Day 5: Anthony Davis is quite the beastly fellow

(Illustration courtesy of Maddison Bond)

Waddup peeps?

This is a fairly momentous post, in a sense, as it's now been a full month since I returned from a book-writing hiatus, started writing on here again and made this blog fantasy-basketball-centric (with the stray articles about random nonsense, of course). I'd say it's been a fairly decent first month of Broken Leagues -- and yes, because I altered the address of this site from Reetae.com to BrokenLeagues.com, this site has basically only existed for 31 days. (At least as far as Google is concerned.)

So, how is it doing performance-wise? Well, I say this is as good a time as any to conduct a progress report. Let me just... check the clipboard here...

Income Generated: Minimal

Minimal is actually being extremely kind here, but the last thing I'd want to do is scare off any potential advertisers. (Hint hint, wink wink, please please, beg beg.)

Alexa Rank: Surprisingly Decent

Right now, Broken League's ranking on Alexa.com is 1,482,108, with a ranking of 152,092 in the United States. On the one hand, because Alexa's rankings consider a site's traffic over a three-month period, my ranking is actually due to go up a bit since it's only been around for a month. And as it is, being No. 1,482,108 in the world is pretty good, considering I started this thing completely from scratch not too long ago. (For context, web sites aren't considered legitimate players by Alexa until they crack into the top 100,000.)

On the other hand, I'm not entirely sure how much of that traffic is going to be around in three more months, since most of the views I've gotten have been from links on other, more popular websites.

Google Search Rank: N/A

That's literally what it says too: "N/A." Search rank, for you web newbs, is EXTREMELY important. It's the likeliness of someone finding your site via a search in an internet browser, and the higher the rank, the more random visitors you're likely to have. Unfortunately, this site is so freakin' new that it doesn't even have a search rank, which has a negative and a positive to it. The positive is that in a few months or so, I should start seeing a nice uptick in traffic -- due entirely to my search presence being established. The negative is that at this moment, it's very, very difficult for someone to randomly stumble onto this site, meaning that everything I'm writing has a rather finite ceiling in terms of page views. (Must... not... hyperventilate!)

For instance, here's an example of the site performing in a less than desirable way on Google. Right now, Broken Leagues comes up 15th when you search "fantasy basketball blog" with quotes. Now here's the thing: of the 14 sites ahead of mine on Google, only like three of them are still active. Even the ESPN designated fantasy basketball blog hasn't been updated since April. Honestly, it's kind of shocking to see how bad the state of fantasy basketball is. Like, it's ridiculous that the first two pages of a search for a "fantasy basketball blog" turn up websites that literally don't exist anymore.

Hopefully, if I continue to pump out content on a fairly regular basis, Broken Leagues will eventually move into the upper echelon of that particular Google search. Until then, I just gotta be patient.

Social Media Presence: Not Good

Right now, this site has 23 Facebook likes and 153 followers on twitter. I've been asked fantasy advice on Twitter exactly one time, so obviously, I haven't yet built up much of a reputation as a fantasy guru/extraordinaire/dipshit.

But hey! If you're reading this and you genuinely like this site, supporting it on Twitter and Facebook would help out immensely. So... you know... you could do that, and stuff. Maybe. (Christ, I'm e-begging at this point. Where's your shame, Reetae?)

Well anyway, this has so been an extremely self-involved blog post so far. Let's discuss something more worthy of your attention: fantasy basketball!

• Anthony Davis was exceptionally good on Saturday, producing a gaudy statline of 25 points, 8 rebounds, 4 assists, 6 steals and 6 blocks. That sound you hear is fantasy basketball aficionados everywhere drooling at how phenomenal a performance that is. My one (incredibly stupid) worry about him coming into the year was that he might not be a consistent force on offense, but even that isn't the case. (He's 19-20 from the foul line!) Davis is one of the best statsheet-stuffing bigs in the entire league and should be viewed as a legitimate top-five fantasy option the rest of the way.
• Josh McRoberts had 9 points and 6 rebounds in 15 minutes for Charlotte. McBob has been a relatively trendy waiver wire add lately, but I'd advise all of you in fantasy land to look the other way on him. There are too many equally-inconsistent mouths to feed on Charlotte for him to be productive on a regular basis.
• Tyreke Evans had easily his best game of the year, coming up with 15 points, 7 rebounds and 6 assists. Notably, it came in a blowout against the putrid Charlotte Bobcats, in a game where Eric Gordon only played 21 minutes. Evans can have a nice statline once in a while, but he's still too unreliable for my tastes and I still recommend selling him for a guy who can start.
• Anthony Bennett apparently still needs to learn to play basketball, as he has been invisible so far in his NBA career. Through three games, the dude has amassed 2 points and 12 rebounds, which is nothing. The Cavs have playoff aspirations this year and aren't giving the unpolished Bennett the run he'd need to put up decent numbers. For now, he can be safely disregarded.
• Michael Carter-Williams was awesome once again, this time notching 26 points, 10 assists, 4 rebounds, 3 steals and 2 three's. He's for real, guys.
• Shawn Marion had a strangely-great night against the Grizzlies, getting 21 points, 14 rebounds and 4 assists. This is what Marion does. He goes from being mediocre to randomly being a solid contributor once in a while, and at the moment, he absolutely needs to be picked up. HOWEVER, I suggest trading him whenever you can, because like I said, the dude is prone to be lame again at any given moment.
• In my Yahoo! draft preview, this was my unabashed statement about Magic small forward Tobias Harris: "If you have the 90th pick in the draft and you select Tobias "for-the-love-of-christ-don't-own-me" Harris, you're the mark at the poker table." I only mention this because Harris is going to be out for a few weeks with an ankle ailment, so I think I got that one right.
• Chandler Parsons was tremendous against Utah, producing 24 points, 12 rebounds, 6 assists and 2 three's. The outrebounding-Dwight-Howard-and-Omer-Asik component to his line is the obvious aberration, but he's still a fantastic contributor who has a well-established role on one of the best basketball teams in the league.
• DeMarcus Cousins was shut down by Andrew Bogut on Saturday and finished with just 8 points, 7 rebounds and 3 steals. Cousins has the skillset needed to be a fantasy basketball monster, but between his foul issues, his emotional flareups and the horrible state of the team he plays for, it just isn't in the cards for him to take the next step in his career. 
• Kawhi Leonard, who I spent most of my Yahoo! preview constantly berating, has done little to prove my ambivalence unwarranted. Leonard had only 9 points and 2 steals on Saturday and has yet to put up numbers that come even close to justifying his preseason Yahoo! ranking, where he was listed as one of the 25 best players in fantasy basketball. He can be a really helpful utility player, but much like Ersan Ilyasova, the dude just flat-out isn't a superstar, nor is he going to be, and treating him otherwise is ludicrous so long as Tim Duncan, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili are still breathing.
• Nicolas Batum did something kind of questionable in order to attain a triple-double against the Spurs yesterday. With the game's outcome already set in stone, Batum did his best Ricky Davis/Bob Sura/Anthony Bowie impression by a hoisting a last-second cheap-o three that connected just as time expired. Batum finished with 11 points, 12 rebounds and 11 assists and should continue to be one of the most diverse fantasy two-guards in the league, though I'm skeptical that his scoring average will get beyond the low teens.