Mid-Season Review: Part 2

DARK HORSES
These two teams are very similar. Both are top of the charts in statistical rankings, but a bit disappointing in the wins department. A look over their well-balanced rosters would indicate that they should be higher in the standings, but they are each floundering near even. Then again, would you want to meet either one at full strength in the playoffs? That's why they're the dark horses and primed for a surge or an upset in the second half of the season.

Chunky Monkeys (5-3-3)
I guess conceivably, the Monkeys could be better record-wise; but who knows how those three ties might have ended up. For now, they're just bit by the injury bug (Mo Williams, Charlie Villanueva, Josh Smith, Manu Ginobili) and unable to complete the push to a fully dominant team. However, with Gilbert Arenas, arguably the best fantasy player in the land, the Monkeys can still compete week in and week out. Plus, let's not forget the statistical rock that is Tim Duncan. With waiver wire revelation Andris Biedrins and Duncan anchoring the front court (and until recently, Emeka Okafor), the rest of this roster is devoted to guards.

Jason Terry and Manu Ginobili provide all that you'd want from the shooting guard position -- PTS, STL, a boatload of 3PT and even some AST. Young'uns Danny Granger and Shaun Livingston have both been inconsistent but Josh Smith is looking like he might justify his lofty third round pick status. The real story for the Monkeys is Mo Williams, who has turned into one of the best fantasy point guards in the league (17 PTS, 5 REB, 6 AST with STL/3PT/FT% to boot). Once Mo and Josh Smith return to full strength, the Monkeys are ready for a strong second half push.

Poobic Heirs (5-5-1)
I'd like to rank the Heirs higher than the Monkeys but their record against winning teams trouble me. They've only won one game against a winning team (this past week versus a deflated Buffy) and despite some awe inducing pieces and statistical rankings, they're just not that good. Add in Yao Ming's injury and we think the best this team can do is stay afloat until the big man returns. Then again, if Andrew Bogut and Sam Dalembert want to pick up the slack, they can support Kobe and Co and pick up some steam in the mean time.

Oliver has some unearthed some true fantasy gems -- Kevin Martin and Monta Ellis -- and the transformation of Caron Butler into an All-Star has made the Heirs amazingly explosive. Kirk Hinrich, Rasheed Wallace, and even Shane Battier have been a tad disappointing, but it's hard to say that they're doing poorly. Ricky Davis is a nice statistical glue man so essentially, this team runs ten deep with quality players; making them possibly the best and deepest team in the league. When will they start playing like it? Are they saving themselves for a long playoff run?

TOILET BOWL
Right now, these four teams are headed to the Toilet Bowl. Unless Ping and Jose can pick it up, they're slated to compete with Alvin and Trieu for next year's top pick. While the Pooh Bears and the Phanatics aren't that far off the playoff pace, the two teams in front of them (Evan and Oliver) are both looking pretty solid for the playoff hunt. So, who's headed for the #1 pick and Greg Oden?

100AcreWoodPoohBears (3-7-1)
It's not like the Bears are that bad; they're just not that good. Point guards Mike Bibby and Andre Miller are both top guards and provide excellent shooting and passing numbers. Brevin Knight has left the Earth (not literally) but he could conceivably come back and push this team to dominance in the AST department. Pau Gasol has returned from a broken foot way earlier than anticipated and is rounding into shape. Ben Gordon is a scoring machine. Shawn Marion is down a bit from his previous seasons, but he's still an all-around monster. Tayshaun Prince is having a (fantasy) career year and even Chris Wilcox hasn't been too bad -- even if he hasn't exactly exploded like predicted. The loss of Peja Stojakovic isn't a huge hit, since he wasn't counted on to be much more than a 3PT specialist anyway.

Everything looks great right? So, what's the problem (aside from a huge amount of injuries)? It's Andrei Kirilenko, who isn't the AK47 of the past and showing no signs of justifying his second round pick -- unless 9 PTS, 5 REB, 3 AST and 1 STL (albeit with 2 BLK) is what you were looking for. AK47 has suddenly morphed into Darko Milicic. Jose needs to find a way to make his team gel and to make up for the statistical black hole that is named Andrei. Out of all the potential Toilet Bowl teams, they have the best chance of getting out, but that's not saying much.

