The Southwest division currently sports three playoff teams, as well as the most interesting team in RDA. We’ll take a look at this division that houses two teams that haven’t traded (or acquired many free agents) at all, and the busiest man in the league. [ Midseason Division Rankings | Preseason Southwest Preview ]
MEM, Josh (72-54)
Our biggest wheeler and dealer, MEM personifies the Heat quote, "the action is the juice!” Since we last checked in with MEM in early December, GM Josh has added an additional eleven trades to their tally, bringing their total up to twenty-two on the season. (OKC has been left in the dust with a mere fourteen trades.) With sixty total trades in the league so far — one every two days — MEM has really helped our league soar by making every day an exciting one. We have to thank MEM for all the excitement they’ve brought to our lives, as trades are the lifeblood of any active league! 👏
After starting the season off with only one loss in their first ten weeks, MEM is currently mired in a month long slump, losing to UTA, POR, DEN, and NYK in consecutive weeks. Of course, their big ball strategy means they don’t get beat by worse than 3-6, but that is still troubling. It’s unlikely MEM will finish out of the playoffs, as they are currently the fifth best team in the West— and tenth overall — but it seems like they have room to grow.
Their season long top ranked defense has dipped to number two — behind NYK — over the past month, but their ODE split is about the same at 22/2/10. They are still dominant in FG%, REB, STL, BLK, but mostly just missing that fifth category to take wins against top opponents. MEM needs to win either AST or TO for the 5-4 victory, and they haven’t been able to do that of late. It seems like Josh knows this as many of their recent trades have been for guards such as Cory Joseph, Tyus Jones, Alex Caruso (since traded away), De'Anthony Melton, Dorian Finney-Smith, and Justin Holiday.
With Willie-Cauley Stein now in a new NBA home, we’ll see what MEM can do after they take the division title and head into the playoffs. We know there’s always gonna be one hundred percent effort from this team, as they are first in the league in Games Played on the season at 523 GP (37.4 avg), a full two games per week above their next closest competitor. Grit and grind baby!
NOP, Bill (64-61-1)
One of our more mysterious owners, Bill hasn’t made a trade all season — one of six remaining teams who haven't done so — and has only had three free agent moves, nabbing Frank Jackson, Garrison Mathews, and Treveon Graham, all moves executed in January. At just above 0.500 ball, this is a current playoff team however, as NOP is currently seventh in the West and sixteenth overall. Strangely, they’re mired in a month long losing streak of their own, dropping games to OKC, UTA, POR, DEN in the past month. On the year, they sport a weekly W/L of 6-8. Interspersed with losses to weak teams like ATL and OKC are big wins like a WK10 victory over MIN, the West’s leading team. What gives?!?
Kawhi Leonard has played thirty-six games for the Clippers this season, while second banana D’Angelo Russell has only suited up for twenty-nine games. That means it’s been up to Eric Bledsoe and Taurean Prince to carry the offensive load, and that’s actually worked out okay, as NOP has a ODE rating of 12/21/15 on the season — currently 16/23/8 for the month.
While they are bottom ten in Games Played - including leading the league in lineup violations with four -- NOP is pretty much league average in most of the categories, save a top six showing in FT% and a definite weakness in REB and BLK. I guess that’s what happens when your center is Kelly Olynyk. We’re not sure which direction Bill is trying to take his team, as NOP seems to lack the firepower for a proper playoff run but is also too good to sink to the bottom. Is this team headed up or down over the back half of the season? Time will tell!
HOU, Brian & Joe (62-60-4)
Well, if you thought NOP wasn’t active on the player market, may we present HOU, who hasn’t traded yet either, and has only made one free agent move, all the way back in October for Damyean Dotson. Since then, no roster adjustments! After starting off the season with four straight losses, HOU finally picked up a win over DAL in WK5 and has subsequently gone 5-3-1 since then, with dominating wins over MIN and BKN in consecutive weeks and a tie versus POR last month.
