We’ve only got three more weeks of the regular season to go and two more midseason divisional reviews left. This time up we have the Atlantic, which boasts the best team in the league, who is basically the only reason the Atlantic was so highly ranked in our midseason division rankings... [ Midseason Division Rankings | Preseason Atlantic Preview ]
NYK, Brian (119-41-2)
Way early on in the season, some prognosticators dared called NYK “fugazis” as we looked down on their 8-1 whoopings versus some weak teams. (Wiser heads put them at number one...) Welp, as it turns out, NYK specialized in these dominating weeks and sent four teams packing with 8-1 ass kickings throughout the season, highlighted by a 9-0 beatdown of ORL in WK11. (Was that the only 9-0 win this season?) NYK has won about seventy-five percent of their categories this season and oh yeah, they’re undefeated, coming close to losing only three times -- versus BKN, DET, and MEM in 5-4 victories.
Currently, NYK has an eleven category wins lead on the second place team, which is more distance than there is between seeds #2 and #8. Suffice to say, it would take a major upset to unseat NYK as the first champion in RDA history. Of course, that’s why we play the game… But for now, congrats to NYK Brian, the 💎 of Razzball Dynasty!
Shocking tidbit: NYK’s highest cost auction guy was Robert Covington, who was picked up for $42. Second highest? How about Lonzo Ball at $41. By dedicating his auction to mid-tier values, NYK assembled the deepest team in the league and balanced them perfectly. Hassan Whiteside has been a fantasy stud, Chris Paul is on a comeback year (and was a steal at $39), and everyone from Derrick Favors, Kevin Huerter, Joe Harris, and JaVale McGee has contributed greatly to NYK’s dominant season.
Along with that, NYK made six trades this season, mostly buying with RD1s (Kevin Knox, Marc Gasol, Landry Shamet) or selling (Knox, Mario Hezonja). Their only player-for-player deal was for some pre-deadline shooting, as they exchanged Daniel Theis for Duncan Robinson and two RD2s — one of which is still owed by BKN.
On the year, NYK is the top rated combined ODE team, with 4/2/8 splits through the season, and are top five in Games Played. That doesn’t tell the whole story though, as NYK has gotten even better recently, with a current ODE over the past month of 2/1/15. For a few weeks in January, they were even top ranked on both offense and defense. Wowza! For now, NYK’s already top three ranked 3PT has risen to first, their PTS have gone from eighth to fifth, their defense has remained steady, and they are back on top for REB. Their only visible weak point is FT% at eighteen overall — and TOs, sort of — but everywhere else save AST they are top five or better.
The window is now for NYK to win a title, as their core is a little older, but they still have three total RD1s moving forward, and depth like this will age like wine. So yeah, good luck beating them? Seriously, the only hope of a non-NYK championship might be an injury to CP3 or Hassan. Let’s 🙏 folks!
BKN, Jon / Trieu (92-66-4)
After funneling $253 auction dollars into Karl-Anthony Towns and Stephen Curry — plus $29 into Rui Hachimura — BKN was all in on the dual star strategy. Unfortunately, Curry went down early in the season and BKN’s season was toast.
Or was it? After twelve trades — tied for fifth in the league — and sending out every pick in the next five years -- plus another RD2 still owed to NYK -- BKN reassembled their team and emerged with KAT, Jayson Tatum, Kemba Walker, Jamal Murray, and Evan Fournier as the new starting five. The list of players come and gone is long, highlighted by the cringe worthy overpay early on of two RD1, two RD2, and $100 FAAB for Mikal Bridges — who is now displaying his defensive wares in OKC. Oops!
Overall, BKN turned their initial three hundred auctions dollars into +$122 worth of value at the end of the regular season — a stat that means nothing but is fun to look at, SAS and POR were second and third with +$62 and +$60 values respectively. The only remaining players from the team that started the season are KAT, Al-Farouq Aminu, and Marquese Chriss.
All that wheeling and dealing left BKN with only a 7-6 record through the first thirteen weeks of the season as Towns switched injury ravaged bodies with Anthony Davis (hi Son!) and has missed twenty plus games and counting on the year. After being unable to put together back-to-back wins through the first three months of the regular season, BKN has righted the ship of late, going 4-0-1 over the past month.
