Don't Sleep

So I was supposed to post this yesterday, but when I'm at home people bother me. When I'm at work people bother me. So, this post is a day late. If  was working for a major publication, this would be totally unacceptable, my editor would probably demote me to mail room clerk or something, and I would end up a starving writer. I got to grind harder. Excuse the pre-rant, just a little vexed. Yeah, that's it. Vexed.

Anyway, something rare happened yesterday... I mean Sunday. Well, rare might be a little overkill because it might not be as rare as it once was at the beginning of the season. Unusual, yeah, I'll go with something unusual happened yesterday... I mean Sunday. I got to watch some NBA action. Now that football season is near completion, the NBA puts games on regular TV on Sundays. Sadly, this is how I will get to watch some games until my diabolical plan reveals itself. Not only am I going to be able to watch games but these are nationally televised games which usually produces a good match up. Yesterday, I mean Sunday, I was treated to the San Antonio Spurs vs. the Miami Heat in a "NBA Finals rematch" followed by the Los Angeles Lakers vs. the New York Knicks.

I was quite interested to see both games because I had players from both games on my fantasy basketball
team. In my main league, The Syndicate, I didn't have any players in these two games, but in my back up league which I randomly joined and I didn't even name the team, I had players from the Heat, Chris Bosh and Dwayne Wade, and from the Lakers, Jodie Meeks and Nick Young aka Swaggy P.

Now here's where it gets interesting. I don't have cable or internet at the house so I rely heavily on my Galaxy Note 3 for just about everything. My Note 3's battery life is stupendous. I can have it in frequent use and still get about 10-12 hours battery life. If I'm just idle with it or using it occasionally, I can make it last for about 20-28 hours without needing to charge it. Of course these estimates are exaggerated, but point is my phone lasts longer than yours. This weekend, I left my charger at work. This created an interesting situation because the Note 3 has a very unique looking charger. I doesn't take the standard micro USB plug that most Samsung phones take. The plug for the Note 3 looks like two different plugs in one.

Galaxy Note 3 Charger Plug

On Saturday, I came up with the great idea to use an external battery charger that I had for my last defective phone where the port on the phone was broken. This worked but I had two problems, first it took forever to charge just the battery and then the second time around I ended up breaking the charger. So yesterday morning, I mean Sunday morning, I needed to charge my phone again and I figured if I could just use the standard micro USB charger in the section that looks like a micro USB port, if that makes any sense. It worked!! I love this phone/mini tablet. It was right before the first tip off when I discovered my old charger would work, but I figured I would just let it charge without turning on my phone because I had a feeling it would take longer to charge with the old charger, which it did. Also, even though I had Bosh and Wade on my team, I figured that I had them starting. Plus, with Wade and his current knee situation, I wasn't too worried if he was in the game or out. Lastly, I low key didn't want to be bothered, but that's another story for another day.

I had Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade on the bench Sunday

I was wrong. I had both Bosh and Wade on the bench. Sad part about it, I didn't turn my phone on until after the game. My assumption was wrong, I made an ass of myself. Coming of the bench, Wade's stats were below mediocre at best. Bosh had a decent game with 24 points and 5 rebounds. At least I had him in the game on Thursday when he had 31 points and 6 rebounds against the Lakers. That wouldn't be enough though as I ended up losing in this stat category league 2-7 where I lacked in field goal %. free throw %, rebounds, assists, steals, blocks and turnovers. If anything, I could've used Bosh yesterday to get a better field goal and free throw percentage. I definitely slept on Bosh, who has been having above average games since Wade only plays every three games. Bosh is taking advantage on that "Y'all Must've Forgot" steez.

The next game was the Lakers vs. the Knicks, which I thought as a Laker fan we had a chance to win. To me, the only difference between these two teams was that the Lakers play in the Kung Fu Strong West and the Knicks play in the East where with a losing record is good enough for a playoff spot... Well, not for the Knicks. But Melo was coming off of a 63 point game and he followed that up with 35 points against the Lakers. Meeks kind of did his job scoring 24 points but the Lakers' leading scorer Swaggy P only had 13 points. I'm not sure what exactly happened, I fell asleep during the game.

