ACKL Power Rankings Round 2

Well the ACKL is off to a bang and the start of the year has brought us a full 10 GM's showing up to play the game this year. As per the norm we have a couple of usual names at the top of our list and a couple of new surprises that this year has brought. One thing that has been learnt, is that anything you thought you knew last year is worthless and that any constant surprises have been mitigated by yet again another year of bad coaching. But alas if you own Chris Bosh you now have a guy who gets 15 and 6... ummm, don't worry Jason Thompson wins the award with his 5 and 5... Yup another year where nothing makes sense and the 3 time defending champion looks like he'll go four time. So let's get down to business.

1. Skittles and Roses (1)

After a crushing defeat of last year's finalist, he is having a bit more of a difficult week with some mysterious listeria infection. But nothing to worry continues to be smooth sailing with little injuries.

2. Kingscourt Jester (3)

Team is playing like it is possessed at having another fantastic season, the hope is this will continue and at the moment it looks like. Now will someone tell Gay that he got paid last season and he can relax again.

3. Gucci's Gangster (6)

Looks to be a force to be reckoned with this year. Griffin looks solid and the rest of his squad has the highest of fashion senses going into the year. Has easily taken care of business in the first two weeks and ran over Kahn's team in week one. Watchout for the hitman squad.

4. Halifax Rainman (7)

Last time I called them team Old, but alas after two weeks I have to give some respect, has been playing teams really tough and making everyone realize that he will try to contend. Good victory over the meat the last week and another solid performance this week.

5. The Khan Artists (2)

Hasn't found the traction yet in the new season. Has got players doing their thing, and others wondering if they will do there thing this year. Plenty of time in the year to be right in the thicket and watch things grow, but at the moment it is a team going backwards.

6. Indian Burial Curse (4)

Another team going backwards, though making multiple moves to try and fix it, but draft circa 2010 has been a disaster from beginning to end. Will he find the components to make things work, and will the injury bug stop biting all his players one by one.

7. Mystery Meat (5)

The GM is back and the squad is off to a slow start. D12 being one of the slowest of them all in terms of rebounds and such. But give it some time and patience and he could be a very feared team at the end of the year.

8.Broken Ankle Rehab (8)

Good win the first week, then ran into an angry GM the second week, finding himself on the losing end as his team just doesn't have the depth and raw talent up top to make it work yet, but a more competitive squad than it was last year with the addition of Wall.

9. Future Dunk (9)

The rebuilding seems to be working, good talent has been found, it is just going to be a long long year in the end. Though the schedule can only get easier from here on out.

10. OCT (10)

 The team should be used to being in this spot, cause it looks very unlikely that it will be moving anytime soon. Something about having Hibbert as your 5th best player tells you that something may be wrong. Patience and making sure to get value out of the older guys to rebuild is the major goal here.

ACKL Power Rankings 2010-11 1st Edition

Greetings, the season is near, I've just finished watching all of season 2 of Jersey Shore in 2 days and figure that the nightmare of my life is finally over... yes watching that show more than once a week would drive most people insane, watching it in 2 days has given me a new appreciation for the lack of sophistication in Canadian girls until it comes time to do the deed in which they fake bunt and get out of sight. Anyways this has inspired me a tad, well enough for me to relate to the power rankings, only so that I get my sanity back. So without further ado, let us go over the numbers.

1st Edition (Pre-season week)

The Contenders

Yes winning the league and being on top of the league is the same as being able to show you can do a good jersey shore fist pump dance, and well I just enjoy watching this on repeat and wondering if this is their exercise for the day or not. But alas last year our champ Carlos fist pumped his way to victory and after a good draft for him, he is ready to lead everyone to the MVP promise land. 

1. Skittles and Roses (Carlos)

 Best team out there on paper, can't beat his top 8 when they are put together, and his depth is enough that he is again looking like the winner of the league. One day the trading away high draft picks will get to him, but for now we might as well just put his name on the trophy again.