On the season their ODE splits are 12/16/3, with strengths in 3PT, FG%, and FT%. However, as trades have transformed their roster, their ODE has moved to 9/13/8 over the past month, as they added PTS and REB to their category strengths. Still, with a lack of defense and AST, BKN still has a ways to go to become a dark horse contender. With KAT and Kemba ailing — BKN has a bottom ten GP on the season — BKN has locked up a playoff spot but will have to go up a level to challenge for anything more than any early exit.
PHI, Alvin / Joachim (78-83-1)
After starting off the season with three straight wins, hopes were high in PHI that this was a playoff team. However, three straight losses followed, setting up a season that was full of streaks for Alvin and Joachim. After that 3-3 start, PHI had a four game win streak, a two game losing streak (low lighted by a 1-8 loss to CHA in WK11), and then ripped off three more straight wins against good competition before losing their last two matchups. Overall PHI would be 11-7 for pure W/L and a lock for a playoff spot, but they’ve lost more categories than they’ve won.
Note: Is there a movement for going to straight W/L records next season? A team like PHI would actually be much higher in the standings were this to be the case, as they would have been playing 0.611 ball instead of their current 0.485 from counting each category.
Led by Damian Lillard, PHI has been on the postseason bubble all season, weathering injuries to Thomas Bryant and others along the way. PHI has had a league average offense and an awful defense — usually around third worst in the league — but have been excellent with their efficiency, even leading RDA in FT% for the year. Over the past month they’ve had ODE splits of 18/26/2, and are about league average in every offensive category. Their bottom of the barrel rankings in REB, STL, BLK really hurts them though, as they are building around a three guard rotation of Lillard, semi-new acquisition Victor Oladipo, and the resplendent Dennis Schroder.
After not making a trade through the first two months of the season, PHI went into overdrive, making ten moves from the start of 2020. First up was the move to acquire Victor Oladipo in exchange for Bojan Bogdanovic and Bryant. PHI followed that up by shipping out Serge Ibaka and Jordan Clarkson for Alex Caruso and an extra RD1 and RD2 — Caruso was moved for another RD2 soon after. Mostly in sell mode, PHI shipped off Josh Jackson, Noah Vonleh, Malik Monk, and Dario Saric, bought Brad Wanamaker and Darius Miller, and then flipped Jalen Brunson for Gorgui Dieng to fill their gaping hole at center. Oh, and they picked up a RD1 right before the deadline for Juancho Hernangomez. Overall they have seven RD1 picks to fine-tune their roster moving forward.
While PHI is currently outside the playoff picture — due to the conference seedings, but they are better than NOP record wise — it’s possible PHI makes a token appearance in the postseason. But with Lillard out and Oladipo struggling, it’s likely going to be a quiet end of the season for PHI as they play out the string.
TOR, Ghita (66-91-5)
After stumbling out of the gates with five straight losses, TOR managed to put a 3-3-1 record, giving them hope that LeBron James could still carry this team to respectability. However, one win and one tie over their next six weeks had TOR at a 4-12-2 overall and Ghita hit reset. And oh how they mashed that button!
Few teams have made as many roster changing moves as TOR has. Their entire top seven guys from their auction has been traded, with mostly veterans being shipped out for younger pieces. It started with Marc Gasol in December, Evan Fournier and Taj Gibson in January, and then Jakob Poeltl (for Trey Lyles and Jahlil Okafor) as we neared the deadline. Then Ghita really did some redecorating, trading James away from their rebuilding team — at his request — along with Jeremy Lamb and Dewayne Dedmon, for Lauri Markkanen, Montrezl Harrell, and Monte Morris.
Contenders had been chasing LeBron all season and in a flash he was gone. But TOR wasn’t done yet. Two days later, they pushed Kemba Walker out the door, bringing in rookie Rui Hachimura and Jordan Clarkson. Overall, TOR’s six trades have given them an entirely new look, with Markkanen, Harrell, and Hachimura now the core of the team. Along the way, they’ve acquired two extra RD1s.