I got blew out

Even though I was able to retain first place, I lost badly last week. I had always assumed that I needed to upgrade at the center position with rebounding and blocks kind of like I need to upgrade that position in The Syndicate. However, losing 2-7 tells me that it's not just rebounding and blocks. While many of the the of the categories I lost in where by small margins, the one that concerns me the most is the assist category. There was a 35 point differential in the this category. When I look at my guards, I don't have many superstars at the position outside of Wade, who as I mentioned earlier is not playing every game. Out of all the guards I have though, the only other point guard I have is Jamal Crawford. The rest are all shooting guards who are also eligible to play small forward.

Once again I slept. You see, I had Jordan Crawford on my squad two weeks ago when he was still playing with the Boston Celtics and starting at point guard. In the middle of the week he got traded to the Golden State Warriors with the return of Rajon Rondo. I dropped Crawford because I had a feeling that his production would drop coming off the bench. Where I messed up is replacing him. I picked up Meeks to replace Crawford which sounded good at the time, but Meeks doesn't play point. From a scoring standpoint it was a good pickup, but from an assist point of view it was a horrible decision considering my lack of point guards.

So now it looks like I have to look for a guard, a point guard in specific to get my rep up. I'll be looking but if you have anyone in mind let me know. Leave a comment or e-mail or something, because I as you can see, I really don't know what I'm doing.

Taking Over Control

In a very interesting yesterday, I went to the season-ending fantasy football meeting for my main league, Roughing the Picker. It was at the same place we had the draft, Buffalo Wild Wings in Torrance, CA. It was cool, but I'll admit it was a bit awkward for me. Awkward may not be the correct word, but for now I'm going with awkward. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed myself and it was good getting with the fellas. However, it was kind of awkward because for some reason I couldn't recognize everyone, and people were coming up to me giving me dap, and I knew I had just played these same guys in a grueling fantasy football season, but I couldn't put a name to a face. Weird part about it was they knew who I was. Knew my team. Knew my blog. But then again, maybe the reason why I was out of zone was because I was deeply worried about my fantasy basketball team.

Last week in my main fantasy basketball league, The Syndicate, I was matched up against the league leader, All the KING'S Men. I already lost to this chick once. Yeah I said it, I lost to this CHICK once. Again don't get me wrong, I don't have a problem with females on that PhantasySteez. In fact, I love it and encourage. I can't wait to teach 2 Cs how to play. I'm just saying, I've already lost to her once. It's my only loss in this league this season, so I was kind of anxious all week. I mean, this girl has what's turning out to be a fantasy dream team. check it out...

This lineup has wrecked havoc in the league. Highlighting her squad is LeBron James, John Wall, Damian Lilliard, Klay Thompson and Blake Griffin. My team is highlight by Kevin Durant, Rudy Gay, Deron Williams, and Russell Westbrook. As you can see, the two of us have the two most dynamic players in the NBA, but in my opinion, the rest of my squad are role players. Also, let's not forget that Westbrook is injured, so is Deron Williams, both who have been in and out all season. Not to mention I had to find someone to replace Ryan Anderson who was out all of last week and probably for most of the remainder of the season. 

I picked up Jonas Valanciunas to replace Anderson, and I had came up with this grand scheme to drop him on Sunday for another center. My theory was to start more players than she, as she only had one player for Sunday. But I was sitting there at Buffalo Wild Wings while the winner of our fantasy football league was presented the trophy and we went over rules, I was worried about my fantasy basketball team when I noticed something. First thing I noticed was that I was winning on Sunday morning with four players starting to her one. But then I wondered how was I able to overcome such a fantasy basketball juggernaut. The answer is simple...

In the screenshot above that I took today, she has Jrue Holiday on the bench, but yesterday she had Holiday starting. Holiday has been injured since last Wednesday in the fourth quarter and is expected to be out for at least a month. My worthy opponent failed to notice this and kept him in the lineup. Isn't that cute? She could've picked up someone like Kyle Lowry, Nick Young, Reggie Jackson or Darren Collison. She didn't, I scored more points. I won. I claimed first placed.

