All the King's Men

This week should bring about a good matchup in my fantasy basketball league, the Syndicate. It's #1 vs. #2 as this week my WestCoast Lakers takes on All the KING's Men. Last time I wrote about this matchup she was in first place and I was in second. During that week she had some key injuries and I was able to slip past her to take claim to first. This week I don't expect it to be that simple.

Her lineup is beasting in most matchups this season. I see she picked up Rajon Rondo who was on the free agency until about a week after he came back. To compliment Rondo she also has Damian Lillard, John Wall and Trey Burke. Those are just her point guards as she also has Klay Thompson, Andre Iguodala, Andre Drummond, Blake Griffen, Greg Monroe and David Lee. I don't know if this can be an advantage or a weakness, but she has several players who play for the same team with Thompson, Iggy and Lee playing for the Golden State Warrior and Drummond and Monroe both playing for the Detroit Pistons. To me though, the main ingredient, the determining factor in this matchup is LeBron James, who is on her squad. James didn't play yesterday with a broken nose. Yet, he seemed absolutely fine shooting one handed threes from the bench in his suit Sunday. I'm not sure what's the standard injury time for a broken nose, but I couldn't imagine that it would keep him out all week.

Between the two of us, we own the top two players of fantasy basketball with James being on her team and Kevin Durant being on my team. It's no wonder why the two of us are just crushing the competition as these two players have dominated all season and one will be crowned MVP of the NBA. But just like there's a little bit of "controversy" with James, something I will need to watch when it comes to Durant this week also. Russell Westbrook was injured and while he was out Durant took full advantage. Durant stepped his game up in every way and pretty much carried the team on his back. Westbrook came back last Thursday and everyone is wondering how Durant will perform now with Westbrook back. I don't think it'll affect Durant too much. Durant won't have to take as many shots, but he already makes almost everything. If it does negatively affect Durant, I'm not worried because I purposely stashed Westbrook on my bench while he was injured specifically for when I play All the KING's Men.

Speaking of all the king's men, I'm glad I didn't listen to some people and tried to trade Dwyane Wade. During the first half of the season Wade didn't play every game. He would sit a game or two and when he did play he had average games but not Dwyane Wade type games. Recently however, Wade has been playing has been back to normal looking flashy averaging 20 points and 8 assists a game over the last week. If you have him, keep him. He'll definitely be a factor when the fantasy playoffs roll around.