On the season, TOR actually sports a pretty decent ODE of 17/14/7, placing them in the top half of the league, as well as an average GP, an outlier for such a bad team. However, of late, TOR’s offense has collapsed and has been ranked twenty-sixth over the past month — a sterling jump up in TO and overall efficiency helped but not by much.
We don’t know what the current build of the team will look like, but the previous iteration of TOR was strong in FG%, while being horrible in 3PT and AST over the past month — although they are tenth on the season in AST, likely the LeBron effect which is now gone. It looks like TOR will still have awesome FG% moving forward but there will have to be some added scoring and shooting across the board to balance that frontcourt. Still, great job to Ghita for transforming a veteran laden squad into one flush with youth and promise.
BOS, Kostas (59-99-4)
As a Celtics fan, it hurts to see BOS so low, but with a 1-6 start to the season, this team was headed to the bottom from the beginning. With only four wins on the season — TOR, MIL, ORL, ATL — it’s been a terrible first season for Kostas. BOS is currently the thirteenth team in the East and twenty-fifth overall, engaged in a tank battle for a top five pick next season.
Strangely, this is kind of an old team. Kostas paid $50+ in the auction for five guys: Tobias Harris, Malcolm Brogdon, Mike Conley, Khris Middleton, and Larry Nance, all of whom are in or near their primes. Brogdon and Middleton are having career years, Harris is Harris, and well, the big disappointment so far has been Conley. Most of the bottom of this squad has been flipped around, as BOS has made nine trades this season and managed to accumulate three extra RD1s — good for fifth in the league — and a massive haul of RD2s, with twelve coming in over the next five years (two more than SAC). It hasn’t all been vets for youth either, as BOS has sold off Alec Burks and Nicolo Melli in recent weeks.
Acquisiitions for guys like Nicolas Batum point to the fact that BOS is just tinkering around the edges, hoping for their core to stabilize. If Conley can regain some of his former value, there’s a path for BOS to get back into the playoff picture as soon as next year. All those extra picks and a good core could vault them up to competitiveness.
They’ve been steadily at 18/23/6 ODE splits for the year, are lurk slightly below average in PTS, 3PT, REB, AST, while having a pronounced weakness in FG% and BLK. Stellar FT% and TO are something to work around though, as those have been earned with a league average Games Played mark. This is truly a team on the bubble, as they could go toward a total rebuild or chalk up 2019-20 to a lost year and come back fighting next season. We're hoping for the latter!
Way early on in the season, some prognosticators dared called NYK “fugazis” as we looked down on their 8-1 whoopings versus some weak teams. (Wiser heads put them at number one...) Welp, as it turns out, NYK specialized in these dominating weeks and sent four teams packing with 8-1 ass kickings throughout the season, highlighted by a 9-0 beatdown of ORL in WK11. (Was that the only 9-0 win this season?) NYK has won about seventy-five percent of their categories this season and oh yeah, they’re undefeated, coming close to losing only three times -- versus BKN, DET, and MEM in 5-4 victories.
Currently, NYK has an eleven category wins lead on the second place team, which is more distance than there is between seeds #2 and #8. Suffice to say, it would take a major upset to unseat NYK as the first champion in RDA history. Of course, that’s why we play the game… But for now, congrats to NYK Brian, the 💎 of Razzball Dynasty!
Shocking tidbit: NYK’s highest cost auction guy was Robert Covington, who was picked up for $42. Second highest? How about Lonzo Ball at $41. By dedicating his auction to mid-tier values, NYK assembled the deepest team in the league and balanced them perfectly. Hassan Whiteside has been a fantasy stud, Chris Paul is on a comeback year (and was a steal at $39), and everyone from Derrick Favors, Kevin Huerter, Joe Harris, and JaVale McGee has contributed greatly to NYK’s dominant season.
Along with that, NYK made six trades this season, mostly buying with RD1s (Kevin Knox, Marc Gasol, Landry Shamet) or selling (Knox, Mario Hezonja). Their only player-for-player deal was for some pre-deadline shooting, as they exchanged Daniel Theis for Duncan Robinson and two RD2s — one of which is still owed by BKN.