2. The Khan Artists (Mike)

Had the most draft picks, had the best draft, and again has the deepest team around, his talent is getting better with age and if he can hijack a superstar and not lose much depth he will be on top of Carlos like Snookie was on top of Vinny that one night.

3. Kingscourt Jester (Dustin)

Good draft, though if Phoenix has learnt any thing in the preseason, Robin Lopez and Hedo at the 4 and 5 is a defensive disaster. Has the Wade injury to watch out for the moment, but in the end looks ready to put together another solid season as long as the geriatrics unit stays away.

4. Indian Burial Curse (Kyle)

Where to start, has a 24 minute keeper in Ming, has another keeper that might get some minutes (Thompson), but it buried in Sac town, because other GM's can't draft properly(Khan). So is now stuck in a rut that he can't get out of. Can't count him out with the likes of LBJ and Deron, but hasn't thrilled either, going to be based on what he achieves early in the season in returns for players he drafts.

The Unknown Quantity

 For a few years now one man has defied us that studying in the league does not breed a winning team, and that not studying also does not allow you to win. So basically he tries, he fails, he doesn't try he fails. So instead he goes to sleep and we one day wait for Cinderella to wake him up.

5. Mystery Meat (Joe)

As the name states, he is a mystery, got talent at the top, could move himself up, but does he wake up. Only time will tell, but I will say this, Dwight Howard will be his best player this year. 

Gasping at the price

 For some GM's they are stuck looking at the prize and cringing, now that prize may be a red thong, or it may be a silver plattered trophy, but none the less they are again stuck in no man's land, watching and waiting. A lot like Sammi's and Ron's relationship, if is going forward, backwards, upwards, downwards... or are they just stuck. Time will tell.

6. Gucci's Gangster (Near)

Team is becoming younger and hasn't made any silly trades this year, being patient with Blake, and that will hopefully turn into a marriage made in heaven. Needs to continuing building up, and in a couple years time could be something to reckon with.

7. Halifax Rainman (Scott)

Team Old, really it is on life support this year. Can't see much coming out of it, and sooner or later the big blow up will occur... I suspect trading deadline this year, but not much to watch and see, what you have is what you get. A team that would scare me if we were back in circa 2003. 

Running from the Prize

 Now the Snookie run in repeat is funny, yet scary on too many levels. First off watching her run in fluffy shoes is good way to crack me up. While using one arm to keep her moving along. While wearing ridiculous glasses that she can barely see out of. She's a train wreck, and is a lot like the last 3 teams. All teams are rebuilding in some format, but for this year, they will be spending time counting how many times Snookie's funbags bounce in this clip.

8.Broken Ankle Rehab (Eli)

Best of the worst at the moment, needs to be careful though, has to watch which of his picks run, and which don't and make changes quick. But having Granger, makes him a bigger beast to beat up on. 

9. Future Dunk (Jason)

He's like a grenade, full of young raw talent, but you stay away to find something better. A finer more likable individual comes around. For now he's in the bottom, but rebuilding will be hard and slow, just has to make sure he doesn't pull an Angelina and whore himself to all the other franchises. 

10. OCT (Cousy)

We have a SITUATION... yes you knew it was coming, but we do. The team is like the SITUATION, can be nice and endearing at times, but also can explode all over you and just throw you out the room rather than being a team player. That's what this squad is, an interesting mess, a team in two directions... look for the franchise players to move this year in order to try redeem as many top picks as possible in the coming drafts.

Now that's a wrap... just make sure it was shrink wrapped, I saw those herpes on the beach in Miami.

p.s. the power rankings won't be this long again.

ACKL Fantasy Draft Rankings

After enjoy a week in the Iberian border I've come back to reality and that means looking at the basketball draft and ranking how each team. This is much like my vacation as the photo nicely depicts.

Yes we find the draft a thing of fire and smoke that litters our preception on how well we may have done. I will attempt to take an unbiased opinion and say how I see the draft planning out for all and giving everyone grades that only a fine talent recruiter like Isiah Thomas could find.

Without further ado, in an alphabetical order in order to not entice people thinking I am bias other than the first letter in your name. Let the ranking and fun begin.