The Fantasy Football Playoff Challenge

Have you ever seen that one commercial for a playoff version of fantasy football where they have the people crying over there poor fantasy football team and they show the team name with their record? And  in thecommercial they're playing that one song "Had A Bad Day" by Daniel Powter? The only site I've known to do it is nfl.com and they giveaway a trip to the Super Bowl. I've always wondered how fantasy football during the playoffs worked. My main question was what happened when a player's team lose? Well, I decided that since I was on that PhantasySteez I would try it out.

First I wanted to figure out how it worked. Here's a screen shot of the rules from nfl.com...

As you can see, it doesn't really give a description of how the points are distributed, but what I find intriguing about it is that multiplier when your player's team wins.  The next week, the points that player accumulates is multiplied.  This is definitely something to keep in mind when it comes to setting up the lineup.

Instead of the familiar head to head format, this playoff version uses more of a pick 'em format where you can pick any player instead of once a player has been chosen by someone else that player is no longer available.  They use an overall leader board which presumably determines the winner of the Super Bowl prize.  You can also join our create groups with your people just like in the regular fantasy football leagues.

So this is who I picked up...

When I was picking my players, I tried to keep in mind the weather crisis that most of the country is going through right now (but not here in So-Cal). Starting with my running backs, LeSean McCoy is clutch. It's gonna be cold in Green Bay so i think Ed Lacy should get some good touches. Even though the Saints are a dome team and they're playing in Philadelphia in the snow today,  I picked Drew Brees and Jimmy Graham because I figured that connection would be most likely to score. That goes for pretty much the rest of my lineup too.  A.J. Green and Jordy Nelson play in the snow too, but I figure if Aaron Rogers and Andy Dalton are going to throw it's probably going to be to Nelson and Green respectively.  Adam Vinatieri is a kicker playing in a dome so that was a no brainer. The Bengals Defense play at home in the snow against the Chargers of San Diego, another no brainer.

So we'll see how this goes. I didn't create any groups because I decided to do this at the last minute,  but I'll keep yall posted.

I Got Russell Westbrook and Al Horford On the Same Team

Fantasy Football is over, and yes I lost in all three of my main leagues, Roughing the Picker, Coast2Coast Ballers and Thieveland Ohio. Congratulations to Mr. Hindsman who did end up winning the Coast2Coast Ballers league. I like how Big Mike had to confirm that I didn't win...

Yes, I didn't win. The leagues that I did win championships in were just random leagues that I didn't pay as much attention as I did with my three main leagues. However, when it comes to our fantasy basketball teams, the roles are reversed my friend...

Even though I'm way overdue when it comes to managing this team and writing this post, I must make some adjustments though as there are still many weeks left in the fantasy basketball season. I could easily slip down a few spots before the All-Star break. For some weird reason, I have both Russell Westbrook and Al Horford on the same team. Both Westbrook and Horford got injured last Friday. Westbrook is expected to be out until after the All-Star break. Horford is done for the season.

At this point, I'm not too concerned with replacing Westbrook. I think I already have a lot of guards on my team already with Mike Conley, Deron Williams, Brandon Jennings and Brandon Knight on my squad. My squad is PG heavy so I should be able to hold out until Westbrook gets better. However when it comes to Horford, I'm not that deep when it comes to center. I got Spencer Hawes, Ryan Anderson and Horford as eligible centers. I was already feeling that this position was the weakest link of my team, and now I have to replace Horford, who ironically is my team's leading rebounder and is out for the rest of the season.

When I looked at free agency it was kind of difficult to decipher who had the most value because of two reasons. One, I don't really watch much NBA, and secondly there aren't as many resources when it comes to fantasy basketball like there is in fantasy football. After going over who was available in free agency I had narrowed it down to two players: Andrew Bogut and Robin Lopez. At first neither of these two seemed too appealing to pick up, but I looked at the stats over the past two weeks and I decided to go with Bogut. Bogut had accumulated the most rebounds over all the other available centers in free agency in a two week time period. In most of the matchups that I've had so far, my team has come short in the rebounding department. I still may  have to consider dropping one of my guards to pick up another rebounder though.