We’re gonna take a guess that their pretty decent record has been the result of John Collins’ return from suspension, as he’s been a fantasy stud so far this season. Even more interestingly, HOU's net ODE rating has put them as the third most balanced team in the league, with a split of 11/7/13, which is quite impressive. Despite a slightly below average Games Played, HOU has managed to be near top ten in just about every category over the past month save for BLK — where they are fifteenth — and have one of the league’s best STL teams. So aside from a bad TO ranking, this team is quite solid all around.
Collins is joined by Lauri Markkanen and Richaun Holmes on the frontline, along with a backcourt of Elfrid Payton, Lou Williams, Tim Hardaway Jr., and Kris Dunn. Add in big swingmen Nemanja Bjelica and rookie PJ Washington, plus the quick hands of Reggie Bullock, and HOU is a sneaky deep team. They’re currently the last Western playoff team team, but could ascend to a higher seed if they keep up their recent string of success.
DAL, T.A. (52-71-3)
Looking up at NOP and HOU, but right behind them in the playoff chase, DAL is ten games behind HOU, but could conceivably overtake either of them for a playoff spot. While not inactive, DAL has made only one trade — a recent acquisition of Kenrich Williams from MEM — and have made multiple free agent pickups, highlighted by $100 FAAB for Elie Okobo and $75 for Tyler Johnson on the same day in late December. Overall, DAL is like NOP, 6-8 on the season if we just count wins and losses, but are twelve games behind them in the standings. DAL has never lost more than two games in a row however, but also have mostly beaten up on the weaker teams in their path.
Giannis won’t stand for this! The early season MVP favorite has been mostly a lone soldier this year, although Kristaps Porzingis has picked it up recently. The trio of Giannis, Porzingis, and Goran Dragic have only been able to drive this team to a bottom ten ODE rating across the board — 25/21/22 splits — and DAL is near the bottom of the league in every category save FG%, BLK, and TOs. They're also bottom five in Games Played.
Some of the cause of that were the speculative grabs by T.A. in the auction, as DAL went for the likes of DeMarcus Cousins, Andre Iguodala, and Carmelo Anthony. The first two haven’t hit the floor yet and it has to sting a bit that Melo was cut back in October — for Okobo for $1 actually, and then he got cut two weeks later before returning at a much higher price. The only other player of note here is rookie Cam Reddish, who has been very so-so.
Basically, it’ll be tough for DAL to ascend to the postseason but Giannis now has Kostas by his side — a recent pickup by T.A. — and maybe the two brothers can combine with the original unicorn to get DAL into the playoffs?
SAS, Aaron (40-82-4)
Sitting as the second worst team in the Western Conference, and third-worst overall, are SAS, who have only won two games this season (vs HOU WK1 and MIA WK9) and one tie (OKC in WK13). A team with Joel Embiid and De’Aaron Fox would seem to be better than that but SAS has been mostly willing to sit on their heels for most of the season as they’ve suffered loss after loss. They have gone a long time in-between moves, with just Shaquille Harrison back in November and then Luke Kornet a few weeks ago.
Is Aaron trying to tank? It would certainly seem like it, as they have been the second-worst Games Played team with 389 GP (27.8 avg) on the season and an ODE of 26/26/16. But really, those numbers don’t mean a thing because SAS has an ace up their sleeve. Back in November, GM Aaron traded for Steph Curry — in exchange for Jayson Tatum, Nickeil Alexander-Walker, and DJ Augustin — and recently closed a deal for Steven Adams and Cory Joseph (costing De'Anthony Melton and a future RD1 and RD2). How does a quartet of Curry, Embiid, Fox, and Adams sound? Not bad right?!?
While Embiid is likely still out for awhile, the return of Curry will be exciting for SAS fans, and as they are clearly headed for a high draft pick next year, it’ll be quite interesting how Aaron builds out his team with one of the better big threes around. We wish SAS plenty of health for next year and well, feel free to give Curry back to his original owners for a little playoff run...