Anthony: 6: Chris Kaman (If only it was Deron), 15: Eric Gordon, 26: Jameer Nelson, 27: Hedo Turkoglu, 35: James Harden, 55: Tayshawn Prince, 66: Anthony Tolliver

- Had himself a solid draft, excellent pieces picking up with a good youth piece in Gordon and excellent rebounder with Kaman. Nelson and Turkoglu were both cheaper due to the fact they had bad years and should bounce back next year, especially with Hedo now out of Toronto and in the steady hands of Nash and co. Harden will need to look to get minutes in a talented team but is a good piece to gamble on. Not sold on his last two picks with Prince and Tolliver as minutes will be hard to find for both members.

Ranking: B

Carlos: 4: DeMarcus Cousins, 24: JJ Hickson, 34: Terrence Williams, 37: Mike Miller, 46: AK47, 49: Jose Calderon, 67: Ramon Sessions

- Being the defending 3 time champ he is afford to gamble in drafts. He has never won in the drafts and this may have been best draft yet for him, sadly it still needs some work, but his trading ability will make it easy for him to move pieces and find the talent to win again. That being said he went for youth early on, and to be honest I think that was too high for Cousins, but if he is willing to wait it out and keep him then he'll be good to go. Hickson was a good pick at that spot. Williams and Miller are both interesting picks, both have high potential, but also can easily collapse and show nothing. AK47 will give you stats when health, Calderon pick is my favorite of his as it can at a wonderful spot to get a guy who has had potential keeper ability when he plays well. Ramon Noodles is a gamble and will test his itchy trigger finger when he doesn't get playing time early on in the season behind Mo Williams

Rating: C+

Cousy: 1: Evan Turner, 21: Jason Richardson, 29: Emeka Okafor, 40: Amir Johnson, 41: Beno Udrih, 60: Kirk Hinrich, 61: Shaq

- First surprise of the draft was brought by Cousy when he choose Turner over Wall, I understand the reasonings behind it, but still have to say Wall was the more consensus choice in my mind, star PG's are hard to find, while SG/SF can be a dime a dozen. He made up for it with excellent picks with Richardson and Okafor which will be keepers for him for a few years to come. Amir will get minutes in Toronto and hopefully stats come with it. Beno is a safe pick at PG and will hope to get over his injury concerns of last year. Kirk pick is a strange pick as he is backing up Wall and Arenas, but I like the Shaq pick especially at the start of the season with the injury to Perkins.

Rating: A-

Dustin: 10: Devin Harris, 11: Raymond Felton, 30: Robin Lopez, 50: Shawn Marion, 64: Leandro Barbosa, 69: Rodrigue Beaubois, 70: Nicholas Batum

- Had a superb start to the draft and picked up the two best PG's on the board not named Wall. Both have run and gun type teams and each have added firepower to make themselves even better. Then the Robin Lopez pick came along and I spent hours mystifying why, I know no Center in Phoenix, but clearly small ball is going to be played with that squad and Frye will be playing the 5 spot. Marion and Barbosa are both meh picks, could get the stats, could just float around looking google eyed. Finished off the draft strong with two quality sleepers in Beaubois and Batum.

Rating: B-

Eli: 2: John Wall, 19: Brendan Haywood, 22: JaVale McGee, 39: Tiago Splitter, 42: Boris Diaw, 59: DeMar DeRozan, 62: Ed Davis

- Had the gem of the draft fall one pick to two and you couldn't pass up on having a potential franchise keeper on your squad. He then went on to pick Haywood and McGee to continue to load his front court and get more rebounds then he did last year. Took the sleeper pick with Splitter who has potential to be the starting center in SA. Diaw will put up usual numbers and has an ability to do all the small stats that you look for. The last two picks are diamonds in the rough and shows you his allegiance to the Raptors. They could work out, but more often than not you will find them in the scrap heap.

