Week 3 recap

Week three was filled with significant injuries, which led to more action on the transaction front than usual for a games cap format. Some big claims were thrown out for players that project to have a dramatic increase in value for the foreseeable future, and teams are starting to solidify their strengths and weaknesses which increased some bid pricing.

This week might go down as one of learning, as a few matchups would have ended differently if managers had been more selective with their 40GP limit. Just goes to show that, no matter the league, it’s still possible to squeeze a win out of thin air by paying closer attention to certain rules than their opponent.

One interesting note for this week: turnovers were the swing category in more matchups than not. Three of the six winning managers had turnovers as one of their winning categories, two of which ended 5-4, and two other matchups had turnovers decided by less than five. The tendency for most people is to disregard turnovers, but it’s a category just like the rest. Don’t throw it completely out the window when building your team!

Pickups of the week

13 bids of more than 1% of the $1,000 FAAB budget this week, but six of them were over 5%:

• Dyson Daniels, $90, Monday to Noah Rubin (right after CJ McCollum’s injury news)

• Jordan Hawkins, $89, Tuesday to Josh Lloyd (shoutout to Rhett Bauer for dropping Hawkins about 12 hours before the McCollum news came through, big oof)

• Alex Caruso, $87, Thursday to Mitch Casey

• Reggie Jackson, $99, Friday to Alex Rutha (right after Jamal Murray’s injury update)

• Marcus Sasser, $75, Friday to Noah Rubin

• Skyler Mays, $66, Saturday to Josh Lloyd

For a full list of the transactions, check HERE

Matchup recaps

Rhett Bauer over Adam King, 5-4

Bauer took this week in a way that would make Daryl Morey blush, winning points, threes, both percentages and turnovers. Tyrese Haliburton’s 17 assists on Sunday were almost enough to swing a 6-3, but James Harden was in true playoff form with only three assists while Anthony Davis had six assists to tighten up the final result.

This was a tale of two builds, with both teams having pretty clear strengths and weaknesses and assists being the only category that was even close. Both managers ended with just 39 games played, but King having the worst week in the league in points, FG% and threes was too much to overcome.

Drew Dinkmeyer over Noah Rubin, 5-4

Despite Damian LIllard, Terry Rozier, Jamal Murray and Herb Jones all missing significant time due to injury, Dinkmeyer was able to hold off a commendable Sunday push from Rubin and his expensive waiver reinforcements. Not only that, but a solid night from Nikola Vucevic didn’t end up counting because of too many games played at Dinkmeyer’s center spot. Six threes, six steals and one block was all that separated this matchup, and that’s even with Rubin maxing out his 40GP while ETR only had 35.

Ironically, Rubin actually rose in the standings after the loss, while Dinkmeyer dropped a spot even with the win. One of the funnier things about early season standings when counting each category as a win! Dinkmeyer stashing Miles Bridges and Trey Murphy III on IR with all these other injuries is a risky move, but it has paid off so far and could lead to a monster team for the second half of the season.

Alex Rikleen over Alex Barutha, 6-3

A close week for two of the top teams heading into the week, decided by four blocks, two steals and one turnover. Barutha was a bit inefficient this week, from the field and from a manager perspective. First, getting up to 43 games meant that LaMelo Ball, Fred VanVleet, Julius Randle and Paul George all ended up not having their last game count in their starting spot, while worse players like Deni Avdija, Bruce Brown, Zach Collins, and Spencer Dinwiddie all ended up counting in flex spots on the same day.

Not only that, but Barutha having eight players shooting 43% or worse from the field makes it basically impossible to win when also surrendering points, threes, and steals. Rikleen ending this week in third place despite being without Devin Booker and Ja Morant for most/all of the week should inspire a lot of confidence in the squad moving forward.

bdub over Mike Catron, 5-4

A week coming down to .002 in FG% is always a good one, though WTB may disagree as he looks at guys such as Kyrie Irving, Franz Wagner, Onyeka Okongwu and Grant Williams massively underperforming from the field. Not too many missed games due to injury here, and both managers ended up with at least 40 games…but Catron might look back at this week with disgust depending on how the rest of the year goes. Kyrie Irving and Deanre Ayton combined for 47 points on 65% from the field on Sunday, but that was left out of his final tally due to meeting the 40GP limit on Saturday for his PG and C slots.

Mitch Casey over Mike Barner, 5-4

Casey had a 7-2 lead going into Sunday, but Barner ended two steals short of pulling off quite the comeback. Casey was missing quite a few of his assists due to injury, but Barner missing a comparable amount of his bigs might have been what ultimately decided this one.

Ironically, Barner actually “rose” in the standings despite the loss, going from 12th to tied for 12th thanks to the matchup that rounds out this week’s recap and holding on to a couple close categories even in a loss. (Remember that thing at the beginning about turnovers sometimes mattering?)

Josh Lloyd over Dan Titus, 8-1

You know how sometimes the final score isn’t quite indicative of how the match played out?

This…isn’t one of those times. To be fair though, Titus had a rough week. Started the week without Robert Williams III, then got struck by the “busy life” bug and missed out on four Monday games, then lost Tyler Herro to an ankle sprain just eight minutes into Wednesday’s slate.

Credit where credit is due, Josh’s team was dominant. He ended the week top-3 in FG%, points, assists, blocks and turnovers, which would have been good enough to beat everyone in the league, while Titus would have actually beaten a couple teams had the head-to-head schedule been different. Josh now leads the league with a 70.4% win percentage, and Titus has an uphill climb with injuries to some of his mid-round picks dragging him down.