Phanatics (3-8)
Similar to the Pooh Bears, the Phanatics are pretty good on paper, but most of their roster sits on the bench. Paul Pierce, Marcus Camby, Lamar Odom, Richard Jefferson, David West, and Drew Gooden have all been injured for significant amounts of time. At full strength, with Vince Carter, that's seven very solid players. However, when you're forced to rely on the likes of Antoine Walker, Nazr Mohammed, Al Harrington and Luke Ridnour as your best players, that's not going to fly.

Al Harrington has actually been pretty good (15.8 PTS, 6 REB, 1.5 3PT) and Luke Ridnour is outplaying his eighth round status (13.7 PTS, 5.9 AST, 1.3 STL) but this team would be much better served if they were the eighth and ninth best players in the lineup, not the second and third. There's nothing to do here but wait for the gang to get healthy; and even then, this team might be too imbalanced -- no AST/STL/BLK but plenty of PTS/REB -- to win consistently.

MoRRie's Pogiboys (1-10)
Where did it all go wrong? Has an entire team ever underachieved all at the same time? We can safely say, "yes." But at least there's a light at the end of the tunnel for the Pogiboys. For example, it's safe to say that Stephon Marbury is back to around 20 PTS and 7 AST, and he's added a shiny new 3PT shot this year. Elton Brand isn't having a MVP-type year but he's still 20-9 with BLKs. And the other top pick, Chauncey Billups has cemented his status as a fantasy star with 18 PTS and 8 AST with plenty of threes and steals. That's it for the good news.

Gerald Wallace, the third round pick, hasn't played enough to see whether or not he's an injury bust -- strong indicators point to "maybe." Chris Kaman, Troy Murphy, Channing Frye, Speedy Claxton, Ike Diogu, Kwame Brown, Derek Fisher, Vladimir Radmanovic and nearly everyone else has been somewhere between disappointing and ridiculously bad. Alonzo Mourning has been a stud but what're you going to do with his 89 BLKs when you can't win the other eight categories? Some waiver wire pickups have been little sparks of sunshine -- Damon Jones, Willie Green, Damien Wilkins, Dikembe Mutombo, Juwan Howard -- but it's hardly enough to create any heat.

The Pogiboys have played an amazing NINE point guards so far this season -- and this isn't a guard orientated team. The amazing nine: Billups, Marbury, Claxton, Fisher, Damon Jones, Jason Williams, Sebastian Telfair, Tyronn Lue, and Damon Stoudamire. The Pogiboys are preparing to take their best shot at Oden, good luck man.

Sour Snails (1-10)
After picking up a huge first win just this past week, the Snails are showing some signs of life. At the mid-point of the season, they've had the equivalent of the seven biblical plagues befall their team. Injuries, trade demands, bad roster management, more injuries, underachievers, and um, more underachieving and more injuries. Jason Richardson, Ron Artest, Morris Peterson, Larry Hughes, and Wally Szerbiak have shuffled in and out of the lineup due to injury. Even when healthy, none of those guys (except Wally) has been playing as predicted.

The two stars of this team, Allen Iverson and Steve Nash, are still top tier players, but Iverson missed a few games while waiting for his ticket out of Hell, and Steve Nash isn't an eight-category fantasy stud. The iron man and possibly third best player on this team so far? Stephen Jackson with 36 games played (14 PTS, 3 REB/AST, 1.1 3PT) -- wasn't he supposed to go to jail? Mike James lost his fantasy mojo playing next to KG and Ricky D in Minnesota, leaving this team barren of talent.

Trieu has done his best to find some nice young players (Rudy Gay, Hakim Warrick, Ryan Gomes, Rasual Butler) but nobody can compete when injuries and inconsistency from your top players hit. Jason Richardson and Ron Artest are not holding up their draft status and probably won't for the forseeable near future. Picks 3-8 on this team were (in order): Artest, Richardson, Mo Peterson, Mike James, Wally Z, Larry Hughes. See what I mean by underachievers?

This team needs to pull it together for a Toilet Bowl push, quick.