Rating: B+

Herndu: 5: Anthony Morrow, 16: Samuel Dalembert, 25: Al Harrington, 36: Elton Brand, 45: Thaddeus Young, 56: Courtney Lee, 65: Mike Bibby

- This is what happens when you don't attend a draft. You end up with Morrow and Dalembert as your top picks. He saved himself with Harrington and a fit Brand. Young and Lee will not help Herndu and nor will Bibby. Though due to his inactivity as an owner it should come no surprise that most of those players will not end up playing anyways on his roster. So really no harm no foul correct.

Rating: F

Jason: 7: Wesley Johnson, 9: Luis Scola, 17: Carl Landry, 31: Andersen Varejao, 44: Greg Monroe, 54: Jarrett Jack, 57: Drew Gooden

- Went on a youth spree, which is exactly what Jason's team needed. Found himself with Johnson early on, and then went on a spree of PF, in Scola, Landry and Varejao, all who could put up solid rebound numbers and be good glue for the team. Monroe has the potential to do well, with Jack and Gooden doing well in supporting roles. Needs to find a franchise player for his squad and continue to rebuild this year and make moves for higher picks after the Dirk trade.

Rating: B+


Kyle: 12: Stephen Jackson, 18: Marcus Thornton, 32: Reggie Williams, 47: Serge Ibaka, 51: Mike Conley Jr, 52: Richard Hamilton, 53: Ronnie Brewer


- Very good early draft Kyle had, taking Jackson at 12 and picking up Thornton at 18 were superb picks. Took a surprise head scratching pick at 32 with Williams, but if Nelson stays and he gets the SF spot like projected he could end up putting some deadly stats. Ibaka will be the shot blocker and has made himself known as a defensive presence. Conley pick is a joke, bad idea, but a PG was needed and Calderon had just been taken. Hamilton will be good if he gets the minutes in Detroit, or gets traded to someone with a SG need. Brewer is excellent for steals and will be helping Chicago out this year with their defensive presence and mad hops.

Rating: B

Mike: 8: Derrick Favors, 13: Antawn Jamison, 14: Andray Blatche, 20: Trevor Ariza, 28: Al-Farouq Aminu, 33: Josh Childress, 48: Ben Gordon, 68: Lou Williams

- Mike has been continuing the building trend over the last years and has grown to be one of the most competitive teams in the league. He did it again with this draft, as he was able to score Favors, Jamison, Blatche in the top 14. He stretched with Ariza and then selected a Clipper with the Aminu pick, while he rebounding numbers have been crazy in college it was probably a little early on that pick. Childress should do well in Phoenix, but who knows what the Euro diet may have done to him. Gordon will look to have a bounce back year with the Pistons and Williams will fight with Holiday and Turner for playing time.

Rating: A

Scott: 3: Andre Miller, 23: John Salmons, 38: JR Smith, 43: Kelenna Azubuike, 58: George Hill, 63: Josh Howard

- Scott has a great draft if you pretend not to look at that first pick he made. Andre Miller pick was a shocking surprise and did not conform with any of the early predictions, especially with PG's like Felton and Harris who put up better numbers throughout the year. Here is hoping he has 50 point games once a week to prove me wrong. Salmons and Azubuike picks were excellent steals in there places. Smith will help and Hill and Howard both have potential to put up strong numbers.

Rating: B-

Overall this was the best drafted draft yet of the league. GM's have learnt how to better evaluate talent and less and less potential disasters were made in the draft. Rather than becoming like Isiah Thomas, we now see more of a Sam Presti and Daryl Morey way about going about the drafting. Now the wait for the season which is now only 2 months away.

ACKL 2010 Draft

Let the drafting mayhem begin, who will pick what and will it shake down like a 1980's frat party.

ACKL Finals Day 2... the breakdown

The experiement continues yet for another day, seeing how close those average stats are and whether I can find that advantage to finally win a bloody title. Yes I know i shouldn't be worried about the fantasy world, but once a year I worry. So without further ado, I will just list the expected results tonight in the table. Plus provide a bit of a break down of what I see.


