Give Me The Rock

or: Time to hit the bars for the free cable!

First of all, fill out your bracket on BallHype.com. Somehow - I blame statistics - the more people that register, the less chance I have of actually winning. And you’d think, since I didn’t win a damn thing this season, that I’d be desperately trying to win something. But, I’m so over it.

Okay, but not over it enough to not go over it. Worry not, I’ll make it quick. From top to bottom:

• Kentucky Fried Basketball Association: 2nd place (of 16). I had the best record in the league and lost by 11 points to the guy with the second best record: 225 - 214. Those 11 points represent about 5% of the total score, so you can see how close it is. I blame Tayshaun.
• Dropping Dimes Experts League: 4th place (of 12). I was lucky enough to be in 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place for much of the season. Then editor_njt64 from TalentedMrRoto.com jumped 5.5 points in the standings on the last day of the season. Before that, I don’t think I’d seen anyone get more than a +2 on a given day. How the Hell did that happen? Seriously! I’d again like to place some of the blame on Tayshaun, but also, some of the fault is mine for hoping that Andre Iguodala and Jermaine O’Neal would play while I had Bostjon Nachbar and Travis Outlaw on my bench. Really, though, I’m satisfied with my effort. Since I’m now confident in my drafting ability, I will focus on my close out next season.
• HoopsAddict.com League: 19th place (of 24). This team was kind of like the Memphis Grizzlies of fantasy basketball… Injuries galore, and no good way to make up for them in a points league with 24 teams. I’ve ranted about that one before, so I’ll leave it at that.

And that’s that.

Now, I realize that Chicago is taking on the Defending NBA Champion Miami Heat, but the Bulls are in one of only two series that are being broadcast on ABC. So, really, the subtitle should read “Time to use the playoffs as an excuse to hit the bars for the nachos and the beers.” Nachos and Beers, Babies!

Honestly, not much.

But that won’t stop me from praising players across my 3 teams for their efforts last night:

Dwight Howard: 27, 11, 2 blocks, 1 steal… oh, and 9-10 from the free throw line! I’m quite sure I’m jinxing myself with that exclamation point. But, holy *moly* if he can even come close to that this season…

Luke Ridnour: 22 points, 13 assists! He got me 77 fantasy points over in the HoopsAddict.com league. For some perspective, LeBron averaged about 66 fantasy points last season.

Okay, really that’s just 2 players from 2 teams. Everyone else did more or less what I would expect from them. Unfortunately, that means if PJ Brown has another 4 point, 3 rebound game against Sacramento (hello, Kevin Martin), he’s going to cut get no matter how much of a Chicago Townie I am.

What else?

• Jason Kidd has a triple-double. Not too shabby.
• Shawn Marion was studly as usual.
• Everyone’s favorite “sleeper” Gerald Wallace was injured, but he walked off, so it hopefully wasn’t that bad.
• Eddie Griffin had 3 blocks to go with 8 points and 7 rebounds.
• Bonzi Wells didn’t play.
• Vince Carter: 25, 11, 6. I almost picked him a couple times. Couldn’t bring myself to do it.
• Deron Williams had 18 points and 10 assists. It’s no 22 and 13, but pretty close.
• Paul Pierce had 19 rebounds! Stop taking them all from Perk and Delonte! Gawd!
• Elton Brand is a stud.

The Lemony Snicket Knicks are 1-0 under Isiah, thanks to Q-Rich’s 31 points on 5-5 from 3-point land. In a series of unusual events, Eddy Curry played 41 minutes and grabbed 14 rebounds before fouling out. David Lee played 30 and had 13 rebs. (I wouldn’t expect that to happen unless Channing Frye continues to be almost entirely inefficient) Steve Francis has 2 points and 5 turnovers. And Renaldo played 8 minutes (and was almost as effective as Frye).

So, NBA.com claims to have live scoring on their site. But PJ Brown has been stuck at 13 fantasy points for more than a half hour now… Oh wait. It’s because he’s on the bench since the Bulls are up by 23 points!

Oh, and if you notice a distinct Bulls bent to this blog (I’ll be doing my part at the least), it’s because I’m marginally salty about not being invited to do a preview on NBAPreview.wordpress.com. I don’t care if everyone in all of my leagues knows I’m a townie, because I don’t let it cloud my judgement. To be honest, I have a Bull on each of my 3 teams, but it’s really more of a coincidence than any pretermination on my part: in my KFBA league, Ben Gordon was a good keeper pick for me; in the HoopsAddict league, I got Bad Bad PJ Brown on my team only because I couldn’t find anyone else to pick at 178 and he was autodrafted for me; my only real townie pick was in the DroppingDimes league, where I took Tyrus Thomas with my very last pick.

So, you can trust me to provide unbiased fantasy basketball coverage all season, but you can also trust me to Big Up the Bulls when I get the chance. Chi-town Basketball!

Here’s the schedule that Jeff from CelticsBlog set up for the NBA Previews blog. It’s like a Carnival of the NBA spread out over the whole month of October. I guess everyone views GMTR as a team-agnostic blog since I’ve never been invited to write or talk about any specific team ever.

Maybe if my posting name was The Bull instead of Nels, people might think about it a little differently. I’ve already got Ben Gordon on my KFBA team (the Paris Hilton Sex Tape league) as one of my only two keepers, so maybe that helps make it a little clearer. Gordon is my 5th round pick with the way the league works, so hopefully PMad will support my decision in his Chicago Bulls fantasy preview.

Or at least in the general vicinity thereof.

The Kentucky Fried Basketball Association has always sort of sat there like a gerbil in the back of mind. Until this year, I can’t remember the site looking professional enough to be willing to spend my hard earned money on. This year, though, when it popped up in my “fantasy basketball” Google Alert, I took a look and was impressed. It helped that I had a faithful companion willing to jump in the frying vat with me. So, we plunked down our credits and became managers in the Paris Hilton Sex Tape league. The obvious bonus is that GMTR now has a Paris Hilton Sex Tape category, and every time I write about how the league is going, I can write Paris Hilton Sex Tape. While it will not attract as much search engine attention, my team name is the Pivot Point Clippers. If you have to log in or something to see those links on KFBA, I apologize in advance.

To throw more time (= money) after money, I have applied for a spot with the NBA.com Premier Fantasy Championship. I don’t actually expect to get in, and a previous email to Jon Loomer was not returned, but I am going for it nonetheless. I just feel obligated. And I like how the application page has a PageRank of 3. Thanks, I was almost feeling good about my PR4.