On the year, NYK is the top rated combined ODE team, with 4/2/8 splits through the season, and are top five in Games Played. That doesn’t tell the whole story though, as NYK has gotten even better recently, with a current ODE over the past month of 2/1/15. For a few weeks in January, they were even top ranked on both offense and defense. Wowza! For now, NYK’s already top three ranked 3PT has risen to first, their PTS have gone from eighth to fifth, their defense has remained steady, and they are back on top for REB. Their only visible weak point is FT% at eighteen overall — and TOs, sort of — but everywhere else save AST they are top five or better.
The window is now for NYK to win a title, as their core is a little older, but they still have three total RD1s moving forward, and depth like this will age like wine. So yeah, good luck beating them? Seriously, the only hope of a non-NYK championship might be an injury to CP3 or Hassan. Let’s 🙏 folks!
BKN, Jon / Trieu (92-66-4)
After funneling $253 auction dollars into Karl-Anthony Towns and Stephen Curry — plus $29 into Rui Hachimura — BKN was all in on the dual star strategy. Unfortunately, Curry went down early in the season and BKN’s season was toast.
Or was it? After twelve trades — tied for fifth in the league — and sending out every pick in the next five years -- plus another RD2 still owed to NYK -- BKN reassembled their team and emerged with KAT, Jayson Tatum, Kemba Walker, Jamal Murray, and Evan Fournier as the new starting five. The list of players come and gone is long, highlighted by the cringe worthy overpay early on of two RD1, two RD2, and $100 FAAB for Mikal Bridges — who is now displaying his defensive wares in OKC. Oops!
Overall, BKN turned their initial three hundred auctions dollars into +$122 worth of value at the end of the regular season — a stat that means nothing but is fun to look at, SAS and POR were second and third with +$62 and +$60 values respectively. The only remaining players from the team that started the season are KAT, Al-Farouq Aminu, and Marquese Chriss.
All that wheeling and dealing left BKN with only a 7-6 record through the first thirteen weeks of the season as Towns switched injury ravaged bodies with Anthony Davis (hi Son!) and has missed twenty plus games and counting on the year. After being unable to put together back-to-back wins through the first three months of the regular season, BKN has righted the ship of late, going 4-0-1 over the past month.
On the season their ODE splits are 12/16/3, with strengths in 3PT, FG%, and FT%. However, as trades have transformed their roster, their ODE has moved to 9/13/8 over the past month, as they added PTS and REB to their category strengths. Still, with a lack of defense and AST, BKN still has a ways to go to become a dark horse contender. With KAT and Kemba ailing — BKN has a bottom ten GP on the season — BKN has locked up a playoff spot but will have to go up a level to challenge for anything more than any early exit.
After starting off the season with three straight wins, hopes were high in PHI that this was a playoff team. However, three straight losses followed, setting up a season that was full of streaks for Alvin and Joachim. After that 3-3 start, PHI had a four game win streak, a two game losing streak (low lighted by a 1-8 loss to CHA in WK11), and then ripped off three more straight wins against good competition before losing their last two matchups. Overall PHI would be 11-7 for pure W/L and a lock for a playoff spot, but they’ve lost more categories than they’ve won.
Note: Is there a movement for going to straight W/L records next season? A team like PHI would actually be much higher in the standings were this to be the case, as they would have been playing 0.611 ball instead of their current 0.485 from counting each category.
Led by Damian Lillard, PHI has been on the postseason bubble all season, weathering injuries to Thomas Bryant and others along the way. PHI has had a league average offense and an awful defense — usually around third worst in the league — but have been excellent with their efficiency, even leading RDA in FT% for the year. Over the past month they’ve had ODE splits of 18/26/2, and are about league average in every offensive category. Their bottom of the barrel rankings in REB, STL, BLK really hurts them though, as they are building around a three guard rotation of Lillard, semi-new acquisition Victor Oladipo, and the resplendent Dennis Schroder.
After not making a trade through the first two months of the season, PHI went into overdrive, making ten moves from the start of 2020. First up was the move to acquire Victor Oladipo in exchange for Bojan Bogdanovic and Bryant. PHI followed that up by shipping out Serge Ibaka and Jordan Clarkson for Alex Caruso and an extra RD1 and RD2 — Caruso was moved for another RD2 soon after. Mostly in sell mode, PHI shipped off Josh Jackson, Noah Vonleh, Malik Monk, and Dario Saric, bought Brad Wanamaker and Darius Miller, and then flipped Jalen Brunson for Gorgui Dieng to fill their gaping hole at center. Oh, and they picked up a RD1 right before the deadline for Juancho Hernangomez. Overall they have seven RD1 picks to fine-tune their roster moving forward.