Matchup numbers Night 2(predicted)

Category	Kobe(pred)	actual	HH(pred)	actual
3PTM	5.0		15.5
PTS	173.2		182.4
OREB	13.6		11.1
REB	48		49.9
ASTS	38.7		46.3
STLS	6.3		9.6
BLKS	7.8		4.4
TO	27.0		22.3

So after the first night in which I took a good advantage in points that I'll need to hold onto for the rest of the week, we've got a very tight battle tonight in al categories minus 3PTS and Blocks, which we each take one category handily. So should be up for an interesting points/assists/rebound matchup. All those big stats that we all like to calculate to see how well our teams are playing. As long as I don't end up like this, I'll be happy.

ACKL Finals... Day 1 Pre-Breakdown

The finals are upon me once again in the wonderful fantasy format of sports. Now I know most won't be interested, but I wanted to break down the fantasy numbers pre-day and then post day to see how well the average predictors are, and whether or not you can find an actually statistical advantage from it all or not.

So how I'm going to break it down, I'm going to forget percentages... that's a crap shoot stat that I don't have time to try figure out as the week is going, I'm worried about the other 8 categories that go on in my fantasy format, I'm going to tally each person's starting roster for that day, and make a prediction based on last week's average stats... I could go monthly, but I've chosen to use the nearest stat and too see how far off some players are, in terms of hot and cold streaks. Anyways just something to scare those that wish to look at the stats.

Day 1
HH Roster 3 PTM PTS OREB REB AST STLS BLKS TO
- Stephen Curry: 2.3 19.7 1.0 4.7 9.3 1.3 0.7 3.7
- Andre Iguodala: 2.3 22.7 1.0 7.0 7.7 3.0 0.7 4.0
- Deron Williams: 2.0 17.0 0.0 2.3 14.3 1.0 0.7 3.3
- Lebron James: 0.3 30.7 0.7 9.7 7.3 1.3 0.7 3.0
-Gerald Wallace: 0.5 15.0 1.8 9.0 2.3 0.8 0.5 1.8
- Antawn Jamison: 1.3 13.3 1.0 9.7 1.3 0.7 0.7 1.0
- Luis Scola: 0.0 18.8 2.5 8.0 2.3 1.3 0.3 2.3
- Jason Thompson:0.0 17.0 2.3 7.3. 0.7 0.3 1.3 1.7
- John Salmons: 1.8 19.8 1.0 3.8 4.8 1.0 0.3 2.0

Kobe's Lineup
- Jrue Holiday: 1.0 15.0 0.3 2.3 5.7 1.0 0.0 4.0
- Chase Budinger: 3.0 19.3 0.8 4.5 2.0 0.3 0.3 0.3
- Taj Gibson: 0.0 14.0 5.7 13.7 1.0 0.7 2.3 1.0
- Joakim Noah: 0.0 11.0 4.0 11.3 2.7 0.3 1.3 0.7
- J.J. Hickson: 0.0 12.0 4.0 11.0 1.7 0.3 1.7 1.3
- Andray Blatche: 0.0 23.0 3.3 8.3 6.8 2.8 1.0 2.8
-H-heem Thabeet:0.0 1.7 1.7 6.7 0.3 0.3 2.3 1.7
- Paul Millsap: 0.0 13.7 3.0 9.0 2.7 0.7 1.7 1.7
- Shaun Livingston: 0.0 12.0 0.5 3.3 5.3 0.0 0.8 2.5


Matchup numbers(predicted)

Category	Kobe(pred)	actual	HH(pred)	actual
3PTM	4.0	2	10.5	11
PTS	121.7	103	174	198
OREB	24.4	12	11.3	7
REB	70.1	52	61.5	37
ASTS	28.2	26	50	41
STLS	6.7	4	10.7	4
BLKS	11.4	9	5.2	3
TO	16.0	11	22.8	10

So after night one the matchup should be 4-4, and then add percentages in there, which usually gets split, so after night one the matchup should be 5-5. Not much to seperate both squads, and really should make for an entertaining continuation on the week. I'll update it hopefully tomorrow after the actual results come in and we can see how widely off the predicted stats are.