MEM, Josh (72-54)Our biggest wheeler and dealer, MEM personifies the Heat quote, "the action is the juice!” Since we last checked in with MEM in early December, GM Josh has added an additional eleven trades to their tally, bringing their total up to twenty-two on the season. (OKC has been left in the dust with a mere fourteen trades.) With sixty total trades in the league so far — one every two days — MEM has really helped our league soar by making every day an exciting one. We have to thank MEM for all the excitement they’ve brought to our lives, as trades are the lifeblood of any active league! 👏
After starting the season off with only one loss in their first ten weeks, MEM is currently mired in a month long slump, losing to UTA, POR, DEN, and NYK in consecutive weeks. Of course, their big ball strategy means they don’t get beat by worse than 3-6, but that is still troubling. It’s unlikely MEM will finish out of the playoffs, as they are currently the fifth best team in the West— and tenth overall — but it seems like they have room to grow.
Their season long top ranked defense has dipped to number two — behind NYK — over the past month, but their ODE split is about the same at 22/2/10. They are still dominant in FG%, REB, STL, BLK, but mostly just missing that fifth category to take wins against top opponents. MEM needs to win either AST or TO for the 5-4 victory, and they haven’t been able to do that of late. It seems like Josh knows this as many of their recent trades have been for guards such as Cory Joseph, Tyus Jones, Alex Caruso (since traded away), De'Anthony Melton, Dorian Finney-Smith, and Justin Holiday.
With Willie-Cauley Stein now in a new NBA home, we’ll see what MEM can do after they take the division title and head into the playoffs. We know there’s always gonna be one hundred percent effort from this team, as they are first in the league in Games Played on the season at 523 GP (37.4 avg), a full two games per week above their next closest competitor. Grit and grind baby!
NOP, Bill (64-61-1)
One of our more mysterious owners, Bill hasn’t made a trade all season — one of six remaining teams who haven't done so — and has only had three free agent moves, nabbing Frank Jackson, Garrison Mathews, and Treveon Graham, all moves executed in January. At just above 0.500 ball, this is a current playoff team however, as NOP is currently seventh in the West and sixteenth overall. Strangely, they’re mired in a month long losing streak of their own, dropping games to OKC, UTA, POR, DEN in the past month. On the year, they sport a weekly W/L of 6-8. Interspersed with losses to weak teams like ATL and OKC are big wins like a WK10 victory over MIN, the West’s leading team. What gives?!?
Kawhi Leonard has played thirty-six games for the Clippers this season, while second banana D’Angelo Russell has only suited up for twenty-nine games. That means it’s been up to Eric Bledsoe and Taurean Prince to carry the offensive load, and that’s actually worked out okay, as NOP has a ODE rating of 12/21/15 on the season — currently 16/23/8 for the month.
While they are bottom ten in Games Played - including leading the league in lineup violations with four -- NOP is pretty much league average in most of the categories, save a top six showing in FT% and a definite weakness in REB and BLK. I guess that’s what happens when your center is Kelly Olynyk. We’re not sure which direction Bill is trying to take his team, as NOP seems to lack the firepower for a proper playoff run but is also too good to sink to the bottom. Is this team headed up or down over the back half of the season? Time will tell!
HOU, Brian & Joe (62-60-4)Well, if you thought NOP wasn’t active on the player market, may we present HOU, who hasn’t traded yet either, and has only made one free agent move, all the way back in October for Damyean Dotson. Since then, no roster adjustments! After starting off the season with four straight losses, HOU finally picked up a win over DAL in WK5 and has subsequently gone 5-3-1 since then, with dominating wins over MIN and BKN in consecutive weeks and a tie versus POR last month.