While PHI is currently outside the playoff picture — due to the conference seedings, but they are better than NOP record wise — it’s possible PHI makes a token appearance in the postseason. But with Lillard out and Oladipo struggling, it’s likely going to be a quiet end of the season for PHI as they play out the string.
TOR, Ghita (66-91-5)
After stumbling out of the gates with five straight losses, TOR managed to put a 3-3-1 record, giving them hope that LeBron James could still carry this team to respectability. However, one win and one tie over their next six weeks had TOR at a 4-12-2 overall and Ghita hit reset. And oh how they mashed that button!
Few teams have made as many roster changing moves as TOR has. Their entire top seven guys from their auction has been traded, with mostly veterans being shipped out for younger pieces. It started with Marc Gasol in December, Evan Fournier and Taj Gibson in January, and then Jakob Poeltl (for Trey Lyles and Jahlil Okafor) as we neared the deadline. Then Ghita really did some redecorating, trading James away from their rebuilding team — at his request — along with Jeremy Lamb and Dewayne Dedmon, for Lauri Markkanen, Montrezl Harrell, and Monte Morris.
Contenders had been chasing LeBron all season and in a flash he was gone. But TOR wasn’t done yet. Two days later, they pushed Kemba Walker out the door, bringing in rookie Rui Hachimura and Jordan Clarkson. Overall, TOR’s six trades have given them an entirely new look, with Markkanen, Harrell, and Hachimura now the core of the team. Along the way, they’ve acquired two extra RD1s.
On the season, TOR actually sports a pretty decent ODE of 17/14/7, placing them in the top half of the league, as well as an average GP, an outlier for such a bad team. However, of late, TOR’s offense has collapsed and has been ranked twenty-sixth over the past month — a sterling jump up in TO and overall efficiency helped but not by much.
We don’t know what the current build of the team will look like, but the previous iteration of TOR was strong in FG%, while being horrible in 3PT and AST over the past month — although they are tenth on the season in AST, likely the LeBron effect which is now gone. It looks like TOR will still have awesome FG% moving forward but there will have to be some added scoring and shooting across the board to balance that frontcourt. Still, great job to Ghita for transforming a veteran laden squad into one flush with youth and promise.
As a Celtics fan, it hurts to see BOS so low, but with a 1-6 start to the season, this team was headed to the bottom from the beginning. With only four wins on the season — TOR, MIL, ORL, ATL — it’s been a terrible first season for Kostas. BOS is currently the thirteenth team in the East and twenty-fifth overall, engaged in a tank battle for a top five pick next season.
Strangely, this is kind of an old team. Kostas paid $50+ in the auction for five guys: Tobias Harris, Malcolm Brogdon, Mike Conley, Khris Middleton, and Larry Nance, all of whom are in or near their primes. Brogdon and Middleton are having career years, Harris is Harris, and well, the big disappointment so far has been Conley. Most of the bottom of this squad has been flipped around, as BOS has made nine trades this season and managed to accumulate three extra RD1s — good for fifth in the league — and a massive haul of RD2s, with twelve coming in over the next five years (two more than SAC). It hasn’t all been vets for youth either, as BOS has sold off Alec Burks and Nicolo Melli in recent weeks.
Acquisiitions for guys like Nicolas Batum point to the fact that BOS is just tinkering around the edges, hoping for their core to stabilize. If Conley can regain some of his former value, there’s a path for BOS to get back into the playoff picture as soon as next year. All those extra picks and a good core could vault them up to competitiveness.
They’ve been steadily at 18/23/6 ODE splits for the year, are lurk slightly below average in PTS, 3PT, REB, AST, while having a pronounced weakness in FG% and BLK. Stellar FT% and TO are something to work around though, as those have been earned with a league average Games Played mark. This is truly a team on the bubble, as they could go toward a total rebuild or chalk up 2019-20 to a lost year and come back fighting next season. We're hoping for the latter!