Old): 75 ATPs
2010 Seventh Place (75)
7. Nick Quiroga (Nutcrushers): 75 ATPs
2009 Master of the Waiver Wire (75)
10. Annan Moy (Arbitrageurs, Phi Slamma Jamma): 0 ATPs
10. Andy Josephson (Something Clever, Del Harris Del Negro): 0 ATPs (seriously???)