We’re gonna take a guess that their pretty decent record has been the result of John Collins’ return from suspension, as he’s been a fantasy stud so far this season. Even more interestingly, HOU's net ODE rating has put them as the third most balanced team in the league, with a split of 11/7/13, which is quite impressive. Despite a slightly below average Games Played, HOU has managed to be near top ten in just about every category over the past month save for BLK — where they are fifteenth — and have one of the league’s best STL teams. So aside from a bad TO ranking, this team is quite solid all around.
Collins is joined by Lauri Markkanen and Richaun Holmes on the frontline, along with a backcourt of Elfrid Payton, Lou Williams, Tim Hardaway Jr., and Kris Dunn. Add in big swingmen Nemanja Bjelica and rookie PJ Washington, plus the quick hands of Reggie Bullock, and HOU is a sneaky deep team. They’re currently the last Western playoff team team, but could ascend to a higher seed if they keep up their recent string of success.
DAL, T.A. (52-71-3)
Looking up at NOP and HOU, but right behind them in the playoff chase, DAL is ten games behind HOU, but could conceivably overtake either of them for a playoff spot. While not inactive, DAL has made only one trade — a recent acquisition of Kenrich Williams from MEM — and have made multiple free agent pickups, highlighted by $100 FAAB for Elie Okobo and $75 for Tyler Johnson on the same day in late December. Overall, DAL is like NOP, 6-8 on the season if we just count wins and losses, but are twelve games behind them in the standings. DAL has never lost more than two games in a row however, but also have mostly beaten up on the weaker teams in their path.
Giannis won’t stand for this! The early season MVP favorite has been mostly a lone soldier this year, although Kristaps Porzingis has picked it up recently. The trio of Giannis, Porzingis, and Goran Dragic have only been able to drive this team to a bottom ten ODE rating across the board — 25/21/22 splits — and DAL is near the bottom of the league in every category save FG%, BLK, and TOs. They're also bottom five in Games Played.
Some of the cause of that were the speculative grabs by T.A. in the auction, as DAL went for the likes of DeMarcus Cousins, Andre Iguodala, and Carmelo Anthony. The first two haven’t hit the floor yet and it has to sting a bit that Melo was cut back in October — for Okobo for $1 actually, and then he got cut two weeks later before returning at a much higher price. The only other player of note here is rookie Cam Reddish, who has been very so-so.
Basically, it’ll be tough for DAL to ascend to the postseason but Giannis now has Kostas by his side — a recent pickup by T.A. — and maybe the two brothers can combine with the original unicorn to get DAL into the playoffs?
SAS, Aaron (40-82-4)Sitting as the second worst team in the Western Conference, and third-worst overall, are SAS, who have only won two games this season (vs HOU WK1 and MIA WK9) and one tie (OKC in WK13). A team with Joel Embiid and De’Aaron Fox would seem to be better than that but SAS has been mostly willing to sit on their heels for most of the season as they’ve suffered loss after loss. They have gone a long time in-between moves, with just Shaquille Harrison back in November and then Luke Kornet a few weeks ago.
Is Aaron trying to tank? It would certainly seem like it, as they have been the second-worst Games Played team with 389 GP (27.8 avg) on the season and an ODE of 26/26/16. But really, those numbers don’t mean a thing because SAS has an ace up their sleeve. Back in November, GM Aaron traded for Steph Curry — in exchange for Jayson Tatum, Nickeil Alexander-Walker, and DJ Augustin — and recently closed a deal for Steven Adams and Cory Joseph (costing De'Anthony Melton and a future RD1 and RD2). How does a quartet of Curry, Embiid, Fox, and Adams sound? Not bad right?!?
While Embiid is likely still out for awhile, the return of Curry will be exciting for SAS fans, and as they are clearly headed for a high draft pick next year, it’ll be quite interesting how Aaron builds out his team with one of the better big threes around. We wish SAS plenty of health for next year and well, feel free to give Curry back to his original owners for a little playoff run...