Week 2 Power Rankings

1. DreamTeam - hard to argue with the numbers. DT rests in the upper echelon in FG, FT, PTS, RBS, STL, and BLK.  This is one of the more complete teams in the league and his 6-2 drubbing of Where's Leon vaulted him into 1st place in the standings.  A closer inspection of the actual 6-2 win shows that many of the margins were statistically negligible - he won points by 3, steals by 5, and blocks by 2.  We'll give him his due this week, but as of now all these positions are as fluid as running water.  I would be highly surprised if most on the list are in the same spot in two weeks.


2. Team Canada - crushing saplings usually doesn't win you prime real estate on the power rankings, but an overall glance at his roster should gives lots of teams pause for concern.  When your roster includes Howard and Rondo and Griffin, you're going to be in for a dogfight. 


3. Merlness - climbs into uncharted territory for him.  While his victory was rather meek for playing someone so weak, looking at the numbers tells you this team has yet to show any weaknesses.  He doesn't rank lower than seven in eight of nine categories.  That's quite remarkable and leads me to believe his team is well balanced.  His challenge will be turning those middle of the road categories into top three stuff.


4. Pippen Ain't Easy - statistically is like a poor man's Merlness, but when I say middle of the road I mean smack dab in the middle of the road.  He is only top four in one category, but he isn't bottom four in any.  It really hurt that he wasn't able to squeeze one or two of those ties he had last week, but 5-2 against a former champion isn't overlooked by this committee.


5. Cocaine Convict - talk about taming the paper beast. Last year's runner-up is looking to redeem himself and gain league immortality, but his numbers are going to have to pick up if he wants to play with the big boys.  But this ranking may be tilted against him since that MSG cancellation affected him to the tune of five players.  His power house team last year was slowed down when playoff bound stars were being benched like it was the preseason.  Since his roster is devoid of any of those, he'll need a 2004 Pistons performance if he wants to reign supreme.   Repeatabull put up a first week performance that obviously wasn't repeatable.


6. Dark Horse - year after year Dark Horse shows glimpses of breaking out of a perennial funk, but year after year he lives up to his namesake only.  Without a single 20 point scorer, it's tough to see this team carried alone by an aging Steve Nash - much like Steve Nash's actual team.  His marginal loss to a powerhouse shows this horse has some life in it yet.  We'll keep from putting it out to pasture for another couple weeks.


7. Where's Leon - this position may prove to be far too low for a team that posts as good numbers as this one does.  I could have just as easily put Leon in the top three without blinking an eye.  But I'm also a pragmatist and this ain't no useless John Hollinger Power Ranking.  Where's Leon leads the league in PTS, AST, and TO and is in 2nd place in REB.  That is VERY impressive.  So why no PR love? Well, for starters I don't believe in Brandon Jennings. I've been scorned once already by that bum. Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me.  I don't think Kobe is going to be anywhere near the prolific scorer we've seen in the past.  David West has been running hot and cold.  And AI (I guess there's only one now), is injured.  If this team isn't an outlier, than chances are it will rise after this week, but only results will determine that.


8. Repeatabull - you know what wasn't repeatable? His first week performance.  No Monta and no Brooks, not to mention the soon to be returning Bynum all spell trouble. If he keeps repeating performances like week 2, the only thing that will be repeatable is another disappointing year.



9. Stitches - is good for blocks. Can I end my comment there? Well, so far he has been anyway.  Brook Lopez can be a power house as is Josh Smith, but I fear this is the little kids pool and there's little chance of drowning, because it's just not deep.


10. Cliphairs - i think there were a few days where no roster updates were made and people were left off ala sirchunksalot.  Hope that isn't foreshadowing for the year to come.


11. Big Country - the country may be big, but no one wants to live in it. Partly due to the piss poor draft, which may seem odd for someone choosing at #1, but drafts are made in the 5-9 rounds, not the 1-4.  Perhaps he should have tried the strategy that gave him a championship last year... autodraft. Ouch.


12. Pohn Wall - this is a sad showing for a once perennial threat to win the league championship.  I wouldn't count him out, but he will need to wield all the veteran prowess and skill from his being an elder statesmen of fantasy sports if he wants any chance of being in the playoff hunt.


13. Tykes For Tyreke - this one was a numbers game. How many categories did Tykes rank in the bottom 5? Five. His best category was FT%.  It's only the 2nd week, so no need to hit the "Rebuilding Mode" button just yet, but those are some wretched numbers to start the year off.  Doesn't help that Roy still doesn't seem all that comfortable on the floor just yet. Hickson was a great pickup, but other than that it's pretty, "Eh."