2020/2021 Monday Morning Tears Power Rankings — Weeks 1 & 2
After what seems like an age, fantasy basketball is back, and with it your fortnightly dose of rankings goodness returns.
Post draft it was difficult to get a read on who the early favourites were to take home the Monday Morning Tears title and two weeks in, the picture isn’t a great deal clearer with there not being a great deal seperating most of the league.
Star Performer
The best fantasy player in total value over the past fortnight (c/o Basketball Monster) is none other than the 1st overall pick, Paul George
PG13 has taken full advantage of Kawhi Leonard missing a couple of games, putting up some huge stats on strong efficiencies, helping 808’s to a solid start.
Now your power rankings in reverse order…
8. Views From The 6
A less than stelar start from one of the leagues veteran teams, not helped by some selection issues and sub par performances from Anthony Davis. Currently Views also reside at the bottom of the MMT standings but with the season still so young, there’s plenty of time to turn things around.
Key Player: Khris Middleton (13th, Pick 30)
7th. Mount Zion
This a team of stark contrasts in terms of player performance, with LeBron James, Jayson Tatum, Domantas Sabonis and Otto Porter all starting hot, but limits to the playing time of KAT and John Wall, as well as the performances of the Trash Brothers for Golden State, have resulted in the team as a whole performing below where their GM might have hoped. Despite this, in part due to some poor opposition performances, Mount Zion sit in the top half of the MMT standings.
Key Player: Otto Porter (34th, Pick 102)
6th. I tHinkie Knows Best
The rookie GM is off to a reasonable start, with their team putting up good numbers in the standard guard categories (assists, FT%, 3’s, steals) thanks to good early performances from Curry, Lillard, Sexton and CP3, but may need to add some diversity to their lineup in order to ensure they can be a competitive team week to week. They were a bit unfortunate to come up against Plain White TJ’s in week 1 as they were the 2nd best performing team that week before coming down to earth a bit in week 2. The trade to send Oladipo to PWT in exchange for Garland was decent, especially if Oladipo’s return to form isn’t permanent.
Key Player: Steph Curry (2nd, Keeper)
5th. Post Up Dreams
Post Up Dreams have been the most aggressive so far in their attempts to build a contender for this season with a big trade sending Trae Young, Jonas Valanciunas and a 2nd to Russlin Up W’s for Ja Morant, Deandre Ayton and a 7th. In the short term this hurts them a little with Morant being out but as the season goes on they could be strong.
Key Player: Jrue Holiday (17th, 56th Pick)
(It’s important to note that the power rankings formula doesn’t look favourably upon aggresive punt strategies, in part becuase they are tough to pull off. As a result teams with such a strategy may perform better in the MMT standings than the power rankings.)
4. 808’s & Fastbreaks
After a sub par week 1 808’s bounced back with a big performance in week 2, helped by Paul George, Tobias Harris and CJ McCollom all being in the top 10 for total value over the first two weeks. Some of those performances may not be sustainable but could well be balanced out by James Harden playing regularly now that he’s returned from his glitter covered adventures.
Key Player: Paul George (1, 25th Pick)
3. Russlin Up W’s
Russlin’s keeper choices left some scratching thier heads a little but their draft picks have performed well above expectations so far, with Jaylen Brown, Malcolm Brogdon and DeMar DeRozan all well outperforming their pre draft predictions. If Ja Morant hadn’t gone down at the beginning of week 2 they might be even higher. We’ve already mentioned their trade with Post Up Dreams, which on the face of it makes alot of sense for both sides, with Trae Young being a keeper level player for Russlin’ for years to come. They’ll also be pleased to hear that Kawhi is now playing at least some back to backs.
Key Player: Jaylen Brown (3rd, Pick 60)
2. Plain White T.J’s
Our comissioner came flying out of the blocks in week 1, recording a big win against tough opposition with the help of NBA Twitter’s favourite duo doing big things in the Big Apple, as well as Michael Porter Jr, Bradley Beal and Dejounte Murray all making nice starts. Week 2 wasn’t quite as good with some of those strong early performers missing games due to rest or Covid, which means PWT have to settle for 2nd this time round. Getting Oladipo for waiver wire pickup Garland could be smart depending on health.
Key Performer: Kyrie Irving (6th, Keeper)
1. Take That for Data
The defending champ has made a solid, if slightly unspectacular start to their title defence. Currently regretting drafting high on Brook Lopez. Good luck stopping them.
Key Player: Myles Turner (7th, Pick 48)
The power rankings will return after week 4.
